Nail Art - Whirled Away with Teal!

I love China Glaze Whirled Away (affiliate link). It is such a fun glitter polish that looks great on any color. This time I used Sally Hansen Blizzard Blue for a base coat.

The only downside to this manicure was that it took a ton of coats to get this shade of blue. The blue is almost transparent unless you use three (or five) coats! This led to a little bit of bubbling when I applied my topcoat.

My students are always fascinated by this glitter, well after the discussion as to whether it is truly a glitter or not has ended. They take the word glitter VERY seriously and since it has no shine they concluded that it is not a glitter.

Glitter or not, it was a big hit with them and with me as usual! Now if only I can find a better teal to use as a base coat. I think it may be time to let this blue go, I do not have the patience for a polish that needs more than 2 coats!

What is on your fingers (or toes!) this week? And if you know of a fabulous (and not transparent) blues or teals let me know in the comments below!!

DIY Stress Balls

My 4th grade Intervention group that is full of angst by the time class roles around. They have a long morning schedule and then come to my room right after lunch and recess. We have squishy dinosaur someone left behind after a field trip which provides a lot of "relaxation" to those who need it. In fact he has been needed so much so that his neck and feet have suffered a bit! I really should take a picture of the sad dino!

Whenever I have been on Pinterest lately, (which is way to often!) I keep seeing stress balls that you can make yourself! I decided to give it a try as 1 dinosaur is not enough for my group of 12! I hopped over to Somewhat Simple's site to see how to create these!

All I needed was balloons and playdough so off I went to the Dollar Store! $2.00 later I was all set!

I am a bit impatient, so rather than rolling out the dough, I simply stretched the balloon as wide as I could and shoved in the ball of dough. I ended up with a lot of dough under my fingers and on the floor, but it worked! I decided to put a 2nd balloon over each, just in case my students are having a really bad day!

All together it took about 15 minutes which I thought was pretty good! I decided against drawing faces on them, partly because I am no kind of artist! Plus I am not sure if it would stay on the balloon that well. I wouldn't want my students to be walking around with melted smileys on their hands!

My students really enjoyed using these today - we had to rotate them throughout the room so everyone could have a chance! I am assuming the novelty will wear off soon, or else I will be head back to the Dollar Store to make a few more!

Hop on over to Tara's blog to see the rest of the Monday Made Its!

What do you use to help de-stress your class?

Built in Whiteboard Table Update

These are the original tables I made back in January in my classroom.

 

Kindergarten Bingo Pack

My class loves bingo games, at school during centers and at home for skill practice!

Glitter Dots and Glitter Gradient Nail Art

Glitter!! I adore all things sparkly and that has been evident on my nails lately! I have been seeing a lot of glitter dots on nails and I love how it looks! Glitter polish is gorgeous but horrendous to remove and this seemed like a better way to have the glitter without the hassle!

 
I painted my pinky and thumb with Sally Hansen Black Out and my index and middle fingers with China Glaze Platinum Silver (affiliate link). For my ring finger I used Sally Hansen Hot Magenta and China Glaze Pizzazz (affiliate link) for the dots.




Glitter Gradient - I have been wanting to this for a long time, but could not get the glitter to lessen along my nail no matter what I tried! Then I found the answer on Polishpedia! Anja said to tap loose glitter above the nail and gently blow the glitter down the nail.

Now being my messy self I tried this and got glitter everywhere. I seriously mean everywhere!! My bathroom counter was covered with lovely iridescent sparkles! Cleaning them up later was not so lovely. As I apparently cannot be gentle whilst blowing glitter, I decided to place the it  above my nail and then shake it down towards the sink. And it worked - with way less messiness too!

I used Nicole by OPI Virtuous Violet for the base and the iridescent loose glitter is from Michaels. Loose glitter removes way easier than glitter polish too, which is the best part! Now that I can finally do a gradient I know I will be rocking this look a lot!

I am in the hunt for some new spring shades! What colors are you wearing on your nails this week?

Things I Love - April Edition

This has now become my most favorite jacket ever! And that is saying a lot because I have quite the coat/jacket problem. My dear sissy gave me a gift card for my birthday and I was able to get this amazing faux leather jacket!

Not only that, the price tag was incorrect, so I got a $30 refund too! :))) (That is me beaming about that!) I wanted to add a link to this but it is sold out already. It is by BLANKNYC and it is so comfy and it goes with everything. I adore the asymmetrical zipper too, more than I can express!

