Five for Friday

I'm happily linking up again with

I love to steam my face!  It's so relaxing and feels great but I don't do it very often because it takes more time than I'd like to boil a pot of water on the stove.  So I randomly googled "facial steamer" and ended up buying this off of Ebay.  You put a small amount of water into the base (I add essential oils too!) and then turn it on.  It takes 3 minutes to heat up and I brush my teeth, etc. during that time.  I absolutely love it and there is also a sinus cleansing part that comes with it that I have not tried yet.

I finished writing another non-fiction life cycle Readers' Theater script, which focuses on the flower, and it's a FREEBIE!  My next step is to take all 8 life cycle scripts and put them together in a MEGA non-fiction pack...

Thanks to an idea I saw on FB, I've set a running goal of doing at least one race a month.  I usually train from March-June for a triathlon, a 5K and a half marathon and then stop running.  But this little idea has kept me going so I can add race bibs to my collection....and keep running of course :-)

Tonight I'll be doing a 5-miler in honor of a local athlete who was killed by a car one year ago right in front of his house as he left to go for a bike ride :-(

It feels good to do races that have a higher cause!

I finally started composting!  I bought a big, outdoor garbage can and drilled holes in it.  I mulched a bunch of trimmings from bushes and mowed the yard and threw everything in to get started (per a Pinterest idea I saw).  I bought a small compost pail for kitchen scraps and have stored it underneath the sink and empty it into the big bin when it's full.  Can't wait to turn it into rich soil!

This is a computer desk for 2 students that I built this week.

I was on a run and started thinking about how I will set up my classroom this year.  I love how I have it EXCEPT one BIG thing....the computers cannot be facing my small guided reading table!  So then I started thinking about how I could kind of 'hide' the computers and came up with this slim desk for 2 that I'll put behind my classroom library and next to my GR table.  

Bought a special drill attachment to drill these big holes for the computer cords.

I bought 3 pieces of wood, which I had Home Depot cut up into the measurements I wanted and then put it together in my garage with my BFF tools Thelma & Louise :-)

If the desk does indeed fit where I need it to fit, then I'll whip up 2 more!  I also plan to hang some cute fabric from them so you can't see them and my library bookshelves (which will be directly in front of the desks) will have a cute fabric backdrop.

Have a FunTASTIC weekend!

The Lifecycle of the Flower

This blog started with a photo of a peony on my mother's garden.  Seeing that peony open up and bloom over the course of a few days made me immediately think of my first graders are how they are just like peonies.  

I've just finished another non-fiction Readers' Theater script about the life cycle of flowers and can't wait to share this FREEBIE with you!

And here's a cute little video to illustrate the whole process:

Five for Friday

Still loving summer Fridays...but I think it's to the point where there are fewer left than I've already had :-(

My daughter and I had a girl's date today and saw this movie.  From a teacher/parent standpoint it's brilliant and very funny!!  This is like SEL and metacognition coming to life and explained to kids in a simple, fun way. I really want to incorporate this into my classroom somehow this year.

I'll never forget using my dad's typewriter in middle school to write book reports...thank goodness for laptops and iPads!!  I LOVE to write Readers' Theater plays and ideas are always bouncing around in my brain...just hard to make time to sit down and write more often.  But when I do make time, it just flows out of me and, since I can save everything, I can stop in the middle of a play and come back to it later.  I have many unfinished plays because I'm like a cat that sees something shiny and jumps right to it...

 I did make time this week to finish up another batch of partner/trio plays AND I lumped all 4 batches together into a MEGA pack.  I can't wait to use these with my new kiddos this year.  I also need to print some off so my daughter, husband and I can read them at bedtime while snuggling in our bed....it's so fun!

There is nothing like picking your own salad out of your garden each night for dinner!  Yum!

 

 I LOVE taking pictures of flowers and my blog began with a beautiful picture of my mother's peonies.  Peaceful and beautiful they are...

A Dinner Plate Dahlia I grew from a bulb.

Irish Lilies that a student gave me at the end of the year.

Fireweed, the state flower of Alaska.
It's beautiful but actually a weed that can grow in excess of 5 feet tall!

Have a wonderful weekend and hold on to the fleeting summer!

Partner Plays #4 Hot Off the Press!

I've now been away from home, Alaska, for a month on vacation.  I'm ready to get home and back to reality but so sad to leave my Minnesota and all it holds dear.  This past week was spent in Montana with my in-laws.  

We had a nice, relaxing visit and I was able to get some work done on my latest batch of Partner Plays.  I absolutely love to write plays and get lost in it...giggling as I write funny lines.  I finished editing the plays en route from Billings back to Minneapolis.

Apple products rocks...and make for fantastic flights!

So go check it out and get ready to help your new batch of students improve their reading fluency AND have fun at the same time!

Click above to check it out.

Click above to check it out.

After getting up at the crack of dawn, we have 1 flight to Seattle, a 5 hour layover (during which we'll go downtown to explore for a bit), and 1 final flight to Anchorage.  Goodnight!