Saturday Snapshots...Spark Student Motivation...Lovin' It & Over It

Happy Saturday, from Pismo Beach, California.

Still on the linky train...

I'm linkin' up for Saturday Snapshots with my bestie Miss Nelson

from Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera.

 Day 10 Cali...We headed to Oakland to watch the Boston Red Sox play
the Oakland Athletics.  Unfortunately, the Red Sox didn't win, but we still had
a fabulous time.  I've been lucky enough to visit many baseball parks growin' up.
I think my count is up to ten.
We took a shuttle from the hotel to the park and back.
Less hassle for the most part...except people were rude pushin' to get on the shuttle.

Day 10 Cali continued...We had dinner at a restaurant named Francesco's

that has been in business for 45 years.  Our waitress, Lisa, has been

workin' there for 39 years.  Talk about dedication!

The food was scrumptious. 

I of course had Chicken Piccata because I love capers!

We had to check out grapes there too.

Yep...they were drinkable.

Day 11 Cali...We went back to the ball park for some more baseball.

This time, the Red Sox WON!  

We left early though to catch the shuttle to break down on the crowds.

We listened to the end of the game on ride home.

Day 12 Cali...I took my first trip to Trader Joe's.  

O-M-G...I am in LOVE with the Sea Salt Butterscotch Caramels.

If you haven't tried these, get you some!

On the way to pick up dad from golf we watched the deer 

walkin' around the course. 

We also saw wild turkey babies, 

but didn't get a chance to photograph them.

We ate dinner at a place called Baja Cantina in Carmel Valley.

Wonderful atmosphere.

I had Prawn Scampi and everyone else had ribs and garlic fries.

Day 13 Cali...We ran some errands...one bein' to Grocery Outlet 

to pick up these Nonni's Salted Caramel Biscotti.  

They are individually packed and only 100 calories.

If you see these...pick them up!

Mom made a fabulous pork loin, broccolini, and slaw for dinner.

YUM!

Day 14 Cali...Ran some more errands to my favorites...

Costco and Whole Foods.

I seriously wish we had these where I live.

We did some readin' and relaxin' at Tehama and then

met some friends for a delicious dinner

at Cafe Rustica in Carmel Valley in the Village.

Day 15 Cali...I didn't leave the house...not once.

Do I feel guilty?  NOPE!

I spent time workin' on my Monday Made Its, readin' and 

gettin' ready for THIS....

Want to check out my first five days in Cali?

Read here.  

Want to check out days 6-9 in Cali?

Read here.

I'm also linkin' this up with Christy from 

Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road for 

her "Eating, Drinking, Linking...Oh My" linky 

because I gobbled up a lot of yummy food this past week.

I'm also linkin' up with my sweet BBB Joanne from 

Head Over Heels for Teaching for Spark Student

Motivation Saturdays.

Firstly...Joanne, I hope you had a FABULOUS birthday this week!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Nextly, my bestie ACH sent this to me and I was thinkin' this would

be a fabulous thing to spark some motivation in students.

I haven't tried it, but I definitely will be.

It was too good not to share with you...my other besties.

Become a Scholastic Kid News Reporter

(click on the link to find out more info)

Applications will no longer be accepted after September 26, 2014

My super funny friend Ali from Teaching Powered by Caffeine

is back with Lovin' It & Over It.

Relaxin'.

Enough said.

I needed this.

BIG TIME!

I'm on vacation, so I don't really have anything that I'm over right now,

except for maybe my belly flip-floppin' every time we 

are on a curvy road.  I'm not really a great back seat driver

as it is, but put me somewhere that is not flat and straight like Florida, 

and I get a little queasy.  

Nothin' a lil' air-condition' in the face can't fix.

Happy Saturday, friends!

Tried It....Tunes Tuesday...Lovin' It...

Tuesday...four days until Spring Break.
I'll spare you the hours and minutes until then.

