Five for Friday - End of a Crazy Week!

I cannot believe it is already Friday! Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining but this week flew by and now we are only one week (and two days) away from Thanksgiving Break! Thank you so much to Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting such a fun way to share!

 Last week we talked about Native Americans and I shared with you some of the cute projects my class and the other K teachers did. However, I left off my favorite project. Our directed art Native Americans. I have done this for years and got it from another teacher friend that has now retired. I am unsure of its origins so if you know, PLEASE let me know where to give the credit!

 This is a directed art lesson my teacher neighbor did, she found it on Learning with Mrs. Parker's Blog.

This week we talked about Pilgrims. We had a lot of fun learning about the Mayflower. We decided we would not have wanted to travel on such a crowded ship for 66 day!

Pilgrim Anchor Chart - in progress

Mayflower Anchor Chart

My across the hall neighbor made this super cute graph!

 Love these directed art pilgrims (also from Learning with Mrs. Parker). I think they turned out super cute!

 Liebster Linky

Have you received a Leibster Award? Would you like to check out some amazing teacher blogs that have?  The super sweet Kathleen Wright from Kidspeople Classroom has created a place to link up with other Liebster Award blogs. Check out the linky {here}!

Thank you Kathleen for doing such a great service to help connect more bloggers and teachers.

On a personal note:

 I just have to take a minute to share what is going on in my personal life. Previously I mentioned that we are selling our house so that we can build a new one. I have been hesitant to say anything on here before for fear of things not working out but I feel led to share. We are getting custody of my beautiful nieces in December!!! My little family of 5 (me, hubs, and 3 fur babies) is growing by two! As much as I love my house and our neighborhood we are going to need more space. I said it before, this is definitely a God thing. Our house has been listed for a little over a week. We had asked our realtor to give us two weeks to spruce things up and get it ready. Well less than 24 hours after we listed the house someone wanted to see it. I was very disappointed when that showing fell through. BUT Tuesday when I was off (and painting a bedroom I should say) we got a call that someone wanted to see the house that day! I had four hours to get my house clean and back together. And although that family picked a different neighborhood, my realtor called the next day to say that she has someone wanting to see the house today. I love how things just keep working themselves out! I am ecstatic! I have never sold a house before so maybe two showing week one is not as great as I think it is but considering we were thinking it would be a much slower start, I couldn't be more pleased. Please continue to pray and/or send positive thoughts our way - every little bit helps!
Also, any house selling tips are appreciated - just leave a comment below!

What has been going on in your classroom / life this week? Leave a comment and head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to link up and read about other amazing teachers!

Liebster Award

I am so excited to have been nominated for a Liebster Award!!! Thank you so much to Pixie Anne at Growing Little Learners for the nomination!!! The Liebster Award is a way for newer bloggers (with less than 200 followers) who have great content, to link up, meet other bloggers and share a little about themselves!

1. Why and how long ago did you start blogging? 

 Blogging was a complete accident and I am so happy for it! I started reading blogs two years ago to get inspiration and ideas for my classroom. I then found the amazing resource Teachers Pay Teachers. Being OCD, I wanted to make things like what I found on TPT but that perfectly fitted me and my classroom theme - frogs. After spending countless hours teaching myself to design I decided to open my TPT store just to share what I created and to support my TPT and graphic habit!  I realized the best way to share my product would be with a blog, so I decided I would give it a try. A year and a half ago and started my own blog. I now spend WAY more time on my blog than my TPT store. I have been truly blessed by all the amazing teachers I have met along the way!

2. What one word sums up the heart of your blog and why? 

Connections! As a teacher, we spend so much of our time with little ones that it is so nice to have adult interactions. I have amazing teacher friends and amazing non teacher friends to help fill my need for adult interaction but lets face it, we are a different breed. I saw an great article on Facebook this weekend from the blog Love, Teach {here} explaining why teachers are psychos. It is hilarious but true. I think blogging has connected me with so many amazing teachers that "get it". I love hearing their teaching stories and how that interacts with their personal lives. It is nice to be connected and know that we can all by psycho together!

 3. Is there something you learned late in your blogging journey you wished you knew before? 

YES! So much!!! For much of my first year of blogging, I was clueless. I felt like I was talking to dead air. I then learned the power of linkies and blog hops. I also learned a lot about blog design that would not trade for anything! The blogosphere is full of amazing, talented and friendly people that have blessed me and this blog!

4. What is your favorite past time other than blogging?  

Doing anything with my beautiful nieces, my 3 dogs, and my hubby! I also love to read (books and blogs), "playing" on Pinterest and spending time at the beach.

5. How many hours per week do you dedicate to your blog?  

A couple of hours now that school is back in but I always wish I had more time! 

6. What category of blog posts do you enjoy the most? 

It's hard to pick just one. I love finding ideas to incorporate technology and I love anything that has a craftivity - whoever came up with this word is genius!

7. Where does your blog inspiration come from? 

From my Kinders and from the amazing ideas I have gotten from fellow teachers, blogs, and Pinterest. What keeps we coming back though is the connections!

8. Which post that you've written are you most proud of?

My Discovery Education posts {here}. Discovery Education is amazing! Not only is there tons of content that make integrating technology into the classroom easy, there are are also tons of teaching tips and a fabulous support for teachers in aspects of teaching. Almost daily I find some way to use DE in my classroom.

9. Is there any post you have been planning to do, but have postponing it for a while now?

I don't think so! I just wish I could get back to the amount of blogging I did this summer!

10. What is your favorite aspect of blogging?

Connections and having a voice!

11. Which recipe, project, or idea on my blog would you be most likely to try yourself? 

Pixie Anne has these super cute button frames with pictures and facts about each child for end of the year parent gifts. I have pinned these for the end of the year! Check them out {here}!

Blogs I am nominating:

 

Learning at the Teacher Table

Laughter and Consistency

Now its your turn (nominated bloggers) to participate - here are the official "rules" for accepting:

1. In your post link back to the blogger who nominated you as a thank you and "shout out".

2. Answer the 11 questions given to you (the ones I answered above)

3. Nominate 11 blogs that have less than 200 followers each. Provide them with 11 questions (listed above) to have them answer.

4. Let your nominees know they've been nominated and provide them with a link back to your post so they can accept.

5. Send your nominator a link to your post so s/he can learn more about you as well. (you can just put your post link in the comments below)