Teachers are HEROES!

After a solid week off from school for snow and really cold temps that wouldn't let it melt, we finally went back yesterday for a normal week (that is, if the snow doesn't really come Thursday). It took a lot of work to actually get out of bed and get ready, but I'm glad to be back into some kind of routine!

With the upcoming TpT sale, we want to help you find "heroic" products that have helped others in their classrooms. I recently received some wonderful feedback on my Brain Teaser Puzzles. These puzzles are geared toward upper elementary/middle school students. They are great as independent, fun practice for drawing conclusions and critical thinking.

Click on the image above or {here} to go to the products. This is just one example of the puzzles. I used to love them as a child and hope your students do, too!

Now head to Diane's blog for more superhero products and information on how to link up. Happy shopping!

Creating Readers at a Very Young Age

We were out all this past week because of Presidents' Day and then a lot (for us) of snow! I wanted to share something this week, but I just couldn't come up with anything to write about. Maybe that's because in the past two weeks, I've only taught for two days? That could be part of the reason.

Anyway, today I'm sharing about my experience with pre-readers as a mom over at Adventures in Literacy Land, so be sure to head over there and check it out!

Hopefully now that we're all healthy, the weather will also let us have a full and useful week of school. I need to get back into this "working 5 days a week" habit soon. Of course, now my doctor's appointments are becoming more frequent for this baby. I'm almost in the third trimester. Eek!

Book Talk Thursday: Olive, My Love

I'm blogging!! It's been a crazy week of Keagan and I both home sick with the stomach bug since Saturday night, but we're finally both on the mend and I am back at school to finish out the week.

I love joining Andrea's link-up whenever I can, and I have a great Valentine's Day find if you're still looking for something cute to use tomorrow.

I had the book Olive, the Other Reindeer already, but I hadn't heard of this book until I was looking through Jivey's Better than Basal pack and saw the title. I immediately went online to check it out from our library and am so glad I did. It's a precious book! Olive gets a little confused with the difference between her name and "all of". In the Christmas, book, she thinks she can be one of the reindeer. This one is similar, but there is a little twist at the end.

I used the book to review plot. We used a graphic organizer from Erin's graphic organizer pack below (which is amazing, by the way), and the students were able to fill it in on their own as I read the book to them.

One other great thing about this book is that it's so easy that I'm taking it home tonight to read to my son. But it has a complex enough story line that the students were challenged to think about what they had to put in each section of the graphic organizer. Plus they will understand a little more of the humor as older children. I'm so glad I found this book. Valentine's Day is not one of my favorite holidays, but this story made it a little more fun! What's your favorite book for Valentine's Day?

Currently February

Wow! Usually February is my least favorite months, but I'm kind of excited to see it here. January has felt long, and there are some exciting changes coming. Each month brings us closer and closer!

Listening: I LOVE this show, but we can never seem to get it working with our satellite. Oh well, I can watch it with our Roku and catch up within the week. :-)

Loving: We've been going to Remnant for a little over 1 1/2 years, and it's been a great decision! The pastors are not afraid to speak the truth, and the church is growing all the time. If you live in the Richmond area and are looking for somewhere to go, please come check us out! It's so nice to have a community that I know will hold me accountable and challenge me to grow.

Thinking: We are putting our house on the market and trying to expand a little. With Caffrey on the way soon, we would like to have an extra bedroom. Prayers that the house sells quickly because I would love to move before this one gets here!

Wanting: I'm so jealous of Northern VA and all of their snow. We've had one ice day, but there hasn't been a good snow here in quite a few years (even with the 11 days we were out last year). At one point, they were saying tomorrow could be 12-16 inches, but now it looks like it will only be rain. How depressing...

Needing: Self explanatory. There's always laundry to be done...

Pageant Title: Funny story, I actually WAS in a few pageants in High School and even won "Miss Congeniality" one year. That used to be my favorite movie. And besides, pageants are supposed to be fun, right? I mean, if you can win some money too, then so be it. But how often do you get to put on a fancy dress and get all dolled up for everyone to stare at you? Okay, that was a little terrifying. Good thing the lights almost blind you to the people seated!