Summertime Reads

Well it's embarrassing how long it's been since I've written a blog entry. But it's summertime and I've got more free time than I know what to do with so I'm picking up where I left off. I've been reading a lot this summer and thought I would share some the books I've read in case you're looking for a summertime/vacation read.

I started off by reading the books on the "best sellers" list and then started reading some books that were best sellers that would also be made into movies soon. "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" was definitely different than what I thought it would be. It was strange because it wasn't set up in chapter form it was just three parts. There were lots of emails and letters scattered throughout the book as Bernadette is telling the story of her sort of crazy mother. Honestly, I got to the end of it and wasn't all that thrilled. On the other hand, Gillian Flynn's book "Gone Girl" has been one of my favorite reads this summer. It was just the right amount of suspenseful and mysterious. I was not expecting the ending of the book and I'm curious to see if the movie that comes out in October has the same ending.
    
"The Art Of Racing In The Rain" is from a dogs perspective which was different for me. The dogs owner races cars. His owner eventually falls in love and has a child and it's a sweet story to hear from a dogs perspective, for a dog lover like myself. The ending was sad but sweet all at the same time. "The Best of Me" I feel like you can never go wrong with a good old Nicholas Sparks novel. This is also being made into a movie. It's the typical long lost love story (rich girl…poor guy) with a twist.

        
Emily Giffin books always put me on edge because her main characters do stupid things that make me irritated the whole time. For some reason I still enjoy reading them. "Love the One You're With" is about a married woman who runs into an old serious boyfriend of hers. She's eventually works alongside him on a project and begins to wonder if she made the wrong choice.  And of course "The Fault In Our Stars" everybody has heard of it and probably read it. A book about a young girl who has cancer and meets and falls in love with a boy at her support group. It was a sweet story and I already saw the movie and hysterically bawled my eyes out.

           
I am currently reading "Dark Places" another book by Gillian Flynn. What good books have your read that I need to add to my summer list?

A New Year

Welcoming a new year is always refreshing. It's also fun to look back on the year we have had. It reminds me of all I have to be thankful for and also curious to see what adventures the new year will bring. Here is a picture review of 2013..because it's fun. 

New Years Eve celebrating the coming year 2013

First big house project..painting living room + dining room!

My handsome husband and adorable dog.

Coordinated my first wedding. 

And was EXHAUSTED afterwards. But I loved it.

Had a really difficult school year but made time to laugh it off.

Celebrated Easter with Austin's siblings.

First annual "Camp Read-A-Lot" in 2nd grade.

Celebrated our 2nd Wedding Anniversary.

Got bored and chopped my hair off. 

2013 Summer Vacation with friends in Cape San Blas, Florida.

FIRST summer off as a teacher.

2nd trip to Florida with my sisters-in-law and mother-in-law.

Hubs and I built and upholstered our media table.

Feeling more "us" at our home.

Got ready for a new school year with my teacher friends.

Experienced the best concert of my life in September!

Mary Poppins and Bert for Halloween.

Hosted Thanksgiving with my family.

My family in Oklahoma City.

In our Christmas jammies having our own Christmas together.

Hosted NYE at our house again and had a blast.

I'm not usually huge on New Years resolutions because I've seen so many make unrealistic goals and they are forgotten in a few weeks. But the hubs and I always spend some time talking about what we would like to change or accomplish in the New Year. We are going to write these down together and work on them together this year. Together we would like to go on more dates, cook healthy meals together, be more active each week, spend more time reading the bible, go on a vacation, and pay down more students loans (snowballing has worked well for us). I personally would like to challenge myself in the area of work and hobbies. I want to find more things I enjoy doing and work hard on them. I would like to carve out more time for TPT projects. And of course I'm always down for a good house project. I want to see "health" in a new light this year and change my attitude toward physical activity. I am excited to see what 2014 brings. Happy New Year!

Moontastic!

One of my favorite units all year (although I feel like I love everything..) is our moon unit. We study patterns and incorporate that with the study of the moon. I purchased Cara Carroll's Moon Mania unit and it's packed full of Math, Literacy, and Science activities. One of my students favorite things is our moon bag. I bought a canvas bag from Wal-Mart and decorated the outside of it with a binder inside. Buy the Moon Mania unit to get more ideas and see how the Moon Bag works.

We just finished up this two week unit on Wednesday, before fall break. As an end of the unit assessment I bought oreos and had my students make the moon phases out of the oreo's and icing. They LOVED it. We set up our privacy folders and each student received this oreo moon phase worksheet to complete their work on. When I gave them the OK, they took off one oreo at a time to eat and colored in the moon phase. Their bellies were happy and I was able to see if they knew the phases. win-win

We created a lot more than just oreo moon phases during this unit. Water colored moons, moon mobiles, what would you take to the moon, moon graphs. I was really surprised when we graphed that 13 students would like to visit the moon and 7 wouldn't. Their reasoning being that it would be dangerous (haha)! We had a blast!!

It has turned cold over here in Oklahoma! I'm currently sitting on my couch with a blanket, slipper boots, and a heating pad. And somehow I'm still cold! I'm working on some grammar cards that we use in our classroom-to pass along to other second grade teachers. So keep your eye out for that. 

Liz Conwell

How is it already October? + Freebie

     I disappeared from the blogging world for a while. My home life and school life have been incredibly busy. The good news is that it's all been a good kind of busy. I've seen family a lot more and been to a few fantastic concerts. On top of that I have a fabulous class this year. I've fallen in love with a new group of students and time is flying by!

Gentlemen of the Road Festival

It's Fall Break and with our first report card deadline coming up I'm glad to have some down time to evaluate where each of my students is at for their report card. One thing I noticed we had not spent too much time on yet was odd and even numbers. 

It's my mission to finally start sharing things I have created to use in my classroom. It's something I've been wanting to do for a while--and I decided it's time to start following through. With that in mind I have a FREEBIE today. It's a simple odd or even activity to either pre-assess where your students, use as a quiz, or worksheet. Click on the picture to visit my TPT store and receive this freebie. 

I'm off to enjoy my fall break (hot date with the hubby tonight) and keep on planning for next week! Have a happy Friday!

Liz