My New Obsession

Holy cow y'all! My sweet hubby gave me a Silhouette Portrait for Christmas and I am IN LOVE. Everything I've ever dreamed of making is now a reality. I'm really loving it! I wanted to share a couple things I've made so far.

So clearly I made this after Christmas, but better late than never...right?! Inside of this ornament (from hobby lobby) are flowers from my bouquet. I got married in October and knew I wanted to save at least one rose and hydrangea for this! I really love how this turned out! 

The second project I've finished is this sign for our bedroom. 

This picture is in my craft room, this sign is not meant for a coral wall. ;) 

I used the same stain that we used for our headboard, so it'll coordinate well. This was SO easy! The wood and chevron canvas are from Hobby Lobby. 

I really wish that I had waited until I had the fabric blade for cutting the canvas because it KILLED my regular blade. I had to make another (story of my life) trip today to get a replacement blade. 

So if you're one of those people who constantly thinks, "I could do that!" The Silhouette would be perfect for you! It's making all my crafty dreams come true! :) 

Happy 2015! 

Are You Crazy for Canines?

My students sure are! They are madly obsessed with my dog Molly. Well friends, it's time to take advantage of the dog obsessions in my classroom! After winter break, my students will be practicing their multiplication fluency with these dog themed multiplication games. 

 The best news is that your students can enjoy them too! I just posted these in my TPT store, and they will be on sale through Saturday. :) 

Click on any of the pictures to go to my TPT store.

Merry Multiplication and a Wedding Announcement

Oh my word. It has been a lifetime since I made time to blog. I've been a little busy...I got MARRIED! 

Our wedding was wonderful! It was small and everything I wanted. After a very crazy beginning of the school year, last minute wedding details, and then taking off a week to get married I am *just* now catching my breath. 

I am amazed by those of you who can keep up with your blogs AND school lives AND personal lives! I have no idea how anyone balances those things so well. Truth: I'm not there yet. 

I am so thankful for this week break we've had for Thanksgiving! It gave me time to create some things that had been swirling around my brain. I'm working on a huge multiplication pack- road trip/camping themed. I'm going to be using it with my students after Christmas break. Our room will get a little facelift to fit the theme and we will begin taking timed quizzes to see who has memorized their multiplication facts. 

In preparation for that, I made six Christmas/winter themed multiplication games. These games have students matching multiplication facts to the correct product. It's currently on sale, and will be even more on sale tomorrow when the TPT sale begins! So if your students need to work on multiplication fluency, and you're in need of some engaging centers/games to help build that fluency, click the pictures below to go to my TPT store. 

Monday Made It

I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics to show you my Monday Made Its! 

Do you work with people you love? I do! I have the best team, but my favorite part of loving my coworkers is that I work with my best friend! She got hired a week or two before me and I swear I don't know how people get through their first year of teaching without their best friend by their side! Yikes! I digress…this week we did some major school supply shopping, so I've been busy getting the supplies ready! New math and science journals with sweet clip art from Krista Wallden. 

Then I labeled each table supply with a color of scotch tape. Each team gets their own color, and is in charge of keeping up with their own supplies. In other words, "Ain't nobody got time for that!" And I really don't y'all. It never failed last year that we would be in the middle of reading a story at our carpet area and some sweet, misguided child would end up half way across the room shouting, "WHOSE BROWN MARKER?!?!?!!!!" I may be a little dramatic, but I'm really thinking this new system will save some time and sanity. 

Last year I had a friend who had some SERIOUS attendance issues. I was banging my head on my desk trying to think of a way to get them to come to school when I remembered something I'd heard during student teaching. There was a teacher at my school who used, "Attendance Lights." When I brought that fresh strand of twinkle lights into my classroom, my students were thrilled! It's simple, when everyone is at school, lights go on! When we have absent members of our class, the lights stay off. My student still missed many days, but his 2 absences a week went down to 1, and he even had some perfect attendance weeks! This year I made them a little fancy by adding fabric scraps. I cut 2 in. by 7 in. strips of fabric and then tied them on in a pattern. 

