Little Red Riding Hood Unit/Meet the Teacher/Work Wear Challenge!

Hola, hola, Coca Cola!  Thanks for checking in today!

By the way, if you LOVE this number clipart, you can get it for free from Artifex's TPT store!

My sons' band, Foxglove, has a new CD that you can download for free here! 

I'm even in one of the music videos, but I'll post that link later.  I just recently found out about my appearance in this video.  Of course, I'm only in the video for comic relief - at least, I have a new purpose in life.

A lot of bloggers offer new products for free to the first three people who comment.  I'm usually too late, but this time I actually got to check this out:

I LOVE Little Red Riding Hood stories, and this unit gives you the opportunity to compare and contrast a story that is familiar to the kids.  If you click on the image above, you can check this new product out in Michelle's TPT store.

It's a fun link-up from Trina for:

Trina would like some new music for her work-outs so she's asking for suggestions.  Since I go spinning at least four times a week, I do have a few favorite work-out songs:

*  I'm On Top of the World/ Radioactive by Imagine Dragons.

* Peace by O.A.R.

* Songs by the Foo Fighters

* Mr. Blue Skies by E.L.O.

* Love Runs Out - One Republic

I want to tell you about this fun challenge - you can get all the details by clicking on the picture; the information below the picture is from Alison's web site.  For $20, you get a list of clothes to have, some of which you may already have in your closet.  For 21 days, Alison shows you different ways to wear the ten pieces of clothing.  For the summer challenge, I had to buy metallic sandals and a jean vest; everything else I had.  Any way, I never would have bought these pieces because they weren't anything I would normally wear, but I ended up loving them.  The challenge helps you to step outside of comfort zone and try some new outfits. 

Check it out by clicking on the picture!

Registration for the Work Your Work Wear Challenge is opening in just one week.  Sign ups will open next Monday, August 4th.
The Work Wear Challenge is going to be perfect for teachers or anyone who works in a business casual office environment.  If your work wardrobe needs a refresh, this challenge is for you!  As with previous challenges, you'll get a shopping list of work wardrobe basics plus 21 days of mix and match outfit options. 
BONUS - LUNCH IS ON ME!
Invite your friends and colleagues, shop together and share the fun!  As an added incentive, I'll be providing lunch for the office, school or organization with the most participants in the Work Wear Challenge!  More details coming soon.
The shopping list will be released on August 15th and the first outfit will be sent out on August 24th. Kids shouldn't be the only ones who get to enjoy the back to school shopping fun.  Join me for the Work Your Work Wear Challenge and start this school year off in style! xoxo
Alison
P.S.  If you have any questions about the Work Wear Challenge, just hit reply and ask away!

 Depending on when you're reading this:

Thanks for checking in today!

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Great Giveaway! Peek at my Week!

Great Giveaway!

If you love giveaway, head on over to The Craft of Teaching!

There are plenty of great prizes, and you can't win if you don't enter.

Peek at my Week

It's also time to link up with Jennifer for:

 

In two weeks, it's tax free weekend in Massachusetts.  I'm getting a new refrigerator and a gas stove.  Since our current floor is in need of replacing due to several cracked tiles, my husband and I are going to pick out a new kitchen floor.  Plus, our mud room floor currently has "old as the hills" linoleum, and we're hoping to get tiles that can go in both rooms.

Of course, I'll also be cleaning.  This week's theme is baseboards - another thankless job - but they're always so dirty (especially since I only clean them once a year).  Hopefully, I'll make lots of progress so I can "rest" in the afternoon.

My sister, who lives in Connecticut, is coming for lunch on Tuesday, which means my father will be coming, too.  I'm always happy to go out to eat.

Have a wonderful week!

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Fabuloso Cinco Por Viernes!

Hola!  It's already Friday which means that it's time to link up with Doodlebugs Teaching:

My colleague, Mrs. Johnson, sent me our official picture from our field trip to the Massachusetts State House where Representative Jim Dwyer made sure we got an amazing tour:

This picture was even in the local newspaper! 

I'm making great progress with cleaning my windows.  I have three windows left to clean, and one I can't clean anyway because the air conditioner is in it.  Every day I'm getting a little more done.

I made my first Back to School purchase.  I bought fifteen 15 cent folders at Staples.  I like to put center materials in the folders, and this way, each center will have its own permanent folder.

I still have five weeks of vacation left, but I read so many blogs, and school starts soon for them.  Some bloggers have already started school.  I'm going to make the most of what's left of my vacation because it goes by so quickly.

Every day I still browse around at TPT to see what freebies and new products are available.  I have put some items in my cart including A Guide to Organizing and Managing Math Workshop from Clutter Free Classroom.    (Click on the link to check it out.)  One of my goals for next year is to incorporate more small group instruction.

Speaking of Jodi from Clutter Free Classroom, she has arranged to have a:

S

How cool it this!  Please email Jodi if you are interested.

If you want to check out this adorable (free) Dr. Seuss inspired number clipart, here's the link:
Artifex TPT.

Happy Weekend!

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Positive Thinking & Throwback Thursday!

Now that it's Thursday, it's time to link up with Jennifer for: 

 In the summer, I need to do my chores in the morning or they don't get done.  That's because I get to do what I want in the afternoon.  My afternoon is my reward for all my hard work in the morning.

My "rest" means going in the pool, reading a book, watch a little TV,...I just love my summer afternoons!

I'm also linking up with Angela from "The Teacher's Desk 6" for her Throwback Thursday link-up:

This post was from September, 2013 after the first 2 days of school:

It's Friday, and the end of my 2nd day of school with my new students who are very wonderful, by the way!  We're off to a great start! 

