Desserts & Dateline

 One afternoon I was chatting with a friend of mine who teaches preschool. She told me about the perfect little dessert that her kids made with crescent rolls, apples, cinnamon, and sugar.  Could it be? Am I the only one who didn't make this dessert as a wee little one? Sheesh. Well I'm making up for lost time now. 

I bought a package of four crescent rolls and one Granny Smith apple. After sprinkling the inside of the crescent roll with cinnamon and sugar, I added the apple (which I forgot to peel) and caramel bits. Next I rolled the crescents up and stuffed a few more caramel bits in for good measure. 

I popped the dumplings in the oven for 13 minutes at 375 degrees. 

It was yummy, easy, and very quick.  

The perfect dessert for two people wrapped up in the drama of Dateline on a Friday night. 

Sprucing up ABC Blocks

Anyone who follows my blog knows that I'm slightly obsessed with my niece and nephew. They are the peanut butter to my jelly. Before my nephew was born, I made him a baby blanket (with LOADS of assistance). I wanted to give Libby a handmade gift as well, but I wasn't sure what to create for her. On Pinterest, I stumbled upon an idea to spruce up baby blocks. Check it out here. I loved the idea of using Dr. Seuss images, but I wanted to make things a little more personal. Libby loves looking at pictures, so I put pictures of family members on the ABC blocks. Very personal and modge podged with love!

Before:

 After:

Heres'a close up of big brother BDE on the "B" block. 

To make the blocks, I downsized images of family members to fit on one side of the blocks. I put a layer of modge podge to glue the image down. After it dried, I put two more coats of modge podge on top of the image. I allowed for plenty of time in between coats. I didn't want the pictures to smudge. 

She was a big fan of the blocks at the party!

Let's just say, Libby was a big fan of everything at the party. Her mama is quite the party planner!

Have a great Thursday!

Seamstress Quest

If you've been a follower of my blog for sometime, then you know about my quest to become a seamstress. Keep in mind, this quest is far from being over.  It's been roughly a year (yes, a year) since my sewing skills have been sharpened. In the past week, I've made two pillows for my living room. We're bursting with pillows over here and I LOVE it. 

Thankfully, there are very talented people on the internet who post wonderful directions for sewing. I've posted the links below. :)

To create an envelope pillow seen below (left) follow this tutorial here. 

Next, I created another envelope pillow but added a fun felt flower on the front. Thanks to V & Co. for posting a fun tutorial here. 

Today is my niece's first birthday! Tomorrow I will be posting pictures of the gift I spruced up for her. 

Happy Hump Day!

Water Cycle - Summer School!

I'm a little bit delayed in writing this post about summer school. I suppose I let other summer fun get in the way of my blogging. Oops! :)

One day of summer school was spent discussing the Water Cycle. We started our chat about the water cycle by reading the story, A Drop Around the World. I've blogged about this book before because it is one of my favorites. The author does a wonderful job of explaining the multiple paths water can take throughout the water cycle. A class could spend a decent amount of time discussing only what they heard in the book!

The morning wouldn't be complete without a little singing and dancing...

Lastly, I wanted my students to be able to take home something about the water cycle. Using paper plates, colored pencils, cotton balls, and labels each student made a diagram of the water cycle. Hopefully my future 5th graders will remember this lesson when we begin talking about weather in the fall. 

Happy Monday!

Making the Switch

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Start the Week Off Right

I love a great inspirational video. A few months ago I watched the following TED Talk and was enthralled. I guarantee that you, my teacher friends, will feel exactly the same way after watching. Enjoy!

Rita F. Pierson "Every Kid Needs a Champion"

Head in the Clouds - Summer School

Week one of summer school came and went quickly! 

Our fourth day of summer school was all about the clouds! We started with Tomie de Paola's "The Cloud Book". A very cute and informative book about the clouds. It tosses in a few idioms, popular phrases, and original theories about what the clouds meant. It held the attention of my students all day long. Plus, it provided a few giggles. 

After we figured out the three main types of clouds (cirrus, stratus, cumulus), we ventured outside with a diagram and sidewalk chalk. I gave each pair of students the task of drawing the three main types of clouds on the sidewalk and labeling each one. I was very impressed by their artistic and creative drawings! Of course, I had to get in on the sidewalk chalk action too. 

It's the Key to a Happy Life!

Well, what do you see?

Cumulonimbus Clouds

Low Stratus Clouds Over a City :)

It was time well spent outdoors in the sunshine. Plus, I hope that each of my students walked away knowing the three main types of clouds. :)

WE WILL ROCK YOU! Summer School Day 2

Summer school is trucking right along. It's fast paced and way different than the regular school day. It's nice not having the pressures of testing hanging over my head. Plus, the hugs from students in June is a wonderful added bonus.  :)

After our conversation about soil yesterday, we extended the conversation into erosion and landforms. Below are a few online videos I used and a great flipbook!

While the song was playing I started to hear, "Ohh... I get it now!" We weren't diving into the types of rocks, but it was a fun song to get our brains shifted into science mode. 

I also show clips from Bill Nye's erosion episode. I like these clips because he visits areas around the country to show erosion and cool experiments to try at home. 

Right as time was running out for the day, we started a landform flipbook. Thankfully, there are smart and talented teachers on the internet who share fantastic resources. Ginger Snaps has a fantastic flip book to demonstrate different types of landforms, plus you can download the file for free! 

Bless you, Ginger Snap Treats for Teachers!

Tomorrow, we are going to finish our flip books and move onto the atmosphere Thursday. Exciting week full of science! 

Eating Dirt - Summer School Day 1

Summer school has arrived! This is my first year teaching summer school and I'm focusing on Earth Science. To start our fun for the summer, we ate dirt. I got a lot of questionable looks when I said, "Welcome to summer school! Today, you're going to eat dirt." In fact, I got several "EWWWWW" responses. It was wonderful. 

We started our class with a read aloud,  Dirt: The Scoop on Soil. I like this book because it outlines ALL the layers of soil and fun experiments to try at home. 

After reading a little bit about soil, we made our own tasty version of dirt. 

We focused on three parts of the soil for our yummy treat. The bottom layer was made of hand crushed graham crackers and it represented the sand. The middle layer was a pile of chocolate pudding to represent the clay layer. On top, students sprinkled hand crushed oreos to represent topsoil. 

Today, we're moving onto erosion. Stay tuned!