I'm linkin' up for three different linky parties.
1. Tried it Tuesday with my sweet friend Holly from
Fourth Grade Flipper.
2. Tunes Tuesday with my awesome friend Nick
from Sweet Rhyme & Pure Reason.
3. Lovin' It & Over It with my fantabulous friend
Ali from Teaching (Powered by Caffeine).

Am I missin' any other link-ups?

This month's Tunes Tuesday topic is: Science.
How have you used music to teach Science?

I blame my newest Science obsession on Chelsea

from 5th Grade Wit and Whimsy.

Chelsea wrote this blog post and I KNEW

I had to do the same thing in my class

with my rockstars.

America's Most Wanted:

Element Posters

I started by adding The Periodic Table of Elements

in words and pictures to our 

Science Edmodo library.

(My kids reminded me they had their very own Periodic Table in their agendas)
I knew I keep these kids around
for a reason.
Little geniuses!

Then, I introduced this video from Study Jams-Periodic Table.
For some reason it was givin' me a fit this week when I was watchin'.  I hope it works for you.

Then, we used an idea from Sue's Science for Kids blog

to write our name in Elements.

Some of the letters don't have an element, so the kids typed
in their name and it generated a fake element.
That was fine with me, as long as they knew it was fake.

Finally...we get to the part about tunes in Science.

I shared two songs with my kiddos.
The first one is Tom Lehrer's "The Elements".
It's animated with the names of the elements.
I have found myself watchin' this several times and
singin' along.  Where was this video when I was
in Chemistry in high school?


The second video is "Meet the Elements" by They Might Be Giants.

It is catchy and easy to understand.

Grab a set of the lyrics here!

To wrap all of this up,
we have taken advantage of our Technology Lab
to start workin' on our
America's Most Wanted: Element Posters.
It's been nice to have a lil' break from test prep!
I've already heard lots of "Did you know....?"

Chelsea took her projects a step further and made
a 3D model of an atom using the same element.
If you are super duper sweet, you can leave
Chelsea some love on her blog and she might
even send you the rubric!

I also have a Symbaloo board that we use with several links
that also go into more depth of the elements.
(Let me know if you use it and want somethin' added, or if you
have a great resource that I most certainly need in my life.)

Here is a link to more of my Symbaloo boards
(appropriate for upper elementary-early middle).

Last, but definitely not least....

I got a new bed.
I'm officially in LOVE.
It is a king size throne fittin' for this
sleepin' beauty queen.
I most definitely feel like royalty in my new bed.
Who has some Bon Bons I can have?
I'm already thinkin' about all the wonderous
naps I will be takin' in this thing (yes, I'm typin' from it).
I might never go to work again and become
a professional pajama wearer.

Humidity.
I had to get a dehumidifier for my mini castle
aka the bedroom.
I live on the water...salt water.
Water plus cold air and moisture equals mildew
by the slidin' glass door.
I don't do mildew, mold, dust, or dust mites.
Just ask my allergist.
So...I needed somethin' to get rid of
all the humidity in my room.
The dehumidifier is supposed to run for 24 hours
and then go to a normal settin' after.
Not MY dehumidifier...
it has been runnin' straight for five days now.
I have emptied it at least three times each day.
That's...well...a lot.
Every time I empty it I think, "Surely, this will be
the last bucket of water for a while."
Wrong.
Maybe day six will be the lucky number.
Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me.

Happy Tuesday, friends!
If anyone needs me...I'm sure you know where I'll be...
in my new bed...after school.
Don't forget to visit my friends and leave them some lovin'!

Paparazzi them to Spark Motivation...Lovin' it & Over it...

YAY! 

 It's Saturday and first I'm linkin' up with 

my high-heeled hero, Joanne,

from Head Over Heels for Teaching

for Spark Student Motivation Saturdays.

Want to know one of the best motivators for students?

Pretendin' you are the paparazzi and 

snappin' pictures of your students' faces.

I'm not jokin'.

