Five for Friday… a few days late

I have been pretty busy spending time with my parents and nephew. They are up here for 10 days. Here is what we've been up to for the last week:

ONE

A visit to the Alaska Zoo. It isn't much but it has some fun arctic animals.

The kids got a good look at a snow leopard. :)

TWO

Visited the Alaska Museum of Natural History.

It is a small museum crammed with a lot of things. It has a lot of things you can touch, but also a lot of reading. The kids really enjoyed the "Dino Dig" in the play area. The 'dirt' is actually a bunch of small rubber pieces.

THREE

We visited one of my dad's high school friends in Valdez…about 6 hours away. It was a long drive but very beautiful. My dad, hubby, and nephew went out for a ride in Prince William Sound. They picked up our friends' shrimp pods with 80 shrimp. It was delicious eating! They also got to see sea lions, sea otters, and seals.

FOUR

We stopped by the Iditarod Headquarters and it happened to be the day the mushers sign up for the race. We saw Mitch Seavey, 2013 winner, but we were able to get a picture with Lance Mackey. He has won the Iditarod 4 times.

FIVE

We are an ice cream loving family!

I will probably be in and out over the next month. We got news that my grandpa (my mom's dad) isn't doing too well. Since my daughter is still under 2 until Dec. she is still free to fly. We figure that this is a good time for us two to go visit. I'll see if I'm able to link up with things while I'm in the EO (Eastern Oregon). Hope you all are doing well!

*Steph*

What I'm Wearing Wednesday {6.25}

It's time to join up again with Jessica from Ideas by Jivey and Miss DeCarbo from Sugar & Spice!

First up, Wordless Wednesday:

Yay for cousins! This is her only cousin from my side of family up to visit with my parents from Oregon. She can do anything that he can do. 

Do you live close to family or do you have take trips to visit?

Next link up:

I'm a pretty basic dresser. You'll usually catch me in solids or neutrals with just a pop of color/accent. I'm starting to adventure out and am gradually adding more interesting pieces to my closet.

Top: DownEast Basic Wonder Tee

Jeans: American Eagle Skinny Kick  

(My gateway to skinny jeans. Yes, I barely started wearing skinnies in the last 3 months.)

Sandals: Curfew 

(these were an adventure outside of my normal. I used to live in flip flops but I wanted to try something that could help dress up my every day wear. I have to say, I love them!)

Belt: Kohls (from my cousin's wedding. Love it when you can reuse things!)

Necklace: "Firefighter's Daughter" that I've had since forever

I decided that I might as well show off my little girl as well. :) 

This was heading to church on Sunday. My husband said that she reminded him of Pebbles from the Flintstones.

Dress: Carters

Shoes: Wonder Kids 

Thanks for stopping by!

*Steph*

Monday Meet Me Week 4

This is going to be short and sweet as my parents & nephew are visiting from Oregon for the next 10 days…

I'm still figuring out the Powerpoint into images…I'm not quite sure how to make it only colored part and not the entire slide.

Check out Heritage Makers {here}.

*Steph*

Snapshot Saturday! 6.21.14

I love taking pictures! It was something that my husband had to come to terms with. He's a little relieved because now I have a little one to photograph instead of him/us via selfie (which I became quite the pro at).

I decided to go back in my archive for this first link up. We had a crazy winter. Thanks to the polar vortex, we had some pretty warm days in January. However, most of the time, I only got outside by taking Kasila (Kuh-see-la) #tothemailbox. Here some the different shots I took of those little trips.

I have to say thanks to Alison Rose @ Rockin' & Lovin' Learnin' for exposing me to this fun linky party! 

New Grade = New Rug

 I am a sucker for things that have to do with the geography. Moving into 5th grade opened up my classroom for things related to the United States instead of just Alaska. There are a lot more resources/fun stuff available to me now! :) I found this rug at Costco for $16. It's not super big, but it will work in my new, smaller classroom.

I got a kick out of the picture they had associated with Alaska.

 Seriously people, we don't live in igloos.

