Fall Blog Hop...Break Out the Soup!

It's fall!  Well, I must say it doesn't feel like fall at our house. It was still in the 90's today. But, I know that it will soon be cooling off and I can break out those sweaters!  I have one activity that is fun once the weather begins to cool...Andy Warhol soup cans. I let the kids draw a large Campbell's soup can in pencil. They design their own soup...banana soup, marshmallow soup, turtle soup, peanut butter and jelly soup...whatever they want! Once they get the can perfected, they outline it with a sharpie. Then, I photo copy the can 4 times for them, reducing it to 50% size.  Next, they color the cans four different colors and mount them on black paper. They always turn out darling!

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Fun Friday - Oreo 2012

Oreo Project 2012!

     I have participated in the Oreo Internet Project for quite a few years, but it had been a while. This year I decided to give it a try again. I mean, who doesn't love an Oreo? :)

     One word:  SUGAR. This is how our day started...bake sale, waiting for the space shuttle Endeavour to fly overhead, Jordyn's birthday with oreo cupcakes, oreo brownies, and THEN the oreo project! Wow. Yes, you can probably imagine it. Nineteen boys and eight girls on sugar sugar sugar. The teacher part of me started to wonder, "Now, why did I pick to do this?"  But once the fun started, I remembered why!

     We did oreo math by calculating calories and carboydrate intake, oreo persuasive writing, oreo stacks as part of the Internet research, and oreo sculptures. I looked around the room, and saw the MEGA excitement as kids stacked cookies. Who knew stacking up oreos one-on-top-of-another could be SO exciting?  "Mrs. Jimison! I got 19!!  Mrs. Jimison! I got 24!! Mrs. Jimison! I got 31!!"  They just couldn't contain their excitement of how many oreos they could stack. But really, the looks on their faces were priceless!  And, they were just as happy to create oreo sculptures. Although some kids really wanted to create the world's largest oreo pyramid, when they ran out of oreos, they were still happy to show how large it was.  We finalized our day by coming up with our class average to turn in for our school - 22 per child.

     I went home "one tired cookie" but I will forever remember the happy faces etched in my mind.

very careful detail work

igloo

motorcycle

elephant

frosty - oops, should I say creamy?

Parents - please visit our shutterfly account for more student pictures.

Finally, Laura at Love to Teach is having an awesome fall giveaway!  She has 3 days of giveaways and you won't want to miss out. Plus, her blog is darling. Make sure you visit her at:  http://lovetoteach123.blogspot.com .

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Appitic!

Wow! Just when I feel like I have found the best site, another one comes along! Appitic was that for me today.  It has a great collection of educational apps. The best part is how they have categorized everything.  You can search apps by theme, multiple intelligence, categories, Bloom's Taxonomy, NETS, teachers, and more. Amazing.  

What is your favorite app for your classroom?

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StudyBlue!

I found an awesome new site... StudyBlue!  This is a great resource for teachers and students. You can make online flashcards and notes for students to study anytime, anywhere. We have an upcoming science test, so I decided to create some flashcards for the kids. Easy!  Just type in the information, and the site creates flip flashcards, a quiz (automatically!), and a study sheet. Wow!  I am so excited for my students to test it out.

StudyBlue has an app as well. :) Awesome.  Hope you love it as much as I do!

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Currently September!

This is CURRENTLY September...and right now I am listening to the sound of my dog snoring. My lovely puppy, Raleigh, is curled beside me sleeping and sleeping. 

I am loving our beautiful weather! I love being able to cycle when it is nice out - not too hot and not too cold. Just right! I just booked a Napa Valley cycling trip for my hubby and me - so excited! We will get to ride with a CLIF cyclist and as a CLIF bar ambassador, I am thrilled about this!

I am thinking about my M.Ed. work. That's it - work! If I'm not working on school stuff, or blogging, then I am working on my coursework. I will be done in March and I can't wait for it all to be complete! I hope it opens up new doors.

Right now I am wanting an iced americano and when I post this, I'm heading out the door!  I do feel like I need a vacation. Actually, I need to learn how to take a vacation. I am constantly busy with something and I know God says to relax!  Even HE rested on the 7th day...I need to remember to rest.

My favorite things are chocolate, ice coffee, cycling, and healthy eating. I recently tried the Paleo plan - couldn't stick with it long though because of my love of chocolate. I do believe that we need to eat good, healthy food...real food without all the disgusting preservatives. Ick. When I think about it, it makes me want to go grab a nice yummy kale chip!

So, there you have it...my currently. What are you currently doing? 

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Tonya's Treats for Teachers

This giveaway is huge and any teacher would love to win! :) 

Tonya is celebrating 500 followers. Well, when I was there she was up to 568 so I think her giveaway is helping! Her first prize is a $50 gift card. Plus, as you can see from the picture, she has a ton of goodies from her TPT friends. Thanks, Tonya, for the chance!

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Giveaway!

Rock & Teach is celebrating 100 followers with a great giveaway! :) She is giving away a $5 Starbucks card, $5 Teachers Pay Teachers gift certificate, and $15 Target gift card. Oh - those would all be great prizes!  Head on over here and get in on the giveaway!

I am half way there - but when I get to 100 followers, I promise a fun giveaway! So, please tell your friends to come visit PJ Jots and follow!

On a totally random subject, I need to ask about class awards! Over the years, I have given classroom bucks and kids use them for an auction. This year I am team teaching and we are using "tickets" with an auction as well. Yes, the kids love the auctions. But do I? Not really! I find that it is very hard to get class donations, and I go broke trying to buy enough "fun stuff" for monthly auctions.  Yes, I do have some awards that are no cost...such as my new award this year of letting one student "buy" to create a new font using my iPad and iFontmaker. I also have "shoes off" and similar awards. It's not only the cost...it's the auction itself. Kids seem to go crazy during auction time. I've thought of a silent auction, but don't know how well that would go over.

So...do you have a classroom auction? What do you do?  Any other ideas for tickets/class money? 

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