Versatile Blogger Award!!

I was given this award by Michelle at Mrs. White's 5th Grade Class! Super excited that someone picked my blog! I am honored! I am new to blogging and have enjoyed putting my ideas out there. It is amazing the support and encouragement I have received from fellow teachers. This has made my day! Check out Michelle's site she is a 5th grade teacher like me and has great ideas. This is how the award works.

The rules for this award are as follows:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you.
2. Include a link to their site.
3. Include the award image in your post.
4. Give 7 random facts about yourself.
5. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award.
6. When nominating, include a link to their site.

7 random facts about me.

1. I love to bake but don't eat what I make. I am a cookie girl. Pies, cakes, and desserts are fun to make but not a great as a good cookie. My husband's office enjoys my baking projects and look forward to summer break. No really, they start asking when I will be out for summer break.

2. I am the oldest of 4 girls. Love my sisters!

This is an old picture but this was a great day at Disney!

 3. When I was a little kid I would teach my sisters and friends. I have always wanted to be a teacher.

4. My favorite book is Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers.

5. I was home-schooled until 9th grade.

6. My dad is Santa.

This is a picture of my daughter and I, two sisters, niece and mom with Santa (dad) last Christmas.

7. I love, love, love Syfy movies. The crazier the better!

So I'm going to nominate the following bloggers: (they are my favorites)
 
Teaching with a Touch of Twang

Tales of a First Year Teacher

Life As A Teacher

Fabulous and Fun 4th Graders

Learning is a Hoot

The Sweet Life of Third Grade

Oh' Boy 4th Grade

Fun in Room 4B

Lessons with Laughter

Monday Made It!! #4

Yay! Monday Made It! Tara at 4th Grade Frolics has keep me busy and motivated this summer. I have made several fun things for my daughter and actually completed a few things for next school year. Thanks Tara!

This week I decided to catch up (or try to) with things I have wanted to do around the house. First, I made sensory balloons for my daughter that I found on Tot Treasures. She loves squeezing them, as I was making them she would say 'More balloons mommy.' I think she likes them :) We talked about bumpy and smooth, but we are still working on that concept.

I filled my balloons with rice, large uncooked beans, corn kernels, flour, small pom-poms, coffee, and sand.

Easy project and she played for hours with the balloons. So far, they have not busted open :)

Project #2 - Wedding Pictures 

My youngest sister was married in January and I have yet to hang a picture. I finally got the wedding CD, printed the pictures and put them in a frame. YAY! Now I am after my other sister for wedding pictures from her wedding 3 years ago that was 2 months before my daughter was born. Her pictures were put on the back burner. I would like to make a family wedding wall. (She has a just walking, 10 month old, so it may take a while) For now I will hang one set of wedding pictures.

Project #3 - Meal Calendar

I found this idea on Pinterest via Girl Loves Glam. I attached magnetic strips to the back so that it will stick to the fridge. Now what I plan to cook will be listed right on the fridge door.

Project #4 - Boston Cream Cupcakes

Before my daughter was born I would bake all summer long. Now that I have a toddler running around I try to bake but it doesn't happened as much as I would like. This week I made Boston Cream Cupcakes for a luncheon at my husbands office. I found the recipe on American's Test Kitchen - Feed through Pinterest. They were a hit. 

I am now off to clean out and organize my closet. Happy Monday!

Monday Made It! #3

Another Monday, another Monday Made It! with Tara at 4th Grade Frolic. The past week was busy and jam packed. I was able to make and send out birthday invitations for my little girl's birthday. Her birthday is on July 9th and she is turning two. The theme I borrowed from Pinterest is Red, White and Two! I am in love with the theme and love how the invites turned out.

My second project I found on 3rd Grade Thoughts. Stephine has a great way to pick Brain Breaks in the classroom. My students have a very tight schedule and we do not have recess, I have been looking for a way to break up the day. I have not used Brain Breaks before but hope they help the students from getting ants in their pants. So, I made a Brain Break Bucket.

I used a bucket my daughter had from Halloween.

There are 30 activities that I made for this bucket.

This is a close up of two activities.

Below are the links to the documents I made, one is the Brain Break cards and the other is directions. Please feel free to use them. If you have Brain Breaks that have worked in your class please let me know.

                                Brain Break Directions            Brain Break Cards

Below is a list of Brain Break sites that I found. I pulled together Brain Breaks that I thought would work best for my class. I teach Language Arts for 4th and 5th grade, so my activities are geared towards that area. There are many Brain Breaks for math and other areas. There are lots of books and sites out there. 

• Brain Breaks 1
• Brain Breaks 2
• Austin Independent School District 
• Mr. Kennedy's Classroom 
• National Association for Sports and Physical Education 

Again, if you have Brain Breaks that have worked well in your class please let me know! :)

13 Colonies Project

This past year my 5th grade class studied the 13 Colonies and then completed a power point for one of the colonies they chose. Research was done in class over a three week period. The majority of the power point was put together in technology class. Below are the directions that were given for the project.

The students were also required to complete the online game called Mission US - For Crown or Colony? This is an online video game where you play as a kid living in one of the colonies during the Revolutionary War. My students loved this game! I had a few reset it to play it again when the completed it.

13 Colonies Project 

Parent Letter 

Mission US

Check out the presentations that my students put together. 

Pennsylvania 

New York 

Delaware 

New York 

Virginia

Pennsylvania

New York

Monday Made It! #2

It is Monday so that means Monday Made It! I was on vacation last week so this is week 2 for me, but week 3 for everyone else. So, I had almost two weeks and was able to get three, yes three, projects done. They were easy and took about 45 minutes total :)

Project #1 - Teacher Binder

 

Looking through all the great ideas on Tara's 4th Grade Frolics blog inspires me to get back in touch with the first year teacher that is still in me. This week I made a teacher binder to hold all my important information. I borrowed the idea from Beyond the Grade..... I like to be organized but as the year goes on I end up with things in different places. Now it will all be in one place. This is such a great and simple idea, not sure why it took me 6 years to do it. 

I used scrap-booking paper I had for the cover. It is a bit blurry, but says Mrs. Bryan's Teaching Binder.

This tab is for lesson plans.

This tab is for Meeting Notes.

         This tab is for Student Data - 4th Grade. Because I have two classes of students, I made separate tabs for each set of data.

This tab is for Student Data - 5th Grade

This tab is for Calendars/Schedules

This is a misc. tab, for all the things that we get at the last minute :)




Project #2 - Clothesline Art Work Display

I have decided that each week I am going to do something with or for my silly, busy toddler. This week I was able to get two things done.  

I found this idea on Pinterest awhile ago and just got around to putting it up. This took about 10 minutes to put up. I used pink and green ribbon for the lines to match the other colors in the room. Originally, I used clothespins but they were to heavy so I switched to paper clips. Now I have a perfect place to show off all my little girls great art. 

 Before

 After

Project #3 - Toddler Fun Box

My second project was this fun magician's wipe box. This was another Pinterest idea. It was easy and my little girl loved it.

  

 First, I cut old fabric that I had into strips. I was not neat about this, it will be pulled and played with :)

 Next, I tied the strips together.

 Picture of all the pieces put together.

Finally, I put the pieces into the box with one end hanging out.