Monday, 'nuff said.

Pardon me, my brain exploded today.

Jars of Mason

I am 99.9% sure I have only used a mason jar once in my life. That one time was at Joe's Crab Shack when my drink was brought to me in a mason jar. Little did I know, these little gems are used for more than just a cold beverage.

Here a few of my favorite mason jar projects. Click on the caption to link to the webpage for more details.

Some Crafty Dames

Lauren Elise Crafted

Emmaline Bride

Epheriell Designs

Slices O Flight

The CSI Project

Adorable, eh? I thought so too. I believe when Spring rolls around again I will spray paint a few to make planters for my front patio.

I have noticed in my classroom that I need a few containers to hold pencils, extra supplies, PBS tickets, and whatnot. I thought, "ah-ha! I shall use a mason jar."

No no... not just ANY mason jar. I wanted to use a beautifully painted "marblely" mason jar. See?

Magpie Paper Works

While searching the internet, I came across Magpie Paper Works blog. Click here to access her page. She gives a great little tutorial on how to make lovely vases for flowers (or even pencils!)

I gathered my supplies and had a seat on the 'ol patio. I realized that I didn't quite have enough colors to follow the blog exactly.. oh well! My jar still looks pretty schnazzy. 

Different strokes for different folks

With my tunes going and the sound of tubers and wave runners in the background, I started pouring!

DUMP

Drip drip drip

Since the heatwave is over (for now...) I can enjoy the lovely outdoors. I'm even wearing sweatpants right now. Yup! It's the truth people.

Lovely Thursday

It's almost SHORE TIME PEOPLE!

COUNTDOWN: 7 DAYS

For the past two weeks, I have been working hard to complete my classroom. Finally! I feel like it's ready for kids to arrive ONE WEEK FROM TODAY. OH MY GOODNESS! 

Welcome to Ms. Furnell's 5th Grade Classroom! 

M-I-Z

That's right! I have a SMARTboard this year.

Rain gutters as book shelves. Perfection!

SPIDERMAN is missing! He will soon complete my "CAUGHT" bulletin board.

Books books and more books!

Non-Fiction shelf. My love!

Get the SCOOP on our daily schedule!

Is that the Osage way?

What do you think? The walls are bare and ready for science and communication arts "stuff" that we create together!

NOW! I must print labels, fill out insurance and tax forms, watch high quality tv, and do a mason jar craft. I think I can.. I think I can.

COUNTDOWN: 11 days

Meet the Teacher night is great and scary all rolled up into one. It's great to meet the students and families you'll be working with for the year. Then, it's scary because you want to make a good impression and give those kiddos something to be excited about!

Earlier this summer, I found this idea that I couldn't wait to try out and share. But first, wouldn't it be great to win the lottery?

uuuhhhhhhh...... YES.

Well ladies and gents! Get ready.

Simply 2nd Resources posted this awesome idea for having lotto tickets for students. Of course, you can also find a pretty great how-to on Martha's website. Seriously, is there anything she hasn't tried?

Picture this: As students walk in I hand them a lottery ticket that they can scratch off once finding their desk. Not only will they (hopefully) flip out when they see their desk ... they will be equally excited to scratch off fantastic prizes! I highly anticipate getting the following responses from my students on day one:
"THIS IS THE BEST CLASS EVER!"
"THIS IS THE HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE!"
"COULD THIS DAY BE ANY BETTER!?"

You get the idea.

Of course, my prizes are the coolest and most original ideas anyone has ever come up with:
FREE PENCIL!
NEW BOOKMARK!
LUNCH IN THE ROOOOM!
NO HOMEWORK!
EXTRA RECESS!

Okay okay.. I exaggerated. They aren't THAT original. Pretend you're in 5th grade.

Moving right along...

I'm absolutely loving Love 4th Grade's blog because she has the best ideas to impact student learning. After all, that's what we are all about. Her post today was all about focusing our first two weeks of instruction on admirable individuals. I've been struggling (bummer.. I know) to find neat ideas to hook my 5th graders the first few weeks. Thankfully, Ms. Jasztal provided this link that got my brain rolling!