I'm going to add this to the Fabulist because I think it is a fun rug for a reasonable price. :)

*Steph*

What I'm Wearing Wendesday {June 18}

I think the idea of this post…it made me actually get dressed in something other than sweats. :) I could live in sweats but that doesn't always help me feel awake.

Thanks for the fun idea Jivey!

I haven't figured out a good way to get a picture of me…I don't have good full length mirror, only what used to be a mirrored bar top, so I'll settle with what my baby is wearing today. :) Who doesn't love baby clothes, especially little girl clothes?

Onesie: Just One You made by Carters (a hand-me down)

Jeggings: Denim colored-Ruffled bum from Old Navy (clearance for like $5)

Flower Headband: From a local shop, The Baby Store ($5)

Necklace: Target, party favor section, it has a light up cupcake charm ($3)

Shirt: Rue 21 (It's print says "love")

Jeans: Miss Me Jeans (even though you can't see them.)

Monday Meet Me {week 3}

I have been pretty quiet this past week. I was very busy helping with the Alaska Statewide Girls' Camp for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was an AMAZING experience! We had 11 girls join the 900 girls that were there and I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to be a part of it!

Summer is the time to be out and enjoying the beautiful state that I live it! We don't get many glorious days so you have relish in the ones you do get. That means that I will be hit and miss this summer due to family visits and living up the nice days. :)

Anyways… I'm joining TTT with the Week 3 installment!

Dear Me,

You are still fairly new to blogging. You created your blogging page in October 2013 and didn't touch it again until the following spring. It's ok. The best thing you did was join linky parties. They have helped you find topics to blog about. As the next school year begins, you will be able to use the blog for its intended purpose. It will be able to become a place to reflect on what you have tried in your classroom and hold you accountable to finish projects. It's also ok that you don't create your own products. You don't need to do that when there are so many other creative people that create fabulous things for you to use. :) Just keep blogging!

Love Always,
*Steph* 

Monday Made It {Sandbox}

When I get an idea in my head, it's hard to not leave it alone. It's especially hard for me to let it be when I have to depend on someone else to accomplish the task. Luckily, I have a very easy going hubby. :) 

We are in the middle of a digging for a different yard project, one that is going to take a long time, when we hit a layer of coarse sand. Then we had to move that dirt & sand out of that area and onto our driveway to help level the back corner of it. (I'm hoping to eventually pave it, but that is a few years away.)  My daughter decided that that was the best place to play. 

Our driveway is longer and the dirt pile is quite aways from the road, but I still don't want her to get used to playing in the driveway. I got the great idea of using our excess sand in a sandbox for our little lady. It took a little convincing and repeatedly mentioning that she needs a sandbox, but we finally found a weekend that we could bust it out!

I looked a quite a few different designs online but we ended up making our own. I wanted a basic box with a bench that doubles as a storage area. This is where my hubby and I differ in our approach to projects. I am totally a list maker and write it down planner. He is a "I'll think it out in my head." (I mentioned this to him and he said that he does it that way so he can change it without having to tell me if he changes things.) I had a few frustrating moments but overall, I was just happy to have his help. I'm not super confident in my power tool skills, even though I could figure out it if I needed too.  

Baby K helping Daddy out. She was kind of nervous about the noise it made, so my hubby brought her over and had her actually pull the trigger a little bit. Such a sweet moment to see. :)

Here is our final project!  

It'll be a little while before we have enough sand dug up, but for now it will work as a dirt/rock box. :)

*Steph*

Monday Meet Me

Hello! I'm going to introduce myself to the blogging world! Join the party! 

I teach… 5th grade now! I've been in 4th for the past three years (my first three years of teaching). It has been a fabulous time and I have learned so much from my team teachers and am feeling a little sad to be leaving them. However, I am moving up to 5th grade in the same building so I'll still get to see them around. I'm really excited about the opportunity I had to move up and gain more experience and work with some other fabulous teachers. We are going to rock it this year!

