My First Five for Friday! And shout-out to local businesses!

Wait, it's FRIDAY?!  Hmm.  Sure doesn't feel like a Friday to me.  Our county hasn't had school AT ALL this week!  We had a work day on Monday and then... bam! Snow, freezing temperatures, ice, ice, ice- brrr!  While I have loovveeeddd sleeping in, drinking coffee on the coach with my bff Robin Meade and leisurely stalking some blogs online, I have missed my kids!  I bet we're going to be in for a rude awakening come next week with a back-to-normal schedule (haven't had one of those since 2013!) on a five day week.  Oh the thought of my alarm clock is just making me yawn...

Anyway, I'm joining up with Kacey and her super adorable first grade blog- Doodle Bugs Teaching for a five for Friday Linky party- my first one!

My first of the five things for today's Friday thoughts is about a few of my favorite local businesses in downtown Harrisonburg. (Catch all of that alliteration?!)  Now, let me start off by saying that I have grown up surrounded by local businesses.  My paw paw owns a well known carpet business in Harrisonburg and my dad worked for himself through his own electrical business for years.  I've grown up respecting small, local businesses and continue to do my best to show my support to them as the world becomes more globalized. My Aunt DD has specifically shown me this appreciation and chooses to shop more local than commercial.  When we were planning my wedding this past summer, we tried our hardest to support local vendors and businesses. My dress, jewelry, invitations, location, decorations (mostly made by me) and nearly all other details were a product of local businesses.  I formed great relationships with many of these small shop owners and am happy to call many of them my friends!

My first favorite store downtown will soon be closing their doors.  The store is called "Mint" and specializes in unique and upbeat clothing, accessories, and gifts.  Many of my favorite pieces of clothing, mostly dresses, come from this shop.  Joel knows that if I have a bad day and need to go retail therapy shopping, that I would probably end up at Mint, snagging a cute new dress :)

About these photos: A top and two dresses from last spring: A VA necklace- a Christmas gift from Joel (he got the hint!) and my latest coral red dress... I paired it with black and tight and black suede cowgirl boots.

The second store is right beside Mint and is called RubyRed Shoe Boutique.  Tracy, the store's super bubbly and personable owner, has an adorable store for any girl who possesses a fond taste of great shoes, fun accessories, and a heart for the Wizard of Oz. My super beautiful wedding shoes came from RubyRed as well as many of most beloved accessories... bows, earrings, headbands, scarves, statement necklaces.... Oh, and she even carries Lindsey Philips ballet flats that are seriously known as "the most comfortable shoe for teachers ever." Not kidding.  One shall not joke about shoes.  (Wedding shoe photo cred to my wonderful wedding photographer, Gayle Driver)

The third store that I adore downtown is right in the same complex as the above two- The Lady Jane. Sara is probably one of the nicest people I've ever met- and she's a former teacher! Her store is perfect for those of us who love romantic, vintage pieces to fill our homes with.  I cannot wait until Joel and I upgrade to space a bit larger than our current one so I can fill it with some of her lovely vintage pieces.  (Oh, and she has a thing for the colors mint and teal, two of my staple colors in life!) The Lady Jane also has a blog you can follow for all of your DIY, vintagey, lovely projects ;) I snagged those super cute flower wall hooks to use by our front door... his and hers... precious, I know! (Note our wedding invitation...)

And my last favorite local store, Polished, sadly closed just last night.  Growing up with my mother and Aunt DD, I have come to love and appreciate great jewelry- especially sterling silver!  Melanie had wonderful, beautiful sterling silver jewelry, charming estate pieces, and began to carry freshwater pearls.  I bought my flower girls' little peach pearl bracelets from Melanie as well as the pearl bracelets for my mom and mother-in-law as wedding gifts.  My sister and I ventured out in the extreme cold (seriously, I'm not exaggerating) to bid the store farewell.  While this isn't the best instagram photo, I bought a pair of gray Honora pearls and spoiled my sister with a pair of pink pearls- I love that girl!

Here is my loot from today's snow day adventure: floral/GIRAFFE scarf from RubyRed, Tuscan/Van Gogh inspired scarf from RubyRed, pleated black and white swan patterned skirt from Mint, and a gray/mint knitted infinity scarf from Mint.  What can I say, I'm a scarf girl!   

