Double Linky! {with a little Father's Day Freebie}

Since I'm not in the classroom and don't have much in the way of pictures to show you right now, I'm finding tons of fun linky parties to join! I've linked up with two fabulous blogs today... the bloggers over at The Teaching Tribune are having a fun summer linky party! And of course, Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics has her weekly Monday Made It!

I missed the first week, but am going to try and keep up with The Teaching Tribune for this week! Click the picture below to link up yourself or check out the other bloggers for MONDAY Meet Me! {I was actually too late to join the linky, but I'm still going to post it anyways!!}

I teach... This was my third year in first grade and I just love it!

I have... Have you seen a picture of my little Zoe? She is just too cute for words! I enjoy showing her off any chance I get. It's a bad habit.

I watch... I love watching home reno and house hounting shows on HGTV. I also could watch reruns of The Big Bang Theory 24/7. So good!

I listen... I'm a country girl. The Highway on Sirius XM satellite radio is my favourite radio station!

I read... I love reading on my iPad. It's synced with my iPhone too, so sometimes I read from my phone when I'm standing in line somewhere or don't have my iPad with me. I loaded up on a few summery reads... finished "The Fault In Our Stars" in one day. Loved it. I have a few teachery reads too... Daily 5 Second Edition, The Read-Aloud Handbook, and Guided Math.

I do... I may have mentioned it once or twice, but I will be saying "I do!" to my sweetie this summer! 40 days to go... not that I'm counting...

Which leads me into the next link up... Monday Made It! I have been crafting away, getting ready for the wedding in July. We're having the wedding in a tent in our yard, so the theme is kind of rustic country. I'm loving it!

First up, the cute wedding stuff I've been crafting this week! Mason jar candle holders for the tables, mini take out containers for the candy bar, cute chalkboard signs for the cake table and candy bar table, and cute baskets for napkins and cards. I also cut out 26 squares of burlap to go in the centre of the tables. The take out container is the prototype. I still have... 199 more to make? Eeek!!

Lastly, just a quick and easy Father's Day gift! A cute little label to stick on a can of your favourite nuts! :) You can download the labels (without the name) from here.

Come back tomorrow to check out Two for TUESDAY! Two of my products will be 50% off for one day only! See ya then!

Five for Friday {Father's Day and Freebies} ... whoa, alliteration!

I really had planned to link up on the actual Friday, but it was a lazy night. Watched a bit of TV with the animals and was in bed by 10. That's pretty early for me, especially on a weekend! So here I am, linking up for Doodle Bugs' Five for Friday on Saturday!

Random #1

There are only 8 days of school left!! Woo hoo!! I didn't go all fancy on our countdown. Just a little corner on the whiteboard.

Random #2

We made our Father's Day presents. I like the food idea, because what Dad doesn't like to eat?? So I came up with Dad's Nuts & Bolts! I used a no-bake recipe that my mom always makes around Christmas time. So yummy! I put out pretzels, goldfish crackers, Shreddies, Cheerios, and peanuts. Students put a scoop of each into a medium-size freezer Zip-loc bag. Then I put a tablespoon of "sauce" into the bag. The student then shook up their nuts & bolts and we stapled the cute bag topper onto the top. Easy peasy! We made 26 bags in only an hour. It went pretty smoothly. {Next time though I would put each item into a bowl though--way easier for littles to scoop out of!}

I think the bag topper turned out so cute! You can get the recipe and bag topper for free from TpT. Click {here}. For cards, we just used some scrap book paper cut in half and folded in half. Then I shrunk some cute Dad colouring pages (just search Google for some). Colour, cut, and glue. Done and done.

Random #3:

We did a fun search and find activity for the vowel sounds of "Y". First we listened to the song "Y Can Be A Vowel" from Starfall. Then I had hidden 16 cards around the room--8 of the cards had words that ended in a Y that sounded like an E (like bunny) and 8 of the cards had a Y that sounded like I (like fly). You can download this fun activity for free from {here}.

