A Little Taste of Coffee

Friday, 20 November 2020 No comments

Well, I have a confession to make.....I'm not a coffee drinker. 🙈 I know, I know. How can I be a teacher and not drink coffee, right?! HAHA In all seriousness, I just never found anything I liked, but I was ready for some morning caffeine in my life. So, some of my Teacher Besties and I had a coffee tasting party!

I asked all of the friends who were coming to bring some of their favorite coffee flavors and creamer to set me up for some real taste testing. My friend Andrea keeps a Keurig in her classroom (plus she has a couch!), so we gathered for some morning drinks and so they could help me out with all this new coffee stuff. She even let me use her cute cat mug! 🐱

I was amazed at all the flavors you can get in coffee and creamer! They had a great variety, so it was an awesome way for me to try the coffee black, or add some flavored creamers to sweeten things up a little.

After all the taste testing, I was shocked at the verdict! I LIKE COFFEE! I never thought I'd actually find a coffee I liked, but I did. My choice of drink this morning was Starbucks Toffeenut with a little French Vanilla creamer.

I think this was a great starting point as I venture into the world of coffee. There are so many other products and flavors out there, and I'm excited to try it all! This post may seem silly to some, but in the middle of Pandemic Teaching, I'm thrilled to find these happy moments with my Teacher Besties.

It's Turkey Time!

Tuesday, 17 November 2020 No comments

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and this is our last week before Thanksgiving break! This is the first year we have ever gotten a full week off during the week of Thanksgiving and with the way this year is going, it is well deserved.

This year has been a very stressful one. I'm exhausted. The kids are exhausted. We all just want to get back to school and some normalcy, but it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel right now. I decided to keep things fun this week and send my kiddos some projects they could enjoy as we head into the holiday break.

There are LOTS of fun activities out there and I hate that all my students aren't at school with me for us to fully enjoy them. To kick things up a notch, I chose five of my favorite craftivities to send home this week. Here's a little more about them and where you can get them to use in your own classroom!

1. Thankful Turkey

2. Thanksgiving Plate Craftivity

3. Thankful Paper Bag Book

4. Pilgrim/Indian Hat

Here are the kids wearing their hats last year. These are some that we have drawn and use each year, but you can find some cute ones on TPT.

5. Virtual Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

This activity is so cute and one of my favorite holiday activities each year! I plan to do it virtually this year. I will show the "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" original cartoon and have already sent the snacks home for them to enjoy during out live Google Meet!

It's definitely been a tough year, but I have found a way to modify all our favorite holiday activities so far. I am doing my best to remain positive and keep things exciting for my kiddos during this pandemic. Christmas is just around the corner, so I'm already working to create some fun, educational lessons for my class.

Tie-Dye T-Shirt Fun!

Saturday, 7 November 2020 No comments

Oh my gosh! This is one of my favorite projects we do every school year! The kids are always so amazed at how their shirts turn out and when they realize they actually created it. It's such a fun memory for everyone.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that tie-dying t-shirts with 20 or more 5-year-old sounds scary. But if you plan everything out and do the prep work ahead of time, it will work out. And having at least one extra pair of hands (I'm so thankful for my classroom assistant) will also help! haha

Usually I have the kids bring in a new white t-shirt in their size and write their name on the collar. I also decide how I'm going to tie the shirts (lots of cute ideas on Pinterest) to get a design and twist and rubber band around them in advance. Once I have the rubber bands on the shirt, I place it in a gallon zip lock bag with the child's name so I know it is their shirt and can be organized when it's time for the real fun. This also allows me to be prepared with a bag to place their shirt after they apply the dye and it's wet.

Some other things I always have are some plastic disposable aprons, gloves, paper towels, and a trash bag handy to help manage the mess and for cleanup. When it is their turn, the kids wear an apron (I try to use it for more than one kid since they usually don't get dirty), gloves, and I always use some sort of container for them to place their shirt in and squirt the dye on it. This helps contain the mess.

Once the shirts are done, I send them home with the kiddos and a sheet of directions for their parents about rinsing and washing the shirt. You can find a copy of the instructions here in my TPT store. I really like for them to be able to take their shirt home and do this part so they get the full experience of the process. In the past, I have done orange and white shirts and painted jack-o-lantern faces on the front. Then, I started doing orange, yellow, and white (think candy corn!) and painting the jack-o-lantern faces on the front with fabric paint once they send them back to school. I always do this in the fall and we wear them on our first field trip of the year, which is usually to a pumpkin patch or farm.

Unfortunately, 2020 had different plans for us. No field trips will be happening anytime soon, but I still wanted the kids to have the fun experience of creating a tie dye shirt. So, we went ahead with the orange and yellow dye, but we didn't paint faces on them so they could wear them anytime. We got to go to school face-to-face for a few weeks, so I was able to do this project just in time for them to take the shirts home and rinse and wash them.

Tie-dying shirts is a fun project to do anytime of year. Any color of dye would be perfect and you can pair your colors to whatever occasion you might be celebrating!