Day 2 Giveaway!

So I hope you are enjoying these giveaways!  Birthday's are supposed to be all about fun.  What is more fun then Grumpy Cat????

Today I had the pleasure of doing a Writing Workshop lesson in a 1st grade classroom.  It was great being back in the classroom and seeing the kiddos really getting it.  We worked on small moments and telling that moment across your fingers.  It is amazing to me how this small strategy helps kids focus on their one moment.  We went to the zoo last week and that was my model story.  As I was conferencing with a student he shared that he wrote about the zoo trip too!  My favorite part was when we went to see the elephants and they were in the pond of water...Completely under water!!!!!  Caleb's favorite part was riding on the charter bus hahaha!  He described the comfortable seats, the nice foot rest and the cozy arm rests!  Its crazy how kids see things!  

Alright enough talk about teaching, lets get to the giveaway!  Today's prize is Gina's awesome 

Enter for your chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Congrats to Jennifer L. Boehm who was the winner of the Plants Lapbook from Amber's Store!!!  I will email it to you soon :)

A Week of Giveaways!

So many of you know its my birthday, for another hour at least!

I have had the best.day.ever! (channeling my inner Rapunzel!)  I love Grumpy Cat, but I do enjoy a birthday!  My daughter, Raegan, had to have another cranial surgery last Wednesday so I have been out with her and oh darn the last day out just happened to fall on my bday!  The day began by waking up to this in my bathroom:

It is hard to see, but my sweet hubby left it for me!  I was so surprised when I went in there this morning!  Great way to start my day!  

 I spent the entire day with the loves of my life, Raegan and Kenley!  We played dress up.  They found their ladybug Halloween costumes and just had to put them on!  We watched movies, Little Mermaid Aiel, and Tangled Punzel.  I swear I can recite all the lines in both I have watched them so much, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!  The girls had a Dr. visit today and after that it was Taco time!  Hello, it is Taco Monday!!!

Jesus is ALWAYS working on Mondays (and every other day) and knows what we want to eat and drink before we sit down!!!! I had to get a bday pic with him!

Raegan kept calling this her cowboy hat!  This was her "cheese" face, she had to close her eyes tight!

Special Birthday Sopapilla!  I didn't see the smiley face at first!

Check out my awesome gift from my BFF Amber!!  Can you say LOVE!  

Yes that is a Chevron bag, what can I say, the girl loves Chevron!

The hubs bought me a sweet iPad Mini about a month ago for my bday, but also picked up this cuties!  Didn't he do good?!?!?!?

Here is a pic of my Mom, Dad, and Sis having bday dinner Sunday night.  My sister's bday is May 1, so we always go out to eat for both together!

A birthday shouldn't only be celebrated on one day, so I decided to have a super fun weeklong giveaway!!  Each day I will post a different product you can win.  

Here are all the prizes you could win!  

Plant Growth Lapbook from Amber at Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher

End-Of-Year Extravaganza packs from Deana at Primary Punch

Cinderella Unit from Stephanie at First Grade Fabulous Fish

Adjectives Comparison Unit from Gina at Third Grade Tidbits

Testing Lapbook from Elizabeth at Fun in Room 4B

I will choose 1 lucky winner per day for one of these products and then on Saturday, I will choose the BIG winner!!  That person will win a copy of all the products AND a $25 Giftcard of your choice (TPT, Target or Pampered Chef, I am a consultant haha) AND your choice of product from my store!  

The first product up for giveaway is Amber's Plant Growth and Survival Lapbook!  

  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make sure you check back tomorrow for the first winner and the next giveaway!!

It's My Birthday and I'll Have a Sale If I Want To!!!

Ok so its a bad play on the classic 1960's song, but just humor me and go with it!!!  Today is my birthday and boy has it been a roller coaster week leading up to it.  (more about that later) To help me celebrate, I am having a 1 day sale at my TPT and TN!

Check back later for a full post about the past week's events!  

