Mini pumpkin pies

 I wanted to try something new for a christmas party we were going to. It was a pot luck with grab and go appetizers and I was in charge of a dessert. I thought it would be a good idea to make mini pumpkin pies instead of a large one that needs to be cut, put on a plate and eaten with a fork. 
These minis were great finger foods and a big hit at the party!


First, I rolled out the pre made pie crust onto a cutting board. 
Then, using a wine glass I cut out circles. Of course, if you have cookie cutters, that works too. 

 Using a non-stick cupcake pan I put the circles into each spot. 

 using the left over dough, I balled it together and rolled it out again to cut out more circles. 

 Simply fill each one with your favorite pumpkin pie recipe, cook to directions and ENJOY :)

Hallway Christmas Decorations: Santa's Sleigh

During the holiday season my elementary school staff has a door decorating contest. There is a prize for the best door and the best hallway. 
Since my 4th grade hallway had 8 doors in it, we decided to turn the hallway into Santa's sleigh. 

Rudolph was of course leading the pack. 

To make each reindeer we put butcher paper on the board to trace an enlarged projected image of one from the internet. Cut it out and then retraced it 7 more times for each door. 

We each took a picture of ourselves to post on the head of our reindeer--we tried to make a face to go along with the personality of the reindeer we had. 

And topped off our face with a puffball nose. 

And, of course, Santa at the end leading his team. 

We got second place :)

Baby gender reveal

My co-teaching partner, Kiran, is having a baby! I convinced her to let me do a gender reveal photo shoot for her. Her and her husband own a party store PARTYlicious, so getting all the supplies was free :) 

At first she wanted to fill a piñata with candy colored the gender of her baby, but I thought about a confetti popper would be better. 

The poppers only came in bold colors; blue, yellow, USA and red. This would be challenging to do if it happened to be a girl. 

We bought 2 poppers with white papers inside, tissue paper and confetti colored in both colors. I was going to replace the inside of the popper when I found out the gender. 

She had her ultra sound doctor put the gender on a piece of paper in a sealed envelope to give to me. 

supplies: (all found at a party store)

tissue paper (only a few pieces to fill the tube, I over estimated :) )

metallic grass

paper cutter or scissors

confetti popper

black contact paper

 The popper has a foil cover, this is not needed, remove it to take out the confetti.

 Cut the tissue paper and grass into small pieces. Try inserting the confetti into the tube in stacks like this, so more can fit in. 

 Cover the tube with tin foil 

 

Cover the tube with black chalkboard contact paper. 

 Decorate the outside to make them suspicious :)

Let the magic happen :)

Clearly...IT'S A GIRL :)

Rodeo Drive themed hallway

The theme of my school this year is "Setting the Stage for Success" Each grade level was to decorate their hallway like a different street in Hollywood. We got Rodeo Drive! Home of wonderful shopping!

We had the idea to get bags and use them as the backdrop displaying student work in the hallway. 

SO, I went to a local mall and asked stores if they could donate bags to our school for this purpose. Many said no, or were only able to give a few. Some stores said their bags were too expensive themselves to give away. 

 Guess: this store was VERY generous to give me almost 40 bags! 

Cache

Lacoste 

Burberry 

 We had a few parents make us awnings to go over our doors like the awnings on the real Rodeo Drive.  

classroom after first quarter

After a few months of getting everything settled in and FINALLY getting my books from North Carolina storage, my classroom is coming together! I still want to move a few things around to make it more organized, but this is how it looks now. 

My cafe board for Daily 5. You can purchase these cards on my TPT : Daily 5 CAFE board visuals 

Reading nook

I have organized all my books by the Fountas & Pinnell guided reading levels. Each level has its own box. Each book has the level written on it so students know how to put the books back. 

My classroom behavior is 100% classdojo.com ! I have created a reward system that students earn weekly. Through this website parents are able to monitor their child's behavior throughout the day and quickly reinforce it at home. I made specific behaviors for my class that I want them to work on, or strive for. This helps make it specific to what they are doing for their parents to help at home. 

Saw this idea on Pinterest of course! Each student's birthday is on a small clothes pin organized by the month. 

Salt Dough Maps

This was an extreme task! In previous years my school sent this home for a take home project. This year we decided to create them at school. The kids really enjoyed this, and they learned so much in the process of making them.
We had students make the dough at home and bring it to school to create.

YOU WILL NEED:

1  salt

2 cups of flour

¾ cup of water

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a large bowl mix salt and flour together.
2. Gradually stir in water. Mix well until it forms a doughy consistency. ** it is VERY important not to add too much water!! Gradually add it in, even if you don't use all the water, it is better. If the dough is not the consistency of rollout sugar cookies, it is too wet! add more flour!

Turn the dough and kneed with your hands until smooth and combine.

THe purpose of this project was for students to learn the landforms, regions and locations in the state of Texas. Instead of taking notes, drawing maps and studying maps in the textbook, we create a 3D map that students had to make on their own. 

We started with tracing the state on a piece of cardboard (We made a template from a manilla file folder--about a square foot in size) (the cardboard was brought in by students, varying sizes. The foam poster board works great.  

Students took their salt dough that they made at home and spread it within the traced state on their board. for those that brought dough that was too wet, we cut a hole in the corner of the bag and dispensed the dough like icing.

Students then made mountains and the escarpment lines in the dough. 

If you choose to have the students make the dough at home, bring extra flour to school incase some are too wet. It was nearly impossible and VERY messy for student to make their map if their dough was not the right consistency. After the dough dried for a day or 2, we painted the regions using acrylic paint and foam brushes.

 We painted in the major rivers and the Gulf of Mexico with blue paint. Labels were made to add to the map. Major cities, rivers, landforms and bordering states. Students had to draw the borders of the states around Texas, add a compass rose, and create a key for the colors in their map to correctly label the regions.