Here are 5 random facts about my week:

1.  I managed to get most of my classroom library organized and labeled with colorful polka-dotted labels.  Here's an example of my science book bins:

I tried to use different colored labels for the different sections. 

2.  On the first day of school, my students had Art and Health.  Consequently, we had a terrific first day of school!

3.  Here is my first day of school outfit which I managed to find at the last minute in Marshall's.  I thought the dress reminded me of Claude Monet's painting, and the added bonus was the price - $25.

 4.  This year the district is implementing a new writing program - Six Traits.  We did the first lesson which involved pairs of students thinking of 4 food items that they would include in a bagged lunch - this process was compared to prewriting.  Then they drew the items (drafting); changed the items to make the lunch healthier (editing).  At the end, each pair of students shared their lunches, and we learned that even though each group had the same lunch assignment, each lunch turned out differently because we each have different ideas.

5.  This afternoon we did the Saving Fred experiment.  Fred is a gummy worm who sails around in his boat (a bathroom paper cup) without wearing his life preserver (a gummy lifesaver).  One day Fred's boat capsizes, and he finds himself under his boat while his life preserver is on top of the boat.  Each group of students had to figure out how to save Fred by using only 4 paperclips. 

I actually was wondering how the kids could get the gummy lifesaver to be wide enough to get around Fred, but they figured it out.  One group used the paper clips to squish Fred's head so it would fit inside the lifesaver; another group used their paper clips to stretch open the lifesaver so Fred could fit; and the other groups used a combination of these 2 strategies.  It was very exciting - especially when each group figured out how to save Fred. 

Make sure to rest tomorrow afternoon! 

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Meet the Teacher Monday/Tuesday.....

Here's a fun, summer link-up from Trina:

Meet the Teacher Monday: Summer Edition

1. What's your summer teacher persona? 

• Slacker Teacher:catching up on every episode of everything you wanted to watch during the school year 
• Mommy-On-The-Go: consumed with your children's extracurricular activities
• Summer Fun Teacher:hanging with friends and traveling the world
• Overachiever Teacher:Making TPT products, proparing your classroom, you never really took a break.
• *********************************************************
• I am a Summer Fun Teacher in the afternoon because that's when I go in my pool, read, blog, watch TV..., but I am not traveling the world, I'm just enjoying my own little corner of the world at home - which is my favorite place to be in the summer.

2. It's a sunny day in July. Your schedule is wide open, so you decide to?

*  I would spend the day visiting my friend, Patty, who has a cottage at York Beach, Maine.  I try to get up there once or twice each summer because I love to eat lunch at the Goldenrod and sit on the beach in the afternoon.

3.What is your favorite summer thirst quencher?

* I'm really into flavored sparkling water these days.  I really love the raspberry/lime flavor.

4. Where will you be soaking up the summer sun? Have you planned any vacations? 

*  My family is spending three days in Nantucket during the third week of August.

5. Any summer reads, professional and personal?

*  I highly recommend this book:

Here's the overview from Amazon:

 From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the beautiful, stunningly ambitious instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

6. What does your summer TV habits consist of?

*  I enjoy watching The Dog Whisperer, NY Med.  I don't watch too much TV in the summer.

7. Favorite Summer song of 2014?

* I really enjoy the song, I'm on Top of the World, by Imagine Dragons.

Make sure to meet more bloggers at:

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Peek at my Week/Sunday Smorgasbord!

It's Sunday night which means it's time to link up with Jennifer for:

Windows

The cleaning theme of this week is windows.  I'm really determined to get all the windows cleaned this summer.  Luckily, my house is ranch because I need to climb the ladder to clean the Andersen windows which are in the bedrooms - amazingly, the outsides of these windows are done, now I just have to do the insides.

Going out to eat

I LOVE going out to eat!  This week I'm meeting some "lunch bunch" friends on Wednesday night to go to a Mexican restaurant, and on Thursday, I'm going out for lunch with some neighborhood friends.

Reading

I'm starting a new book:  Lowland by Jumpa Lahiri (she wrote The Namesake - a great book and movie).

Now I'm linking up with Fabulous in First for:

Yesterday I went to see the sand sculptures at Revere Beach - the first public beach in America - just in case you were wondering and/or are a contestant on Jeopardy.

Here are some pictures of the sculptures which all were amazing!

 

How impressive is this sand sculpture!  

This sand sculpture is called "Fear:"

 

 

Look at the details in the hand and the hair.  These sand sculptors are so talented!

Have a wonderful week!

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Fantastic - It's Five For Friday!

It's already Friday again so that means it's time to link up with Doodlebugs Teaching for:

At the end of school, I received a Barnes and Noble gift card.  I chose these two items:

and

 

My students love these books by Dan Gutman so I'm happy to have more in my classroom library.

 

In my house, I have 2 shelves that hold teaching materials.  During the school year, I try to keep my papers and books organized, but....This week I spent many days getting all my "stuff" back in order:

 

Now I just have to try to keep these shelves neat and organized during the school year.

 

Since the weather was so beautiful (except for Weds. when it rained all day), I got to go in my pool and do my water aerobics.  

I love looking at that tall tree in the background when I'm doing my warm up exercises.

I finished reading this book:

I actually had bought The Book Whisperer years ago, and I wasn't too crazy about it.  I got this book through the inter-library loan system.  I liked this book better because it had some interesting ideas like having a grafitti wall where students write their favorite quotes from books they have read, but I just didn't feel enthusiastic about this book.  Some times you just have a connection with a book, and some times the book isn't a match. 

To wrap things up, I have had a productive week going to the gym, washing windows, doing laundry....The week flew by so I feel fortunate to find time to go in my pool and read; that's what make the summer so amazing and fun!

Have a wonderful weekend!

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