11 in 2011

11. Favorite Movie You Watched

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2

Hubby and I always wait to see the HP movies until our anniversary (July 19th). Sadly, this year was the last time we would be able to do so. On our way home we discussed how weird it will be that our children won't have the anticipation of a new HP book or movie coming out each year. Instead, they'll have them all readily available. I wonder if there will be a series huge like this when Nolan is older!

10. Favorite TV Series

This is always a tough question for me! I can never choose just one, but I think for 2011, it would be The Vampire Diaries. At the end of every episode I'm literally left saying, "WHAT?!?!" I don't know how they have a surprise at the end of almost every episode, but they do! Plus, Stephan isn't all that bad to look at, right?

9. Favorite Restaurant

Also tough to choose just one! I think I'll have to go with a local restaurant though, North Shore Grill. I love their crabcakes and salmon!

 
8. Favorite New Thing You've Tried
 This might sound silly, but we finally began planning our dinner menu for the week. What a difference that has made in our nightly routines! It makes life sooo much easier! 
I got the idea from this pin:

Then I changed it up a bit, so our menu looks like this:

7. Favorite Gift You Received

It's not necessarily a gift, but my favorite item I received this year was the Christmas card from my Hubby. He usually doesn't write much in cards, but this one was super special because of the things he wrote in it about the journey we've been through this year. And, of course, I wrote hardly anything in his this year as I was holding Nolan and finishing the card 5 minutes before exchanging gifts! *sigh*

6. Favorite Thing You Pinned

I love and made my own versions of these two onesies for my little guy. Such cute ideas! All of my favorite pins are baby related, shocker!

5. Favorite Blog Post

Let's Go Fishin'!
Flower Parts
I'm Still Here!
These are a few of my favorite blog posts from this year because they show some of my favorite games/projects that we do throughout the year. Of course, I had to include the Pete the Cat activities we did at the beginning of the year. Pete is one of my newest favorites!!

4. Favorite Accomplishment

Nolan Lee Cooper 
Need I say more?

3. Favorite Picture

There is an absolutely gorgeous photo that the photographer at the hospital took of Nolan that I LOVE, but we haven't received the CD yet, so this one will do:

and...since my little man is a WEEK old today, I was being a mommarazzi and got this SUPER CUTE shot:

I'm no photographer, so I get SUPER DUPER excited when I actually get a good photo! Someday I'd like to take a photography class and learn how to use a fancy-schmancy camera instead of just point & shoot digitals.
 

2. Favorite Memory

The birth of Nolan Lee. December 21, 2011 @ 12:12 pm 

I'm not sure if anything will ever top that one!

1. Goal for 2012

Get as much sleep as possible. Sleeping when the baby sleeps is hard; I want to get things done around the house instead! It's hard to just let things be when you have slight OCD.
I think my real goals for the year are
      1. Lose the baby weight (obviously)
      2. Find the balance between being a new Momma and going back to work in a few weeks. That will be interesting/difficult.
     3. Be the best Momma, wife, teacher I can be and realize that my best is all I can do...don't stress about it! Prioritize and do the best I can with the time/resources I have. Family comes first, then school.

Top 3 Posts of 2011

Fern Smith is having a linky party, and you're all invited! All you have to do is list your top 3 most viewed posts from 2011.
Here are my stats:
#3 Schedule
#2 Smartboard Calendar
and my #1 most viewed post of 2011 was...
Dollar Tree Goodies!
A big thank you to all who visited my blog over the past few months! I hope you all found something you could use in your own classroom :o)

Sight Word Roll & Graph

I guess this post is what will probably amount to my last post for the next 8 weeks or so since Thursday is my last day before I begin my maternity leave! Not that I've been that good about posting regularly this school year anyway; being pregnant zaps a lot of energy from you--especially the 3rd trimester. Baby Boy is scheduled to arrive December 21st, and I hardly think I'll have time or energy to be creating things for school much less posting them. So, this is my farewell for now (unless I come up with something else before Thursday!).

Anyway, here is a sight word roll & graph activity my kiddos will be working on during workshop this week along with the two previous units. Nothing fancy, but it does the trick! The words are from units 1-3 in Open Court for anyone else out there who uses that reading program. 
The large word cards are to insert into dice like these:

Please leave a comment if you use these!

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

December is definitely one of my FAVORITE months of the year. I LOVE Christmas, and I love the cute crafts I get to do with my students for them to take home as gifts for their families at the end of the month. Here are the first two Christmas crafts we've completed...hand/footprint Rudolphs and hand/footprint angels. I love pretty much any craft made out of their handprints and footprints because they're so small and adorable, but I especially love these two crafts because you don't have to prep much ahead of time during a busy time of year! Plus, just look at them; they turn out so darn adorable every year! I love the quirkiness of each one; they're special for sure! Moms and Dads are sure to cherish these cutesy Christmas crafts.

First up: Rudolph
1. Kids trace their shoe on brown construction paper (1/2 sheet of 9*12)
2. Cut out
3. Kids trace their hand on tan construction paper (1/2 sheet of 9*12 folded card-style)
4. Cut out
5. Glue antlers to back of face
6. Add googley eyes
7. Add red nose
8. Glitter up that nose so it shines! :o)
9. I glue the finished project onto red & green paper (girls & boys respectively), so they look neat instead of covered in dried up glue splotches. Then I add their names at the top and sometimes the year too.

Next up: Angels
1. Teacher traces socked feet of students on construction paper (9*12, this year I used pink for girls and blue for boys, but usually I do them all 1 color). **You need the definition of their toes for the bottom of the angel robe!**
2. Kids cut out
3. Glue tan circle on heels
4. Add googley eyes, pink yarn smile, and nose to face
5. Kids trace hands on white paper (1/2 sheet of 9*12 folded card-style)
6. Cut out
7. Glue
8. Cut yarn for each child to match length & color the best you can. Use tacky glue to adhere.
9. Tape halo to back of head
10. Spray completed angel with spray glitter to add a little extra magic! :o)
11. Add name & year to bottom of robe

I hope you enjoy these cuter than cute Christmas crafts as much as I do. Leave a message if you try them out! Or, better yet, leave a link to photos of your students' creations!