Too Much Candy

This is about the time that parents start to realize just how much candy there is in the house, and that it's not going away unless they eat all of it, or throw it all away.  Well, there is a solution!  And it doesn't involve telling your kids that you ate all of their candy (Thanks Jimmy Kimmel! If you haven't seen those videos yet, you need to look them up on You Tube.  Hilarious!  I'll tack one onto the end of this, be sure to watch it).

Allow me to introduce you the concept of the Switch Witch.  The Switch Witch comes about a week or so after Halloween.  The kids leave out all of their candy and the during the night, she comes and switches out their candy for something better like a movie or books.  It is a super fun and easy way to get kids to let go of their candy without causing a huge crying fit.  I really hope that some of you try it!  If you do, I would love to know what your Switch Witch leaves!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everybody!  I cannot believe that October is over tonight, where did the month go?  I still have a couple of Halloween crafts to share and I'm debating whether or not I should just save them for next year.  I guess you will find out this week, if they pop up or not.

Did any one guess what I was going to be for Halloween?

Why Ms.Frizzle of course! And my amazing husband was the Magic School Bus!  I wish you could tell from this picture just how curly my hair was, it was almost clown like when I first took it out of the foam curlers.

I missed not teaching today, I just love all of the Halloween costumes.  The Kindergartners are usually my favorite, just because they are so little, but hopefully I will get to see some of them trick-or-treating tonight.  But don't worry, I did see lot's of great costumes this year!  I helped my cousin throw a truly amazing Halloween party on Friday.  Mind you, it was an adult party, but some of the details are just too good not to share.  So here is some Halloween eye candy for you to eat up on this night of sweets and tricks.

The treats table

These babies took my amazing cousin almost 4 hours!  But they are so cool!

There was also great food, creatively displayed of course!  I forgot to take pictures of all of the food, I was probably too busy eating it, but here is some of what we served our guests, including the libations.

I can't take any credit for how amazing it all turned out!  My cousin is the creative genius behind it all, and her very talented and creative friend made all of the labels.  It was spectacular and we had a really great time!

No matter what your Halloween tradition is, just remember to be safe!

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Krispies

When I was growing up, my mom would make my uncles Rice Krispie Treats every year for Christmas, because they loved them so much.  When my uncles got older and got married, she gave their wives the ingredients for their favorite dessert, saying it was their turn to make then now.  So, you can see that it has always been a tradition to make these tasty treats.

This year, instead of making the traditional treats, my niece and I set out to make a pumpkin version.  We made the treats exactly like the box said, though Breleigh was much more interested in eating the ingredients than helping.  When the treats were still in the pan I added some orange food coloring.  I actually went out and bought the Wilton food coloring because I wanted especially orange pumpkins and I didn't think I would be able to accomplish that with the liquid drops.  When everything was bright orange, Breleigh and I molded them into little balls, and stuck tootsie roll stems in the top of them.

Then I wrapped them up in glassine bags and tied green raffia on the top to represent the vine.  They were pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself.  But nothing was quite as cute as Maddon enjoying them.

At the end he got a piece stuck to the end of his nose that looked like a giant orange booger.  We could not stop laughing.

Warning:  The kid who helps you cook will inevitably go into a sugar coma and start taking pictures like this:

But it is totally worth the sugar highs and lows to be able to gift your friends these cute sugary beauties!  I hope you try them out!

Can you Guess?

Today was a great day!  Third graders are quite the comedians, even though they don't realize it.   One of them said to me, "You know what's kind of crazy?  People have red hair!  I mean, like, they have orange hair!!!"  Being a red head myself, I made my best shocked face and said "Oh my gosh! Seriously!?!?  That is crazy!  I never noticed that before, except maybe every time I look in the mirror."  They thought that was funny

I also went shopping today for the last few pieces of my costume.  I bought small foam curlers and outer space fabric.

Can you guess what I am going to be for Halloween???

What are you dressing up as?

Halloween, it Depends on Your Point of View

So far I have shared several kindergarten ideas, which is pretty strange because I'm really more of an upper grade teacher.  Don't get me wrong, I love kindergarten!  I have a great time subbing for them, and had an even better time when I taught a group of kindergartners for the YMCA.  But my teaching niche is really in the upper grades.

