Teachers Light The Way For Learning Treat!

Bath and Body works has those cute little candles....  They were three for five dollars.  I made a little tag that fits perfectly on top of them...  or you could put the same tag right on any candle.  I did use
avery sticker paper to print these on.

For more Teacher Gift IDeas you can make yourself, click here!
  

So Siked...

One more sleep to one of my best friends Bridal Shower...  I am so siked to help give her a day she will remember for-eva!  The bride and I went to highschool together but did not become good friends until college.  Since then, she has been a constant in my life.  A friend I thank God for!  She was in my wedding back in 1997.  And 14 years later I get to be her Matron of Honor.  The shower is going to be great and I can't wait for her to see it all and just relax and enjoy!  I can't share any details of the shower, I and her bridesmaids have been planning for nine months, till next week when it is all over.  Everything is top secret to the bride except the time and location...  I am giving her one hint today and will share one with you...  A Perfect Blend we will be celebrating.  So warm and fun...  Just like my friend.  Go thank God for the girls in your life that make you happy!   

Teacher Appreciation Week - Tea-rrific Teacher...

Purchase tea and place a tag on it that says...  Tea-rrific Teacher!!!  I used Peach Snapple for this one...  I made a label that turned out very cute.  I just printed it on regular paper and used a glue stick. 





Here is what my label looks like:

This is what the finished product looks like...

For more Teacher Do It Yourself gift ideas, click here!
  

Teacher Appreciation Gift Ideas With Free Printables!

Love me some teachers!  Don't forget to appreciate them a few times a year with a little treat!  They work so hard and see your kids more than you do in a school day! 

I have two free printables to share...

-Easter candy is on sale in the stores.  Sarris candy is a local favorite.  In my grocery store they had the crosses on sale for 50% off...  Yippppeeeee!!  So here is a little tag I made to attach to a piece of chocolate.  It says, "Having a Teacher Like you is a Blessing!"  - I love the saying on it  from Mother Teresa...

Many people mistake
our work for our
vocation.
Our vocation
is the love of Jesus.

click to download this one free

- Aren't these cute!!!  This is an idea I modified from here at Domesticated Lady.  I wanted to use this idea but I wanted a smaller tag that would attach to a Zip Lock Baggie. This file prints four tags per page. Free to print - click here!

Here's some more links with great ideas:

Tip Junkie Shares 30 Ideas for Gift Ideas for Teachers - Check it out here!

Free and Fun End of The Year Ideas - Click Here!

Check out These Cute Highlighters and the Free Printable to match at Skip to My Lou!

Also, check out this whoopie recipe with a free printable

Tip Junkie shares You Take the Cake...

Teachers Rock...

U Create Crafts shares a nice list of gift ideas!

Teaching Heart Teacher Appreciation Page!

Links to Love

I love me some sites that love me back.  Here are a few sites that link to Teaching Heart or Teaching Heart Mom!  They are all Gems filled with great resources...  Thanks for linking to Teaching Heart!!!

Tip Junkie has a few links...  but lately I am getting hits from this post that has tons of resources for Teacher Appreciation!!!

Pre Kinders is an awesome site...  Check out their Resurrection Eggs!

KinderPond has Teaching Heart Mom in the side bar. 

Mrs. Kilburn's Kiddos also lists Teaching Heart Mom on their blog roll!

Cindy's Autistic Support links to Teaching Heart!

Two Writing Teachers Links to Teaching Heart!

Mrs. Cowan also links to Teaching Heart!

Do you link to Teaching Heart or Teaching Heart Mom?  Keep on linking and maybe you will be featured in another links to love post!  We pick the ones that send traffic our way!  In return we will send traffic your way...  Check out our traffic here...  Cheers! 

Easter and Some Funny Bunny!!!

