Our Many Colored Days!

Today, first grade is starting Color Day Fun, courtesy of the wonderful duo (who are also fellow Kansans!), Kelly & Diane from Made for First Grade.

It is RED day today, and we will be making our first class book, as suggested from Kelly & Diane's resource:

Click on the pic to check out this AMAZING resource in their TpT shop!

Their mentor text suggestion for the classroom book is "Mary Wore Her Red Dress".

I own M A N Y kid-lit books (just ask my colleagues!) but I sadly do not own this timeless piece.

For the last few years I've used a poem on anchor chart paper, but it was only about Mary & her red dress; it didn't include all the other fun colors and names as does the book by Merle Peek.

However, I found a YouTube video for the book!

Don't ya just love YouTube?!

It makes the book into a fun sing along, as is probably intended:)

I never knew the tune, or I would have sung it all this time!

If you want to use this video in your classroom, you should HOPEFULLY be able to view it...I'm not always great at embedding videos.

We're off to enjoy our first color day!

If you don't already do something fun like this at B.O.Y for K or 1st Grade, I HIGHLY suggest checking out this amazing packet!

We treasure it every year:)

And it starts...I mean, BEGINS!

During our annual Back to School welcome gathering for the whole district, our Superintendent mentioned differences between the word "start" and "beginning". 

I always considered them synonyms before, but she really gave me pause to consider each word and all its meanings.

I took away from her talk that to "start" something was to give it a sense of urgency, or to do something in a hurried fashion. 

If the word "start" had a personality, it would probably be impetuous or careless. 

To do something quickly and without much thought is to "start" something.

In contrast, to "begin" something is to plan and prepare. 

If "begin" had a personality it would be relaxed, unhurried or carefree. 

You begin a new school year, because you've put a lot of time, energy, and thought into the process.

Now, I know most of us aren't really feeling relaxed or carefree as we prepare for a new group of students (or is that just me feeling really a little stressed?), but I hope we can all admit that we've had weeks of summer to plan/PIN/prepare for a new school year, in addition to resting & recuperating from the previous one:)

With that in mind, I want to share an awesome YouTube party being hosted by the wonderful collaborative team that is Primary Chalkboard.

They are handing out many fun and relevant tips and tidbits for you to have a successful BEGINNING to your school year.

Click on the image below and you can check out 6 great videos today. 

They're not very long; I watched them all in under 15 minutes...that's less time than those silly health videos your district makes you watch:)

If you watch the videos, you can listen for a code word at the end and then enter a Rafflecopter with those code words to win one of 3 fabulous prizes, like:

$100 to Amazon

$100 to TpT

or a Michael Kors purse!

I'm not much of a bag-lady, so I hope one of you wins that:) 

I'll take either of the Gift Certificates, thank you very much.

Honestly, though, the prizes aren't really the reasons to watch. 

The tips and tricks are worth their weight, I promise you! 

I feel like such an idiot for never using my teacher's desk the way Katie Knight uses hers! Genius!!!

Go watch the videos (there will be additional videos posted each day all week long) and good luck to you all, with regards to the raffle.

Have a FANTASTIC beginning to your school year:)

Mine starts this Wednesday with students. I can't wait!

Monday Made-It...wait, what day is it?

I can still use the excuse of not knowing what day it is because I'm still on summer break.
For 6 more days.
Ouch. It really hurt to type that!
Sorry to those of you already back in the school-groove. I'll be joining you very, very soon:)
I'll get on with my post now.

I was asked to make a diaper cake for a colleague's baby shower.
I have never made a diaper cake, but figured I could find a tutorial on youtube, or some kind of instructions online.
Or a pin on Pinterest.
Yeah, let's start with Pinterest.
(sneaky smile creeps across face knowing too-well the dangers of going into the abyss that is Pinterest).

However, when I searched "diaper cake" on Pinterest, I immediately became overwhelmed with the images of these huge, elaborate monstrosities!
Surely someone somewhere has downsized and simplified these things, I thought.
I typed "diaper cupcakes" and was immediately inspired.

One of the first images I saw was for a onesie cupcake.
Have you seen them??
The idea was brand-new to me, and I instantly knew I had to make those for my colleague's sweet little girl, rather than a boring & tired ol' diaper cake.

I wrote down the things I needed, went to Wal-Mart, & got to work.
Take a look at the finished product:

I know, the hairbands around the cupcake wrappers weren't necessary, but I couldn't help myself in that baby girl section!
How do all of you mothers with baby girls stand it?!
You must have bigger bank accounts than I do.
Guess God knew what he was doin' when he blessed me with 2 "all-boy" boys:)

Here is the pin I found:

The pin didn't take me anywhere, so if you know the original source of this pin, PLEASE EMAIL ME SO I CAN CREDIT THEM!
I didn't bother searching for the source because I got the gist from the picture, and didn't plan on selling them or anything.

I honestly didn't even plan on blogging about them, but they're just too cute!
I won't be using a little cupcake box like the person above.
I'll just put them on a display plate for everyone at the shower to enjoy:)
With their eyes, of course.
Though they look good enough to eat, in my opinion!

Enjoy your hump-day, friends (see, I know what day it really is) !
I'm off to lock myself in my classroom until some progress is made:)
6   more   days....:,(