Donors Choose

I just wanted to give a quick shoutout to Donors Choose. Thank you Donors Choose for funding 14 of my projects this school year. FOURTEEN!! I am so excited. Three projects were funded in one day last week. I am $80 to getting funded my 15th project. Please help our 15th project get funded before school gets out in 11 more school days!!!
http://www.donorschoose.org/mcourtney

Madelyn Presley

This is my heart. She will be 3 in August. I can't wait to spend all summer with her. Only 12 more school days until I can have the time and energy to teach my OWN child. What are you looking forward to most this summer?

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

For last week's art project, we did the Dr. Seuss lesson off the Deep Space Sparkle website. That website is my lifesaver, when planning art lessons. The lessons always turn out very imaginative and creative. http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2010/02/dr-seuss-day-one-fish-two-fish-art/ I did a lot of modeling for this lesson. We used oil pastels and paint. I swore that this would be the last time we used paint for awhile. Let me go ahead and make a disclaimer that this is a very messy project. However, I was pleased with the results.

Dr. Seuss is on the Loose

In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday and Read Across America, I have planned many Dr. Seuss activities for my students this week. Today we read Oh the Places You'll Go.
I used my Cricut to cut out paper dolls and had my students design their own paper doll. They also had to write about what they wanted to be when they grow up. They turned out so cute!

The Stylish Blogger Award

So, I haven't had time to write my Grammy-esque speech yet. I would like to thank Michelle from http://fabulousinfirst.blogspot.com for giving me this award. Without her, this would not have been possible. Sniff, sniff....

Here are the rules for receiving this award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award
2. Share 7 things about yourself

3. Award 5 recently discovered great bloggers

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award

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7 things about moi:

1. My career dream is to get my Masters and to get Nationally Board Certified. I would love to get Teacher of the Year. That is my number one career goal.

2. I love owls, Diet Dr. Pepper, my Nook Color, Gymboree and my new Cricut.

3. My twin and "Mini Me" is my 2 1/2 year old, Madelyn. She is the perfect accessory. LOL.

4. I love Banana Republic and New York and Company.

5. I teach at the elementary school I attended as a child. My mother teaches there, as well. My husband, father and sisters all attended the school too. My mother-in-law is a retired teacher. We're all from the same school.

6. My best friend lives in NYC and takes pictures for Broadway!! Speaking of friends, I would love to meet some of my proteacher.com or blogging friends in real life one day.

7. I love teaching first graders but would love to teach gifted education one day. If I were to make up a dream job it would be a classroom decorator.

I have selected the following five bloggers to receive the award:

It's Been Awhile.. I've Missed Blogging

Wow! I haven't posted in over a month. This is due to me not remembering my Google Account sign-in info. I also moved in our new house  and it does not have internet. I've been busy settling in my new house and playing around with my new Cricut.
I absolutely love my new hobby. They even make a cartridge for owl lovers like me.. the Hoot and Holler cartridge. It was meant for me!!

I am in LOVE with my owl creations. I made all of my students a Valentine homework pass. They were a huge hit! Speaking of school, I was nominated teacher of the year. I didn't win the title but I still feel special. I have had a FABULOUS school year, so far. Have you?

WIDS

What I Did Saturday (WIDS):

So... after careful consideration, I have decided to add a personal twist to my teaching blog. Every Saturday, I will add a "What I Did Saturday" post. Here goes....

1. Woke up at 5:30 AM to my snoring husband and his phone alarm going off. Guess he forgot to set it to Weekdays Only.

2. Couldn't go back to sleep so I spent countless hours reading through about 20 teaching and personal life blogs. I can't seem to get enough of blog reading. Love it!!

3. I dyed my hair. Boy, did it need it! I looked like Trailer Trash Barbie with an inch of roots.

4. Grouped my 2-year-old's closet by Gymboree clothing lines. In case you didn't know, I absolutely am in love with Gymboree. I can't quite remember what my obsession was before I had a little girl. The Gymboree employees know me by name. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

5. Ate an early 10:30 lunch of my Olive Garden leftovers. I had been up since 5 AM, remember.

6. Purged my wardrobe and put the remaining clothing victim pieces in boxes because........... we finally have a closing date for Tuesday!!!!!!  It's been a 4 month-long process. In the meantime, my 2 year old is jumping into the clothes piles saying, "Wheee!"

7. Took Madelyn to Goodwill. Our Goodwill is crummy since we live in a small town. Didn't find anything, so I took Mady to Sonic for a mid-afternoon cheese sticks and chocolate shake snack.

8. Visited my 'rents for a little while.

9. My hubby and I went walking on our new land and porch. We wouldn't dare try to break in the house before it's ours. We'll never tell.

10. Downloaded a new book for my Nook Color and read for awhile, while Madelyn was napping

11. My fingers got in a bidding war for some fab Ugg boots I've been dying for. My husband is going to have a heart attack if I win these boots off Ebay. I just couldn't resist and I'm tired of my feet being cold.

Well, that about sums it up. Maybe my husband won't kill me and I'll be around for next week's WIDS (What I Did Saturday)

Food Pyramid Bracelets

My first graders are learning about the Food Pyramid this week. To help them remember the 6 food groups and the serving amounts, we made food pyramid bracelets today. Each bead color represents the food group and the number of beads per color represent the amount of servings/cups you need per day. For example, the orange beads are the bread/grains group. There are 4 beads because you need around 4 ounces per day.

Orange- Bread/Grains
Green- Vegetables
Red- Fruit
Yellow- Oils/Fats
Blue- Dairy

Purple- Meat & Beans

             Tip: Use pipe cleaners as bracelets. They work well for this project.