I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. - John 11:25-26

 

I hope you are enjoying Easter Weekend with your family.  Friday we went to the Good Friday Service.  It was so beautiful.  My girlfriend sang for the service and she outdid her self...  My husband and I both got in the car and start saying how awesome she sounded.  He even said he almost got teary eyed.  Good Friday Service is always the service I seem to get the most out of.  So thankful to Jesus and all he did for us!  Friday night we dyed eggs and ate Pizza.  Fun family time.  Tonight we will take the kids to the Easter Vigil.  This will be my daughters first time at the Vigil...  wish me luck.  It's a very long and late mass for a little girl who is in bed by 7:30 on a regular night.  Sunday is brunch and fun with the family!!!  I feel so thankful for the wonderful blessings in my life.  God is always Good!  I wish you a joyus Easter Season.

 

If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. - Romans 10: 9

 

Here's a little bunny humor.  These just make me laugh.  I hope they make you laugh too!!!! 

 

From Magic Kingdom to Reality

We just had an awesome family vacation.  We ALL LOVE Disney World so much...  We smiled so much on our six day stay that my mouth still kind of hurts...  The kids were awesome (I guess any kid would be at Disney World), the weather was perfect, and the memories were magic...

Back to reality...

No more:

Beds made by someone other than me with cute towel decorations on them...

No more dips in the pool after a long day at the parks...  plus it was in the mid 80's there and it is in the 40's- 60's here!!!

No more watching the kids in their glory and just enjoying their smiles at the happiest place in the world...

 

No more characters dancing around our dinner table...

No more trips with Peter Pan...

No more views of my favorite castle...

No more over the top parades...

They have switched up the firework show at Magic Kingdom since our last visit... they do a photo montage on the castle that is out of this world... only Disney Style...  plus love me some heart shaped fireworks...

No more Princesses making my son blush and my daughter break out in song!

No more trips around the word with a glass of wine in hand..

This is our first time using the meal plan...  the thing is not for the health conscience...  you get crazy desserts with each meal; plus a snack a day...  We ate like kings and queens... Luckily all the heavy walking kept the scale in one place...  mmmm... I miss the food.  Bonus - I did not cook for over a week!!!!

Dinner at in an indoor drive-in...  too fun!

If only my yard could look like this...  you should see the weeds I pulled today!!!

Yes that is a Trash Can...  He moved and talked.  That was one of the highlights of my kids trip...  The trash can named Push who talked to them and even shouted GO PENS...  You never know what new Magic you will find at Disney World.

We just have to go back when this new section of Fantasy Land is done... They are building Belle's Castle...  I'll be back... 

Send me back, I will even ride the Dinosaur ride that scared the Bee-Gees out of me and my daughter...

I love you and miss you Disney World. The memories made on this trip are forever carved in my mind to pull out on a rainy  day!

Bunny Learning then In the Tummy!!!

Reposting this from 2009.  Be sure to get your Bunny Mallows for graphing and sorting fun!

We love the Jet-Puffed Mallows by Kraft for Yummies in our Tummies and for learning fun. The ones above are the Spring version. They are shaped like bunnies and come in green, purple, yellow, and pink. Great for fun sorting and graphing; as well as eating! I have found them at Target and my grocery store (Giant Eagle). Sometimes they go quickly; so, I try to grab them when I first see them in early March.

My six year old and three year old love this not only to eat but for learning fun... Well, they just think it is fun and I know they are leaning. I created three activity sheets to use with these Mallows. My daughter can complete the sorting sheet pretty independently and my six year old can do the sorting and graphing sheet pretty independently. There is a third sheet for first to second graders that involves adding up small numbers.

Here is what we do:

First we color the bunnies in on the sorting sheet. Next we sort. After that we count the bunnies & write how many we have of each color. My three year old then eats her bunnies while my six year old does the graphing page.

Here they are sorting!!!

Below you see my son working on counting his bunnies, graphing and then my son's finished papers.


This is a fun themed snack and your kiddos may pick up some sorting and graphing skills along the way.

Feel free to download the sheet off of Teaching Heart by clicking here!