  

Okay, back on track. My second five for Friday is about a super exciting whole school writing project we're about to start next month.  My principal asked me to head up a new writing committee to plan more writing activities for our school.  What better month to write during than February?! I'm sure your classrooms are overflowing with secret love notes this time of year! (Unless you've had an umpteen amount of snow days!) The committee and I gathered and brainstormed something fun, Valentine's themed, and special to get the kids writing.  We came up with "Letters of Encouragement."  The idea is simple.  Each student will write a letter of encouragement to a student in the below grade level.  They can offer advice, give them a few "know-hows" or anything else- as long as they are positive and upbeat!  These letters are passed down and then those kids will write a thank you letter response back.  I made these super cute letter templates for each grade level to use.  You can check out the whole bundle in my store.

I don't know about you, but I can't stand to throw anything away.  I don't think I'm a hoarder or anything... yet.  But now that I'm on my own and am getting my/our own mail, (that doesn't include those terrible bills) I had no idea what I was supposed to do with all of those cute announcements and stuff that was stuffed in our little mailbox.  I didn't want to throw away those cards when I knew my friends had put in time, money, love, and maybe even stress into designing them!  Joel's granddad also loves to send us hand written letters, cards, and captured photos so I needed a home for all of those things too! So, I bought a few photo albums and decided to keep one for each year, kinda like a living scrapbook/photo album. (But let's be real, we all know shutterfly is the way to go for photo albums these days!)  So I present below, a living collection for all of those mailed items that I couldn't bear to throw away! 

Fourth, whew, I'm writing a book.  Well just in case you didn't know... I LOVE Disney.  Growing up, I introduced myself to people as "Belle" because, well, I knew in my heart that I really was Belle.  I still love princesses, happy endings, fairy dust, and all of the magical splendor that is known as Disney... But what makes loving Disney even more special is sharing all of the magic with my husband!  In fact, we even went to Disney World for our honeymoon.  We had breakfast with the princesses and dinner in Beast's castle and everything was just so... magical.  (Sigh...) We've spent much of this week watching Disney movies on Netflix AND we just came home from seeing Frozen in theaters- awesome movie, I LOVE Idina Menzel.  (The movie was very appropriate considering our current temperature is 12 degrees outside- FREEZING!)

Five: the finale.  I am finally looking forward to a normal week with my kiddos!  Now, of course we will have a few schedule changes but for the most part, a normal week!  (If Mother Nature can contain herself... or do I mean Elsa?) Anyway, I'm hoping to finally get back into the swing of things and start a bunch of new units- and document them with photos as well! We will be starting geometry in Math, finishing up inferring in Reading, writing one last five paragraph paper before our local Writing SOL in March, and taking a break from Science while we introduce the American Revolution in Virginia Studies.  I have a lot planned, a lot of dust to wipe off my unit plans, and hopefully some smiling kids ready for a new week together!  The only thing I need to do before Monday morning is to finish laminating my math center games for the kids to use as review throughout the week.  

I think that's it for now!  We are off to Joel's parents tomorrow for the weekend.  I love spending time with family.  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

xoxo, farren

Snow day!!!!!!

Now that I'm a teacher, I'm CONVINCED that teachers get more excited about snow days than students.  My sister is currently a senior and while she's excited about sleeping in and not doing/completing her homework, I get excited about going to back to bed (we're pretty similar in that sense), having Coco Wheats for breakfast (she probably had those too), drinking coffee from a REAL mug (nothing better...) and getting caught up on cleaning, laundry, and making new stuff for my kiddos-all while Teen Mom 2 reruns play in the background...

I love being creative so whenever Mother Nature blesses me with a snow day (or two?!) I find myself channeling my inner creative self to create or craft or design or...

take pictures :)

For those of you who don't know me, I LOVE photos.  I've been taking photos on the side for close friends and family members for a few years now.  My dad totally surprised me my senior year of high school by trading some electrical work for a Cannon 20D.  That thing quickly became my best friend.  I captured some great memories with that wonderful camera but was so thankful when Joel upgraded my slooowwww, old camera to a Nikon D3100. That was also a HUGE surprise from the hubster.  What a lucky gal I am.  Here are some snow photos of today's snow day! (Okay technically, the first one is from a few weeks ago... but it still fits in with the whole "snow" theme!)

                            

In another news, it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL outside now.  The snow is currently blustering around in ever which way.  I love how the snow forces (most) of us to slow down, take a deep breath, and relax.  Life gets crazy and fast paced, but a good snow storm can remind us to take time for us and our life's needs... like completing report cards, cleaning the bathroom, organizing the kitchen, and of course some snow day baking.  Enjoy the weather my friends!

