February's Nail Art and CVC Game Winner!!

I am a person who adores winter - the coldness, the snow, the quietness of it all. However I must say enough is enough!! This is our 3rd straight weekend storm. Third. With significant snowfall too! Thankfully I am on vacation so there is none of the chaos of cleaning off the car and driving in it!! Needless to say I am really ready for Spring and quite envious of all you warm weathered people!! Now back to my blogginess!

 

Congratulations to Melinda! She is the winner of the CVC Short Vowel Games! I sent an email off to you this morning Melinda - thanks for entering!

Next up we have February's Nails! February is so brief there are only 3 nail designs. If yo like any of the colors just click on the names of the polishes for an Amazon Link.

I started the month out with a shades of blue (perhaps on homage to my feelings as a result of the endless winter!)

Polishes: China's Glaze For Audrey on my pinky, China Glaze Towel Boy Toy on my ring finger, Essie Go Overboard on my middle finger, Zoya Charla on my index finger and Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus on my thumb.

Then came Valentine's Week!

Polishes: Sally Hansen Hot Magenta topped with Zoya Nova on my pinky, China Glaze Draped in Velvet on my ring finger, (the heart was done with Sally Hansen Hot Magenta) Zoya Mimi on my middle finger, Nicole by OPI Virtuous Violet as a base coat - with Sally Hansen Hot Magenta and Zoya Charisma for the dots on my index finger, and Zoya Aurora for my thumb!

(Side note: This is my left hand, so of course being a righty my nail art always looks better on this hand. I attempted a heart on my right hand and totally butchered it. Like seriously bad. So I took my nail art brush and swirled away until it sort of passed for marble. Sort of. I will not offer a picture of that catastrophe!!)

I am smitten with how this last set came out. I knew I wanted to use gold and black but I was not sure what I wanted to do for nail art. I googled gold with black nail art and came across this picture. (No source unfortunately, but I must say she has great taste!) I love how it came out so I decided to try it!

Polishes: Zoya Ziv for the base coat and Sally Hansen Ink Splatter for the Crackle effect. I loved how easy this was - just one stripe of crackle down the left side and I was done!

I will definitely be trying this out again soon. I am thinking of using my silver crackle next time though!

What's on your nails this week?

CVC Games featuring a,e,i,o,u & mixed vowels!!

This game set is one of my first graders favorites, and one of mine too! It is a fun way to reinforce certain vowel sounds and it is very easy to differentiate for any learning style! This set comes with 6 different game boards - short a, e, i, o, u and a mixed vowel board that is great tool for assessing how well your students can decode all the vowel sounds.

My early readers simply read each sound individually, and then blend them together. By starting with a simple vowel board I can really use this game to isolate what sounds they are having trouble with, and whether or not they are able to identify where the beginning and ending sounds are.

My more advanced decoders read the word and also use it in a sentence. This allows me to see if they understand the words they are reading and it also helps with building vocabulary too.  For example hem, pep and fib are always new words they have not heard before. I use these trickier words in a sentence and then they try it out in their own sentence. ("Oh no, the hem on my shirt is ripped!!") My ELL students and I even act out some of the words. When we landed on "dim" I showed them how to dim the lights on my macbook. I am always amazed at how quickly they remember these new words and what they mean, even when we have not played the game for awhile!

I also included gray scale copies of all 6 game boards. I like to print these off and send them home for practice when we are wrapping up a skill and moving on to another one.

The patterns in these games are Erin Bradley Designs Colorful Polka Dots and Stripes Digital Papers. I absolutely love these! 

CVC Games featuring Short Vowels is available in my TpT  shop!

Have a great Saturday!

Valentine's Day Short Vowel Bingo Pack 20% Off!

On sale this week (2/9/13-2/15/13) in both my TpT shop!

The Valentine's Day Short Vowel Bingo Pack is great for practicing medial sounds!

It includes:

12 - 3x3 bingo boards (6 with just vowels, 6 with cvc words)
12 - 5x5 bingo boards, (6 with just vowels, 6 with cvc words)

Call out pieces for both game versions

Rules of Play
&
6 different patterned heart game pieces (sized for both the 3x3 and 5x5 boards.)

Have a great weekend!

Blends Games with R, L & S Blends & Short Vowels!

My first graders are still struggling a bit with decoding words, so I switched tactics these past two weeks and have begun drilling the blends. We started with the /r/ blends last week and this week we moved on to the /l/ blends. I must say my whiteboard table has been hugely helpful on these skill building days!! My students are obsessed with this table! (I may be just a tad bit obsessed with it too!)

We usually start with me demonstrating the blend sounds which they then write down- /tr/ is always the hardest! We make a chart for all the blends, then we take turns making the sounds, or saying words that start with those blends. We add checks under each each column until we are out of space! Next, it is time to add the decoding part! We have been using this game a lot this week!