I got this one at Macys with a giftcard from my lovely parents! Macys is having their Friends and Family sale, so I saved 25% on this too! It is by INC and it is really a deep black but I had to lighten the picture to show all the ruffle detailing.

I got this INC top at Macys too, for 25% off. Mine is a taupey color, but the sequins give it a silver look. I am smitten with this shirt. I feel it will make going back to school on the Monday morning after vacation just a bit easier!

My last Macys purchase was this Fossil handbag. I have not bought a Fossil bag in a few years but I could not resist this one. The colors are so pretty and you cannot go wrong with 25% off and a gift card!

My new dresses!! I love these two so much that I have no idea how I will choose which one to wear first! We have a Dress Barn near us now and I must say I am very excited about that!
Blouses!! I have a lot of blouses and I am so glad that it is finally warm enough for me to wear them again! I love winter but I tend to dress a bit more somberly as it goes on!

Finally we have something that I have wanted to buy for ages but for some reason never got around to getting.

The Conair Infinitipro Spin Air Rotating Styler. I seen a lot of infomercials for this. A lot. Since I have never successfully mastered the art of holding a hair dryer AND a hairbrush this is definitely the tool for me! I have curly hair and rarely straighten it - mostly because I whack myself with the hairbrush when I try to. Plus, my hair gets really frizzy and then I have to straighten it for another half hour.

I tried it yesterday, and again today, and I really really love it! I still have to dry my roots with a regular hair dryer first, otherwise it takes too long. But it really does smooth out your hair without taking away too much volume. I still have to use the straightener too, but it does not take anywhere near as long as it did before. It was so much faster that I will now be straightening my hair way more than two times a year!

What are your current obsessions for this month?

Sight Word Games

First up, hooray for spring break! Now if only it would warm up a teensy bit more! Of course I cannot complain too much, at least it is sunny out!

This is one of my favorite games to play with my students, it is a fun way to review those tricky sight words. Once you play it with your class or group a few times, it makes a great center activity! I like to have my students make sentences out of each word they land on.

There are four boards, each one with 25 of the first 100 sight words on it.

I also included gray scale copies of each board. These work well for student take home copies and for summer activity packs!

This set is available in my TpT shop!

Beaded Bracelets and Giveaway Winner!

I have a plethora of necklaces. Seriously, you can see it here if you want to know just how bad it is! My bracelets are substantial as well, but I find they never last me as long. Most likely that is because I have a tendency to whack them against things or snag them at school.

Michaels has been having a great deal on Bead Gallery beads lately - 55% off! I figured that would be a great time to get back to making jewelry!

I love this one so much! It has three of those silver plated beads. It is not really glitter or stones, it is druzy! And I believe virtually indestructible! I tend to be vicious on the stones in my bracelets, unintentionally of course! I had four hearts and black beads left, so I think I may be making a pair of earrings soon!

I was afraid I wasn't going to like how this turned bracelet out, but I do! I had a purple glass bead with a golden tint in my hand all throughout the store. But something about it was not right. Then I saw these gorgeous beads - I love the swirls of blues and greens! I think it compliments the antiqued silver nicely.

Lastly we have my silver and rhinestone bracelet. I loved how the round beads look sand dollarish! It was definitely the easiest to make too, just six beads and some elastic. That is definitely how I like my jewelry making to be!

I am totally smitten with all of them and I think I may have a hard time choosing which one I will wear first! Perhaps I will go for a layered look this Monday!

Last but not least Congratulations to Maria! She is the winner of the Silent E Bunting Games! I will be emailing you tonight Maria!

Have a great night!

Silent E Bunting Games

This is a updated version of a Silent E game I created back when I first opened my shop. I really did not like the bunting I had used - I made it myself and it was dreadful! I also did not like the font, it was way too swirly to read easily.

I am slowly updating all the items in my shop to make them easier to read. I just started a Facebook and Twitter page that will have updates on all these changes! You can find them on the right-hand side at the top of this page! Thanks to my fabulously talented sister for making these adorable buttons!

This set has five game boards all with Silent E words (a, i, o , u and a mixed vowel board for reviewing.)

They are great for Literacy Centers and small group work! I have been playing this game with my first grade group all week. We were using the Candy Colored Long Vowel Team Games - but I noticed that when they were reading their books they were not reading Silent E words with the long vowel sound. I figured it was time for a review!

They really enjoy discussing each word that they land on and what it means. They especially like when they can act out the words too! I like taking the extra time to do this when we play these games, it really lets me see how well they are comprehending the words they decode.

