Wishlist Wednesday- Writing Activities featuring The Groovy Cat

Eekk! I am so excited to be linking up with Jen from Teacher by the Beach for my first Wishlist Wednesday. 

Here is how it works:

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End of the Year Teacher Gift Book

I want to share a great idea I found for a gift to give your child's teacher at the end of the year, but before I do I have to be a mommy and share some exciting news.  My son just graduated from Kindergarten {insert sobbing noises}!!!  I cannot even wrap my mind around the fact that I am going to have a 1st grader.  I feel like I was just sitting here on my computer blogging about our summer Kindergarten prep plans.  Seriously if you are a new mom or heck even a seasoned mom stop reading this, go hug your babies, and then come back.  They grow up WAY TO FAST!  Look at how his baby face changed over the last school year.

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Art Themed Birthday Party

I have been dying to have an Art themed birthday party for one of my little ones for a few years now.  I was finally able to convince my soon to be 3 year old daughter that this was a perfect party for her.  I can give her a set of watercolor paints and she will paint for about 30-60 minutes.  It is a magical time for mommy!  

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Academic Field Day

So this concept of Academic Field Day has been bouncing around my mind since last May.  I had BIG plans to create it during my maternity leave after I failed to come up with nothing over summer break.  Well 8 weeks of maternity leave came and went with no progress on my idea.  May came around again and this idea was still tugging on my brain strings.  Our school's annual field day was quickly approaching and there was rain in the forecast.  Usually our field day is a whole day event, but the rain plan was to cut it down to just our 45 minute specials time.  Ummmm there is a big difference when lesson planning for a whole day vs. small spurts of time between events.   I wasn't about to show movies all day!  That was my plan for the last day after all.  Hehe! When I found out this rain plan it was Saturday afternoon and field day was on Tuesday.  I told myself it was time to bring my idea to life and form Plan B.  I scrambled and created over my entire Memorial Day break and I have to say I am so proud of the outcome.  I got all of the items you see at Dollar Tree.  This was such an inexpensive event!  Keep reading to see Academic Field Day in action.  My kids had a BLAST!

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Ninja Bunnies $1 Sale!

Some ninja bunnies broke into my store last night and slashed some prices to $1!!

Check out what everyone has discounted.  Here is what you will find from my store.

An InLinkz Link-up

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Spring Teacher Blogger Meet Up 2015

Whew!  What a FANTASTIC weekend it was at the #springteacherbloggermeetup2015!  Have you seen all of the pictures with the longest hashtag in the whole world of hashtags?  If not, you need to go check them out.  The weekend was EPIC!!!!  I was horrible at taking pictures, but thankfully my friends weren't, so I am going to share some of them with you.

First off, I was very up in the air if I was going to attend this year.  I just had my newest bundle of joy only 3 1/2 weeks before the meet up and it was a C-section.  I wasn't sure I would be up for toting a little one around.  But I went last year and it was so much fun!  I could not stand the idea of not going again.  I convinced Mel D to go with me again and just like that we were on the road to French Lick (ok a little more planning went into it then that, but not much).  There may have been some behind the scenes husband conning charming first.  We couldn't help it though we just HAD to be there again.

We arrived in French Lick right by the skin of our teeth.  We left my house just before 6 am (a little early for Mel D, but this new mommy had been up since 3:30) and thankfully the baby slept and slept and slept.  Otherwise we probably would have been late and I HATE to be late. It took us a little extra time to navigate through the town because they had massive flooding from all of the snow melting.  I kept thinking to myself what if we get flooded in?  I was almost ready to turn around.

We started with some mingling and putting our tickets into the prize bags.  There were so many awesome prizes to be won.  Seriously, people and companies were generous!  It was so great to see some of my bloggy friends again.  Can I just say how surreal it is to have all of these friends who you have only met online and then you get together and it is like you have known each other forever.  It is just the coolest having so many like minded people together in the same room.

Then, we did a getting to know you activity.  Every table had to decorate a letter with information about yourself.  Then we had to go in front of the WHOLE room of over 100 bloggers on a MICROPHONE and introduce ourselves.  I was literally shaking like a leaf.  Thankfully I am really good at making fun of myself and did just that.  Then I found DeeDee Wills' friendly face and just focused on her.  She really put me at ease without even knowing it.  The tables combined ended up spelling out the mantra for the weekend...

After that, we had the teacher tool gift exchange which I blogged about last weekend.  You can read all about that {here}.  Trust me, if you haven't read about the tool I received you MUST do it now.

Then, we got together for some table talk sessions.  I went to Crystal Radke's session and got to hear all about RCA.  I have to say that is the newest addition to my teacher bucket list.  I hope I get to go there someday soon!  I also went to Christina DeCarbo's session and learned about the business side of TPT.  I took a ton of great tips away from her session about how to do things the right way.  Finally, I went to DeeDee Will's and Deanna Jump's session.  Can I just say how down to earth and funny they are!  We talked about Writer's Workshop.  So much great information!

Finally, it was time for the GIVEAWAYS!  It was like going to Oprah's Favorite Things show or Ellen's 12 Days of Giveaways show.  The swag was overflowing!  Check out the goodies we ALL went home with!  My teacher heart was pounding with excitement!  There was so many great things including new Scentos, a Vera Bradley bag, AND an ERIN CONDREN PLANNER! Shut the front door!

