Friday afternoon I sat down during my planning time and made a list. I wrote down all the things I HOPED to get accomplished over Fall Break.
Today I'm linking up with
Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday to share what I've been up to this week.
I know most people try to spend their breaks on vacation somewhere exotic or even visiting family. Well, as much as I might enjoy laying around on the beach soaking up rays, I spent my week getting things done that I've been wanting to do for a while. I never have the time between teaching, children, dogs, sleeping...
So here goes.
My youngest daughter was baptized last Saturday. She turned 8 on October 1 and we planned her baptism so that my dad could attend.
It was a pretty low-key event. Just family and a few friends. Abbie wore the same baptism dress that I wore when I was 8. My mom had sewn it for me, so it has a vintage feel to it (since I'm pretty old now...). Her dad baptized and confirmed her.
Oh my goodness! I've been busy with pottery. My sweet friend, Brenda, owns The Pottery Room and decided to sponsor a booth at the annual craft fair again this year. She asked me if I would be interested in putting my monster mugs and jars in the booth. Of course I said yes. I have tons of monsters that I've been hoping to sell. This is a big event and is for local artists. Brenda said there will only be one other ceramic artist there, so I'm excited to see how well my monsters do. Since the event is in less than a month, I spent A LOT of my week creating more monsters. Now I just have to paint them all.
I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I have a hard time balancing my school/work and home life. Often my own kiddos get put on the back burner while I grade papers, write lesson plans, take a nap, etc. So I made it a point to spend some time with each of them this week.
MONDAY:
Jonathan is currently attending APSU (local university) and had a two day fall break. So he came over Monday and we spent the afternoon and evening together. He came to the pottery room with me and we made mugs together. He had more fun getting me messy than throwing pottery, but I had a great time with him. We hung out at home doing puzzles for a bit. He's such a nut! We even tried to go see the Back to the Future movies at the theater (except we were 10 days early - lol) so we ended up eating ice cream and talking for a while.
TUESDAY:
Sammy and I took a trip to Nashville to search for the supplies for Halloween costumes. Unfortunately, Clarksville does not have a Joann's Fabrics store. We ended up with lots of material and even scored at Goodwill - finding these hideous, yet perfect, clothes for a mad hatter costume! All that shopping made us hungry, so we grabbed some lunch before heading back home.
THURSDAY:
Derek's favorite thing to do - EVER - is read. So we went to the library. he was in heaven. He took as long as he wanted to search for new books by authors he hasn't read before. He only ended up checking out two books, but he's been telling me all about them since. He started reading the first on as soon as we got back in the car! Of course, we had to get something to eat, so we went to Fazoli's for lunch. He ate more than I did! Definitely a growing boy.
FRIDAY:
That's today. After I write this blog post, Abbie and I will be going to The Pottery Room. She is my little shadow when it comes to pottery. She has been asking me (repeatedly) to teach her how to make something on the wheel, so I've decided today will be the day!
You know how when you look at an older TpT product that you thought was SO AMAZING at the time and you cringe because it looks so outdated? Well, I started looking through a bunch of my older products this week. One of my favorites is the
Scientific Process Skills Posters. I have them hanging in my classroom above the cabinets.
They are bright and colorful, but pretty simplistic. The clip art is decent, the fonts are basic, and the overall design is outdated. So this week I got to work updating these posters. I changed the fonts, purchased a new set of hilarious science clip art from
Ron Leishman Digital Toonage, and adjusted the layout a bit. I even designed several different color schemes so that buyers have more choices. I have to admit that I am over the moon with how they turned out! I hope other people will like them as much as I do.
I've already printed them out and have them ready to laminate so I can hang them up on the wall. I'm super excited about how they turned out! I'm thinking I might mount them onto colored paper so they "POP" a bit more on my white walls. If you like them, check them out in
my TpT store and grab yourself a set. They're great for decorating a science wall or even reinforcing these important science process skills during a lesson.
Just writing this post has me a bit overwhelmed. I sure did accomplish a lot this week. And I still have the weekend! Believe it or not, I actually made time for several other miscellaneous projects this week...
Project #1: New table group signs. My original ones were a bit too large and kept getting knocked off the tables, so I made them smaller. I also created matching signs for the bucket of supplies I have at each table.
Project #2: It's kind of a "cheat" since it's a spin-off of the last one, but I have been meaning to create a couple signs for my classroom. I wanted one to hang with my lesson plans so administrators can find my plans when they come around to check them each week. I also made a little sign for my pencil sharpener. (I don't allow pencils to be sharpened during class.)
Project #3: My daughter is in love with cats and had pretty much worn out her old "blankie" so I put used some adorable flannel material to make her a new blanket. It's nothing fancy, but I KNOW she will get some use out of it. Plus, this is officially the FIRST thing I have sewn using my awesome new-ish sewing machine that my wonderful husband bought me LAST YEAR for Christmas. (yikes)
Project #4: Girls on the Run para cord bracelets. I wanted to make something for the girls on my team to wear as a constant reminder to keep "plugged in" to their positive GOTR power cords. We talk about positive self-talk and self-esteem a lot during our practices. I thought these bright bracelets would be a great way to remember the things we have learned this season.
Project #5: BooKoo. Ever heard of it? I hadn't. I was considering trying to put together a garage sale this week, but every time I thought about it I decided it was too much work. One of my friends suggested I post items for sale on
BooKoo. It's basically an online yard sale. Similar to Craigslist. So I created an account and posted several bundles of trade books for sale. Since I no longer teach reading, I've decided to part with my classroom library.
Project #6: Bulldog jars. One of my friends form another school asked me to make bulldog jars for her. The mascot for her school is a bulldog and she wanted to give these as gifts to a couple people at her school. I made them from raw clay a few weeks ago, but finally got around to painting and firing them. I think they turned out super cute!!!
So, that's my week!
What did YOU accomplish this week?
Head over to the
Doodle Bugs Teaching Linky to read more or add your own link!
