Favorite Things Linky Party!

Visit Fun in First to sign up for the Linky Party. First of all, I'm all kinds excited about being in a linky party. Guess my life isn't that rousing :) Anyways here's my CURRENT favorites, because I change some of them weekly. In no particular order. 1. Dunkin Donuts French Vanilla coffee -light and sweet. Honestly it gets me through those bad days and nights. It is so sweet that I currently am dieting from it so my love for it is now deprivation and I am dying for a large cup of it :)

2. TV Shows: Glee (I laugh out loud every episode), Vampire Diaries, One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl--> almost anything on the CW (They remind me of my middle school and high school years. You know the simple life), Grey's (the relationships make me smile), Greek (so sad this is the final season. It is honestly a fabulous show) Tosh.O (It's so wrong, but so right)

3. Kohls- well more specifically Lauren Conrad's line. I truthfully love her! My co-workers even put her picture in a frame and signed it as her for me. Her clothes are relatively priced and they fit amazingly.

4. Target!!!- Like most teachers, who can't walk in there and NOT buy something. My closest is full of Target. To make it even better there are Starbucks in most NJ Targets.. Can you say my Heaven :)

5. My Family- I've said it before but I am honestly blessed to have the most amazing family. They make me laugh and smile at the same time. Everyone says that when you grow up that's who will still be around for you and it's so true. I enjoy going home for weekend trips more than most people should enjoy going home to see their family. I wish I lived closer, but an hour and half is not that bad. ---> This would also include my husband and our doggie Roofio. They are me and we always laugh that we really only have each other where we live, but we've made our little life quite nice.

6. Emily Giffin, Nicholas Sparks, and Sarah Dessen books. I seriously have everyone of their books and spend the big bucks to buy their newest books. You know the hardcover ones that teacher's rarely spend $ on. Everyone one of their books take me to their (hopeful) movie versions. Can you imagine my excitement of the upcoming release of Emily Giffin's Something Borrowed. It was one of the best books I've read. Seriously if you haven't read it yet, DO IT!

---> secret dream #1 I want to write books. I wrote 2 young adults novels as a teen, but never finished them and started a novel in college, but again didn't finish it. 7. Mumford and Sons- Currently I am listening to their amazing music as I type. The folk sound makes me so insanely happy. Their lyrics are amazing and honest. Right now The Cave is my favorite song.

8. I heart baseball season. The smell of hot dogs and fresh cut grass make me grin from ear to ear. I can't wait to put on my Victorino t-shirt and Phillies hat. I grew up a Yankees fan because my mom's family have been Yankees fans as long as possible. My father was a huge Phillies fan so I always cheered for them, too. My husband grew up a Phillies fan and eventually converted me to them even more. I am lucky to have married into a family with season tickets and who love baseball as much as I do.

9. Sirus XM radio- Who would have thought radio would make someone so happy. My favorite presets are Coffeehouse, 90s on 9, and AltNation. I am unique with my music so I also have a Frank Sinatra's station, 90s Grunge, Old School Rap, and Broadway presets, too. Told you crazy music fan. --> secret dream #2 Want to play the guitar, preferably the acoustic. 10. The beach. I live in NJ and grew up a mile from the beach. I love the smell, the overflow of people who visit every year, and the sand on my feet. This also includes flip flops :)

11. Cross Fit- It's my gym and it has been the best thing to happen to me. I started a year ago and I will never again join a "gym". If you have one close to you, stop in for a free class and I hope you'll be converted, too. I am stronger and proud of my accomplishments so far.

Fun Fridays

I know that most teachers L-O-V-E Fridays, especially when the temperature is a high of 68 and it is hat day... yes to sleeping in with dirty hair! My poor kiddos had 3 tests, (I know I am cruel) but had the goal of outside playtime all day to work towards. You could tell cabin fever outweighed any behavior outbursts. They were angels! I am so lucky! As an extra treat one of my students brought in the movie 101 Dalmatians to commemorate the 101st day. After putting their brains to the test (literally) three times, we sprinted outside to bask in the sun's light and warmth. I would've stayed out there for hours if possible, but dismissal was approaching. The best part of the day was when the teachers left, you know the grown-ups, because we, too, eagerly ran outside, got in our cars and pulled away with the windows all down. Unfortunately, I woke up today to temperatures of about 40 with winds exceeding 50mph. Darn you February :(

