Friday 26 December 2014

Fourteen in '14 Linky Party

It's that time of year... Time to reflect on what an amazing year it has been! I'm linking up with Hadar, Traci, and Kristin for their fourteen in '14 Linky Party!


Here are my top 14 memories of the past year...

{one}

I started 2014 with a baby in my tummy! I loved being pregnant. I was lucky to not have any bad symptoms, just super tired and uncomfortable towards the end! My last day of school was March 28th and Miss Zoe came on March 31st, four days before my due date!


{two}

I won't bore you or scare you with my labour story... lol... but the whole thing lasted only 10 hours from start to finish. We got to the hospital at 4:30am and Zoe Elizabeth was born at 6:30am! Most amazing day of my life!


{three}

We got to bring Zoe home the next day on April 1st. We were excited to show her to the dogs. They had no idea what they were in for!


{four}

My mom's present to us was a newborn photo shoot. Our photographer was amazing! It's hard to tell in her beautiful, sleeping photos how much of a fuss pot she was! lol. There was also an unfortunate incident with that white blanket, no diaper, and some explosive poop. That's all I'm saying. The photos are beautiful though! ;)


{five}

This was definitely the most exciting year of my life. Not only did we welcome our beautiful daughter, but we also got married. It was so special to have her there and to officially become a family. The day was absolutely perfect.


{six}

We had a beautful summer. Zoe got to go swimming for the first time and we visited with some family we'd never met at a reunion!


{seven}

We met with our builder to get our house plans ready so that we can start building our new house in the spring! We are outgrowing this little trailer and can't wait to have a brand new house to call our own!



{eight}

We spent a weekend at this amazing cabin for my mother-in-laws birthday with all my husband's brothers and sisters and nieces. It was an awesome weekend! Zoe's first sleep away from home.


{nine}

Our first time growing a garden was super successful! We had so many carrots, cucumbers, zucchinis, potatoes, beets, peas, and beans. Going to try some new stuff next year too! Love being able to cook food for my family straight from our own yard!


{ten}

Our second year walking in the CIBC Run for the Cure. My mom finally finished her last cancer treatments and had her port removed, so hopefully that is the last we see of that nasty breast cancer! She is such an amazing woman and we are so proud of her!


{eleven}

Zoe's first Halloween. We surprised my mom at her school because it is also her birthday!


{twelve}

Watching this little cutie pie grow up as been the most amazing gift. I love seeing all the new things she learns and discovers every day.


{thirteen}

We went to see our photographer again for a Christmas mini shoot. These photos turned out so cute! I got to dress up as Santa and have much respect for those mall Santas. That suit is soooo hot!


{fourteen}

Zoe's first Christmas was amazing. We visited Santa at the mall. She was not a fan. It may look like she's smiling, but the screaming started right after that picture was taken. lol. My baby girl got so spoiled this year. It was so much fun to watch her open her presents (with help) and have fun with her toys!


What are your favourite memories of 2014? Go link up!

Saturday 13 December 2014

Interactive Science Journals Units Two and Three

Two more of my Interactive Science Journals have made it into the bundle... the last one, Weather and Seasons should be up soon! By the end of the month anyways. Click any of the pictures below to check them out on TpT.

Cluster 2: The Five Senses




These are the lessons/outcomes covered in this unit:

1. Unit title page idea
2. Learn vocabulary related to the senses
3. Match the sense to the body part



4. Label the parts of the eye
5. Graph the eye colours in the class
6. Find things in the classroom that feel a certain way
7. Listen to mystery sounds
8. Smell sounds
9. Label the parts of the nose
10. Sort foods by the taste buds used


11. Taste food
12. Name ways to protect the senses
13. Design sunglasses to protect the eyes (design process)
14. Describe how some things can be altered 
15. Describe how your senses protect you


16. Learn how your senses can mislead your (science experiment)
17. Name aids that help people with different capabilities
18. Compare differences in taste with a friend
19. Describe how you use senses in various hobbies & jobs


Cluster 2: Characteristics of Objects and Materials



These are the lessons/outcomes covered in this unit:

1. Unit title page idea
2. Unit vocabulary
3. Use five senses to list characteristics of different materials
4. Sort objects and the materials they are made up of


5. List all the materials that an object is made up of
6. Sort materials based on certain characteristics
7. Name the material that a group of objects is made up of
8. Match objects with the best material for it's purpose


9. Test which material would make the best umbrella (science experiment)
10. Choose the object that is best for the job
11. Name ways to join materials
12. Design a pencil holder or other useful object (design process)
13. Describe ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle at school


Don't forget I have a few Science freebies for you here:


And you can save a few bucks if you buy the bundle of journals here:


Last unit is coming soon! :) Laters!


Thursday 11 December 2014

A Christmas Conversation Linky Party

I'm linking up with Abby over at The Inspired Apple for her cute Christmas Conversation linky party. Click the picture below to go link up yourself!



Wednesday 10 December 2014

Christmas Blast From the Past

Seeing as I'm not in the classroom this year, I feel bad that I don't have any awesome classroom pictures to share with you. So I started going back through my old classroom photos and found some of my Christmas bulletin boards throughout the years. Some of these are from Grade 3/4, 4, and 1. Some you may have seen before and some will be new! Take a look...