Familiar with these posters?  (pardon the pixillation! I'm not perfect, people!)

Of course you are! Did you know you can print these for free? Yep! It's true. Click here to access the billboards!

As a little treat for the first day of school, I downloaded this "Smartie Pants" printable from Beth Proud Foot! Prior to leaving school I made a quick list of things to pick up at Target. Guess where I left that list? ON MY DESK. I'm 0-2 on grocery lists this week! Anyway, the only thing I remembered at Target were the Smarties to make these treats. Guess what I left at school? THE PRINTABLE! That's when I know my brain had exploded and it would be an early night for me.

Hehe, Get it?

Or if real pants are your thing.. Here's an idea from The Inspired Apple!

Is 8:00 too early to go to bed?

"Breakfast"

I wanted to think of a fancy title for this breakfast series. Here are a few I came up with:

"Let's Find Jordon Something FILLING to Eat So She Doesn't Have to Eat McDonalds Everyday"

"Let's Find Something Really Great for Jordon to Eat For Breakfast That is QUICK and EASY"

I stopped after that and realized titling things is not in my job description. I decided to make this one easy by naming it, "Breakfast".

It all started with this image that popped into my life via Pinterest. Naturally I was drawn to it because:
a. It's food
b. It's multiple photos of food

Need I say more?

Keep Your Diet Real posted 20 quick ideas for breakfast. GENIUS! Wahoo! YIPPIE! Just what I was looking for. This week, I have been making a conscious effort to make delicious breakfast before life gets too crazy.

To begin, I closed my eyes and pointed at a random photo. When my finger landed on no where near the photo I decided to pick number five first. Now my friends, meet contestant number fiiiiiiiiiiiive: (cue applause)

Keep Your Diet Real photo

Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip

Ingredients

• 4 oz honey flavored Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1.5 Tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons of peanut butter
• 2 oz Reduced fat cream cheese, softened

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.
2. Chill in the refrigerator for 15+ minutes or serve immediately. Store in the refrigerator.
3. Serving suggestion: 2 tablespoons of dip with ½ cup fresh fruit or sliced apples.

Oh LAWDY! This dip was amazing. Literally, as I continued with each bite of my apple I thought I was going to end up licking my ziplock container. Don't worry, I'm not an animal! I resisted temptation. 

The best part was, it filled me up! My stomach wasn't tossing and turning at 9:00 AM. I actually made it until lunch (very important for teachers!!)

For Tuesday, I decided to jump on the smoothie bandwagon. If you can't tell, I kind of enjoy jumping on bandwagons. 

To be honest, I wanted to jump on this bandwagon a few months ago. Sadly, it didn't work out that way. One morning while searching my kitchen for something yummy to eat I decided, "ah-ha! I'll make a smoothie!" I gathered some ingredients and started to look for my blender. Then I realized I didn't have a blender. 

Needless to say, it's extremely difficult to blend things without a blender. A few months later, I invested in a blender so I could really jump on this bandwagon.

I borrowed a delicious smoothie recipe from Yum Sugar and started blending.

The Basic Classic Smoothie
From Michael Sweeney

Ingredients

6 frozen strawberries*
3/4 cup plain, low-fat yogurt (feel free to substitute a flavored yogurt for plain: strawberry and blueberry work well)
1 banana
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon of honey
protein powder or flax, optional

Directions

1. Place the frozen strawberries in the blender. Let sit for 10-15 minutes, so they have time to thaw.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and blend. Check consistency: if too watery, add more yogurt. If too thick, add more orange juice.
3. Pour into a glass and enjoy!

Makes 1 smoothie.

I grabbed my smoothie from the fridge this morning and had several smoothie fouls. It leaked on my desk, purse, and inside my car. It was probably on my face all day, too.

I think for the time being I'm hopping off this smoothie band wagon.

Filling Up Buckets

I have no idea what made me read "How Full is Your Bucket". I wish I had a grand story that I was inspired to pick up the book and participate in a discussion of bucket goodness.....but I don't. Honestly, I was probably walking around B&N and decided that this book looked like fun. Little did I know, the bucket phenomenon was bigger than I imagined! All over, classrooms are applying this philosophy to their everyday curriculum. So, I jumped right onto that bandwagon! You can call me a follower. 

