Diamond D Ranch

Today, my precious Cade had his first field trip as a kindergartner! Larry went with him and they both had so much fun.

Larry took these pictures with his phone, so they aren't the best quality!

Cade's kindergarten class - Mrs. Griffis made the headbands for the girls and the bandanas for the boys.
Cadie
Feeding the goats
He really wanted to feed the baby goats and not the mommy and daddy goats!
The Barrel - this was a ride were they went upside down! EEK! He loved it, of course!
Riding again...
Feeding the cows!
Riding the pony & hanging out with friends
It was such a fun day for Cade and Daddy! I am so glad they were able to go together.

Fashion Friday

I decided I would try to do Fashion Friday today!

These are a couple of my favorites from the week so I thought I would share!

This is one of my favorite dresses. I bought it right after I had Colin because I wanted something that didn't make me look too fat. I haven't worn this dress this school year, BUT I have worn in previous years and often! I can wear this dress in Spring or Fall. In this case, I even wore it in the winter! I did add some footless tights because my legs are so white. I also added a black tank underneath because it dips down pretty low in the front. Of course I paired it with black patent ballet flats, because my feet ALWAYS hurt when I wear heels.
This picture is upclose so you can see the necklace!
I LOVE this necklace! It is so cute and fun. The best part it was on SUPER clearance.

Of course, how could I leave Cade out of Fashion Friday when he looked like this! Haha!
SHOES!!
Yes, I took a picture of these shoes. I really like them. They match SO many things and the best part they don't hurt my feet. Again those flats ALWAYS come in handy when you are up and walking around ALL day. I love these shoes so much... I actually wore them TWICE this week!

Friday Jeans... This is just a basic top that I love! I wear it with jeans and sometimes I wear it with my favorite dress pants (okay if I am being honest I wear it with dress pants most of the time).
Not the greatest picture, but I was trying to get the necklace in there. Again, another super clearance necklace that I love. The best part it matches so many different things!
Happy Friday!

Five Minute Friday - Grit

Here are the rules!
1. Write for five minutes flat! NO editing (don't even think about hitting that backspace key)
2. Link back to the Gypsymama and invite others to join.
3. Visit the person who linked up before you and encourage them with your comments!

GRIT...

It's what pearls are made from... It's the stuff you are constantly sweeping away, cleaning off the counters, and vacuuming up. The mistakes you are "fixing". You can't get away from it no matter how hard you try. It is always and will always be there. Think about that oyster that tried to remove the grit...it made a pearl! This is what families are made of, students, children, husbands, wives... All that grit, we make into one large pearl. Something beautiful, unique, amazing...

STOP!

Again, this probably doesn't make much sense to anyone but me!

Valentine's Day

I know this post is LATE! I completely forgot about it. Probably because the week of Valentine's was CRAZY! Larry was out of town for the week so I was on my own with all three kiddos!

I am pretty sure I posted earlier about my amazing find on Wuggle Pets at CVS - $5.00. I was pretty pumped about it and I knew it would be perfect for the boys for Valentine's Day. AND I was so right! WOOT! WOOT!

Valentine's Day Loot - Marissa's box looks small, but I can assure you it was WAY more expensive!
This was right when they woke up and found their Valentine's Day gifts.
Oh yea, Wuggle PETS!
In his Valentine's Day outfit with his Wuggle Pets!
Valentine's Day Outfit for Cadie Baby!
Making Wuggle Pets after school
Finished products...
And if you haven't noticed, I didn't offer up what the boys gave out this year for Valentine's. I was so exhausted and not organized at all. I ran out of time, so we did Spiderman Valentine's with a lollipop for Cade and fruit snacks for Colin.
I don't have to be Super Woman ALL the time do I?

A BIG, HUGE THANK YOU!!!!

I have had a blog make-over and I am so excited about it!!!
My blog now looks, A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, thanks to the fabulous Holly!!
I can not thank you enough! I am so excited about the look of my blog now.
Thank you so very much!

Take a minute as well and check out Holly's Blog! Just looking at her Caramel Pull Aparts made me oh so hungry!

Muesday...I mean, TUESDAY

Yes, friends it feels like a MONDAY! I am EXHAUSTED to say the least, but I am pushing through it. I have so many things I need to get done this evening and dinner is a top priority - even though I am blogging instead of cooking right now! :-/ Don't tell! Colin was up last night a few times with a stuffy nose. It was BAD! He was crying his nose hurt, I was crying because I was tired. I can't even believe I was ever considering having another baby. I am not sure I would make it!

