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!

Winter Wonders Blog Hop

Welcome to my humble little blog! One year ago today, a group of teacher-bloggers launched the website Adventures in Literacy Land to share tips and tools for effective literacy instruction. I am so excited that I have been able to be a part of this amazing group of ladies!

In honor of reaching our first full year of blogging together we are hosting a Winter Wonders Blog Hop and Birthday Celebration. Join us, if you will, to read a short post by each author, download a free literacy resource, and enter a raffle for a chance to win a Barnes and Nobles gift certificate at the very end!

As an upper grades reading teacher, one of my students' biggest struggles is finding the main idea and supporting details. There are SO many ways to review this skill, so I just wanted to highlight a few of my favorites.

• Have students fill out main idea and details graphic organizers for writing. I like teach this for basic 5 paragraph essays anyway, and then you can expand it to where they come up with three details to support each original detail. They get to practice the skill on their own and also learn a great way to organize their writing.
• Create short "headings" for paragraphs. This is one of my test-taking strategies, but I think it's very beneficial for the students. I emphasize SHORT headings and even explain to my students that it doesn't always have to be a complete sentence. I just want them to understand what key words are important in each section.
• Highlight key words that appear frequently and/or use tally marks for most common words/ideas. This really helps students visualize what the author continues to discuss, and it can also help with multiple choice questions to narrow it down to the best option.
• Let students come up with the main idea or detail when given the opposite. I begin the year giving them the main idea because it's easier to create details about a topic. But about halfway through the year, I switch it up. Then it's great practice for students to focus on key words and ideas to come up with a main idea that really matches all of the details. They really struggle with this one, but it's so important.
• Give students main idea and details to sort into the correct pairs. This is actually the freebie that I prepared for you! I use this a lot in my independent centers, but I like to make sure that each set is similar enough that it's a bit of a challenge to the students. Some of the cards require students to really pay attention and decide what fits best.

Click on the graphic below, but be sure to download soon because it will only be free for 24 hours! Sorry, the time has now expired on the freebie, but you can still purchase it for $2 in my shop!

Hope you enjoy my freebie and the rest of your journey through our blog hop!

Currently A New Year!

It's 2015!! We had a little get-together at our house last night which was lots of fun, but unfortunately Keagan didn't care that we didn't go to bed until 2. He was wide awake barging into our room at 7:30 anyway. Oh well, at least he didn't wake up when the sun rose.

Farley posted this yesterday, but we were busy getting ready.

Listening: I love Jane Austen, and Mansfield Park is one of my favorites. I've never seen the movie, but it's been on my Amazon Prime watchlist for a little while. Since the boys are napping, I decided I would watch it!

Loving: We've had a great break so far, and the weather is supposed to be nice this weekend. Today is just windy, but I'm hoping to get some more great family time in!

Thinking: Keagan turned 3 just before Christmas, but he has almost NO desire to potty train. It's driving me crazy! I know he'll get there, but I would rather not have two kids in diapers at once. Plus he will need to get there by fall if we're going to send him to preschool.

Wanting: I'm a huge fan of Annie, and the new one looks so cute! Steven is even willing to see it. I'm going to try and convince him to take me tomorrow while we have free babysitting.

Needing: We took down the Christmas tree, but nothing else has gone yet. I want to have it done before we go back to work, but we'll see. At least with the tree out of the living room, we have more space. I want to get it done so we can start getting the guest room ready for Keagan, although there may not be any reason for that.

Yes: By healthy pregnancy, I mean that I want to eat right and continue to exercise through it. So far, I've done alright with it, but I want to keep it up.
Maybe: We actually drove around this morning looking at houses. It seems like we actually can afford a few really cute houses in the city that are a little larger than what we have now (hence maybe not needing to move Keagan out of the nursery yet). It's just a matter of being able to sell our current house. Prayers! I'd love to have more space for when the baby gets here!
I wish: I've already done laundry a few times this week, but it seems to pile up almost instantly. Maybe that has to do with the chunky sweaters, but I just want to feel like I'm ahead for once.

Oh, and don't forget. A lot of stores are having sales that end today on TPT, including mine. Happy shopping!

Fourteen in '14

This is my second year participating in this linky, and it's always fun to reflect and join!

Haha, I love Paramore! And I get so tired of people whining and complaining (students and adults). This song was just great, and I actually made my own printable (not this one) to stick in my classroom. Yes. Really. So far no one's cried about it...

