Muffins for Moms and a Messyhair Family Announcement

Hola mis amigos!  Lindsay here . . .

Just brushing up on a little espanol for Cinco de Mayo . . . And you know what holiday is right around the corner next??

That's right. Mother's Day.

I just love Mother's Day.  And over the years (and probably since I have become a mother) it is just one of those holidays that holds a special place in my heart. AND tends to get me all verklempt.

Maybe I love Mother's Day because I have the best mom.  She is one of the humblest, hardest-working and strongest people I know.  And she's funny too!  (Just ask her to quote some of My Big Fat Greek Wedding for you . . .)   And of course I have fond memories of making breakfast in bed for my mom as a child on Mother's Day. . . . (The menu?  French toast with a side of Diet Coke.  Yep, I was a  REALLY good cook!)  And today I still like to visit my mom every Mother's Day weekend.  She and I could just sit around and talk, watch a marathon of old Cops reruns, or look through old family pictures ALL. DAY. 

I love you mom!

And then of course there's my little guy who came into this world and gave me the title "Momma" (and let's be honest, a few stretch marks to go along with that . . .) and gave Mother's Day a whole new meaning for me . . .

Soooooooo . . . to help celebrate mommies EVERYWHERE (especially the moms of my cute students) I started a tradition of "Muffins With Mom" every year in May so that my little kinder kidlets can shower their moms with singing, sweet homemade cards, a gift, and some yummy treats.  And let me tell you . . . the kids LOVE it! 

We started working on our "secret projects" this week. 

First my kiddos wrote about why they love their moms - seriously, I almost cried.

Next came the task of doing my student "interviews" about their moms.  This is super time consuming (especially this year with 30 kiddos!) but it is such a precious keepsake that I have to do it every year!  To hear what the kids have to say about their moms in their own words is priceless . . . (and hilarious!).  My favorite part: "Mom spends most of her time doing things like making sweaters for me out of yarn."  Awesome.

Finally, we will be making our Mother's Day craftivity (which becomes the outside of the Mother's Day card we will be giving):

If you are looking for a way to celebrate the mothers of your kidlets this year, you can check out my Mother's Day pack in my TPT store (just click on the teapot below).  You will get all of these goodies!

 

 

 

And while we are on the topic of mothers . . . the Messyhair family has an important announcement to make:

That's right . . . we are expecting baby #2 in November!!  We have been so very blessed by the news, and can't wait to meet our little Mr. or Miss in just a few months!!! 

Well, that's about it for now folks!  I'm off to have a little late night snack (I'm eating for two now, right?) and snuggle with the hubs on the couch.  Have a good night!

Lindsay

Teacher Bits and Bobs on INSTAGRAM!!

Good evening, blogging buddies!! Kerri here...

Did you know that as of today Teacher Bits and Bobs has her very own Instagram account??
Checkity check it... TADA!!

Okay, I KNOW we only have 4 little pictures right now, but soon our Instagram will be OVERFLOWING with teachery goodness! My goal is to Instagram at least one quirky, unexpected, or special teaching moment a day. We'll see how it goes! Lindsay, on the other hand, is an Instagram machine, hash tagging this and that, so she'll be the Teacher B&B Instagramming rockstar FO SHIZZLE!

We are linking up with What the Teacher Wants and Apples and ABC's Instagram Linky party, found here...

Wanna follow us?
Click on the little fun Instagram button below to become a Teacher B&B Instagram follower, and be sure to use the hashtag #teachertalktuesday to see all kinds of teachery goodness every Tuesday!


Thanks Peeps!
XOXO Kerri B

Alphabet and Numbers Review Packs!!

Happy Saturday, Folks! Kerri here...

About this time last year, as I was starting to plan for the following school year and thinking about what beginning Firsties needed to review, so I created 2 different learning packs, one for the Alphabet and one for Numbers 1-30.
 I also created these with the end of Kindergarten in mind, remembering back to the good old Kinder years, when my Kinders were getting squirrelly at the end of the year, but still needed to review all of the good old alphabet and number concepts we had learned throughout the year.
Hence, my Amazing Alphabet Activities pack was born...