Are these crazy ladies done screaming about planners, markers, and stickers?!

After we all squealed with delight about our amazing swag we all began making dinner plans.  We decided to leave the hotel and we went to this little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant.  I got to share a table with some of the best in the teacher world.  I seriously couldn't believe I had landed there.  And wouldn't you know it, I didn't take a picture!  There is NO proof that I had dinner with Mel D from Seusstastic, Katie from Little Warriors, Erin from Erin's Ink, Crystal from Kreative in Kinder, Deanna from Mrs. Jump's Class, DeeDee Wills from Mrs. Wills' Kindergarten, and Kim Adsit from Kindergals (she blogs with her daughter, Megan, who also joined us).  Ummmmm are you kidding me!!!  Yes, I totally just name dropped!  Wouldn't you?!  I enjoyed every second of dinner and laughed out loud more than once.

So if you remember from earlier Mel and I barely made it to the meet up on time.  We never had a chance to check into our hotel.  Since we were so last minute with our plans we had to stay at the West Baden Hotel.  Normally it is a quick shuttle ride to the hotel, BUT the entrance was flooded.  We seriously had to drive through B.F.E. to get to the hotel.  I was convinced we were going the wrong way, so we turned around only to find that we were in fact going the right way. Ugh!  After some roads out of Deliverance we made it to our hotel.  We only had enough time to check in and change into our PJ's.  Then we were right back out the door for the PJ party complete with pillows from the hotel.  We were a sight to be seen!

 When we made it back to French Lick hotel the PJ party sponsored by Teachers Pay Teachers and GoNoodle was in full swing.  Teachers in pink were dancing to GoNoodle, eating pizza, decorating pillow cases, and acting silly in the photo booth area.  It was a riot!  It really took me back to my sleepover days. Thanks TPT and GoNoodle!!

There is SOOOOO much more I could share with you about the weekend, but this forever post would seriously be a novel.  You should just come next year and experience it all for yourself.  You will not be sorry, unless Holly decides to organize a murder mystery party like we chatted about.  Might be a little too scary for me!

Can't wait to see you all next year!

Be sure to enter to win your very own swag from this EPIC event!

We’re giving away THREE Swag Bags

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also check out my other friends thoughts on the meet up.

An InLinkz Link-up

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Teacher Tool Gift Exchange- The It's Worth It Box

Wow!  The 2nd Annual Spring Blogger Meet-Up did NOT disappoint once again.  What an amazingly well executed meet-up by Holly Ehle and Brittany Banister.  Well done ladies! I will talk more about the awesome time we had in another post.  Today I want to share with you the teacher tool that I received during our exchange.  For more great tools visit Second Grade Sugar and Spice where there is an great linky happening.

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My Teacher Hero

There are many reasons or people that led me to my chosen career path of teacher.  When I look back through my years as a student there are two people in particular who stick out to me the most.  Thank you to Luckeyfrog's Lilypad for helping me to remember the why.

The first wonderful lady in my life was Mrs. Buffington.  She was my 2nd grade teacher and I thought the world of her.  When I look back on our time together I see how she really helped me to embrace my love of helping and teaching.  One story in particular makes me giggle when I think about our year together.  Please keep in mind I am not proud of this event, but it was a tell tale sign that I would grow up to be a teacher.  One day Mrs. Buffington was out sick or at a meeting (because you know we attend a ton of those).  There was of course a substitute and you know nothing good usually comes from having a sub.  Mrs. Buffington had a stack of worksheets on a shelf in the back of the room.  Anytime there were extras she would put them on the shelf.  A couple of friends and I got the bright idea to take some of those worksheets, so we could play school.  I took it to the next level and also took some workbooks.  We were able to carefully sneak them into our backpacks.  When I got home, my friend and I were playing school in my room with the door closed.  Again, nothing good comes from a closed door.  My mom came in and caught us with the stolen goods.  This is where I gave major props to my parents.  The next morning they marched me into school and took me to my classroom.  I had to tell Mrs. Buffington what I did the day before.  I was mortified!  She was very sweet about the whole thing and just had me return the workbooks.  I'm pretty sure she was able to see what I would one day become.  Thank you Mrs. Buffington for a wonderful year!

The second lady came into my life much later.  She was my high school Spanish teacher and we all called her Señora Shinovich.  She was the spunkiest and most exciting teacher in the whole school.  She was the reason I continued to take Spanish classes in high school.  She actually made me want to become a Spanish teacher (I ended up in elementary education).  The other day I ran into her in COSTCO.  I looked at her and said, "Señora?"  She recognized me immediately!  It has been over 10 years since I sat in her classroom, not to mention I was 9 months pregnant with two other children climbing out of the cart.  That meant the world to me that after all of the students who came and went through the years she remembered me.  Thank you Señora for being a positive influence in my life!

Both of these ladies are the reason why I am who I am today.  I love teaching and I am sure it is because of their infectious personalities and desire to teach.  I hope to one day become that for one of my students.

I would love to hear about your teacher hero and I bet they would also love to hear it too!  Reach out to your teacher hero while you can.

To help celebrate all of you teacher heros TPT is having a sale.  Today you can get up to 28% off anything in my store.  Just be sure to use the code HEROES.

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