One of the things that I love best about the upper grades is that they really start writing.  It's a lot more than sentences once they hit the third grade and I love that!  

Something that you can do with your students to help them practice adjectives is have them brain storm both the good things and bad things about Halloween.  Then assign each student a point of view to write about.  Have them write all of the adjectives that they can think of that go with their point of view and color them.  It makes a great display board, and it's always funny to see what they have to say.  I had pictures, but alas, I lost them.  If I can find them then I will be sure to post them on another day.  

Kinder Pumpkin Science

I had a very interesting day today.  I taught sixth grade, which is always a challenge, but these kids were pretty great.  One of them was hilarious, but at all of the worst times, and it took every ounce of control that I had not to laugh.  Then when I left, my car wouldn't start.  I called a friend, who lives down the street from the school I was at, and she came right away and helped me get my car started.  If that wasn't enough, I had planned to come over and do a craft with her son but because of my car we decided to reschedule.  So not only did she rush over to help me, she also invited me to come over tomorrow and she is going to cook dinner!  Wait a minute, shouldn't I be the one making her dinner?!?  I seriously have the best friends!  I will make it to her somehow.

So today I wanted to share a worksheet that I made up for a Kinder/first grade science experiment.  This is all about getting to know the pumpkin in new ways, and focuses on estimation and prediction.  It is designed to do in small groups, with an adult.  I'm not entirely happy with the worksheet yet and I would love feedback, if you have any!  But I do think this is a great start.

Just click on the picture and it will to take to a site where you can download it for free!  Let me know what you think!

Kindergarten Activities

Hey everyone!  I'm so sorry that I wasn't around yesterday, it was completely unintentional.  You see, there is this AMAZING blog/site called Once a Month Mom, which is all about dedicating a day each month to preparing freezer meals for your family.  That way when things get busy, you always have something to serve for dinner.  The first time I had followed their plan was last month and I loved it!  Everything we ate was delicious and even my very picky husband like it.  So this month my mom decided that she wanted to do it too.  We opted to try the diet version of the meals, since both of us already have enough fat to keep us warm for winter.  I figured that with two people it would maybe take 5 hours.  Boy, was I wrong!!!

This is what we started with!!!!

 It took us the entire day and into the evening.  I didn't get home until almost eight, but it was so worth it!  My freezer is stocked full with great breakfasts, lunches and dinners, and the best part is that they are all healthy!  Needless to say, after a long day on my feet, I was exhausted and frankly not coherent enough to blog about anything, especially education!  But I am back and today we are going to talk about a couple of kindergarten art activities.

As a sub, I'm in different classrooms almost everyday and so I get to see what everyone is up to.  The sad truth is that art is often pushed aside in favor of test practice.  But in Kindergarten there are several standards that go along with art, so you still see cute projects decorating the rooms.  Please keep in mind that if I mention a standard, I am referring only to the California State Standards because those are the ones that I am the most familiar with. If you ever have a question specific to your state just let me know, I am more than willing to do the research and find out.

OK, chances are that if you have ever worked in Kindergarten or with a kindergartner then you know this poem:

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate

The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late!"

The second one said, "There are witches in the air"

The third one said, "But we don't care!"

The fourth one said, "Let's run, let's run!"

The fifth one said, "Isn't Halloween fun?"

Then WHOOOOO went the wind

And OUT went the lights.

And five little pumpkins rolled out of site.

Great poem!  They use it in Kindergarten to practice counting, coordination (with the movements) and rhyming which is so important to speaking and reading!  But here is a great craft that I recently saw:

Here is what I love about this activity:  The students practiced their cutting with all of the pieces, which is a standard.  They also practiced counting, and writing with the numbers.  And the best part?  The glittery stickers!  I mean, come on!  If you are five and the teacher says that if you follow directions that you are going to get five glittery stickers, you are going to pay attention.  The kids there were also so excited to tell me the poem that goes with it.

If you are interested in exploring this poem more at home I would highly recommend googling it!  DLTK's is a great resource, and youtube even has some people that show you the movements that go with the poem.  WARNING: The videos are really cheesy!

