Saturday Snapshots: Weekend with a 6 year old!

I'm linking up with Saturday Snapshots' linky party to share some moments from this weekend. My 6 year old niece, Chelsea, is visiting this weekend, so we are busy, busy, busy!

Funny Moment #1:
Driving to my house, we passed a strip club called "The Pink Pony." Chelsea, being both a 6 year old girl and a reader, shouts from the back seat "That store said pink ponies! I LOVE pink ponies! I want to go to a store called pink ponies!" Not that store, Chelsea. Not that store.

Chelsea wrote a story in the car. Other than the fact that she kept trying to show it to me no matter how I tried to explain to her what "rush hour" meant, they story was very touching. Especially because she KNOWS I love Dalmatians!

 

 

Funny Moment #2:

My hubby and I are looking for our first home, so Chelsea came with us to look at a house yesterday. Her house qualifications:

 

1. No bats in the house.

2. No dead animal smells.

3. No feathers.

 

Our realtor thought he could probably deliver if that's all she was worried about  =)

 

Then we got home and the child/dog antics began. The dog investigated the child...

The child investigated the dog....

 

I think they have become fast friends! The dog has certainly earned her title as Greatest Babysitting Dog EVER because she has worn Chelsea out! Actually, I think they've worn each other out...

Then we went to the park. It has a fairly new playground with the coolest toys! Uncle Tim and I were debating if we were too old to play  =) Look at this contraption...it spins around really fast figure skater style!

 

 

And there was a ton of stuff to climb on! Uncle Tim eventually decided he was NOT to old to play.

 

Now that rest time is almost over, we are going to spend this cloudy day at the theaters watching How to Train Your Dragon 2 eating yummy movie theater popcorn!

Five for Friday (June 27)

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Happy 2nd anniversary to my hubby! I feel like if I start listing ALL the things I love about him, I will gush like crazy, and 100 lines later, I'll still be typing. So for the sake of not gushing, I'll just say I love him!

The hubby and I have been in the market to buy our first house. It's been very time consuming because we can't find anything we both like in our price range.

I'm all

and

and

And he's all

and

and

See the problem?? However, believe it or not, we FINALLY found something we BOTH liked, and put our first offer in on a house. I was SO nervous because it was such a grown-up thing to do! At the end of the day, the sellers couldn't meet our price, so we walked away. Oh well, that just means our dream home is still out there!

I've spent my mornings doing a kindergarten screener where we invite upcoming kindergartners in to get a baseline of what they know. It's definitely gotten me excited about starting with a new group of kiddos. Well, at least I was excited until we had one come in who through a tantrum and refused to be tested. That made me wish for a nice, loooooooooong July!

 

I've been working on a lot of new projects for next school year. I'm working on some shapes ideas because that's our first math unit of the year. I'm also revamping my sight word stations (more to come on that in the future) and starting a nursery rhyme project. The problem is that I keep thinking of new ideas before I actually finish the old ones. Does anyone else experience this TPT ADD???

 

We have all sorts of animal things going on at our house this week.

First, we have baby bunnies!!

And a stray cat eating our dog's food.

And a dog who is scared of thunder.

Now I'm off to pick up my 6 year old niece. She's spending the weekend with us while her parents are at M-Fuge. I sense A LOT of Frozen in my future! Happy weekend!

iPad APP-ortunities!! (hahaha, wasn't that cheesy!?)

I am in week 2 of summer and just finished my second workshop. Teacher dork alert, huh?! At my workshop today, I learned about some great iPad apps that I immediately came home and installed. Teacher dork alert again? Oh well. Here are some of my instant faves:

Random Name Selector

The random name selector will do just that...randomly select a student's name. Great for answering questions or picking helpers.

NFL Play 60

Do you have overly active kids? My guess is that yes, yes you do! This app lets students hold the iPad and run, jump, and turn around to make their avatar do the same on the screen. Great for getting the wiggles out (but I'd probably make sure your iPad is in a sturdy case first....).

Sight Word Ninja

Sight Word Ninja is very Fruit Ninja-y, but instead of slicing fruit, students slice the sight word that is called out. The sight words are repeated, especially if the student gets it wrong. Great for sight word practice.





Too Noisy





Too Noisy



Did anyone else have a traffic light in their school cafeteria that turned red if the students got too loud? Anyone? Because we sure did! The app takes me back to that. Too Noisy measures the volume in the classroom. You can set it to different sensitivity levels based on the kind of activity you are doing. Great for basically everything!

Hope these help! Do you have any apps that you love using??

Linky Paaaaaaaaar-tay! and a 50% of sale!

I have a few linkys I'm joining today. The first linky is Let's Talk About Books over at Mrs. Jump's Class. Teachers are sharing a lot of great book suggestions over there, so I would definitely check it out! Your Amazon wishlist will never be the same!

One of my personal faves is the book Ish. Cute name, huh? It's about a boy who gets frustrated that he can't draw and write perfectly. With the help of his sister, he learns that his work doesn't have to be perfect in order to be something that he's proud of.

I always use this book toward the beginning of the year in writer's workshop to let my students know their work doesn't have to be perfect, either. It's OK to be ISH!

The second linky I'm joining today is Two for Tuesday over at The Teaching Tribune.

I'm putting 2 of my TPT products on sale for 50% for today only! (Well...and maybe for a little while tomorrow since I'm posting this so late...and just because I like you!). My first product is my Word Family Activity Bundle that has almost 300 pages filled with picture cards and station activities for short vowel word families.  It's now only $2.50!

My other activity is my Super Fun Color Word Stations pack. This is great for practicing color words and something I usually use after reading Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes. This pack is now only $.75!

I hope you go check out all of the other TPTers who have offered 50% for today only. My next stop is to go fill up my TPT shopping cart and put a dent in my pretty little credit card!  =)

Five for Friday (June 6) and a FLASH FREEBIE!

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1. IT'S SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. This has been my first full week of summer and it's been WONDERFUL!  I actually started the week off semi-productively by going to a STEM workshop where I catapulted marshmallows and made earthquakes out of jello. Who doesn't love STEM?!

3. I've also been productive by updating some products in my TPT store. I even made a new product! Students fill in the missing letter on each card--beginning, middle, or ending sound. It's made to use with playdoh, but you could also use wikki stix, magnet letters, etc. This product is FREE in my store until I get back from my nephews 3rd birthday party on Saturday! Click here for my TPT store!

 

4. I've also also been productive by organizing a kindergarten screener for our upcoming crew of kinders. I don't know about you, but we have to do a lot of baseline tests for our kindergartners. A LOT! While I see the value in the tests, it's SO hard to do it in AUGUST when students have NO IDEA how to work independently. Ay curumba!

SOOOOOO we are trying to bring kids in over the summer to test them. I'm using Sign Up Genius to organize when parents bring their kids. If you haven't heard, this is an AWESOME website where parents can sign up for anything fom conference times to bringing items for the Valentine Day party. It's super easy to use as long as your parents have internet access.

5. That's a lot of being productive, don't you think?! To relax from all this productivity, my hubby and I went to see the new X-Men movie. It was so good except the last 5 minutes which left me totally confused. Other movies I want to see this summer?

Because it looks funny

Because I enjoyed the book

Because maybe now that I'm a grown-up, this movie won't scare me (but it probably will)

Because I'm a good wife