Things Kids Say

As I was walking back to my room this morning I overhead the nurse having a conversation with a student about his ear.  The convo went like this:

Nurse: How long has your ear been hurting?
Student: I don't know.
N: Did you put something in your ear that might be causing it to hurt?
S: Well I did get a B.B. stuck in it one time.
N: Well how long has it been since the BB was stuck in there?
S: You mean how long since that happened?
N: Yes, how long ago did the BB get into your ear?
S: 2 days.
N: Well that might explain why it is hurting.  How did a BB get in your ear?

The conversation continued, but unfortunately I had to turn and go on a different hall and couldn't hear the end of it.  The BB in the ear will remain a mystery, for now at least!

I was amazed at how the nurse kept herself together, not once laughing!  I was cracking up behind them the whole time.  Kids are just so innocent and honest and just let whatever fly out of their mouths!

What stories did you hear today????

Cooking up Deliciousness and a Freebie

Wow, it has been a week since my last post!  My New Year's Resolution was to be a more active blogger, this week, that was a fail!  Good thing I have such dedicated followers who forgive me a keep reading my ramblings!

My Pampered Chef business is in full swing and April is going to end strong!  I am even lucky enough to have booked a party with my bloggy and real life BFF Amber!  We are doing BLT Salad and Yummy Chocolate Lava cake.  This cake is like crack!  It is made in the Deep Covered Baker in the microwave.  After mixing up the batter you simple scoop the icing over the batter and microwave 10 min and heaven on Earth is served!

It seems that I'm not the only one on a recipe kick lately.  My FB has been overloaded with food for the past month or so.  I started up a page to contain all my Pampered Chef recipes and ideas.  If you would like to join, click here and you will be taken to the page https://www.facebook.com/groups/pcelisabeth/

It was suggested by a fellow blogger that I do a post about Power Cooking.  Most people are eating at home more, but don't have much time to do so.  Enter Power Cooking, taking 1 hour a week to cook up large amounts of ground beef and chicken to use as bases and freeze them.  You take them out as you need them, defrost, add to your meal, and dinner is done!  Look for a more in depth post to come about this!  

I love Grumpy Cat and he pretty much sums up how I feel about Mondays!  I couldn't resist sharing some of my faves!

My week is looking chaotic already!  Ugh does Monday really have to come!!!  I have a data meeting all day Tuesday and then Wednesday I will be heading back to the hospital for my baby Raegan to have another surgery.  :(  We went Tuesday for a follow up appointment and didn't anticipate hearing anything but good news.  Well her Dr. is not happy with the way one spot on her head isn't healing and thinks that her body isn't accepting the suture.  She wants to go back in and try a different suture.  I, of course, was a nervous mess at the Dr, and was so glad the hubs was with me to do the talking.  I may as well have been mute during the meeting!  I said nothing!!!!  If you think about it, I would appreciate any prayers for my sweet baby, Raegan.  I will be staying out with her through Monday, so work is on hold for the rest of the week.   

Tomorrow is Earth Day and to celebrate, I whipped up some free word center games you can use in your classroom.  Click here to download a copy!  

Hope your week is great!

Where Oh Where Has My Weekend Gone?!?!?!?!?

This is the song I find myself singing every Sunday night!  It is like the week DRAGS on and the weekend ZOOMS by.  What.Is.The.Deal.  I know all of you agree with me, right????

I haven't talked much about my new Pampered Chef business lately, but I had 2 parties this weekend!!  Yes I have money crazy written on my forehead!  Friday night was all about Power Cooking.  If you are like me, your busy.  I am a mom of twins, full time teacher, and now working PC on the side.  I always tried to make weekly/monthly meal calendars so that we would eat in more.  Well that always went by the wayside when I was late getting home, passing fast food, or just plain out didn't feel like cooking!  Anyone with me???  Bueller...Bueller...anyone??  Enter Power Cooking!  It seriously changed the way I cook.

You start with 3-6 lbs of hamburger and 4lbs of chicken.  The idea is to make up hamburger and chicken bases to freeze and pull out during the week.  I created sloppy joes, taco salad base, and busy mom's lasagna base.  I didn't leave the chicken out!  I made up chicken Parmesan soup, chicken tortilla soup base and something else I just can't remember!  (bad I know!) So that is 6 meals that will last my family the whole week!  I simply pull out the bag, defrost it, and Viola' dinner is served!  I usually take an hour on Saturday or  Sunday to Power Cook.