One last thing I want to share for today, just because they are cute:

I love these cute spiders, and they would be great to make at home.  Most teachers make these "I see" pages several times a month, and then put them together in a book for students at the end of the year.  It is a really great teacher gift!

See all tomorrow!  I am hoping to share a pumpkin science experiment!

A Love of Fall and a Halloween Inspired Wreath

Oh, how I love Fall!  The cooler weather, the apple cider, the scarves, the fires in the fireplace and the holidays. Somehow, Southern California has forgotten that it's Fall.  Today is was over one hundred degrees here!  To convince myself that it really is Fall, I made a Halloween inspired wreath.  So far, it's not really working, the heat is way more convincing than a wreath, but it sure is cute and it does make me smile.  Because it so cute, I wanted to share it with you!

Here is how I made it:

To make this wreath I bought a foam wreath (WalMart has them the cheapest!), black yarn, a 3 inch circle punch, pins, scissors, and a scary book.  Yes, I am completely obsessed with the yarn wreaths that are so trendy now and wanted to try it out, only to cover up all of my hard work.  And no, I guess you don't really need a scary book.  It could technically be any book, but how cool is it to make a scary wreath from a scary book?  Well, I think it's cool!  I used the 3 inch circle punch to punch out about 300 hundred circles (WAY too many!).

Then I tied a knot in the yarn, and started wrapping.  And wrapping.  And wrapping.  And wrapping.  Yeah, I pretty much wrapped my life away, but I was pretty impressed with myself when I was done.

Getting those tight strands with no space between took some practice, but it all kind of blends together, so mistakes are easily covered.

After I had my yarn wreath, and was thoroughly impressed with myself, I started pinning the paper circles on. I found that if you pinch the circle in the center, they make a pretty flower shape, and look much better on the wreath itself.

This is the wreath after I finished all the paper circles:

Then I used some stiff felt that I had leftover from the wedding and cut out a couple bats and pinned them on.

Cute, right?  It's even better on the door!

I hope that you think this wreath is as adorable as I do.  Now, please excuse me while I turn the air down enough to enjoy a glass of hot apple cider without sweating.

This blog is linked to:
 and 

The Truth About Jack-o-Lanterns

I had quite the day today, not a bad day, just hard.  It was the kind of day that just reaffirms why I want to be a teacher.  It's the students who really struggle with focus and behavior issues, that need a teacher who really cares and is going to make them a priority.  Today I saw those kids written off, and it's only October.  I spent my day making sure they knew they were capable, intelligent and caring.  In fact, I kind of played the Aibileen card (from The Help, great book).  I could almost hear myself saying, "You is kind, you is smart, you in important."  I know that I didn't exactly change a life today, but hopefully I changed their day.

So here I am, driving home, complaining to myself about teachers, and I come home to this:

Poor pumpkin!  You see, in my Pinterest obsession I saw a post that said putting Silica gel packets in a pumpkin would make them last longer.  Now, I tend to be skeptic and a scientist, so  I decided to try it out for myself.  I did some research on the best way to preserve a Jack-o-Lantern and set up an experiment to put them to the test.

The first method I tried was the silica gel packets.  After I had carved the pumpkins, I placed three packets inside in hopes that they absorb any excess moisture.  This is the pumpkin after four days:

Starting to wilt, for lack of a better word, but not too bad.  But this is the pumpkin after nine days:

He has completely collapsed on himself.  But on the bright side, the silica gel packets have ensured that it didn't shrivel into a mushy moldy mess!  In short, silica doesn't work!

I also tried a method where after cutting you rub bleach on the cut parts and then rub some petroleum jelly over the cut parts.  The theory is that the bleach kills anything living in the pumpkin and the petroleum jelly keeps in the moisture which keeps it fresh.  This this that pumpkin after 4 days:

Not so bad, and the droopy lip kind of adds character.  But this is the same pumpkin after 9 days:

Yeah, that's gross!  Keeping in the moisture just made it soggy and it bred mold like crazy, despite the bleach treatment.  Don't do it!!!!!  This method is too  much work, for no reward.