Now, I know this blog isn't my "teacher" blog but I am so excited about some of the things I have been doing in my classroom this year. Not that I haven't been excited about things in previous years, but I am actually getting to incorporate more art into my classroom and my students LOVE IT! And really so do I!
Anyway, on with the show my friends! Most of these activities I got off of Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers (LOVE this site), and other Teacher Blogs! It is addicting to find this fun cute stuff! Plus I love doing it with my class and I think the more fun the better because fun = learning in my book. These are the things they will remember, FOR SURE! So if you are a teacher and you are reading, just try a few of these things or just start small with one.

We started in January with this activity when we were working on Compare and Contrast. We read two books, The Hat and The Mitten by Jan Brett. We created a Story Elements Chart and then we did a compare and contrast assessment. We also completed a venn diagram which isn't up. We added the Hedgehog as a fun craft activity, plus he was in both books so he was pretty important!
Since it is winter and we don't get snow in South Georgia we decided to bring the fun ourselves with paper! I cut paper for each student, white, black, and brown. I never told them what we were doing just had them follow oral directions from me! Then we put them on the paper using the sizes (largest first, etc). I let the students decorate the paper with a white crayon to represent snow. They LOVED this! If you look closely, you can see that each snowman is different because everyone tore different sizes! While the glue was drying on the snowmen we read the story, Snowmen at Night. We then created a web of what snowmen can do at night. The students came up with so many fun activities for snowmen to do at night. My favorite was shopping at the mall, haha! Then they wrote, If I were a snowman at night... These came out so cute!! I can't wait to do this again next year.
We also did a math activity with snowmen! This was so much fun as well! We had and have been working on money. My favorite!! This activity was differentiated for each of my groups and they all enjoyed it. One group had directions to use 5 coins to make 5 cents and they had to stamp the correct coins, the next page told them to use two coins to make 10 cents, etc. Another group had to come up with four different ways to make 25 cents. They LOVED using the money stamps and it was really a lot of fun.
This was probably my FAVORITE activity! Inferencing with David... OH MY WORD! It was so fun! If you haven't used this book for inferencing you most definitely should!
This blurry pictures shows our inferences that we made when taking a picture walk. One of my favorites was: When David picked his nose...
he flicked his booger on someone.
he ate his booger.
he wiped his booger in his mom's hair.
Only a first grade teacher would appreciate these!
Then they completed this activity independently! They had to decide which picture they wanted to use from the book. Lots of people picked, David was running down the street naked. Haha! Then they made an inference, using a starter word from the Anchor Chart (I think, My guess, I predict, etc. - I think David will fall and get hurt). Finally, they told how they made the prediction. (I know that if you run you might fall and scrap your knee). Of course they got to create a cute little David art project to go along with it!
We are now working on an Informational Writing on Abraham Lincoln. We started creating a KWL on the Smartboard. My students LOVE these! Then we read some books, watched a video, googled, etc. to find out information about him. We were able to answer all of our "What we want to know" on the W as well. Then we created this chart with what we thought were the MOST important things about him. Each student will be creating their own Abraham Lincoln on Friday and adding a writing sample as well.
Last but NOT LEAST, AMELIA BEDELIA!!
She started off looking like this. If you remember most of my kids have never read her books nor do they know who she is. So this was a FUN introduction to her!
We read two of her books today and we were able to get this....
I can't WAIT to get into the "meat" of Cause and Effect with my class this week! It is going to be so much fun with Amelia Bedelia!

Marvelous Monday

Oh yes friends it is a MARVELOUS MONDAY! It is President's Day! A holiday! NO SCHOOL DAY! I am a little overexcited about all of that. Truth be told, I am ready for summer to be here. Long days of going to the beach, the pool, riding bikes late in the evening, cooking summer foods each night, going on vacation, and just hanging out with my boys. I know I sound like I am wishing my life away - but really I just want to be home with my two sweet boys. I want to cook yummy dinners and keep my house clean and organized. How fun would that be!

This post wouldn't be complete without those two sweet boys I keep referring to!
I am pretty impressed with my picture taking skills these days! Haha! Actually, they posed for these if you can believe that!
And just so you know, I LOVE my job! I am actually excited about starting Cause and Effect with my little peeps tomorrow. I am going to introduce them to Amelia Bedelia and I can't WAIT! I was making the character chart on Wednesday and only one child in my class knew who Amelia Bedelia was. This is going to be fun unit. I know you all are surprised that I can actually DRAW Amelia Bedelia considering I am not an artist AT ALL! I am going to have to take pictures and share those for sure!

And because I couldn't resist sharing this picture Larry took of me wearing my FAVORITE Matilda Jane pants and jean jacket!