Teaching With Style: holidays

Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
I love giving and receiving gifts - most people do! This year I am participating in 5 different gift exchanges.  It's a lot! And some of the people I've never bought gifts for before, so I'm not entirely sure what they would want.  I could go the easy route and choose something off their Amazon Wish List, have it shipped to their house, and call it a day.  But I don't like the easy route! 

 When I'm buying for someone that I'm not too sure about what to get them, I either do one of the following:
  1. Buy them something unique, like from Etsy, the Museum of Modern Art, or Uncommon Goods
  2. Buy them something unique to Maui, where I live
  3. Buy them something I would want, like a makeup set from Sephora or a scarf from Anthropologie
  4. Or make them something
My "make something" repertoire isn't that amazing.  I like simple projects that don't take a whole lot of time.  And I LOVE using materials I already have on hand.  That's bonus points in my book.

Here are some real gifts I've made for people.  They are functional, pretty cute in my opinion, don't take forever to make, and are fairly easy.  
 Cloth napkins

Coffee Cozy

Cork frame

Silhouette ornament of a friend's dog

Oven mitt - this one was probably the hardest, but I've gotten better at it.

Simple tote or reusable shopping bag

A painting I'm working for a friend this year! Can you tell what it's going to be?


But what if you are still stuck on what to get someone? Luckily, Coupon.com's blog The Good Stuff has 3 gift guides:
  • Budget-Friendly Gifts 
  • Gifts for Enthusiasts
  • Hostess Gifts
And while you're checking it out, you can enter the sweepstakes that's running from today until December 25th! There will be one $100 winner per week and one $500 grand prize winner! 
The Good Stuff 2014 Holiday Sweepstakes


What are you planning to give this holiday season? 

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Coupons.com.  However, all ideas and opinions are my own.  



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Are you as excited about Black Friday as I am?? I love saving money on things that my family loves.  Stocking up on Christmas gifts is a bonus, too! 

I remember the first time I went shopping on Black Friday.  I was home for Thanksgiving when I was pregnant with my son.  My mom and I got up at 5 am and headed out to my small hometown to scour for some deals.  We hit up Walmart and got my son a Nintendo DS on super sale, as well as a digital camera for our family.  We also went to Staples for some computer accessories (and teacher stuff!) and Sears for some tools for my husband.  Another year my sister in law and I woke up super early and headed to Target, it was a madhouse! We also waited in line for over an hour at Old Navy just to save extra money on clothes for our families.  Even though it was busy and we had to get up early, we were able to snag some awesome deals and made our dollars stretch extra far for Christmas those years.

When we were on Lanai for the past two years, I couldn't participate in Black Friday because there is no where to shop there! Literally! But now that we are over on Maui, I'm excited to go out again, get all my Christmas shopping done, and save some money while I'm at it!

A funny story - last year we actually spent Thanksgiving weekend on Maui.  We stayed at a hotel, played in the pool, and went to a Luau that served traditional Hawaiian food, as well as a Thanksgiving feast.  It was awesome! My husband worked in the purchasing department of a hotel on Lanai and they had ran out of Snapple.  Since the island is remote, it was hard to get things out there last minute.  Even though he was on vacation with his family, he had to run out to Walmart on Black Friday, buy Snapple, then drive it 30 miles away and put it on a ferry for Lanai.  My husband hates traffic and general busyness.  Let's just say that he was not a happy camper!

This year, I'm going to use Coupons.com to make sure I save even more money! While over on their site, make sure to check out Coupons.com Black Friday Sweepstakes!

Also check out the Black Friday articles on The Good Stuff.  It's the Coupons.com magazine where you will find everything you need to know for Black Friday shopping!



What things are you excited about snagging on Black Friday?

I was compensated for this post by Coupons.com, but the opinions are my own. 
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This is my last week of school for 2013 and it's a full one!

For reading, we are traveling around the world with Globe Trotting Scott: 

This week, we are using Lynsdey's pack to travel to Uganda, Australia, Mexico, and the US, along with throwing in the Philippines and Hawaii from my two units:


During writing workshop, I am finishing up my DRA testing, so the kids get to do some fun Common Core aligned projects!

