Winner!

I'm a winner!!!! I mean, we all are really, but... I won!!!  I won an awesome giveaway.  Not only did I win, but I won big!!!!  I won first prize in a really cool giveaway that featured these 12 blogs:


       
      

Each blog picked 6 winners, 3 third place winners, 2 second place winners, and one first place winner!  As a firstplace winner, I got to choose 1 item from each of the TPT stores!  That's 12 items!  What a great ending to a Monday!  If you don't follow these ladies' TPT stores, you really need to.  It took me a LONG time last night trying to choose just one from each store - they all have really great stuff.  Thanks again to all of the bloggers that hosted this.  You really made my day!

Disney Fun

So yeah, even though my lesson plans weren't really done and I could have studied my Sunday School lesson a little more, we spent Saturday at Disney.  I really think that every now and then, you've just got to get away (even if you just had 2 weeks off, lol)!  It was beautiful and we really had a good time.  My son has been trying to meet Buzz Lightyear for the last 3-4 times we've gone, but each time we get there, Buzz has just left for a lunch break (not the quick 5 min. ones they take every now and then, but a "come back in a few hours" kind of break) or we catch him as he's leaving for the night.  He loves Buzz Lightyear.  He's been Buzz for 2 of the last 3 Halloweens and when we picked out a costume for next year (yep, I'm one of those moms who buy her kids' costumes after Halloween when they're like $2), guess who he picks?  You guessed it!  For those of you who are dreaming of coming down to Disney, here are some pics:

Oh, and if you do decide to come on down, just let me know.  We have season passes, so I'll just meet you there!

Winter Wonderland

Yeah, I know - "you shouldn't post twice in the same day".  But I also know that some of you were looking for my post about our first day back from Christmas vacation, so I'm breaking the rules and it's all your fault just for you!

Because we live in Florida and most of my kids have never seen snow, I like to give them a little taste of a winter wonderland on the first day back from Christmas vacation.  The first thing I do is to hang snowflakes from the ceiling,  I found these ornaments 2 or 3 years ago at Target during their after Christmas for 25¢ apiece.

I've hung these for the last 2 years and last year, I decided that I would be smart and save some time.  Rather than retying each one (cause I have like a million of them...okay, 60-70, but it feels like a million when you're tying and hanging them), I thought I would just leave the fishing line/paper clips on them and just put them in the basket carefully so that next year I would just have to pull them out and hang them.  Now, I know some of you are laughing at me right now and saying yeah, right, that'll never work, but I've got to tell you, that when I pulled out the snowflakes this year, I found:

Yep, a big, tangled, horrible mess!!!!  Seriously, I spent like 2 hours untangling these. Stop laughing, I can hear you!  I think this year, I'll just hang them from the ceiling in the closet so they don't get all tangled (plus, I can then count all of that going up and down the ladder as exercise for that day, right).

In addition to hanging the snowflakes, I also make it "snow" in our room.  I use this


This stuff is great and is so easy to make.  Plus, it feels cold and wet just like snow, and it melts in a few hours, so it's great for the classroom.  I told the kids that I forgot to turn the heat on over the break and it got so cold that it actually snowed in the classroom.  This year, my class is soooo sweet, that some of them actually believed that it really snowed in our room.  Here are some pics of the classroom after the "snow":

How do you decorate for winter?  I'd love to see some pictures - leave me a link so I can visit your "winter wonderland".

Week 1 Challenge

This is the first week of the Clutter Free Classroom project.  I decided to participate because one of my new year's resolutions was to clean and organize both my classroom and my house.  I am a little late (this was supposed to be posted on Friday), but I hope you'll forgive me!  I have to say, this is a little embarassing posting all of my cluttered areas, but...that was the challenge this week, so - here goes!

The area I most want to work on is my office.  ***Disclaimer:  The photos you are about to see are frightening and not for those super-organized types who are freaked out by clutter. 

 I have 4 file cabinets in my office and, unfortunately, most of my papers end up on top of the file cabinets rather than in them.

  I also have a large black storage cabinet which is where I throw things when I am in a hurry and don't want to throw it on the floor.

  And some things, I just toss into the offce and slam the door before it falls out!



See, I warned you - it's not pretty.  I'm hoping, though that I'll be able to clean, organize, and keep it organized. 

Busy week

No, I didn't freeze to death!  It's just been a super busy week (and the kids were only at school Thursday and Friday).  I was going to post about the Winter Wonderland in our room on Thursday, but since my principal is coming in for an evaluation on Monday, and I have no lesson plans written, and I'll be spending the day at Disney tomorrow (we have to go to celebrate the end of the cold weather, lol!), I can't post right now.  But I'll be back Sunday afternoon with pictures of the frosty surprise my students got when they returned from Christmas break and maybe some Disney photos thrown in just for my Holly Bloggy Christmas buddy Lisa!

Cold!

So apparently, God doesn't like it when I brag to my family up north about what nice weather we have down here.  All through the break, we had WONDERFUL weather.  I'm talking about highs in the 70's and lows in the 50's and 60's.  And yes, I just happened to mention to my cousins in Michigan (in the nicest voice I could) about this beautiful weather.  When I woke up this morning to go back to work, it was 25 degrees outside!!!!  Yes, you read that right and no I didn't type it backwards.  It was FREEZING!!!  Now, hold on all of you who regularly get cold weather, you've got to realize that it's different for those of us who live in Florida.  I mean, when you go from the fridge to the freezer, it doesn't seem that cold.  But when you move from the oven to the freezer, that's a different story.  I couldn't believe that it had been sooo warm the whole break and then, the day I have to get up and go out in the weather...it would be like this.  Talk about wanting to snuggle down under the blankets!  Yep, God was laughing at me this morning.  OK, I promise not to brag about the weather to my Yankee friends again (at least not for the next couple of weeks)!  Seriously, though, I hope everyone has a great first week of 2012!

Clutter Free Classroom

Ok, so you guys know that one of my new year's resolutions is to be more organized (both in my classroom and in my home), so I was really excited to see this:

I'm really excited about joining in on this project and I hope you will too ( I need all the support I can get)!  Head on over to Clutter Free Classroom to check it out!