Family Outing

I am one lucky girl and am part of a wonderful extended family. As a child I was raised by my wonderful parents and our huge extended family. You know grandparents, great-grandmothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins. As we've all aged and the generations have grown, my sister and I have taken the roles as the older, but fun cousins that we once had. Today we ventured out to Liberty Science Center located near New York City with some of the young cousins on hand. Due to the eager 11 year old and her desire for science exploration, we arrived promptly at 9am and headed straight for the Touch Tunnel. This would be an entirely pitch black maze where one must crawl and uses their sense of touch to exit. Not my kind of fun (hello claustrophobia)! Later we explored many awesome exhibits, including modern science technology, infections, and my personal favorite brain puzzles. Brain puzzles are amazing because even the smartest people can be tricked. I loved watching adults try the puzzles for several minutes, get frustrated, and eventually look at the solution. Of course, the solution makes it look sooooo easy. Moments later a child would walk up and somehow figure it out. The best part of the day would be the 6 year old cousin who was more fascinated with this spiral coin machine than anything else. Maybe the teacher in me, I took personal pride at knowing the answer to questions about matter in a small exhibit. I considered purchasing several things at the gift shop, but fortunately changed my mind in the end. In the end it was a fabulous day with family and education for all. PS- I would be the adult who tries it with no sweet victory to only cheat minutes later.

Slightly off topic

First off, being a newlywed, this was my first official Valentine's Day and my husband made it special, having flowers delivered to my classroom. The gazes on their second grade eyes made me blush and smile with joy! They were so excited to hear the card. More slightly off topic We adopted a mix breed dog at the end of October. We guesstimate she is between 5-6. Her name is Roofio and she is without a doubt the cutest dog. However at night she becomes kind of bizarre. She used to hide behind the couch, which she no longer does, but she constantly looks terrified like we are going to crate her (which we never do). More so, she recently became a protester of dry food. She used to eat piece by piece very slowly, even laying them in a spaced out line. {see picture below}

We decided to add in wet food on top of the dry food. Not kidding, now she picks out the dry food and drops it around the bowl, continuing to eat the wet food. She goes back to the dry food when she feels like it. I will add the picture describing the new wet/dry food technique. All and all though, how can you not adore this face!

January Snowpals

As a family project over the holidays I asked each child to decorate a paper snowman. The catch was that it was suppose to be themselves in someway. They turned out adorable and some of them were just hysterical. As a class assignment, we worked over a week to write a 3 paragraph adventure story. As daunting as this task seemed, breaking each paragraph into 3 different parts, into 3 different days, really made it go smoother. Below are my different writing pages that the students used to piece together their pieces. I was so proud of their efforts!

80s Day- Delayed January Post

A few months ago my friend, who teaches first grade, and I decided we didn't want to do the 100th day, but celebrate our generation, the 80s! Then came one cold winter day when I discovered Mrs. Perry's 80s day blog at and I was greatly inspired. We asked both our classes to dress up as if it was the 1980s and gave some suggestions. We decorated the rooms with our favorite movie posters, asked families and faculty to bring in classic 80s photos, and any other great 80s memorabilia. What an awesome turnout we had! We had some great outfits and styles of the 80s and our families and staff dug out some great photos. One of my co-workers saved tons of great toys such as Pound Puppies and 80s Happy Meal toys. I had no problem finding my Cabbage Patch and Teddy Ruxpin dolls, either. To make it even better, my parent volunteer made cupcakes in the shape of a Pacman gameboard. Can't wait to make this day bigger and better next year!

See some of the pictures below!

Love is...

For my February bulletin board I asked the students to think about what love really is. At first this was a bit hard for them to not want to say, "my mom loves me," but after my examples they seemed to understand it better. They had to brainstorm 5 examples or proofs of love in the EJs (Everything journals) and then they did their sloppy copies on the paper below. After we checked them for spelling and grammar errors, they wrote up their final copies on the paper below. I also had them color the border in and make big hearts to glue the final copies onto. They turned out great! Some of the sweetest ones: "Love is my mom staying home to make soup for me when I am sick." "Love is my brother sharing his last snack with me." "Love is my aunt adopting me." <--- Breaks my heart both for its sadness and joy.

The Antonym Song- AKA Hot and Cold

It's been awhile, but I was trying to make my blog look more like me.

Yesterday was our Valentine's day party. Yes I know Valentine's day is Monday, but I wanted to avoid the Monday party effect. You know, crazy for the rest of the week. Additionally, the way our school year works is that the 100th day is next Thursday, too. Way too many distractions!
ANYWAYS... The kids were crazy all day so to add to their craziness I invited my mother-in-law, who loves volunteering in classrooms, for the whole day. She enjoyed the day as much as they did. We made bag valentine holders, thanks to Cara Carroll's post about her previous Kindergarten ideas. They kids loved them and they all turned out so uniquely different. We also played some sweetheart candy games for math. Overall the day was exhausting. To make the day even more fabulous our school had a family dance last night. It was so much fun dancing with all the girls in my class. They really are adorable. The best part was dancing to "Hot and Cold" by Katy Perry. They call it the Antonym song now. Ha ha.. Love it!