In Florida

(don't stop readin' even if you aren't from the Sunshine State), 

any testin' grades have an online

program called FCAT Explorer that can 

be accessed at school or home.

Each grade level has different subjects that can 

be accessed.

This year, my 5th graders can work on 

the Math or Science portion of the program.

Math has 162 questions and Science has 200.

162 + 200=a lot of questions

There are questions that would be worded

similar to our actual standardized test questions and 

are basically a review of all of the standards 

that we have covered throughout the year.

The students have from January until April to 

complete this program.

Anyone that completes BOTH sections will 

get a surprise or treat from me.

Sometimes I assign it for homework, sometimes we 

do it in class, and sometimes I just tell the 

kids to go above and beyond to complete this.

For some reason it takes a looooong time for

some of them to get anywhere with this.

In January I start to keep track of their progress 

and at the beginnin' of March

I put their pictures up to show who has completed 

one or two sections of the program.

As soon as those pictures go up on the wall, 

all of a sudden the program MIRACULOUSLY gets completed

faster than I can get the blue sticky-tacky on the back

of their picture.  

No joke.
I put the pictures up this Wednesday and

by Friday I had four more people complete the program.

Just like that.

Motivation at its finest.

The pictures are mounted on spray painted CD's

to go with our Rockstar theme.

Joanne will LOVE this one...

I also gave each student a Post-it note

and gave them two numbers...random numbers.

Random to them...not to me.

Each student's numbers were different.

Then they had to add their two numbers together.

They then checked one another to see if they added correctly.

Luckily, everyone did. 

Thank goodness....I didn't want to have a nervous breakdown.

Then I asked them to get in order from smallest to largest numbers.

The person with the smallest number had completed

the least amount of questions on FCAT Explorer...

(I'm sure you know where I'm goin' with this) 

and the person with the largest

had completed the most.

I'm sneaky.

Now I've got pictures on the wall and kids lookin' 

around to see who is goin' to finish ahead of them.

I've got a competitive bunch.

They don't like bein' beat by their classmates.

I have a feelin' by the time Monday rolls around,

I'll have several more kids that have completed

the program.

I'm also linkin' up with my other favorite Ali from 

Teaching (Powered by Caffeine)

for "lovin' it & over it".

Some of you may remember that my school had

to say good-bye to a very special teacher

a few weeks ago.

Two of my colleagues and the Student

Council came up with a fundraiser to raise money

to be placed in Mary's name through the 

Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer foundation.

Students were able to purchase a pink strip of paper for

$.50 or 3 for $1.00.

The pink strips made paper chains that could be hung in each

classroom in our buildin'.

Students at my school raised around $1,000!

We had over 500 strips in our room.  

We actually ran out of hangin' space.

I had to be careful if the fire marshal came back.

He dislikes me immensely.

 I'm so proud of my Rockstars for honorin' Mrs. Martin's memory 

and always wantin' to give to others.  

They were so excited every time they brought in money

and most of them even gave up their Friday ice cream money

each week to buy pink strips instead!

The kids took the chains to our 

Student Council reps so they can attach all the chains in the

whole school.  

All of the pink chains

will be displayed in our Media Center for everyone

to see durin' our Scholastic Book Fair.

I think Mary would have truly loved this!

I have a paper cut and it hurts.

I've been sayin' bad things again.

I teased Ali that she was goin' to be my "over it"

because I emailed her and I knew she was nappin' 

and unable to respond.

It's great that she's such a good sport

and can take my teasin'.

I'm only over my paper cut!

Happy Saturday, friends.  

I'm on a boat today catchin' fishies...no I'm not postin' from there!

Just by the time you read this...I will be on a boat.

March Goals 2014 and what I'm lovin' and over...

It's March.
Time to write some new goals.
I've added my February goals below for review...
I am joinin' one of my bloggin' besties again,
A, from The Babbling Box for her March Goals linky.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

February Goals:

1.  Continue to eat clean and healthy.

Last month I lost 11 pounds.  