There are four boards in this set (R blends, L Blends, S Blends & 3 Letter S Blends.) They all have short vowel sounds and simple consonant endings. My students have really enjoyed playing them this week. They are a fast way to see how well they have mastered decoding each blend. We usually take turns using each others words in a sentence, it helps me see if they understand the word and even introduces them to some new words too!

I also included a Score Sheet for my students to use when they play in a small group by themselves. They write the blend they landed on in the left column, and then use it in a sentence in the right column. This has been very helpful when I am off assessing another student, or solving a tech crisis. I can quickly check the Score Sheet to see if they understood what the words mean. If they had trouble I can check-in with them to correct their mistakes. If they used it correctly they get a point for each sentence. All these items are also included in gray scale as well!


This set is available in my TpT shop!

Happy (almost) Friday - stay warm and safe if the blizzard is headed your way!!

January's Nail Art

I have been taking it rather easy (also known as being lazy) when it has come to nail art this month. I blame the New England winters. Whilst I adore the cold and snowy weather, it does leave one feeling rather tired!! I started out the year with a statement nail look that some of you may have seen in my New Year's Post:

Not exactly the best quality picture...they had taken a beating at school that day! (As have my hands from the weather. Please disregard the sad state of my skin in this post!!) I used Zoya's Ornate Collection's Storm, I love the sparkles in the black! I also used Nicole by OPI's Miss Independent.

The following week I decided to crackle it!

I used Sally Hansen's Fractured Foil. I love their crackle polishes, they work so well and so fast! For my base colors I used China Glaze's Towel Boy Toy and Sally Hansen's Twisted Pink.

Next we have polka dots! I love using the dotting tool - it is so fast and easy to use!

I used Essie's Emerald Green for a base coat and China Glaze Platinum Silver and Champagne Bubbles for the dots!

Last week we had a bit of an Arctic chill here in New England...so I opted to do something in keeping with the temperature!

This is my penguin...alack he is a bit sad looking about the beak area! My pointed brush wasn't really sharp enough for his nose! I used Sally Hansen's Black Out and White On and China Glaze's Champagne Bubbles for his feet and beak. The other fingers were an OPI duo I received for Christmas -  Pirouette My Whistle and Lucerne-Tainly Look Marvelous. I guess he did not look quite as bad as I thought because all my students were able to identify it as a penguin at least!!

Finally we have this week's manicure:

Hot pink with leopard spots! I wanted to liven things up a bit this week...I have been on a rather dark polish kick lately - must be a winter thing! I used China Glaze's Pool Party for the base, Essie's No Place Like Chrome for the spots and Sally Hansen's Black Out for the edging. Next time I will use a skinnier brush, or maybe just edge with the smallest dotting tool. I think that will make for a cleaner edge. I really like the overall look of this one - I think it is my favorite this month?

What is on your nails right now?

Built in Whiteboards!!

My sister told me about this amazing idea she found on  Kinder Keri's Awesome Owls, using vinyl as a built in dry erase board on your tables!

Analogy Test Prep Puzzles: Make Reviewing Analogies Fun for Grades 3-5

Analogies come up often in our standardized testing for my 3rd, 4th and 5th graders, and every time they are caught off guard. I wanted to create a quick activity that I could have on hand to help reinforce this concept for them.

There are a total of 30 analogy pairs in this set. I use just a few puzzles with my students in the beginning, until they get the hang of this concept.

To use these, I spread the cards on the tables around our room. We set a timer to see who could find the most correct matches in 5 minutes. They loved the competition aspect of it!

I included an Answer Key for all the puzzles to allow my students to check their work when they are done. Once they feel they have successfully paired up all the puzzles they can check their work and see who is the winner! 

I like to have them discuss their matches for a little while, before I give them the Answer Key - it is interesting to hear their reasoning behind the choices they have made.

 

I also used the analogy version with the "is to" omitted on the Answer Key to expose them to the alternate ways of writing analogies. (crayon:draw::pencil:write.) I am excited because I feel this is improving their understanding of this concept!

You can find this set in my TpT shop!

Things I Love January Edition

My new iphone case! It is silver and sparkly!! Which in my eyes makes it perfect!

I had to upgrade my ipod this month, as I wore my old one down due to incessant use! It did last for four years, so it had a long happy life! I simply adore this zebra case!!

I am obsessed with my ipad case!! My lovely sissy Kristen got me this for Christmas and I simply adore it!! As you can see this is just a wee bit sparkly, which definitely adds to my love for it!

I found this ipad case on the clearance rack at Target and I just had to have it!! It is safely tucked away in my room for now, since I am not ready to part with my adorable sparkly one quite yet!!

Target also sells these awesome cloths for cleaning your ipad and they are wicked amazing! The soft gray side gets all those smudges off and the shiny side polishes up the screen. It seriously rocks!!

I had bought Kristen a stylus for her birthday and I had to find one for myself too, because they work great...and because they are so stylish! I love the silver leopard print!

I made this lanyard for one of my coworkers, and I cannot wait to give it to her tomorrow! I think she will really like it!