Random #4:

We have started working on our Year End Memory Books. They turned out super cute! I printed the covers on neon cardstock. On the back cover I included some photos of each child that I had taken throughout the year. I included a photo from the first day of school and a group silly photo. Then I added some randoms of that specific child. We are writing about things we have learned (favourite literacy centre, favourite math activity, favourite thing to do at recess, etc.) On the last day of school we will pass our memory books around and sign each other's book beside our school photos. These will make such a great keepsake!

Random #5:

I love shopping. Here's a few fun things I picked up this weekend!

This is a fun math game I found at Chapters! It's a number puzzle, but it will perfect for practicing subitizing! It works on numbers from 1-10 and practices dice patterns and finger patterns. Students can play by themselves as a puzzle or take turns rolling the dice with a partner. This will be a fun "Math with Someone" game.

Cute new book about a crocodile who LOVES watermelon... until he eats a seed! Uh oh! Adorable. I'm going to read this and do a watermelon activity afternoon sometime this week. Fun, fun! I plan to use this fun freebie from Jessica at Wild About Firsties!

I love my Toms shoes. I have a pair of grey classics and black classics and I wear them all the time! They are so freaking comfortable! Plus, I can feel good about buying shoes, because they donate a pair of shoes for every pair you buy! It's basically like donating to charity, right?? Well when I saw these new ballet flats, I had to get a pair! They are adorable and super comfy too! :)

Well, that's it for now! I have a house to clean and report cards to finish and some procrastinating to do. Happy Saturday!

Weekly Recap and Thank You Gifts

N is for Numbers.... we played some of our favourite math games, including Mario BUMP, Dinosaur Subtraction Board Game {free from Games 4 Learning}, Ten Frame War, and Domino Parking Lot {free from Kim Adsit}. I set up four stations and put on my new favourite classroom tool, the fun classroom timers. I use the egg timer, but there are other fun ones like a bomb, candle, and people running a race!

O is for Origami... we made a simple talking dog head and a hat. I got the instructions from {here}. They have great visuals and are rated easy, medium, and hard. Very good site!

P is for Picnic... one of my favourite (and easiest) activities so far! I just brought a few blankets to school and we sat outside in the grass to eat our lunch. The kiddos were so excited about this one! It was nice and relaxing to just hang out and eat our lunches together :)

Q is for Quiz... I put together a little Math Jeopardy with some simple review questions (addition, subtraction, shapes, skip counting, etc.). The game is in a PowerPoint format with links, so it would work great if I had a SMARTboard :( but alas, I just had the kids point to the white board and I clicked with my trusty mouse. Lots of fun and a great end of the year review!

I uploaded the PowerPoint file to GoogleDocs if you would like to use it. Just click the picture above to download it. You can change the categories and questions to suit your needs. The title at the top is the font Elise from Kevin & Amanda, but you can change it to anything you have. If you download the file, let me know if it works ok! This is my first time uploading a PowerPoint to GoogleDocs.

Today we also made a sweet treat for our dads for Father's Day! I made up some sugar cookie dough and in small groups we cut out a few shapes and "painted" them with milk and food colouring. I found the cute idea {here}. We stuffed the cookies in a ziplock bag and attached these cute labels to the bag. I made two different labels... just in case there are students who want to give their cookies to a grandpa or uncle.

 {Click to download.}

Tomorrow is "Read Outside" day. Should be a nice relaxing day! :)

So, I put together a few gifts for some of my staff. For my most helpful and amazing secretary, librarians, and resource teacher, I bought some delicious flavoured honey from a local farm. I made these cute bee labels to tie on with a ribbon. Sweet and simple!

{Click to download.}

For my fantastic EA's (who helped me soooo much this year), I bought them some adorable reusable cups and filled them with colourful, reusable ice cubes. I also attached a little book store gift card (who doesn't love a good book!) to the cute label!

{Click to download.}

Happy Friday tomorrow! 9 more days! Can't believe it! :D