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1/31/2017

Black History Month Bulletin Board Giveaway!

Happy First Day of Black History Month!! In celebration, today I'm bringing you the deets on my cutie cute new Black History Month Trivia Bulletin Board, AND I'm giving one away! WOO!


If you've been here before, you know that I'm not in the schools anymore. I'm rocking the SAHM life and so grateful for that opportunity. But sometimes I miss being in the schools! Lucky for me, my bestie still works at a local elementary school and she "lets" me do her bulletin boards for her! I say "lets" because I LOOOVE it and it's totally not her thing, plus she has all the - you know - TEACHING to do, so really it's a win for both of us.


Every time I dig into our history of slavery and the Civil Rights movement, I'm awed and honored all over again. The things these people endured are INCREDIBLE. Did you know that at age SIXTEEN, Booker T. Washington walked over 500 miles to college? When he arrived, the understandably apprehensive headmaster asked him to sweep the floors. He did such an incredible job sweeping, mopping, dusting, and washing the walls (all several times), that she admitted him to the school and allowed him to work through college as a janitor. I do not know a single teenager with that much drive.


So! I see it as a big responsibility and incredible privilege to share pieces of our history with our students! While this board is FAR from comprehensive, it is a perfect little peek at simple interesting bits of information that will hopefully pique the interest of our young minds!

I wanted to have a few different types of questions, so I decided on three approaches:

1. "I Statements" in first person, describing an overall descriptive fact about each of my ten historical figures: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Thurgood Marshall, Harriett Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ruby Bridges, Frederick Douglass, and Jackie Robinson. In the packet, the question and answer cards are on the same page for simplicity's sake.


2. Quotes from each individual. These quotes are actually pretty tricky, but some make a lot of sense once you think about them. They are great topics for discussion. Several really got me thinking.



3. Word Scramble. While unscrambling words is not necessarily specific to the individual historical figures of the board, I just couldn't continue to pass over these words during my reading without plugging them into this activity. The question cards have a scrambled word + the definition. The answer cards restate the definition and use it in context, specifically referring to one of our displayed historical figures. Fancy pants!




Finally, of course, the set includes the extra little tid bits you'll need to bring the board together: The title letters, the "black history month trivia" poster, and the Melonheadz "headshots" of each historical figure!




What do you think? Are you ready to win your own?? Simply enter the Rafflecopter below as many times as you'd like. The winner will be announced Saturday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out more great ideas for Black History Month with my friends below! Feel free to link up your blog post and/or giveaway. [No product posts please.]



1/25/2017

Marbleized Glitter Hearts!

So I'm a big fan of cutesy crafty projects that require minimal effort but result in big fun. This is one of those projects. I found marble painting on Pinterest last year and I've used the same concept several times since. They're all materials I have on hand and there is seriously almost NO clean up. You're welcome.

disclosure: this post contains affiliate links.
Valentine's Day is coming up, so we decided to kick off the festivities with this quick and easy craft while I made dinner! Yes, it's easy enough to multi-task (although hubs was around for this one, too).

For our marble hearts, I drew a few very meticulous [and by that I mean not at all meticulous] hearts on construction paper. It took .5 seconds. Excruciating prep work, right? Beckett and I cut out our hearts together, which was definitely the most challenging part of this task, but three year olds love scissors and they need the fine motor practice, so I'm calling this a huge win! Then I simply throw a heart into the same Rubbermaid Takealong I've used before.


Then the fun part! I hand Beckett a couple of squeezable acrylic paints (we always have a large stock of these) and he squeezes straight into the bin! No paint brushes, no paper plates of paint, very little chance of paint getting anywhere you don't want it to be. Are we besties, yet?




Once they've squeezed their colors on, throw in a few rubber bouncing balls, close the lid (triple check this) and then SHAKE! Shake shake shake! Kidz Bop helps this situation. Also, Dad was in on this craft with us and he makes everything more fun.




Shake as long as it entertains them. Because it's easy and mess free.

When you pull your heart (or shape of choice) out, it will a fun marble paint effect! We added glitter to ours, right in the bin as to eliminate the danger of glitter-splosion in the house.



Then I carefully transferred the heart to a paper plate to dry, and we started again! Once we're done, for clean up I simply leave the Rubbermaid out to dry with the paint right in it. No need to wash because I'll be repeating this project for every shape I can think of until Buck & Chuck are no longer entertained.


I hope you have fun with this one! Let me know how you switch it up!
1/08/2017

There's A Snowball In My Fireplace


Does anybody else spent 30 minutes gladiating potty breaks and bundling kids and coercing them outside all while trying not to melt from overexertion because you're wearing twenty-seven layers of your own, only to get out and decide exactly 4 minutes later that it's time to come back in? No? Me either.


We had our first snow here this season and we spent the last two days forcing bundling kids to go outside and endure enjoy a few minutes of playing in the snow. We did the sledding thing for a while and also broke out our little people and built snow villages on the deck. Cute, right? Because we're totally all about freezing temperatures. No issues. I love the feeling like my face is going to fall off. Charlie does too. That's her crying. They are totally tears of joy, though.


But just incase you are not up for enduring all 12 degrees of delight we've got going on here in East Tennessee, but still want to get in some snow fun, I've got you covered. Here are 3 fun activities we did with actual snow we scooped off the deck and welcomed into our warm abode.


First we just scooped a bunch of snow into containers and gave it to the kids on our kitchen floor. This entertained them for.ev.er. No organization, no structure, just playing with snow on the floor. Because why not? They mostly scooped and poured and re-scooped. I gave them our little people arctic animals so that they could incorporate them into their little imaginative scenarios. We'd talked earlier about how these animals like cold, and talked about how we have to wear coats & mittens, but they don't! This was an ideal activity. Fun, simple, and very easy cleanup.


Next we tossed our leftover snow into a pot and examined it. We talked about what it looked, felt, and tasted like and guessed what it would do if we left it for a long time in that pan. Beckett just kept repeating my question. He didn't really get the concept of prediction. Later, once it had melted, he was AH-MAZED that it had turned to water. It's magic, ya'll. The kids both kept giggling and tasting it. We talked about how the snow turned to water when it came into the warm house, and we observed the bits of leftover snow/ice floating in pan.


This one was our favorite. We decided to pack a snowball and guess what would happen if we put it in the fire. Beckett guessed that it would get bigger (dad may have had something to do with that guess) but none of us guessed it would last as long as it did. The snowballs took at LEAST 4 or 5 minutes to melt. They really put up a fight! They also put off a bit of steam and made some sizzling sounds that both made for fun observations. The kids loved this activity so much, we did it a second time!

What fun snow-related activities are you doing this week? I'd love to hear your ideas! We'll be spending the rest of this week doing fun snow-related play-based activities! Keep up with us on Facebook & Instagram!

New Year, New [Blogger] Me


I'm really good at declaring I'll make huge changes and commitments that I can't live up to. It's my spiritual gift. So it wouldn't be a successful New Year if I didn't make a list of cliche resolutions that I may or may not eventually raincheck to 2018. 

This year I will:
1. Be healthier
2. Read more
3. Stick to a budget 
4. Pay more attention to my blog

Anybody else? 

So here I am, gung-ho to rejuvenate my blogger self with a fancy face-lift and a color-coded bloggy calendar. What do you think about my new look? I'm definitely going to stick to it this time. Probably. Maybe. 



This blog has always been about teachery stuff. And it still will be, but hopefully you'll also get to know ME a little better, because the goal is to bring you into the fold of my crazy sweet adventures with my two favorite littles: Beckett and Charlie Grace, affectionally known as Buck And Chuck.

Welcome!