Parts of speech practice from Kelley:

Narrative writing from Jamie:

Some Polar Express fun from Tonya:

And some persuasive writing from Hope:

During math we are finishing up our chapter on double digit addition with regrouping.  We are doing Blair's fun activities in our math journals:

Along with that, our classroom elf, Sam, will be having some fun with passing out nice notes and maybe some more coal! (Find this is the same pack of Hope's that I linked above!)  We'll be writing nice notes to each other, and having a pajama day with the Polar Express on Friday!
Our elf arrived from the North Pole.

His first hiding spot, high up on a bookshelf.

Some kids weren't really listening last week, so Sam the elf told Santa to send them coal.

It's really rice krispie treats made with Cocoa Krispies.

Luckily Sam left a letter telling the kids to be better.  I *think* it worked!

We've also been using Susan's bucket-filler type stockings.  It's so fun to get sweet letters!


What are you up to this week?

I'm linking up with Deedee's Peek at My Week Linky!
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I teamed up with my favorite Hawaiian teacher bloggers to bring you a special giveaway!

You could win seven different holiday/tropical goodies, plus a fancy new pencil sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies!  Click on the images to check out their descriptions on TpT {and to add them to your wishlist in case you don't win!!}








Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Here's a little peak into what my class did for Mother's Day!

First, we started off with Arlene's Mother's Day Traditions Around the World unit.  LOVED it!

The kids read a nonfiction article about how different countries around the world celebrate Mother's Day.  They located the countries on a map and took notes about what they read.  Then they answered comprehension questions and filled out a Venn diagram to compare a country of their choice with the United States.  Arlene included a paragraph organizer and also a final draft paper for students to write about the country's celebrations they like the best.  The kids thought this was interesting and I loved how scaffolded the lesson was the entire way.  It was perfect for my class!

There are tons more activities included in this pack, but we also did a matching activity with the countries and facts about their Mother's Day traditions and a fun activity where students learned about famous mothers.

We then made a set of coupons from Arlene's pack and made origami envelopes to put them in.  You can find directions for the envelopes here.

A couple of weeks ago we made pinch pots out of ceramic clay, thanks to a generous Donorschoose project.  They got bisque fired and we glazed them last week.  I begged politely asked the art teacher to glaze fire them before Friday.  He was so sweet and did!  I was so thankful, because I needed them for our last Mother's Day goody - soap!

I ordered soap from Joanns.com a month ago and it didn't come in time!  Never.ordering.from.them.again!  Thankfully, I had a presentation in Maui last week, so I could go to Ben Franklin crafts and pick up a block of clear glycerin soap and some soap coloring.

I also used some essential oils I already had.  I got them so I could make homemade bug spray from this pin.  Bugs be crazy 'round here!  I had to dilute the oils with water because I read never to add essential oil directly to soap.  


I got to work and chopped the soap block into chunks.  I then filled a 2 cup Pyrex bowl with them.  I put it in the microwave for 1 minute and it came out completely melted.


I mixed in the coloring and added the diluted scent.  I first made some green that I could cut up into chunks and drop into blue soap.  I poured the green soap into a meatloaf pan, let it melt, then cut it up.  I also poured some green in the very top of my mold to add some dimension to my soap.


I then made blue soap, poured it into molds I already had from making crayons, and dropped in some of the green chunks.  You definitely do not need to add the different colored chunks.  I was just playing around with it.


I put them in the freezer and let them harden.  This is what it looked like when I popped it out of the mold!  Peppermint scented flip flops!  Love!


This was the set I made at home.  When I did it at school, I broke the kids into 3 groups, based on their color choice: pink, blue, or green.  I scented the pink soap with pink grapefruit, the green with peppermint, and the blue with lavender.  I let the kids pick which mold they wanted: heart, flower, seashell, or flipflop.  I then used my neighbor's microwave to heat the soap and put them in the staff fridge to harden.  While I was working with the small groups, the rest of the class was working on their Mother's Day Around the World paragraph from Arlene's pack with an assistant teacher.   

How did you celebrate Mother's Day?



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Are any of you procrastinators like me?  If so, you are in luck!  If you have the supplies to make cute little crayons, I have cards for you!

Click the picture to download in Google Docs

If you don't have time to make cutsey crayons, you could even just rubber band together 3-4 crayons and give those with the cards.  I'm sure the kids will still love it!