I have been working on my latest product all week too!  It has been one of my most difficult products to create because I struggled to find graphics that I thought fit the topic and was cute!  So here it is hot off the presses...my Natural Resources Lapbook.

Making the product I did learn things about Natural Resources that I didn't know.  I am embarrassed to say that I honestly never understood what fossil fuels were!  After reading about this topic, I now know!  Please don't judge me!!!!!  

There is a freebie of one of the minibooks in the preview download.  I am also giving away 2 copies of this over on my Facebook page.  If you haven't liked my FB page, make sure you click here to enter for your chance to win!

Ugh!  Does Monday really have to come so quickly!

A Spring Break Surprise and Some Writing Help

Oh how I have missed Monday night taco night! Last week I was enjoying my last night at the beach (I'm not sad at all....do you hear the sarcasm???) and while we did enjoy some delicious Mexican food, it is just not the same as my normal yummy tacos. No one takes care of me like Raul and Jesus! It was so good to get back in my usual routine and it actually helped me get through my first day back from Spring Break.

Speaking of Spring Break, for those who went back today, did you survive? I am soooo tired! It never fails, after returning after an extended break, it is always to get used to working all day. I think one of my teachers said today 43 days till summer break....it can't come fast enough!

I have a funny story about Easter Eggs to share with you! Kindergarten classes dyed eggs the Thursday before we got out, which is over 10 days ago, and today one of the teachers found a "surprise" in a students book bag....a dyed egg!!! The best part was that the egg had gotten smashed open in the bag and anytime you walked near her room, you caught a whiff and it almost made you sick!  Get out the Clorox ASAP!!!!

Today I worked on planning out our next writing unit. I am working with first grade and they are doing authors as mentors in Writing Workshop. When thinking about authors you want to study there are a few important things to think about.

1. Which authors do you enjoy? Think about your favorite go to authors for read aloud and shared reading. Why do you like them? Are they appealing to your kiddos?

2. What does this author do in his/her writing (writer's craft)? Which items do I want to focus on and have my students practice in their own writing?

3. Are there more than one book written by this author to use as mentor texts during this unit?

Once you've answered these questions, you'll be ready to choose the author who you will study during this unit. Choose about 3-4 books to use as mentor texts during the unit. After you have decided on your mentor texts, look through them and find which author's craft items you will highlight in this unit. Then its time to begin your monthly overview.

This is a sample of what could be done in a Writing Workshop using this genre.

After this, its easy peasy to create your writing mini-lessons! 

Do any of you use overviews to help plan out longer units????

Celebrate Good Times!!!

My favorite Aunt found out she had breast cancer back in November and this past week she found out her latest scan came back free of cancer!!!!

She's been through Chemo and Radiation and is now doing her weekly Cancer drug visits.  Her energy is coming back and she is able to do so much more.  As a celebration my whole family went out to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse.  The girls had the best time because there were lots of people celebrating birthdays, so they loved hearing the YeeHaw for the various celebrations.  Then the group next to us sang Happy Birthday and they both shouted "Want Birfday  cake take".  Try explaining to 2 yr olds why they can't have any!!!  

It was so great to celebrate my Aunt's good news and give praise to our Great God for his continued goodness to us!  

I am also working on my newest unit, All About Plants.  I always loved this unit in our Science curriculum!

Being in NC we have our state Essential Standards, not CCSS, for Science.  I want to make it available to everyone, not just those in NC.  What activities/experiments would you like to see in this unit??   As soon as it is finished I will be giving it away! 

Hope everyone has a great Monday, its coming fast....Boo!!!!

Must Read Mentor Texts

Wow 3 days in a row, must be some sort of record!!!!  Today I am linking up Stacia and Amanda from Collaboration Cuties for their Must Read Mentor Texts linky.

I love using mentor texts in my classroom and have so many to choose from it is hard to pick just one!  But if I must choose, I would pick:

I.LOVE.THIS.BOOK!

Last year I did Hope King's Trick or Treat book reports and one of my kiddos did Elephant and Piggie by him and I found this book and never looked back!  