I wanted to make these last year, but never got around to it. (First year teacher brain, ya know?) So after I made birthday homework passes, (50% off in my TPT store!) I attached them to crazy straws. Ready to go for the whole year! 

Last but not least, my favorite garage sale find! A gum ball machine. This guy was broken and disgusting when I found him. And while it still doesn't function as a gum ball machine, it will be the perfect class incentive! Students will earn a handful of pom-pons every time they get a compliment from another teacher or staff member. When it is full, we vote on a class reward. (No shoes, reading with pillows and blankets, and electronic time-to name a few.) 

Thanks for stopping by! Make sure you enter my $25 Erin Condren gift card giveaway! 

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Saturday Snapshots

I'm linking up with Run! Ms. Nelson's Got the Camera for Saturday Snapshots. 

I was looking for a ring holder for awhile before I found this guy at Target. I love him. I don't constantly take my rings off to sleep, but when I do, I love that I have a safe and pretty place to keep them. I can't believe we've been engaged for almost a year! Time flies! 

 Speaking of being engaged, I love hydrangeas. We're using a ton for our wedding. I love having them in our house. :) 

Speaking of wedding flowers, this is my flower girl! I love this sweet baby to the moon and back. I wish I lived closer...or that I could teleport. It's been too long since I've seen her. 

This super fun cup was given to me by one of my sweet team mates. I have the best team and this is the best cup! 

 Now on to some school stuff! My teacher table pencils had duct tape flags so my kids wouldn't walk off with them. It worked! I only lost a few during the year! I know many teachers keep pencils lead side up. That drives me nuts! I've accidentally stabbed myself trying to get a pencil when they are lead side up…and I'm a 23 year old! I think it's way to dangerous for the littles. So I wadded up some plastic and put it at the bottom. It's a great cushion for the pencil points. 

Here are some pictures of my "Welcome" banner pencils printed out! I just need some cute ribbon and this banner will be ready! It will read, "Welcome to third grade."

Last, but not least, one of my math game bundles in action! Students take the gum multiples and place them onto the gum ball machine factors: 

You can click the pictures to go to their product listing in my TPT store. 

And don't forget to enter my $25 Erin Condren gift card giveaway! 

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Five for Friday and an Erin Condren Giveaway

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! 

I have an exciting announcement coming up! But more on that later…

This FREEBIE is available in my TPT store! 

Do you ever feel like putting your students into partners takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R?! Well this is my solution:

Students find five partners and write their names down (one for each number). That way, when you need kids to partner up, you can say, "Partner three," and students will find the person who is #3 on their list. 

In my classroom, I will assign their first two partners or three partners and then I will let them pick the remaining partners. 

When we first set this up, I will explain it to my students, and then tell them to find a partner. (Not the person I assigned as their number one or two.) Once they are standing with that partner, they will write the OTHER person's name down on their own paper. We will repeat this process for the rest of the number slots. 

My students will keep this in their "Reference" folder. (More on that as I get closer to back to school time!) 

 I've talked about my Welcome Back Bundle a couple times. Now I've taken the pencil welcome banner, as well as the "We are…" sign and separated them. So if you just want one of those, you can pick it up without buying the whole bundle! 

I bought some goodies for my classroom! I'm going to stick to the same blue, lime green and red theme. I love blue and green (don't we all!) and I love the addition of red because then my Texas Tech stuff fits in! Wreck 'Em Tech! 

I started my Instagram (Livin_the_Third_Grade_Dream) a week ago and just hit the 100 follower mark! Wahoo for mini-milestones! (If you scroll all the way to the bottom of my blog, there's an Instagram logo that will take you to my account.)

Here are some other things I've added this week:

(You can click any of the pictures to find out more.)

Drum roll please…

My first Giveaway! I'm so excited to announce my first ever Giveaway for an Erin Condren $25 gift card! 

You can enter many different ways! Follow my TPT store, my (brand new) Facebook and several other ways! 

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