Hello, 2014!! (And my first currently post!)

Whew.... I feel like I still haven't caught my breath from everything that happened in 2013: my husband graduated, I completed my first year teaching, (and first year with SOL's!)  I moved into my own place, I got MARRIED, went to Disney World on our honeymoon, and began my second year teaching while being a head coach for a high school cheerleading comp team... okay time to take a breath....

 Our county put us back to school yesterday, the second, buttttt Mother Nature must have thought that one day was enough for us this week so I am currently enjoying a snow day today.  Ahh.... there is something so relaxing about drinking coffee from the couch at 10 in the morning with the roads covered in snow ice.

Anyway, I'm attempting my first currently and *hoping* that I have linked up successfully with Farly from Oh' Boy 4th Grade.  I remember reading her blog when I first found out I was teaching 4th grade and thinking "Oh my gosh.... how do people do that?!" Well two years later, I hoping to join this fun, blogging word!  

I have so many great things planned for my kiddos for January.  Our school always participates with One Book One School in January which the kids love!  If you are unfamiliar with this program, it is an awesome way to involve each grade level with reading the same book.  When I student taught, the book was Charlotte's Web, last year, my first year teaching, we all read The Boxcar Children and this year we are reading the super cute book, The World According to Humphrey.  Our school has planned some super cute things to go with this book like having two real hamsters in the library!  (Our principal even took them home over break so they already have a great bond with the guy in charge!)  Our librarian plans on putting them in those ball things to let them roll around the library.  Hopefully none of the kids try to play kickball! ;)  We are assigned daily chapters to read with our class and then we can do whatever activities with them that will best fit our  needs.  Each class also gets a stuffed hamster with a bag with a journal for the kids to write in.  Each evening, Humphrey goes home with a different friend for them to write about their evening in the eyes of the hamster.  The school will also have daily comprehension questions, enrichment activities for kids to do at home with parents (to be entered in some drawings) and fun assemblies.  I think this book is perfect for my Reading class and I'm excited to share this book with them.  We just finished Sarah Plain and Tall and focused on comprehension (check out my comprehension bookmarks here) For this book, I plan on focusing more on the book's fabulous vocabulary and the character traits.  I will keep you all posted on how that goes!  Anyone else participation with One Book One School this month?  What have you done in past for The World According to Humphrey?


Onto another note, we are starting our always favorite, weather unit in Science.  Last year my kiddos LOVED learning about the weather and playing "meteorologist" outside.  I love using Brainpop for Science units and the kids love the funny robot named Moby in each video.  We also use the quizzes and games in the computer lab which is always fun.  This year, I've been playing around a lot with creating my own resources.  Our state test for 4th grade Science is local, so it's more challenging to find resources that match our standards.  I've spent a lot of time this year revamping my made resources to better fit my needs.  I'm really excited about my new weather task cards.  I wrote them to be a little goofy since I love to have fun with my kids.  My husband and I are HUGE Disney fanatics and we recently saw Saving Mr. Banks. Man, what a great movie!  We immediately came home and watched Mary Poppins. Since I'm currently in the Mary Poppins mindset, I even included one question from the movie.  I think this may be my next read aloud with my homeroom!  You can check out my new task cards and matching unit test in my TPT store.

What a great snow day!  I hope this awesome, productive day continues! Now time to stir my crockpot chef mix, make some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, make meat loaf for dinner and get ready for a game with awesome cheerleaders tonight. Here's to 2014! 

xoxo,

farren

I'm BACK!

Oh my goodness! How embarrassing; I completely dropped off the planet since this summer! I guess you can say my second year of teaching combined with my first year of being a head coach while being a newlywed got the most of my time.  Oh well! I'm back now and with a snow day, Christmas (excuse me, I mean "Winter") break coming up, and the ease of coaching my cheerleaders during basketball season, I will have more time to blog it up! Woohoo!  I even managed to get my TPT store up and running- check it here! It's also a work in progress, but I'm hoping to spend more time on that as well!

So hmm... where to start?  I've taken tons of photos of my lessons and kiddos so far this year: VA salt dough maps, chlorophyll rubbings, writing offices, book talks... my list goes on!  For now I will organize my photos of my projects with my kiddos, watch the snow fall a bit, and craft some Christmas gifts. (Anyone else LOVE snow days?!)