Blogs That Inspire Me!!

I saw that Rae at Mindful Rambles (love her blog too!) linked up to this awesome linky by Lovely Literacy and just HAD to join as well! :)

My favorite 3 NON-teacher blogs:

I Am Momma Hear Me Roar - I love this blog! Cheri has two little boys and a little girl on the way. She is always sharing fun craft and DIY projects and ideas. I am SO inspired by her. Check out her blog - you will not be disappointed!!

The Junk House by Sam: Sam is a new(ish) homeowner, like myself, and shares her ideas and DIY projects on her blog. Her latest project was adding hardware to all of her kitchen cabinets and it looks AWESOME! Plus she has two adorable fur-babies. :)

 This Messy Business: Megan is a recent education major graduate, so hopefully we'll see more teaching posts out of her soon :) but right now she blogs about her adventure from "trailer trash to DIY fabulous first home...on a budget." Check out some of her before and afters - amazing!


Favorite Teaching/Special Ed Blogs:

The Autism Helper by Sasha: Seriously, if you teach special ed and haven't discovered this blog yet, you're crazy! She just posted an awesome Recycling Unit and I love her advice on behavior management.

 

Sped-ventures: Kara is such a sweetheart and shares the best ideas and fun projects she does in her classroom. I loved her "trashy" snowmen! And she recently offered an amazing freebie - Winter Clothing Social Stories.

Teaching Special Thinkers: 1st reason this blog is awesome - her name is also "Gabrielle" but she actually goes by her full name, I just go by "Brie." No, really, though, I love this blog! She just posted an IEP checklist and Caseload Binder freebie AND it's chevron. So cute. I think it would make me more happy to work on IEPs....yes, this will definitely be printed asap :)

What blogs inspire you? Join in the fun and link up here.

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Valentine's Day Estimation Math Activity

I know it's a little late to be sharing Valentine's Day ideas...but since we did them on Valentine's Day, I don't have much of a choice! So if you like this idea you should save it for next year or just celebrate Valentine's Day a little late - that's okay too :)

Last year with my students I did a conversation heart activity with graphing and answering questions about how many of each color, etc. I'm sure many teachers have used this activitiy and it's great; however, I needed sometimes more challenging for my students this year.

I found this awesome Valentine's Day Estimation Activity from Miss Britnee on Teachers Pay Teachers - and it's FREE - it's a part of larger Valentine's Day packet that she has at a great price! :)

First, I had my students go through and fill out the estimation column BEFORE opening their candy heart boxes. This had to be written on the board and explained maybe ten times! (1. Estimate 2. Open - find actual 3. EAT!) They estimated the number of hearts in the boxes, how many they could stack on their desk before they tipped over, how long their thumb is in hearts, and other fun things.

They were all excited to open their boxes and actually figure out the right answers for the guesses. Seriously, ALL of my students enjoyed this, and that never happens!!

Then once everyone had finished they could eat them and we talked about the totals that we received. We even talked about the average and mode of our numbers - never thought I'd discuss that in this class, but hey, why not?! :) Best Valentine's Day activity ever!

Did you do anything fun? Share and maybe I'll try it next year!

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February Currently

Ah! It's February 5 already and I'm just doing my currently now :)

Loving: If you have never played Ticket to Ride, it's one of my new favorite games. And they have an app - check it out here! It was free on Sunday so I downloaded it then (just checked it's still free now as of Tuesday night). I play this game way too much.

Thinking: I do have to admit, I'm excited that it's finally acting like winter! I love snow and just a few days ago we finally got enough to cover the grass, and it's been snowing every day since! Before this month we had, like, none! Very different from the Michigan weather I grew up in. There's just something about clean, fresh white snow. (And it probably helps that I don't have a long drive to work so that's not bothering me right now!)

Wanting: I'm trying to figure out a new class schedule for my transfer student and it's hard to make changes already into the semester but I just want to put him where he will succeed so I'm trying hard!

Needing: Ah, I would love a personal health day to just relax...but there's too much to do! At least I have President's Day off this month.

Pet Peeves: Sorry if you have them, but I hate word verification on comments. Sometimes I can't get them and I have to redo it like 3 times and it ends up taking me longer than it did to just write the comment! (Go into your comment settings if you want to change yours...hint HINT!)

Go ahead and link up At Farley's, if you haven't done so already...please tell me there are other slow pokes like me!

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