...as well as my I Know my Numbers Activity pack!

I asked Lindsay if she would let her Kinders be my guinea pigs for the Alphabet activities, and of course she agreed, since she's my bestie and all! :)

Here is are a couple of pics and what she wrote from her post last year...

A few weeks ago Kerri offered to share her Amazing Alphabet Activity pack (She had even printed, laminated, cut out, and Ziploc-baggied all of the pieces for me!  Yippee!!)  My class had just wrapped up the last letter of the alphabet, so we were gearing up for a week of ABC review - it was perfect!  My kids LOVED all of the activities, particularly the "Alphabet Mystery Words". . .

I even used the alphabet picture/word/letter match with my RTI group and they loved it!  They were so motivated to see who could get the most matches!

Anyway, this was a fun lil unit - I highly recommend it for your end of the year kinders or fabulous fall firsties!

These units are also perfect summer school activities for your  Kinder or First grade kiddos. My daughter used lots of the activities last year with a couple of Kinder and First grade boys she was tutoring over the summer, and the activities really helped them hone their alphabet and number skills!

You can check them out in my TPT shop, friends!

I'm off to grade a brazillion papers, work on a couple of yearbook pages for my school's yearbook, and get started on this little number...

Happy Weekend, friends!!
XOXO Kerri

Five for Friday!!

Happy Friday, Peeps! Kerri here...

Oh. My. Word. This was such a crazy busy week! I felt like I had soooo many things to do, and didn't get half of them accomplished! PTL that it is the weekend and I can catch-up. A pedi is calling my name tomorrow (my toes are BEYOND fugly right now, hence I have been wearing closed toed shoes EVERY day!)

Since it is Friday, I am linking up with Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky! LOVE IT!

First up...TIMREE painting! I am lucky to work LITERALLY blocks from Timree's art studio in Newport Beach. Do any of you remember her when she was on the Real Housewives of Orange County? Well, she is ADORABLE, uber-talented, and I just LOVE all of her products. I highly recommend her teacher pencil dish...it is my favorite teacher gift for my daughter's teachers. 

Isn't mine sooo fabulous??

So anyway, she was offering a free paint class through her Facebook page so she could train one of her  protege teachers, and I got 2 spots for my daughter and her friend. It was the BEST. TIME. EVER!

Here are their owls in progress...

The finished product!! TADA!

Isn't that so fun? 
DISCLAIMER: Sitting next to Katie while she painted was SERIOUSLY giving me HIVES. The gnarly teacher in me was DYING the whole time, and there were a couple of times I had to just get up and walk away. That girl!! Thankfully, we survived with only a couple of emotional scars apiece! HA!

Number 2: The Rainforest is in FULL EFFECT! This week we learned about the layers of the rainforest but first looking at this GINORMOUS poster, which was made for me by my student teacher's dad a few years ago...

It is HUGE!!

Then, we step drew and labeled the layers of the rainforest in our Science notebooks...

Finally, we made our Rainforest layers art from my Rainforest Fun Unit for Open House...

Number 3: Mrs. B's little garden! We made rainforest flowers last week, but they are PERFECT for May too, so I put them up on the back wall to brighten up the room. Aren't they GORGEOUS?? :)
Sigh...I heart art!

Number 4: Earth Day Math centers...this week we were neck deep in all things related to Earth Day and we did some fun Earth Day math centers today...

Fact Families

Number Puzzles

Graphing

Last, but not least...

AAAHHHH!!!! I ordered a personalized Melonhead from Nikki at Melonheadz Illustrating before she posted that she couldn't make them anymore, and she sent it today! I think I'm going to FREAK the FREAK OUT, it's soooo amazing!! :)

I also bought this set from her ETSY shop today...check it out! HARRY POTTER!! I'm in LOOOVEE!!

Off to dinner with the fam! Have a happy weekend, friends!!

