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!

A Winter Wonderland (the day & a game)!!

First off I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday!  I wish everyone lots of rest and relaxation for the rest of their vacations and for the New Year!

I thought this name would be fitting for the game I made today as New England is enjoying quite the winter wonderland today! If only this had arrived a few days earlier we would have had a white Christmas! However, I am just happy that we are finally having some snow now!
As I was reveling in the beauty of the snow whilst drinking my morning coffee,  I made this penguin and decided he would be the host for my game!

Lately my third graders are having a bit of trouble with digraphs (I have actually had several sound out each letter!!!) I wanted to create a set of games to boost their awareness of these sounds. These games feature the digraphs ch/sh/th/wh as well as short, long and R Controlled vowels. (I know my students can not be the only ones who need more practice with the R Controlled vowels!!) There are a total of six boards - one for each vowel and a mixed vowel for review.

I included grayscale copies of the boards as well, to save on ink and to make them easier (and more affordable) for me to print and send home with my students!

This set is available in my TpT shop shop!

I also took our three black labs out for a romp in the snow today - sadly I am more exhausted than they are! What did all you other snow buried people do today? Anyone out and about enjoying the weather? Let me know in the comments below!

December's Nail Art

I love this glitter!!! It is China Glaze's Pizzazz and I looks good on every color polish! I used Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails for my base colors. I was going a for gradient glitter look on the pink and white nails, but it was my first attempt so it is not quite how I would have liked it to look. (Side Note: My sister often tells me that I need to stick with one technique for a bit so I can perfect it. I know she is right - but I tend to be a little spastic with my nail art and I am always amped to try some new technique that I find on on Beautylish!!) The black nail was supposed to have a glitter stripe running down the middle but the brush I used was a bit too thick...so it just came out odd looking!! I definitely want to try this look again...maybe for New Year's Eve, it is definitely sparkly enough!!

Reindeer nails!! I got this idea over at Polishpedia, she is awesome and was able to do it on all her nails. I could barely handle two! My students were obsessed with this nail, they did not believe that I painted it! (I am only showing you the good one, my right hand had the saddest/most confused looking reindeer ever. I showed them that one and then they were like "Ohhh..you did paint it. Why is his nose crooked?" Perhaps my New Year's Resolution should be to only have nail art on my left hand since my right never looks quite right!!

I used Zoya's Ornate Holiday 2012 Collection for the red and green, I love the sparkles in that set! The reindeer is a mix of random tan and goldish polishes I have had for years. Please disregard the mess on my other nails. It was late and I wanted to take the picture before the reindeer got too beat up at school!

I have a Christmas Tree on one of my nails this week...however I neglected to take a picture before it became rather beat up. (Putting away oodles of laptops in the Computer Lab before vacation is a tad rough on ones nails!!) I want to try a few more Christmas patterns on my nails before the holiday, if all goes well (or at least better than the sad reindeer) I will upload them soon!

What is on your nails for the holidays? Let me know in the comments!

Christmas Sight Word Games

I love using the first 100 sight words with my first graders as it has really improved their word recognition! I wanted to create a Christmas version to use with my students this week. I am hoping that it will hold their attention a bit as it is beginning to be pulled by all things Christmas anyway! (Who am I kidding, all their attention has been there for at least a week now!)

I made flashcards for all 100 words (they are divided into the four sets of 25 words by pattern.) These cards work great for Go Fish or Memory too, so I included Rules of Play for both games.

I also made four game boards for each set of 25 words. I am looking forward to using the first two sets of cards & boards with my littlest Intervention kids this Monday! So I am off to stock up on card stock and laminate!

This set is available in my Tpt shop!

Have a great night!

Easy Skill Sheet Display

My 3rd, 4th & 5th grade Intervention students use Reading Plus in Computer Lab. It is a really great program that has helped them make some amazing gains over the years. My students love how they can keep track of their own progress, and they adore the certificates they get when they level up. I like to incorporate skills and writing into the block whenever possible. They tend to get burnt out if they try to do too many Guided Reading stories in one day. I wanted to find a way to display the skill sheets they need in a way that is easily accessible. I decided to modify The Homework Spot my sissy Kristen blogged about earlier this year.

It was so easy! I just taped some colored pocket folders up onto my bulletin board, slipped in the sheets for the week and I was done! Whenever the pockets start looking sparse I know that it is time to restock the skill sheets.

I started using it about a week ago and it has been working really great! I like how it is in a separate place from where we keep all our other materials.

I am going to take an updated picture of this shelf soon. The front side of this now has all their journals and materials. I decided to put most of the headphones in the desks - it cuts down on tangled cords, a definite plus!

Having these in different areas of the room has cut down on traffic when they are going to and fro getting ready for the next activity. We have a motto in my room "walking with purpose!" It is a bit of a pet peeve of mine when students wander all around the room when they are switching activities. Intervention is way to brief as it is - and many of their classmates are still working on their Guided Reading or Cloze Plus portions of the program. Keeping the skill sheets and journals away from each other has really cut down on distractions and unnecessary talking during the Work Period of our block. I really like how organized these displays keep the room too!

What do you do to keep spots from becoming traffic jammed in your room?

Dolch Words Bundle - Pre-Primer through 3rd Grade!

My students have been having lot of fun using these cards in Intervention these past few weeks! I am currently reviewing Pre-Primer words with my first graders and these cards are a huge help! My students spend half the Intervention block on Raz-Kids and the rest of the block working on skills with me.

This is the Pre-Primer set, which we have been mostly focusing on. I like allowing my students to choose whether we will use them for Matching or Go Fish. I divided each set into 2 colors to make it a bit easier to separate the words into smaller groups. 

After we have played whichever version of the game they prefer, I collect all the cards and use them as flashcards for a quick post-assessment on how quickly they can recall the words. I add in two or three new words each day. This has really improved my students word recollection. I am going to print out the Primer Words today so I can add those into the mix this week!

I wanted to bundle all these cards into one set to make it easier to print the cards needed for each individual group. This bundle includes Pre-Primer, Primer, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade and 3rd Grade Dolch Words - a total of 220 cards!

This set is available in my Tpt shop!

Contraction Puzzles

My students use Spelling City in Computer Lab a lot and I have noticed more and more of my students are using the Test Me part to create a list of Contractions.

 

November's Nail Art

I have taken a minor break from nail art lately (this time of the year is too crazy for anything other than a paint and go!) I decided to break out my glitters and shimmers to take me through the holiday season. This is my most current set of nails: China Glaze's Whirled Away over Sally Hansen's Twisted Pink. I love the hexagon black and white shapes mixed up with the black bar pieces. I can't really call these pieces glitter they are a bit more matte. I love the geometric look they create...I'm thinking of trying them on teal and silver next time!

I recently purchased the Zoya Ornate Holiday 2012 Collection and I adore all the polishes in this set!! So far I have tried these two colors. The top one is Aurora, a gorgeous iridescent sparkly purple color. I could have gotten away with just one coat - but I went with two just to deepen the purple.

This is Zoya's Electra with Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus for a base. I had never tried a bar glitter before this polish, but I am loving how sparkly it is! I think Electra would look great on any nail color - I'm even thinking of trying it out on a nude nail!

I am looking forward to trying all the other colors from the collection - but I may hold off just a bit longer so I can save some of them for Christmas week! The red, green & gold will make a perfect holiday manicure!

Happy painting!