11 is my lucky number, but I'm goin' to be realistic here

and go with 7 because it's a short month.

I ate bread yesterday. 

I didn't feel so healthy after stickin' it in my mouth.

I completely fell off the wagon durin' a Super Bowl party.

As my friend Ashley likes to say, "I'm jump startin' my metabolism."

Sounds good to me!

(This one's for you, A!  Did I do it right?)

*I am still at the same weight, but I'm still eatin' healthier.

2. Organize my pictures.

I used to keep up with this...a lot.

I haven't printed any pictures in a while and the ones that I have

printed are in a huge ziploc bag...unorganized.

There is no excuse.

I also need to do this digitally.

My phone always says I've reached my storage limit.

I need to transfer my pics to albums on my laptop.

I would be heartbroken if I lost any pics.

*Fail...I forgot about this one.

3.  Finish watchin' Sons of Anarchy.

Jerm and I started watchin' this last week.

We are half way through the first season.

Season starts back here at the end of February, 

which means Spring Break madness, which means Jerm 

will be back to a crazy work schedule.

*We are on Season 5 episode 5. 

Pineapple Willy's opened back up full-time, so

I have to wait for Jerm's days off to watch.

I like Jax Teller...a lot!

4. Take 3 A.R. tests.

Yes...I take A.R. tests.

I compete with my kids.

This year they are beatin' me...a lot.

I cannot let this happen.

I've got to sneak attack them

when they are least expectin' it!

*Done-zo!  I did all 3.

5. Spend my gift cards.

I currently have several gift cards that need to go 

back to where they came from

and new merchandise needs to come home with me.

Shoppin': Dillard's, Kohl's, Amazon, T.J. Maxx, Hobby Lobby

Eatin': Outback/Bonefish Grill & Captain Anderson's

Pamperin': Rose Nails

I heart gift cards!
*I used two of my gift cards...still have some shoppin to do!
February was too short.

6. Still work on my bossiness.

It's pretty self explanatory.

I'm bossy and I know it.
*Hahahaha...I'm goin' to abandon this goal.

7. Go to bed earlier.

I blame all you fabulous bloggers for this one.

I keep tellin' myself, "One more blog and then I will go to sleep."
You all just have so many amazin' ideas...I can't stop readin'.

The next thing I know it's midnight and I'm still wide awake.

Maybe if I go to bed earlier, I won't need to take so many naps.

Who am I kiddin'? 

I could sleep twelve hours and I'd still want a nap.
*It hasn't happened.  I'm still a night owl.

Seven is the lucky number for this month...I decided.

Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me.

---------------------------------------------

March Goals: 

1. Go to the dermatologist.
I have an appointment on March 18th, but it's at 8:00 a.m.
I have had the appointment since last month, but I'm feelin'
guilty about missin' some time from school because
I've been tellin' the kids we don't have a minute to spare.
I'm thinkin' the dermatologist is goin' to win.
You just can't be too careful...especially this
Florida girl.

2. Find two dresses for a weddin'.
I'm goin' to a weddin' in Georgia at the end of the month.
I need a dress for the rehearsal dinner and the ceremony.
Maybe I need to head to Dillard's and spend my gift card.
I wonder when they are havin' their big sale?

3. Enjoy a boat day.
Saturday would be ideal, but the high is 68.
That's still a little chilly for me to be on a boat.
The fishies are callin' my name though.
My pink light-up fishin' pole misses me.
It might have to wait for Spring Break.

4. Make Behavior Beads for St. Patrick's Day & Easter.
This IS goin' to happen.
Be on the lookout.

5. Cut down my afternoon naps.
I nap almost every day durin' the week.
I can't help it.
I'm tired...probably because I'm a night owl.
I was one of those kids that never fought a nap.
I never grew out of it apparently.
I'm not sure how this one is goin' to go over.