Now in defense of these two pumpkins, they were older than the last pumpkin, but I was hoping that the different treatments would preserve them.  Here is the plain old Jack-o-Lantern, my control, now:

Looking good Jack!  So the moral of the story is that a young and fresh Jack-o-Lantern is the best, no treatment necessary.  That little guy made my day, because as bummed as I was feeling on the way home, a Jack-o-Lantern reminded me that it's only fall and things can change.  For the sake of those sweet, but misguided children, I may have to be that force of change and I can handle that.

Happy Fall!

A Halloween Tutu

You should know that I am a little bit obsessed with tutus.  They are adorable, and so easy and inexpensive to make.  Plus, my niece looks adorable in them!

Here is what you need to make your own:

3 yards of each color tulle you are using

Ribbon that matches your color scheme

Yep!  That's it!  Like I said, easy and inexpensive.  Next I laid out each piece of tulle and cut them in half at the fold.  If you don't do this then you are going to have ridiculously huge pieces of tulle to work with.  I then wrapped my tulle around a piece of cardboard that measured 15" and secured both the top and bottom with rubber bands.  Then I cut the fabric at both ends so that it measured 7 1/2 inches and looked like this:

The next step is hard to photograph and the photos that I did take turned out horribly because, well because I'm white! Ha ha ha, my white skin reflected in the lens and they just look horrible and white and blurry.  Please excuse my whiteness and the resulting lack of photos.  But, all you do is fold a piece of tulle in half so that it has a loop at the top.  Put the loop behind the ribbon that you are using, and pull the bottom up over the ribbon and through the loop.  It's called a slip knot.  It should look like this:

Then just keep adding pieces until it is the right size and looks like this:

When you are done, tie it around the waist of a cute little girl and just giggle at how cute it is!

It doesn't get much cuter!  And the best part is that you can make them in any color!  I am currently working on an Angel's tutu for Bre and I can't wait to see her in it.  For now I will just enjoy how cute she is in this one.  Happy Monday!

This blog is linked to a great link party!

Googly Eye Frame

"Hi, my name is Jamie and I'm a Pinterestaholic"  
It's true if there is a rehab for people who spend too much time on Pinterest then I need to go.  All of my meals come off of Pinterest, I am constantly getting craft ideas from there, and my home to do list is incredibly long because of that site.  If you aren't on it, then look it up!  


The moral of that story is that today's craft was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest. The super lame part is that I can't find the pin to give the person credit for their super cute idea!  If you've seen it please put the address in the comments so that I can add it.


Today we are making a . . . 

It is so easy and pretty inexpensive.  The frames are usually $1, but I got these on sale for 68 cents.  I would also HIGHLY recommend buying googly eyes at Wal Mart.  They are the least expensive that I could find anywhere!  If you don't already have ribbon or chip board letters then I would probably skip that part if you are doing this on a budget.  Here is how it goes:

Step 1: Paint the frame whatever color you would like in the background.  I painted the first one white and then decided that I didn't like it, so I painted the second one green

Step 2: Gather all of your supplies.  Several different sizes of googly eyes and glue are what you need to start.

Step 3: Glue the eyes close together, in any pattern, or lack of pattern, that you want.

Step 4: Glue the ribbon.  I lifted it up in the middle and glued so that it wouldn't sag with the letters.  Sorry for the crazy pictures, I'm still learning!

Step 5: Add the chip board letter by gluing them.  You can use any saying that you would like.  I used boo and eek because they were short and I had the letters for them.


And that's it!  I love my cute frames, but my favorite part is probably that awesome sound that they make when you move them. Side Note: How amazing is that paper I used for the background?!?! Here are some modifications to keep in mind:  If you have a toddler only give him the big googly eyes, and don't expect them to be close together.  You could even put pipe cleaner antenna on the top, or a funny mouth on the bottom.  For Kindergartners or First Graders have them make patterns with the different sizes, and then explain the pattern to you using letters, i.e. AABB, or ABAB.  The most important thing is to have fun!

Thanks to a good friend, here is the original post that I found on Pinterest: A Diamond in the Stuff This blog is full of amazing crafty ideas!  Be sure to go and check it out!

This post is linked at Fireflies and Jellybeans Show Off Your Stuff Party!