In addition, I have loved teaching since I started. I've definitely had some bumps in the road as I came to know and understand myself as a professional in charge of the education of 9 year olds. I would not change anything. This is what I have always wanted to do, besides a small time in middle school when I wanted to be a pediatric zoologist to play with the baby animals. 

I have… an adorable little girl. She is full of energy and has no fear. Kasila is also very independent and has learned that she can have her own opinions and ideas about things. Sometimes that means that she goes out in her shoes that are WAY to big for her little feet. :)

I watch… a lot of Disney movies. We are a Disney home and most of the time, I choose to watch a Disney movie over anything else. Truly, I am a musical fan. I sometimes choose based on the soundtrack of the movie. I also really like historical based movies, which usually end up being war related. My husband and I enjoy watching Band of Brothers together.

I listen… to my little girl formulating her thoughts in sentences. I may not be able to understand her, but she is definitely babbling in complete thoughts.  I also enjoy any feel good music. Disney, country, 50's, the Disney singers (not movie soundtracks), pop, whatever. I'm not too picky as long as it had a good beat.

I read… almost anything! My husband and I are both bookworms. One of our mutual favorites is Matthew Reilly, an Australian author. He is an action/drama/military author. I also like Rick Riordan, Richelle Mead, Tamora Peirce, Brandon Mull, Janette Oke, Gail Carson Levine, and CJ Box. As a kid I really liked The Boxcar Children.

I do… love to groove! I actually met my husband country swing dancing! He was the one doing all the flips with girls so I asked him if he could teach me. It worked out well for me. :)  Also, I love the feeling when I have finished something that actually took work to do. Mowing the lawn is one of my favorite things to do because I can see the difference my work makes before, during, and after mowing. 

Phew… that was a lot, maybe too much. Sorry! I hope that you have a fabulous week! :) 

*Steph*

Monday Made It {June 2}

I love the idea of keeping myself accountable through out the summer. I know that if I don't have a list, I tend to just veg and then wonder where all my time went! That's also part of why I started this blog. I'm really good at starting projects and then not completing them for various reasons. I've technically been out of school for almost 1 1/2 weeks, but I had a week long training so I consider this my first real week of summer!

My training was in Kagan cooperative learning. It was great! I had heard a lot about Kagan and it actually worked very well with the GLAD training I've previously had. The main thing about setting up Kagan structures in your classroom is having your students grouped in heterogeneous groups. That means looking at all of you kiddos and organizing them by their academic scores and then arranging them into groups, keeping in mind your "difficult clients." I was a little overwhelmed at the idea of needing to do that with all my kids, as we switch for reading, math and science/social studies. That just seemed like a lot of work that I would have to continuously be doing. I'm not a fan of work that continually needs redone (dishes and laundry are going to be the death of me for this reason!), but decided to just accept it and go forward 100%. If you don't give it your all, then you'll never know if it really works. In this case, I'm really excited about the possibilities that the Kagan structures may allow to happen in my room!

So with that… I luckily already have my class list for next year for my homeroom, reading and math classes. I decided why not make my card early and have my first groups already formed! I know that I'll have some students end up not coming and new students that do come, but the bulk of the work is done! It's not a very exciting "made it" but it's something that I won't need to do in the fall when I have a lot more to do.

This is the suggested way to create student info cards. I decided to use the colored index cards for a couple of reasons. I can color code by class. Pink is students in my reading class, and orange is students in my math class. Also, I already had them, so it was free! Best kind of project!

I filled out their SBA (state test) scores from 4th grade and their 4th grade Spring MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) scores for that subject. I also left room for their 5th grade MAP scores. Students may change colors throughout the year but I wanted to be able to quickly see if that happens by looking at their card. Each kid is also assigned a color based on where they fall within the class. 

Blue = High

Green = Medium High

Yellow = Medium Low

Red = Low

I will have the intervention reading class, but whoever my top kids are, are colored blue. I like that. I'm excited to have this done and in my brain. This will really help me when I'm thinking/planning over the summer.

Thanks for stopping by and hopefully I can include some home made its! 

*Steph*