Five is all I'm shootin' for this month because
I might actually sleep through the last week of March
durin' Spring Break.

I'm also linkin' up with my

other favorite Ali from Teaching (Powered by Caffeine) for her 

"lovin' it & over it" linky!

Two words: Palazzo Pants

I can't get enough of these pants.

Hello...they are basically yoga pants in disguise.

You can dress them up...or dress them down.

They are long...which is awesome for this tall girl.

Can you say...obsessed?

I already have three pairs and two more on the way.

There are just too many fun prints out there.

I want them all.

Here is a pic of my fave pair so far.

Black & Taupe Chevron

*No, that's not me.

I have a pair of butterfly palazzo pants on the way.

White Plum Boutique often puts palazzo pants up on

Jane.com for $21.99. 

(I know you're sick of hearin' about this site from me)

Sometimes if I can't find the size I want on there then

I will head over to ebay to find a deal. 

LOVIN' IT

I said earlier in the week that I'm over standardized testin'.
To make matters worse...
this week all of Florida teachers had their
names and teacher scores from the past two years
 published in a newspaper
All of us.
OVER IT!

Nailed it, again...bein' glam-glow-orous!

I'm baaaaaaaack.

I didn't really go anywhere.

I just lost touch with reality

because I started playin' a new app...

Candy Blast Mania.

I'm on level 124.

It's similar to Candy Crush, but I had to try somethin'

new after bein' stuck on level 409 of CC for months.

I abadoned it because it made me say

bad things.

I'm sure this new obsession will be short lived.

It's Tuesday...time to link-up with my sweet friend Holly from

Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried it Tuesday AND I'm linkin' up with my

other favorite Ali from Teaching (Powered by Caffeine) for her 

"lovin' it & over it" linky!

& 

Tried it Awesomeness #1: Jamberry Nails

 Hello Black and White polka-dot Jamberry nails!

These make me happy!

 Not bad for a first timer!

Still goin' strong four days later!

This took me about 40 minutes from start to finish.

I went back and forth between usin' a hair dryer and 

a warm rice bag for application.

It's easy.  I promise.

If I'm able do this...YOU can do this!

Keep readin' to find out how!

What are Jamberry Nails?

So pretty aren't they?

How would you like to win your very own Jamberry nails?  

Go to my Jamberry consultant Veronica Porche's

(from Teaching With Giggles)

Facebook page & her Pinterest page

and LIKE them for your chance to win

a half sheet...which is enough for a full mani & pedi!

Be sure to leave me a comment that you have entered.

Tried it Awesomeness #2: Glam Glow

Have you seen this on Pinterest?

I couldn't NOT order it...it looked too amazin'.

Of course I hopped on Amazon and it came 

in two days..I'm lovin' Amazon Prime.

It's a lil' pricey, but I shopped around for the best

price.  Just make sure it is sold by Glamglow.

Before...a lil' nervous...

It smells like licorice and the color was questionable, but

I was too far into it to give up.

I can't believe I'm postin' this on the interwebs.

It was definitely gettin' somethin' up from my face.

I'm sure I will need to use it more than once

to see some super duper results, but

I felt like I was havin' a face lift because 

my skin instantly tightened from the mud.

I don't know if I'm in the ranks of a glamorous

movie star yet, but I'm gonna keep tryin'!

I'm over standardized testin'.

OVER IT!

I don't really think I need to elaborate.

If you're a teacher readin' this...you probably feel

the same way I do.

Just let me teach.

Sendin' out positive vibes to my buddies

givin' FCAT Writes this week.

Oh yeah...and let's not forget laundry...

I'm over that too!

I hope you have your cart full for the 

3 Millon Teachers Strong Sale 

on Feb. 27 & Feb. 28.

I've got my TpT store set for 20% off and

Double Trouble also.

We've got some new Spring question cards that

we will be addin' soon.

Head over to Pinkadots Elementary to link-up!

Happy Tuesday friends!