My new Uggs! I was always an Emu girl...but they never lasted and were not always that comfy. All my family and friends swear by Uggs, so I decided it was time to upgrade. I found these adorable Bailey Button Triplet boots, and after scouring the Internet managed to find a great deal - I saved $55.00!!

Lastly we have my new riding boots! We have lots of stairs in my school and I spend a good portion of my day running up and down collecting my different Intervention groups. Now don't get me wrong, I adore my heels, but these will definitely save my calves some pain! And they are adorable to boot! (Yes, that was a lame joke, I am quite aware. Please forgive me, it is my Sunday night loopiness!)


Thanks for reading and I hope you all had a wonderful relaxing weekend!

ID Badge Lanyard!

I'm linking up with Tara's Monday Made It, a first for me and one that I have always wanted to do!

We have always had photo ID's at my school but we have never really been required to wear them. For safety reasons we are attempting to make it a habit this year. I have a lanyard from school but I really wanted to make my own. You see I have a bit of a jewelry problem...much like nails and clothes and shoes I am obsessed!! The traditional lanyard was cramping my style!

I have oodles of beads in my room - seriously, tons! I have all mine, plus the ones I inherited from my dear sis Kristen when she stopped beading a few years back. So yesterday I dragged out all my bead boxes and drawers and scrounged until I found the perfect colors!

Here is a close-up of the bottom part:

And here is the whole lanyard:

I decided to keep the fancy part down at the bottom, so it won't be distracting with whatever necklace I am wearing that day. I adore butterflies, so those were a must! I added a few gray beads, a few clear ones, and of course some pearl beads. (One must always have their pearls!) I added a lobster claw hook to hang my ID from and I was done!

I tried it out today and it worked great! Well, let me rephrase that, first I got it stuck to the desk and my ID went flying off. Then my first graders grabbed at it and it fell off again. After all that I desperately jammed my badge back through the opening and squeezed the top and bottom of the claw tightly together. (It had gotten separated from all that snagging and tugging.) After that all was well. It managed to survive Reader's Workshop, Writer's Workshop and 4 Intervention blocks. I think it will be successful after all!

Do you have ID badges at your school? How do you display yours?

Back to Work Reality & New Year's Nails

Today was back to reality for me, and I loved every minute of it!! My vacation was relaxing and restful so I was totally ready to head back. And I missed my kids a wicked lot! I have oodles of children in computer lab (40 in all across 4 grades) so I gave them a fun/affordable Christmas present: two tickets.

The first was a One Day Only - Choose Your Own Seat!

The second was One Day Only - Get out of Computer Lab Free! This one required a lot of explaining - "No you won't actually leave the lab, you will just get to play a different game/site of your choice from our class website!" (Insert thousands of questions here...)

Knowing that I would probably never see these tickets ever again I wisely made a checklist with all my students names and the dates they used their ticket. I showed them this list ahead of time, lest they get the idea of trying to trick me!

Today, as expected, I had about half of my kids use their "tickets" (I shall put it in quotes they mostly lost them over vacation! So it was more of a verbal ticket.) They had a blast and it worked out well as it kind of eased them back into the swing of school. Overall I would say it was a huge success, and definitely something I will do again in the future.

Side note, it was hard to keep a straight face when at the end of Intervention I had several children come up to me and say "The ticket works again right?" Me (showing ticket): "No, sorry it's One Day Only." Student: "Aww man...why didn't I save it!" I figured this would happen, but I thought the One Day Only at the top might fix that...and the fact that I mentioned that 1,000,000 times! 

Lastly we have my New Year's nails...I wanted to do a fancy 2013 on them...but I was not feeling that ambitious last night. I used Zoya's Ornate Collection's Storm, I love the sparkles in the black! I also used Nicole by OPI's Miss Independent. Please disregard the sad state of my skin around my nails - we are in a bit of an arctic chill here in New England and my hands are suffering!

For those of you who went back today - how was your day? As for you lucky still-on-vacationers, I hope you had a relaxing day!

Christmas Craft - DIY Coasters

I always like to make a gift for my coworkers at Christmas time and this year I was very inspired by the coasters that I have been seeing all over Pinterest. I used The Cottage Home's tutorial to make my coasters. I had originally thought that I would make my own tutorial, but theirs is so good there is no need! So instead I will just show you how mine turned out!

First up we have the blues and greens -

 Next the neutrals -

 And lastly the pinks and reds -

I really adored how easy these were to make - though I did learn as a first time Mod Podge user, that it is rather odorous!! I sprayed mine with a finish just as tutorial suggested and they were done! Oh except for the felt...

This is the topside of one coaster...

and here we have my attempt at cutting felt for the bottom!

Not exactly Martha Stewart quality crafting but it still served the purpose!

My coworkers love them, as do my mum & I! My favorite part is always seeing what everyone chooses, and I must say a lot of times it is not the ones you would expect! 

Oh I wanted to mention that there are still 2 Days left in my sale at my TpT shop, 20% off all items from now till 1/1/13!

Do you make crafts for your coworkers? If so what were your projects this year? Leave me a note in the comments below!