I love making crayons and have done so plenty of times before: birthday parties, student gifts for Christmas or end of the year, even in the kid goody bags at my brother in law's wedding!

You can see a tutorial I did over on Classroom DIY.

Well, this time around, I wanted to try a different technique that have been all over Pinterest - using silicone ice trays in the oven.  You see, I usually melt the crayons in an old double boiler and pour them into candy or soap molds. I've even poured the liquid crayon into silicon molds before, and it worked great.

Making Crayons, Oven and Silicon Mold Technique 

1.  Gather supplies:
    • Silicon ice cube molds (I have a heart one from Ikea)
    • Crayons (I used super cheap ones I got for free at an educational conference)
    • Cutting board
    • Cookie sheet


 2.  Peel crayons and sort by color.

 3. Chop crayons into little pieces.  I actually could just break mine, since they were the cheap kind.  If you are using Crayola, you'll have to chop them.

4.   Place crayons inside the mold, mixing colors that you want.


5.  Put the mold on top of the cookie sheet and bake at 350 until you notice they are melted.  Crayons have a pretty low melting temp, so they don't need to be in there long.


6.   Cool, pop out of the mold and enjoy!!

All in all, I think I will actually stick with my original technique of meting in the double boiler.  For the second batch, I left them in the oven a bit too long, and the mold started to warp.  Also, my mold will not come clean, even after scrubbing several times.  I think a combo of being cooked together in the oven caused more stains.  It worked, but I won't be making crayons this way again.

Once all my crayons were made, I used cute patterned Washi tape to attach my crayons to the back of the cards.  Then I plopped them all in my students' Valentine's bags today.  Easy, peasy!  

What fun things do you give away for Valentine's Day?  I usually give away playdough, but I didn't get on the ball quick enough this year to get it ahead of time.  I'm liking these crayons though, I might need to start a new tradition!

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I am joining one of my favorite bloggers, Tessa from Tales from Outside the Classroom and joining her Linking Up With Love linky party!


Bloggers I'm Loving

You already know that Tessa is one of my BFB's (Best Friend in Blogging!!) but I have a couple more, as well!
MrsStanfordsClass
Another one of my BFB's is Jessica from Mrs. Stanford's Class!  She makes the cutest products, papers, and fonts!  And she is just about the sweetest person ever!!  I hope I get to meet her IRL one day!

Another blogger I love is Jen Ross from The Teacher's Cauldron.  She also teaches 2nd grade and her products are sooooo amazing!  She helps me out in my classroom almost daily, and doesn't even know it!  I'm obsessed with her Numbers Every Day product and use her stuff all the time!

Another blogger who I am loving right now is the one and only Lori from Teaching With Love and Laughter!  She teaches a continuous K-2 loop, so her products are so perfect for primary, since she has used each and every one of them in her classroom!  She is so sweet, but not only that, she is truly an expert teacher with years of experience to back her up!  She is one of my go-to gals for writing, phonics, and grammar lessons!  I just love her blog and shop!

Going Nutty! In Mrs. Squirrel's first grade
I couldn't leave out my gal, Missy Squirrels!  She cracks me up on a daily basis!  Between her sarcasm, wit, and adorable classroom, we were destined to be friends   This is another blogger that I hope to meet IRL soon!

Things I'm Loving

Since I live on an island with not many stores, I have become the queen of online shopping.  One of my favorite places to save money online is Ebates!  All you do is go to the Ebates website, find the store you want to shop in, go to the shop through their link, and Ebates will send you a percentage of your bill back!  For example, I needed new Bare Minerals foundation (all this sun is making my skin tan - yay!).  I went to Ebates, searched for Sephora, clicked through to Sephora through the Ebates website, and Ebates added 8% of my bill to my Cash Back account!  They send out checks for cash back once a quarter.  It is soooo worth it!  You can even use coupon codes in the actual store's website to save even more!  Now, who doesn't love saving money? Huh?

Products I'm Loving

I haven't gotten around to making any Valentine's products yet, but I am really loving my new Mac and PC Keyboard Shortcut products!


As for Valentine's Day, I currently have this unit in my TpT cart.  I love all of April from A Modern Teacher's holiday packs.  They are sooooo much fun!

That's it!  Head on over to Tessa's blog to see what everyone else loves and maybe even link up yourself!

What are you loving right now?
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