Quick Overview: A toddler named Trixie goes with her daddy to the laundromat and while they are there she loses her stuffed bunny.  This leads them on a chase to try and find him.  The little girl is too small to speak in the book, so the author uses various letters to convey her talking.  Finally they locate the bunny in the washer and the little girl says her first word -Knuffle Bunny!  

The author goes through lots of dramatic tellings of how Trixie acted when her daddy couldn't understand what she was saying.  They are great!  

  My school is focusing on monthly comprehension strategies and retelling was up first.  I chose to use this book in my presentation as my model.  This book is great to show your thinking while reading.  

What is your go to mentor text???  Link yours up!!

Anticipating April (The Best Month of the Year!)

I saw this linky and couldn't resist!  April is my favorite month and you will soon see why!  Jessica over at Literacy Spark just started a brand new linky.  It is called Anticipating the Month ahead.

I love the sequins on this graphic!  

Here are the rules:

• Share one thing you are looking forward to during the month of April.
• Share one thing you are dreading during the month of April.
• Share one thing that you hope to accomplish during the month of April

Without further ado, here is my list!

Head over and link up with Jessica!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

You didn't know Julie Andrews was going to make an appearance in my post to sing her famous song from The Sound of Music did you?!?!?!?

Well lucky for you, we aren't singing about raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens!  

I am loving all this extra time I am having for blogging, creating and all around laziness!  Ya'll know how much I love a good linky, so I was so happy when I was catching up on my reader to find one that was new to me!  I am liking up with Latoya from Flying into First Grade for her Let's Get Acquainted Linky.

This week's theme is My Favorites.  

First up is my favorite store, and this was a hard one!  I have lots of go to stores, but Kohl's is my go to store for everything!  What is better than getting paid Kohl's Cash to shop????

I am a huge TV person, but since cutting back on our Satellite, I have less to choose from! Grey's Anatomy has always been one of my faves, and I try to always be home to watch it!  I still love all things reality TV, Survivor, Amazing Race, Hell's Kitchen, you get the picture!  

I have a sweet tooth and love to have a Reese's Cup on hand to calm it!  The hubs has been getting good at picking up the Reese's Big Cups for me when he's out and about.  Oh how he loves me!!!!!

Those that have been following for any time know I LOVE tacos, but burritos are my all time fav mexican food!  I would eat them multiple times a week if possible.  The family might have a problem with this variety!

Lastly, my favorite restaurant is Cracker Barrel.  I love some good southern food!  No one can beat their roast beef.....mmmmmmm....I want some now!!  

I can't wait to read up about some of my favorite bloggers!  Make sure you link yours up!

Currently on Spring Break!!!!

I am loving this Spring Break week!  We just got back from the beach and I am linking up with Farley for her world famous Currently!

The hubs got a free Redbox code and we rented Lincoln.  I love all things history and in particular, this time period (dork, I know!) I am loving being on Spring Break!!!!  No wake up time, except when the girls get up, getting things done around the house on days other than Saturday, and watching the Young and the Restless, what could be better????  Come on Summer Break!!  

I am thinking about the new products I want to make.  I have so many ideas in my head, its time to put those ideas into action!  I am going to start working on a natural resources lapbook and a plants unit pack.  Any other suggestions?

My want is a big one!  I have been married since 2004 and the hubs and I have NEVER had a new couch!  That is what I want!  I want to get one that is mine first and I get to pick out the color.  Don't get me wrong, we have appreciated the kindness of others, giving us furniture, but now I want my own!  Oh did I mention I also want a new house?!?!?!  That's a whole different post!

I am needing to get up and clean my house!  We came back from the beach and the house was left like a tornado had been through it.  It is quiet difficult to clean with the twins around, and not to mention HGTV and DIY were calling my name!  Oh well, there is always tomorrow to try again!

My advice is pretty straightforward, be yourself.  On your blog and in your products.  It is very tempting to "sell out" and try to model yourself into what others who are successful are, but it is far better to be yourself. It is awful hard keeping up an act as someone else, then to just be real!  

That's it!  Head over to Farley's and get your own!