Made it Monday and Birthday Bash! and RAIN+cooler temps!!!!!

Today is Monday which means Monday Made Its with Tara from 4th grade frolics!

So this Monday I'm sharing something I found on pinterest.  When I followed it back to the original link I was stoked to find it was from  http://firstgradeglitterandgiggles.blogspot.com. Such a cool blog.  You gotta check her out!   It is so simple but I think it's going to become a staple in my classroom.  How many times do we answer these questions every time the kiddos are completing independent work? I'm constantly hearing "Mrs. Mach can we use markers?  Can I get on the floor under my desk?"  or They are talking during a quiet activity? Hopefully this little poster will help!   

I am going to put it on a corner of my whiteboard and put a check mark by what they can do and an X by what is not appropriate. The kids will be able to self check what they can do during an assignment or independent time.  It will also allow for others to help kids at their pods stay on task.  Sometimes peer help/guidance is better than anything that I can do!  

I am going to do pod awards too and this will go right along with them.  You know...the little glass globs that I people are putting in some sort of special container.  Some have been called happy rocks, rockstar behavior, or my inspiration came from Tonya at Tonya's treats for teachers and her tadpole tokens. When they see kiddos doing the right thing they get a treat for their pod. When the container is filled they get a reward.  I am excited to try it though!!!  Speaking of Tonya, she is an incredibly creative gal and she is having a give away of goodies from her TPT and TN shops.  You must stop by and enter if you haven't already!!! You'll get so many great ideas from her!!!


It is raining here where I live FINALLY!!!!  It has been so hot and this rain is cooling us down...to the mid 90s!  WOOHOO!!! It was only 87 yesterday...87 PEOPLE!!!! That doesn't happen here in south Texas until end of September if we are lucky!!!  I haven't forgot that the whole country is experiencing the heat though and I am not trying to snub anyone...I am recognizing all ya'll up north who are experiencing triple digits and aren't used to that.  I feel ya.  I know what you are going through.  The good thing for yall is that it'll go away soon...down here IT doesn't go away until mid October!!!  Yuck!  I hate the kind of heat we have at the end of July and August.  It is miserable...STOP RENE' !!!  I'll keep up this rant until I am sweating just from typing so hard!  I need to move on to something a bit more pleasant.  How bout little Cs birthday party which was Saturday? We had a great time and she was so happy.  I know she is only 2 but she really behaved well.  She played and talked with everyone, opened her presents all by herself and then played outside until we made her come in.  My family bought her outside toys because at her babysitter's house she adores playing outside with those toys.  We can't even get her to come inside some times.  So her daddy and I bought her a play house, Granny and Poppa (my parents) got her a water table, Grandma and Grandpap (hubs parents) got her a little slide, and my Aunt and Uncle got her a sandbox.  Perfect!  She LOVED it all.  As a matter of fact, she doesn't ever want to come inside.  Yesterday it rained all day and she just stood at the door with her little face and hands pressed to the window begging for the rain to stop so we could go outside and play.  She held her sand toys and bucket just waiting...poor kid (happy mom!  remember, RAIN???) She really had a great day.  Cue super cute birthday girl...

This is the water table...and yes she loved playing in it even though she knows that's
not exactly what she is supposed to be doing

Bustn' a rhyme with her Dora microphone

Big C and Little C getting ready to blow out the candle

Gettin' her grub on!!!

The cakes were a big hit too but a huge pain for me to make.  Not the decorating or anything...that was the easy part.  I misjudged the cake pan and how much batter I needed.  So I had to go back in the middle of making them to buy more stuff to make more cake (problem #1).  Then once that was solved it was time to make the icing.  Well, I needed lots of icing for these cakes so I did some research on different icings.  I found one that sounded easy to make and it had such high recommendations...very easy, delicious, perfect for cakes.  Sounds great, right?  uummmmm, NO NO NO NO...did I mention NO!!!!  (problem #2)  Not perfect for cakes that you want to decorate with piping!!!  (even though it said you could pipe with it...liars!!!)  I made the icing and it made a huge batch enough for me to frost both cakes and decorate.  Only thing was, it didn't crust (become a bit hard so that you can touch it without smearing it)  !  It was silky smooth and thin...it literally fell from the spatula when I lifted it up.  But I wasn't gonna throw away all that icing sooooo I got my mering powder and my powdered sugar and went to work.  2 hours later I got it thick enough to frost with. NIGHTMARE!  Long story short I used that icing to frost the outside of both cakes and as the middle layer but had to make a new batch for the piping decorations.  I should have done that first.  Finally at 3am (problem #3) I finished.  I was semi-happy with the decorations considering what I had to work with.  Lessons learned?  a) don't do all the decorating in one night (b) DO NOT EVER use new recipes without trying them out first (c) keep it simple so you still have fun when you are working.  Luckily I was home alone for most of this debacle because I work better when no one is around to see/hear what I am doing/screaming saying ;)

What matters most is that Little C loved it.  She knew exactly who was on her cakes and she loved the icing...even if it was soft and runny!!!  She ate it with a huge smile on her face and that is what made it all worth while.  I'm gunna post some pics so...if you aren't a pic looker you might wanna hop to another blog now!  Otherwise, enjoy!

Keep Coming Back
Rene'
"You are the apple of my eye, forever you'll be in my heart!"

OK...I HAD to edit because Tonya had posted that Target had back to school stuff in the dollar section.  My Target didn't disappoint!!! So I'm posting the finds I bought!!!  First of all, our school does AR and my theme is Dr. Seuss!  Check it out!!!  bandy bracelets for the "half way" award...a cool award that has a bookmark attached to it and erasers for the 100% prize, totes, pencils.  There was so much more Dr. Seuss stuff too!!!

Next I bought some cute frog name tags and desk plates along with a cute to do pad.  My room theme is frogs...take a gander...

Then I found a super cute Super Star Student chart, awards, border and stickers (and there were other things in this theme too)

and last but not least a few random things...I think I'm gonna use the sparkly poms for my table rewards that I posted about earlier...more to come on that.

I almost forgot that to tell ya that right now Kohls has SkippyJohn Jones books and animals for $5!!! I love these books and was super excited!  BUT :( my Kohls was out for now of SkippyJohn himself so I had to settle for bumblebeeto and  couple of books.  I'll be back tomorrow because their truck comes overnight!  Keep yo' fingers crossed for me!!!!

NOW...GO, RUN...HEAD TO YOUR TARGET AND KOHL'S!!!!