Monday Made It

I'm so excited to be linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for her Monday Made It.

My "made its" aren't teaching related (it's too early in the summer for that!).  I've been using my Silhouette Cameo a lot this summer to make gifts for others.

I love buckets!  This past week I decorated two buckets to give as birthday/thank you gifts.  I mean who doesn't love a cute bucket around the house!?  Here are the before and after pictures...

My second "made it" is for our up coming week at the lake.  This vacation is my favorite week of the year for several reasons.  I love spending time with our besties (there are five families that go) and floating in the lake all day!  I also love our menu.  We eat lots of delicious food and have a different adult drink of the day each day of the week.  Since we go the week of the 4th, our theme is always USA related.  This year I made fun cups for all the ladies for our DOTD (drink of the day).  I found these cute plastic red solo cups at Menards of all places!  Here's the finished product...

Hope you're enjoying your summer!!

What do you use in your writing workstation?

I love teaching writing (most of the time)!  I love watching students take a writing craft and use it with their own topic.  Writing workshop is a "sky's the limit" time in my classroom.  However, I realize that prompt writing also plays an important role in the writing process (especially during standardize testing time).  My students write to prompts during their writing workstation time in my classroom.  I have lots of jar resources available to them for every season, holiday and writing type.  A few days ago I made a new writing prompt jar for the fall.  My A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words Jar has 50 photo prompts for which students can infer and write.

This jar gives students the freedom to come up with their own ideas even though they must stick to a specific topic.  I can't wait to see what they come up with next school year.  You can take a closer look here.  Happy writing!!

Five for Friday... it's been a long time!

I've been a very busy girl the last few months and haven't blogged much.  I'm so happy it's summer and to finally have some free time on my hands!  Here's what I've been up to lately...

I just finished my 20th year of teaching!  My corporation honors teachers for every five years of teaching beginning at 20 years.  It was very nice to be recognized for all those years of hard work.

On May 24th I ran the Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City, Michigan.  Marathon training has kept me busy since January.  This was my third and fastest marathon.  I finished in 4:31, eleven minutes faster than my last marathon.

May was a busy month!  I finished my certification in gifted and talented education for my teaching license.  This certification was a lot of work this school year and I'm so happy to be finished.  I started a new position last fall as a 3rd/4th grade high ability teacher.  I absolutely love it!!

My oldest daughter danced in her 12th dance recital last night.  She is a beautiful dancer!!

I'm working on a new product that I'm really excited about for the fall.  We use Bloom's Taxonomy in our high ability program.  Here's a sneak preview...

I hope all of you are enjoying your summer break or at least getting close to the end of the school year!  Have a wonderful weekend!