Click to buy the book here.

Funny story: I had my copy of "How Full Is Your Bucket" with me at school last year because my students were asking about it. Little did I know, I had forgotten to remove my bookmark that I had used a year or two before. My bookmark happened to be a birthday card from a few friends I met while studying abroad. The card read, "I see London... I see France..." and when opened the inside said, "I miss seeing your underpants!" 

One afternoon, a student brought me the card (after reading it) and said..."ummmmm, is this yours?" 

Oopsie daisy. Note to self: remove all bookmarks OR don't use birthday cards as bookmarks!

Back on track...

The "bucket" principle is very easy to understand. Everyone has a bucket over their head that can be filled with positive experiences and interactions with others. Or buckets can be dipped from when negative words or actions are used. As you can imagine, we strive to have a full HAPPY bucket!

Last year, I decided to implement this philosophy into my classroom. I started by reading the kid's version of "How Full is Your Bucket". I loved the conversations I had with my kids afterwards. They were very receptive of the idea of an imaginary bucket over our heads. This lead to awesome convos about how to treat one another respectfully. 

After reading the book, we had to start filling up our buckets! I downloaded a few different "drops" from the internet and had a mini lesson with my kiddos.

One of MANY ways to fill a bucket!

To introduce the lesson, I filled out a drop to our custodian. I thanked him for treating our school with respect and helping me when we had "the soil incident". (curious? We dropped soil all over the floor with WORMS! I don't touch worms.. so needless to say, I freaked out)

Afterwards, my kids were practically professional bucket fillers. Before I knew it, we were sending drops to other teachers and students around the school. It was truly incredible! 

What The Teacher Wants has free printables about bucket fillers here.

In my classroom, I created a bulletin board for our drops. It was by far the most meaningful bulletin board that I created for the year.

Thanks to a combination of Pinterest and Google, I have found several ideas for bulletin boards and buckets. Enjoy a few photos!

Clutter Free Classroom

Clutter Free Classroom

Clutter Free Classroom

This year, my bulletin board space is limited due to other things that need to be hanging. As usual, I was stumped on how to have buckets in my room. Then, Pinterest SAVED THE DAY! 

(at the current time Pinterest is not working... once it reboots, I will be able to show the original picture that I mimicked in my own classroom! Don't worry, I'll give credit ASAP!)

A bucket for everyone!

When school begins, students will be able to personalize and decorate their cup, err.. I mean bucket. 

Since I have yawned roughly 15 times in the past twenty minutes, I think that means it is time for me to go bed. Yep! There's #16. 

Simply the Best

Ahh, Sunday night... we meet again. Growing up, if I recall correctly, we had signature foods every Sunday night. They were nothing extreme or massive.. just a few Sunday night traditions. For example, my dad would often whip up some chicken noodles or you might even find rotel dip simmering on the stove.

In college, my good pal Mallori and I started a new tradition. Since we were neighbors for a few years, we tried to get together on Sunday nights and have dinner. Most of the time our dinner consisted of the classic tomato soup and grilled cheese. It was a delightful treat to share with a friend!

This evening, I decided to make THE BEST grilled cheese sandwich, ever. 

Keep Your Diet Real

In order to make the BEST grilled cheese, I needed to take a trip to the store. I wrote my grocery list and headed on my merry way. Guess where my grocery list was when I got to the store? If you guessed, "your pocket!" You are wrong. It was right on the kitchen table where I left it.

Useless

Lucky for me, I have a photographic memory. 

I'm sorry, that was a lie. I did my best to remember what was on the list after saying, "awww mann!" (like my nephew, Beckett) quite loudly in the store. Surprisingly, I did quite well. 

After I had gotten over the whole "grocery list" ordeal, I gathered my recipes for the best sammich ever, and started cookin'!

Dangerously Cheesy

I tell you what, Keep Your Diet Real wasn't lying. This grilled cheese beat my regular grilled cheese's boo-tay.

Now, has anyone seen my scissors?