A little of this, A little of that

It has been such a busy week.  In the midst of research meetings, the grading of assessments, and book review meetings there has been little down time!  Smack dab in the middle of this week was faculty food day at Paxton.  And I had to stick to that darn goal from the beginning of the year... I had to make something.  Although- at about 9:00 when I finally got home from the day, the idea of going out and buying a box of sprinkle frosted cookies was sounding preeeetttyyyyy good.  Anyway, I found this idea from my lovely friend Jordon, who made a Halloween version of these treats.  I decided to take the Valentines Day approach.

What you need:

Pretzels

Kisses

M&Ms

Heat oven to 350, and cover a cookie sheet with foil.  Spread pretzels out and place a kiss on top of each.  (The unwrapping takes the longest)

 Put in oven and cook for about two minutes.  Take them out and press an M&M into the center.  (That's the fun part)  Chill in the fridge and enjoy!

Sweet, salty and crunchy.  Nums. 

Also, I got a chance to go to a book review of the new award winners for next year.  Basically-my heaven.  Oh gosh, that sounds so old lady-ish...  Crap.  Needless to say, my book wishlist on Amazon doubled.  Here are just a few favorites:  

Pierre the Penguin

Spork

The Can Man

Who Will Plant a Tree?

Stuck

Think I better start buying stock in publishing companies.  Now.. back to grading.   :)

The Giving Tree!

 I found this idea on Pinterest, but thought it was a long shot since my painting skills are pretty much non-existent, and the patience it would take to glue on all the buttons could potentially drive me crazy.  Alas, I had to give it a try.  I started with a blank canvas (thanks Kate), brown acrylic paint, and a jumbo box of assorted buttons.  Two hours later, this is what I ended up with:  

Naked tree!

And then....

Finished tree!

Very simple, and less frustrating than I imagined.

Now, cheers to a full week of school!

Where'd the money go?

So I have a friend, with an amazing voice.  Like.. real great.  And if you know me, I don't quite have the windpipes of an angel. But in my dreams (or car).. I would be able to blow the roof off this song, like 

Kat(e)(ie) and Sara.  

Thanks Kat!  

Whatever Micaela wants....

I know that Christmas is over... but I can't help but fill up the "I want" section of my Pinterest board lately.  I'm not sure what has gotten into me.   Ha!

 So here I give you what I like to call, "Micaela's birthday list... (72 days in advance.)"

That's right.. a bean bag bed with built in bean bag blanket and bean bag pillow.  

Dinosaur socks

So your crackers don't get soggy too soon.  

Thisneedsnocaption

Perfect size!

To make grading papers so much easier.  

A tool AND a toy!

Now if anyone needs my address to mail gifts, please let me know.  ;)  

Nom Nom Nom... I Eat Pages

I have been meaning to blog about this for awhile, yet I had to wait in order not to spoil the surprise for all my fellow teacher friends out there reading this.  In order to be less 'scrooge-ish' this year, I decided to make gifts for my colleagues... and I made this decision the night before the last day of school before break... whoops. So I resorted to Pinterest and found a super easy, quick and inexpensive gift: monster book marks.  

Sweet, huh?

Well, I could not for the life of me find a link that led me to the instructions, so I thought back to my glory days in high school.  Thank you Erica for letting me have the opportunity to experiment with many different ways of folding up notes to pass in British Literature class.  :)  

 Add a bit of glue, googly eyes and two white triangles for teeth and Viola!

Monsters!

I'll leave you with this, because I have the cutest nephew ever.

Now, I need to go pack my lunch and come to terms with the fact that school starts again tomorrow.  Where on earth does the time go?  

Oh, Oh... It's Magic!

My college professors always preached that teaching was equally a science and an art.  I have come to terms with this idea through the last two years and I can say with 100% confidence that teaching ten year olds the week before Christmas is definitely an art.  It's all about survival, ladies and gentlemen!  

Today I decided to try an experiment I saw on Pinterest... and, it's magic.  Everyone likes a little Christmas magic, right?  

Start with a plate of milk.  (Skim milk works best.)  

Drop about four-five drops of food coloring into the center of the milk.  

Then, take a dropper and drop a single drop of dish soap into the center of the dye.  

Annnndddd.. Instantly:  

BAM!  You can only imagine the shrieks that occurred in Room 209 after this.  

Now to make this even more festive, I had each child cut out a coffee filter snowflake and dip it into this magical liquid.  Now our snowflakes turned out a littttle more brown, but here's the jist:  

Now, watch the magic for yourself:  

Enjoy!

Fiesta!

I frequently tell my roommate Rosie that I could eat salsa with a spoon.  And.. confession, sometimes I do.  A fellow fifth grade teacher makes THE BEST salsa in the world.  It's delish.  Yesterday, I decided to give it a go.  And let me preface this recipe with the fact I had to text my mother in a frenzy so she could go over the difference between diced, minced, chopped and sliced.  (Her response:  Just cut it all the same!)

12 oz. can sweet yellow corn, drained

15 oz. can black beans, drained, rinsed

1 c. grape tomatoes, sliced

14.5 oz. can Italian-style diced tomatoes, drained

1 bunch cilantro, minced

1 red onion, minced

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 large avocado, diced 

1/4 c. lime juice

1/4 c. olive oil

Basically chop everything up and mix together.  

Now, next time I make this.. I promise not to forget chips at the grocery store and cause myself to make an extra trip to the store.  Classic mistake.  

In other news:  Three more days of school and eight days until Christmas!  

Now.. All I need is this wrapping paper to wrap all my gifts!  Ha!!