Visit Ramblings of a Crazy Woman
We Made It, Saturday Showcase!!! and Soda Bottle Easter Basket for some more fun ideas!!

Teaching Heart has an Index of Spring Fun - Click to explore!

Jet Puffed Bunny Mallow, 10 Ounce Boxes (Pack of 2)


Below shows the kids in action working on this activity.

Plastic Easter Eggs Make Learning Fun!

This is an old post; but, it is FILLED with Plastc Egg Learning that you cannot misss!!!

Plastic Easter eggs are fun to fill, hide and hunt, but the teacher in me always sees learning possibilities in every fun toy or product I come across.

My Three Year Old is still working on her shapes. I draw common shapes like circles, squares, triangles, hearts, diamonds & stars on the eggs with a sharpie. I hide the eggs and then she shows me what she has found. She tells me what shape is on the egg. For a challenge, use a variety of colored Sharpie permanent markers and challenge your preschooler to find the red star, the blue circle and so on.

Another thing she still has not gotten is recognizing her name. I put the names on slips of paper and put them in the bag. We draw an egg from the bag, open it, and then read whose egg it is.

We also sort them into groups of like colors. Count how many of each color there are. She loves this!

Grab an egg carton and place a color dot in the carton. Have your child find the egg that matches that color and place it in the carton over the same color.

For older kiddos, place a picture on the bottom of each space in the carton and on an egg write the letter sound the picture starts with. Hide the eggs. As they find the eggs, they place their egg with the sound on it over the correct space. For example, if they found an /a/, they would put that egg in the space in the carton with an ant in it. If they found and /f/ they would place their egg in the carton with a picture of a fish in it. I do this with both of my kiddos. My daughter just tells me the letter she has found and then together we place the egg. My older son can place his eggs independently.

My six year old, loves addition problems. On one side of the egg I write a problem and on the other side I write the answer... he has to put the eggs together to find the answer. When he is done, I check quickly to make sure he got the correct answer. Something fun for him to do while I make dinner!!

Similar, put rhyming words on the eggs. They must match up the word to a word it rhymes with. Perfect skill for k-2 grades!!!

We also put sentences in 4 eggs. We hid the eggs. My son found the eggs and read each sentence and put the sentences in order. Then reread the story he had made... For example:

1.) First we have Palm Sunday.

2.) Next we have Good Friday.

3.) Finally Easter is here.

4.) Easter Morning we go to church to celebrate!

0r

1.) Once upon a time there was a boy named Nathan.

2.) Nathan loved jelly beans.

3.) He loved them so much that he once ate 1,000 Jelly beans.

4.) His belly hurt from what he had done.

It is great seeing them manipulate the sentences to place in order. This activity works on reading and comprehension skills.

Ideal for grades 1-2. If you were doing this in a classroom (as I have in the past), you would simply place four eggs in a Ziploc baggie. The students bring the eggs back to their seat. They would open the eggs and organize the sentences in correct order. In grade two they would rewrite the sentences in their journal and illustrate the finished story.

Put spelling words or sight words in the eggs and hide them. As your child find the egg, they open it and read the word. Then they spell the word for you.

Multi Age Idea -
On a rainy day find a small puzzle --- about 25 pieces. Place a puzzle piece in each egg. My daughter (the toddler) would find the hidden egg and then give it to my six year old who would open it and try to work the puzzle as the pieces were brought to him.

As you can see all of these activities can be set-up in minutes. All you need are the eggs and the rest of the supplies you should have around your house... Go have a LEARNING blast with those eggs!!!

Eggs Around the Web

Look, there are more ideas for those little colorful buggers...

The Ramblings of a Crazy Women Shares Some Easter Egg Games

Teaching Two Shows You a Rhyming Game she made!

Learn How to Make Your Egg Hunt Educational!

Geeky Housewife shares 50 Things to Do With The Eggs!

Different Easter Egg Hunt Ideas

For Many More Fun Sping Ideas, Visit this Sping Index!!!