I embraced the leggings this year, but my favorite has become chunky sweaters! Let's be honest. Part of that has to do with the fact that I'm preggo and don't want to buy many maternity clothes yet. But these sweaters are so comfy AND I can wear them again next year when I'm still working off some baby fat!

This one is easy! I've been a Veronica Mars fan for years and was literally distraught when they cancelled the show after only three seasons. Fortunately for me, Kristen Bell and Rob Thomas (director, not singer) were as heartbroken as I was and never gave up hope to continue. They started a kickstarter campaign (which I DID contribute to) to make a movie that would finally give the marshmallows (fans) some closure, and maybe open up new channels for the show to kind of continue. I LOVED it! My husband and I actually drove all the way to DC for the closest theater showing it just to see it, and then we bought the DVD as soon as it came out. Actually, I pre-ordered it on Amazon. I'm a little obsessed!

We cancelled cable, but we finally broke down and got a Roku AND a subscription to Netflix to go along with Amazon Prime. I'm torn between two favorites for the year, and I'm left hanging on both while we wait for the rest of the episodes to post.

I started Downton Abbey at the beginning of the year and immediately was hooked! I've been a Jane Austen fan for years, and this kind of resembles that lifestyle. The hubs won't watch with me, but I spent every Sunday afternoon nap for quite a while catching up and was very sad when I finally finished season four back in the summer. Oh well, now I can watch it live starting Sunday!!

The hubs and I tried out White Collar together, and we're both crazy about it! Neal is gorgeous, and the storyline is just so fascinating. Bonus: Steven has started dressing even nicer trying to mimic Neal's wardrobe. Not complaining!

Well, my favorite from last year closed down, which I was very disappointed about. HOWEVER, Richmond has quickly become a restaurant hot-spot, and Steven and I have discovered quite a few great ones!

Hill Cafe is just one of many, but it's a great affordable option with lots of good choices. We've actually been twice to eat this year (we're still trying a long list of other places), and it's totally worth it!

I had my very first Pinterest party this year, and it was a lot of fun! We made citronella candles. They were pretty easy, and we had a great time hanging out and eating yummy Pinterest-inspired foods. 

After this one, we had one more in the fall to paint pumpkins, which was also lots of fun. We need to schedule another one, though!

I got a new camera for Christmas, and it takes such great pictures! It will be perfect for when the new baby arrives, and I could already see a big difference in the quality once I switched to it last week!

I'll be honest. As much as I love Pinterest, it has kind of taken a backseat this year. I just don't have time for it. I did find this one, however.

For Keagan's 3rd birthday, we did a police theme and ended up buying doughnuts from THE BEST local doughnut shop (Country Style Doughnuts). We still had cupcakes, but the doughnuts were a hit!

I'm cheating on this one because they all go together, but my Robust Vocabulary book study was something I was very proud of over the summer. The book was so informative to me, and I still want to create and share some resources that relate to it. Once I finally don't feel so exhausted from teaching, being mommy, and being preggo. So maybe next year?

I reached my largest month of sales yet in November, and I had my largest day by far during the Cyber Monday sale. You guys have been amazing supporting me, and it really helped this Christmas!

Even though I'm not in it, I just LOVE this one! We took Keagan to see the Christmas lights downtown, and my sister-in-law caught this one. It's so sweet!

There were lots of great memories, but the best would probably have to be when we found out we were expecting again. Of course, I was planning on it, but I had started to worry that it would take longer this time and I would end up being due in September. Teacher's nightmare! But God was gracious and let me have my way. We can't wait to meet our new little gem in early June (and I'm dying to know girl or boy - 3 more weeks!), and we have a lot of decluttering to prepare!

When I was pregnant with Keagan, I ate everything I wanted and barely lifted a finger. And it showed by the end. I'm very small, but I gained 50 pounds and really had to work hard to get back to a place where I was comfortable. With this pregnancy, I'm trying to stay fit and go to the gym when I can (at least 400 minutes each month, which is part of a work incentive). So far, I've only gained 8 pounds and am hopeful that I will continue on the right track!

NEW

With a new little Dalton greeting us this summer and every new step Keagan takes as he continues to grow, I'm loving every minute of being a mommy right now! I'm so excited for 2015 and everything that will take place!