I included gray scale copies of all the games, as well as the rules. I am going to put a pack of these gray scale copies together for them to take home this summer! That way I will know that they can keep on practicing these skills!

This set is available in my TpT shop!

March's Nail Art and Giveaway Winner!!

This was a lazy nails week!  I loved how the gold and black turned out awhile back so I decided to try it out with China Glaze Draped in Velvet combined with Sally Hansen's Fractured Foil on half the nail. I love these colors together!

I was totally inspired by these amazing nails I saw on Polish Obsession - I adore the way Marisa's came out!!  I have a tendency to space my dots out too much. I want to try this one again soon with the dots closer together, or even overlapping like she did. I used Rimmel Lasting Finish Wild Orchid for the base. The dots were done with Essie No Place Like Chrome, Zoya Charisma, and a Confetti Periwinkle color that I can find no link for! I bought it on a whim years ago at some drugstore. I really like the shade though!

This week I decided to try sponge art again. I used Essie Go Overboard for my base, Essie No Place Like Chrome for the petals and China Glaze Champagne Bubbles for the centers.







I chopped a cosmetic sponge into little triangles to make the petals. I  dipped it in the polish (on a plate) and lightly dabbed the tiny corner against my nail. Some came out nice...some rather horribly!

(Take note of the pinky!)  I was informed by a someone that it bore no resemblance to a flower!! However, I love them, in fact I have been admiring them all week!

Next up we have my Spring Matching Games winner! Congratulations Cherie, you are the winner! I will be emailing you tonight! Thanks to everyone who commented!

So what is on your nails this week? Let me know below!

Spring Matching Games

We switched up our Intervention groups recently and I have discovered that while my new first grade crew are at a higher reading level, they are lacking on recognition of many of their letters! There is a lot of b and d reversals and confusion over j, g sounds as well as names of letters. I thought I would put together a quick matching game we can use to reinforce each letter in both the uppercase and lowercase style.


I included Rules for both Go Fish and Memory. I play Go Fish with my students in our small groups but everyone now and then we have a technology crisis! (The rest of my crew is working on Raz-Kids.com, reading stories on their level.) If I have to go off to help someone with a computer mishap I like to have a game ready for the ones who are waiting ever so patiently for me! I find that Memory works great in this case. They are pro's at laying out the cards for whatever skill we are on and they match away while I tend to the computer issue!

I also included a set of cards with the numbers 1-20 and pictures representing each number. We used to play with one dice but recently I switched to two - it helps to speed up the game when we are short on time! I noticed that many of my students are unable to recognize groups of numbers! I thought this might be a good way to help with that!

There are 20 cards with numbers 1-20 and 20 cards with the pictures for 1-20. We are going to be trying this game out this week and I am hoping that it will help increase their ability to recognize how many are in a group!

This set is available in my TpT shop!

Neon Love!

I, being a 80's child, have a love for all things neon! So when I saw these sneakers I knew I just had to have them! Anything that pairs black with neon is perfect for me!

I mean, how could I resist! The bottoms are adorable and the laces, well I am 100% certain I had the same pair of laces when I was a kid!

So after staring at them longingly day after day, unable to wear them to work due to our dress code and not willing to risk wearing them in the icky winter weather, I decided to try this look out on my nails!

Michaels had this amazing glitter that was just what I was looking for!

Here we have black and neon attempt #1. Bear in mind that I had never used loose glitter on my nails before!

I liked these but I was not completely smitten. I think the glitter is too transparent to use on black polish. I am going to try it out on white soon - I think that will pop more!

I wanted the black to be solid but instead I ended up with little bits of glitter all over it. I think next time I will seal the glitter half off with clear coat first. Then I will coat the whole nail. Dragging the clear polish down the nail made a gradient glitter look that I wasn't really going for!
Since I was not totally satisfied with that experiment I decided to try again. This one was way worse! Perhaps I should refrain from doing my nails at 9 pm on a Sunday night in the future! The neon polish looked good...but the black glitter, not so much!

I think my error was in shaking the glitter over my nail rather than just pinching a bit over it. They reminded me so much of something that I could not place. Then I realized. My nails looked like Wooly Willy! They were way too heavy and textured! This manicure lasted one day - mainly because we had a snow day last Tuesday and I was able to scrape it off and change it up a bit!

So whilst I love my sneakers I definitely have not achieved a neon/black nail look that I adore yet. However I will conquer it, I promise! (Or perhaps I should say I hope!?!)

What's on your nails this week?