XOXO Kerri B

Mrs. Wishy-Washy

Being that I am a huge Mrs. Wishy-Washy fan, I was so excited when the folks at Hameray Publishing Group sent me two new Joy Cowley books use in my classroom and review! 

 

 

The first book that I received was "Wishy Washy Clothes" and was from the Joy Cowley Early Birds collection.  With a word count of 64 words, this Mrs. Wishy Washer reader was a great resource for some of my more proficient readers to read independently in class.  The story was adorable and very accessible with its use of sight words, easily decodable words, and pictures to give students comprehension support as they were reading.

The second book that I received was "Mrs. Wishy-Washy and the Big Wash".  This reader had a word count of 227 words, which was a bit much for my kinder kiddos, however I was able to use it as a resource with the group of first grade reading intervention students that I work with on Tuesdays. 

One feature that was SO helpful for teachers that I found in both of these books was the handy teacher's guide that is inside the back cover.  The teacher's guide gave comprehension questions, features of text to focus on, vocabulary words, and more!

If you are interested in entering an awesome Joy Cowley Classroom Giveaway, click the button below.   

The giveaway that calls for teachers, parents, friends, relatives and anyone else who wants to nominate a classroom to possibly win 90 new titles from beloved author and Mrs. Wishy-Washy creator Joy Cowley: The Joy Cowley Collection and the Joy Cowley Early Birds!  These two new collections of leveled readers, for Kindergarten to 2^nd Grade classrooms, are developed for shared, guided, and independent reading. Finger puppets and 3 audio CDs will also be included, comprising a value greater than $400! (This contest valid in the US and Canada only.) 

You can find out more about Hameray Publishing, Mrs. Wishy-Washy, and other fun activities here:

 www.Pinterest.com/Hameray

 www.HamerayPublishing.com (To purchase use promo code ZJCC13 for 20% off purchase of anything on the website through 6/30/13)

www.Facebook.com/Hameray

 

Well that's it for tonight folks!  I'm off to watch some Duck Dynasty (yes, you can thank Kerri and my mother for getting me TOTALLY hooked - and now I just loooooove me some Willie and Phil!!). 

 

Lindsay

 “Disclosure: I received complimentary products for review.  All opinions are my own and this is not a compensated post.”

O', Canada!! Five for Friday!!

Good afternoon, bloggy friends! Kerri here...

Greetings from Vancouver, Canada! This place is DROP. DEAD. BEAUTIFUL! Like, it literally takes my breath away. We are having the bestest time EVER, and I am oh, so sad that we have to leave tomorrow.  :(

Since it is Friday, I am linking up for Kacey's Five for Friday linky party, and obviously, since I have been on Vacay all week long, I have NOTHING school related to share with you (thank the Lord!), so here it is...The Five for Friday-Canada edition!


Number 1: Stanley Park. We literally could have spent our entire time here, it is so massive and amazingly beautiful. We rode bikes all around the edge of it, and besides that fact that we were FREEZING, it was the best day I can remember in a long time...

Totem Poles!!

Fabulous views of the Lion's Gate Bridge

Check out those 2 Canadian Geese up there! 

Beautiful bridges

Gorgeous views of the city...

 Number 2...Queen Elizabeth Park. This park is gigantic and absolutely stunning!! It is by the house my dad grew up in, and he says they used to call it "Little Mountain" because you can see the whole city from there...

 Number 3...Capilano Suspension Bridge Park! This was the best day ever! 

This was near the Capilano River...

The flowers here are soooo beautiful!

Number 4...Granville Island! It was raining and SOOOO cold this day, but we got to have fun inside the Public Market, and it was all about the food, food, food!!

I was told to kiss this monkey!

FRUIT!

Oh my yumminess!

French crepes!!

Aren't these so pretty??

 Number 5...I heart CANADA!!

I love that maple leaf!

I love their money! Wicked cool...

I love Poutin...french fries, brown gravy, and cheese curds. IT. IS. DELICIOUS!

I love that they have French writing on everything!

I especially love the Steam clock in Gastown!

See ya later, Peeps!!

XOXO Kerri