Christmas Symme"tree": We made symmetrical Christmas ornaments out of scrapbook paper and hung them on our tree. We also made symmetrical snowflakes!


Christmas Symmetry Faces: I took a picture of the students wearing a Christmas hat (Santa, Mrs. Claus, reindeer, or snowman hat), cut it in half, and had them draw the other half of their face! They turned out super cute!


Winter Pastels: We used oil pastels on blue construction paper to make Christmas/wintry scenes. This would be great to do with some writing! Prompts: What do you like to do in the winter? What do snowmen do when no one is watching?


Tissue Paper Trees: Photocopy a large tree for each student. Use a mixture of glue and water to modge podge tissue paper squares to the tree. Use different shades of green. It's ok to go outside the lines! We cut them out. Afterwards we decorate the trees with glitter glue.


Christmas Post Cards: I had students write a postcard instead of a letter one year. We talked about the parts of a postcard. Then I gave students a list of characters they could write to. This activity is available in my Jolly Letters unit.




Christmas Kindness: On a large light bulb, I had students write a way that they could spread kindness at Christmas time.


Poinsettia Artwork: This lesson was on Deep Space Sparkle. We used sponges to print the poinsettias, gold paint on the pots, and glitter glue to decorate.


Birch Tree Art: I also found these on Deep Space Sparkle. Tissue paper collage background and water colour birch trees. Super pretty, but a lot of work for fourth graders!


Christmas Kindness: Another year, the same writing activity.


Candy Cane Patterns and Christmas Quilt: We coloured candy canes in a pattern and wrote the letter name of the pattern. We also made a Christmas quilt when we were practicing the letter q. You can find the candy cane patterns for free in this post.


Elf Craft: These adorable crafts are from First Grade Blue Skies' Let's Make an Elf pack. We made these with our Grade 4 reading buddies.


Gingerbread Houses: We made a gingerbread house out of brown construction paper, scrap paper, and stickers. Then we wrote a descriptive paragraph about our house. You can get the writing paper for free in this post.


Pattern Trees: This was an adorable craft from Tunstall's Christmas Art Projects pack. We made repeating patterns with coloured shape ornaments.


Stockings: We made these stockings from my Christmas Around the World pack. We used oil pastels to decorate the stockings and added cotton balls at the top to give it the added fluff!


That's it for now! I hope you survive your last two weeks before Christmas vacation! You can do it! :)

Monday 8 December 2014

Homemade Christmas Advent Calendar

Growing up at home, one of my favourite Christmas traditions was the advent calendar. It was a felt tree homemade by my mom with a variety of felt Christmas tree ornaments that we pinned onto the tree each day. Every morning my brother and I would take turns putting the ornament up on the tree. I'm pretty sure my mom and brother are still putting the ornaments up this year too! :) The last ornament on Christmas tree was always the star for the top of the tree. My brother and I would always take turns being the one to put the star up.

I wanted to start this own tradition with my little family, so I made an advent calendar for us. I know Zoe is a little too young to understand or appreciate it, but it will be here as she gets older. (Plus I have some time on my hands this year... hehe)


First up I checked Pinterest for some inspiration and found {this tree} and {this one} and {this one}. Next I went on a little shopping trip to Michaels and bought some felt, thread, buttons, bows, jewels, number stickers, and ribbon. I had tons of burlap at home from the wedding and a wooden dowel hanging out in the garage. Then I started making the ornaments. I sketched out what I wanted to make, using some of my favourite clipart as inspiration. I cut out felt, hot glue gunned the pieces together, stitched some of the edges, added some embellishments, and finally added a piece of thin ribbon. Here's a close up of all the ornaments I made:


Then I cut out the pieces for the tree. I used a Christmas tree clipart from Ashley Hughes and printed it out poster size. I cut out the different pieces, layered them on the burlap, and stitched around the edges. My sewing skills are not the greatest, but I love the way the bubbled fabric looks. It gives it a three-dimensional look! The hardest part was sewing on 25 buttons. I hate sewing buttons. I am never sewing another button as long as I live. A button fell of your pants? Trash it. We'll buy new pants. Haha JK! Kind of.


Lastly I cut out 2.5 x 2.5" squares of different coloured felt and positioned them on the bottom of the burlap. I sewed around three edges of each square to make a little pocket for each ornament. For the numbers, I found some glittery clapboard number stickers and hot glued them to the pockets. I also stitched around the outside of the burlap piece to avoid it fraying completely. I sewed three red felt tabs at the top of the burlap to stick the dowel through, then added ribbon to hang it!


So there we go! It was a lot of work, but I love how it turned out! I hope Zoe will enjoy decorating the tree as much as I did growing up. 17 more days until Christmas. Woo hoo! We just put our tree up tonight and most of the shopping is done. We've visited Santa and started our RACKs (Random Acts of Christma Kindness). Now to do some baking, head to all those Christmas parties, and enjoy our time with family! Merry Christmas everyone!