Friday, November 28, 2014

Thanksgiving Leftovers & MORE!!

Just keep reading...just keep reading...just keep reading, reading, reading.
Sorry -- I pictured Dory singing as I typed and thought it might work.
Ok -- so wake up from that "turkey coma" and get ready for some great news!!
I am teaming up with one of my Primary Peeps for a fun link-up, giveaway, and sale!  My friend, Missy from Dirt Road Teacher is hosing this exciting event.  There is so much to tell ya, that I don't even know where to begin.
Let's start from the top:

Leftover Sale:


Problem Solving Calendar Math
How about a Thanksgiving Feast of sale items for 1 day only!
I've put a few favorites on sale:
All Caught Up Whole Class Rewards
  1. Problem Solving Calendar Math - These have been so much fun the past couple of months, that I've decided to make them for each month.  My kiddos love to pull out their scissors and glue and so I figured why not get them to practice some problem solving skills while they are at it.  And it's happening without the slightest bit of resistance.  For 1 day only - you can grab them for just $1 each!!  
  2. All Caught Up - One of my favorites.  This is a great whole-class reward system.  My class is moving through each of these rewards so quickly this year, I'm having to come up with more rewards.  And today, you can catch this for just $1.
  3. Christmas Kick-off - My top selling items are the Addition, Subtraction, and Multiplication fact tests.  They are a perfect way to get your students to practice their facts through timed tests.  They are the integral part of my Fear Factor Year-long Challenge.  For 1 day, they are 50% off!  That's only $3!!
Fact Tests

Leftover Yummies:

Ok - so my recipe is really about my Sweet Potato Casserole and an idea I plan on trying out this morning.  A good friend of mine made this casserole one year and I LOVE it!  I can't imagine making it better as a leftover idea but I can't wait to try it out. 

Sweet Potato Casserole
  • 3 cups of sweet potatoes (cooked, peeled, and mashed)
  • 2 eggs (beat)
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 1/3 cup of milk
  • 1 tsp. of vanilla
  • 1 cup of brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup of flour
  • 1 cup of chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup of butter (melted)
Preheat the oven to 350degrees.  Combine sweet potatoes, eggs, sugar, milk, and vanilla.  I like to add some marshmallows into this mixture to make it a little more gooey.  Pour the mixture into a 9x9inch greased baking dish/pan.  In a separate bowl, mix the brown sugar, flour, pecans, and butter to make a topping.  Add the topping to the sweet potato mixture.  Bake for 25 minutes.

Ok - so now for the leftovers...I found this great idea for Sweet Potato Pecan Waffles. I figured since my casserole recipe already has pecans in it, this might be perfect.  The link has a great blog post with step-by-step directions (pictures included -- I'm such a visual learner).
Click image for Pinterest Link
You can find it HERE.  As soon as I attempt this yummy-looking leftover plan, I will post pics.

Leftover Giveaway:

Now check out this opportunity!  It's a giveaway!  Enter for your chance to win some "dinero" to spend on your shopping adventures.  When I say "dinero," I'm talking about $30 or $100 in your pocket!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Leftover Link-Up:

Join us and share any leftover recipes you have in your pocket.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

You Oughta Know About...

It's another "You Oughta Know!"  
I was planning to share with you about something my kiddos and I have been working on lately, but I found something else that I'm sure you've heard a little about.  So this You Oughta Know is a "two-for-one."

So for my original idea was..."You Oughta Know about these great books to use for Writing!"
Click the picture to take you to one of the books pictured
If you're like me, you are constantly searching for some books to use with your lessons.  Of course I have my "go-tos" for certain concepts, but every once in a while I stumble upon some unknown gem of a read aloud.  Our last focus in writing was for our 2nd graders to write short stories that had beginnings, middles, and ends.  One of my colleague (who sometimes says her Adult ADHD is a blessing), was snooping around the library one afternoon and stumbled upon the "Share a Scare" one and it was perfect during the Halloween time.  We used it to write our very own scary stories.  Well then I discovered the many others.  They are from the WRITER'S TOOLBOX series and there's a bunch of them.  Each of these books is two-part.  They tell a story and have a sidebar of "tools" writers should use when writing that sort of text.  The books says to read the story first.  Then go back through and read the story along with the "tools" or ideas they give to the writers.  My kiddos loved it and they were so eager to share their scary stories and show what tools they used.  So now we are focusing on Poetry.  I hit up Amazon and got the collection of ones for writing we focus on and away we go.
This one also inspired us to put together a Poetry Project.  I created it and it is called, "I'm A Poet & You Know It!"  You can find your own copy here or by clicking the picture below.

My 2nd share is about this:
Have you heard?  Have you seen it?  Have you read about it?
Well -- if you haven't, what are you waiting for?  This is the most fun way to get your kids interacting with information you've taught.  My hubby (7th grade History teacher) was creating one for his class one night and he showed me how it works.  We literally got our reluctant teenagers down stairs to play late one night.  They ended up having fun even though it was about TX history (grumble, grumble).  Kahoot lets you create a quick review that can be done interactively with student's own devices or laptops or whatever technology you've got.  They log in with a pin, create a nickname so they can keep track of their scores, and compete against others to get the best score with correct answers and speed.  I created one for the first time yesterday and we used it to review our Science vocabulary right before our assessment.  Here are some pics of the fun:







 There was a picture of them celebrating after the answer was shown and the the scoreboard was displayed but it was so blurry because of the amount of excitement that was in the room.  They LOVED it!  They didn't even want to go outside for recess when it was over and they asked if they could do one each day!  
What?  
They are ASKING me to review content?  
Yup!  It's that powerful.  So if you don't know about Kahoot!  You oughta!  Stop by https://getkahoot.com and find out if this can be your little tool to get this reaction.

Keep reading to check out more "You Oughta Knows" from a bunch of wonderful people below: