Sunday Smorgasbord and Freebie

This Sunday Smorgasbord is brought to you by Michelle at Fabulous in First. I will add the link at the bottom so that you can link up too!

1 - In Case You Ever Forget...
You have an influence that could last for years.

Here is a pic of my daughter (on the right) with her two dearest friends on graduation day a couple of weeks ago. The matching adorable necklaces that they are wearing were given to them by their former 5th grade teacher the night before. She told them to wear it at their first job interview.

Love her!! I tear up every time I think about the "Mutual Admiration Society" that has formed amongst them.

That 5th grade year was the only year that all three girls were in the same class for all of grade school. LOVE.THOSE.GIRLS!

As a matter of fact several of their elementary teachers came to their graduation parties. It meant so much to the girls and to me as a mom. This 5th grade teacher certainly had a long-lasting influence on the girls' lives. Thank you Elena Kaye! Also, thank you to all of their other teachers as well. I would have to dedicate an entire post to her High School Band Directors and their staff...truly wonderful people! They GREATLY influenced my daughter in many positive ways.

Thank you to ALL of you teachers out there who truly want to make a difference in the students' lives! Your dedication does not go unnoticed.


2 - "Not-So-Random" Acts of Kindness
In order to thank teachers in our school, I had my students write letters to them during "Valentine's Day Season" (It is a season, right?) to be sent through our in-school mailing system. So I made some friendly letter templates to help them out with the format. Don't they look nice?

You can grab a copy of the FREEBIE sample here if you would like.

The kids wrote the nicest letters to the teachers. Some of the sweetest were to our specials teachers. It was heart-warming!

My plan was to do some "Not-So-Random" Acts of Kindness for teachers and for students. There are also some quick notes for the students to send each other as well in the full pack. You can check it out here.

Note: After I posted this, I found a great blog that suggested a mentor text titled, Sincerely Yours: Writing Your Own Letter. I'm so glad that I found it to go along with my Friendly Letter Templates. Check out the post at the blog, Hoot N' Hollers, by Courtney and Sarah.


Speaking of random...here are my next three things in this smorgasbord line-up.


3 - My Favorite Restaurant
My husband's family introduced me to Longhorn years ago and it has been a favorite since then. Who knew that you could get a steak salad?! Look what my students gave me!

4 - My Favorite Songs 
In general, most songs from Journey. I particularly like "Forever" by Randy Travis. Of course, I love Phil Collins as well.

I can't decide...

5 - Favorite Yogurt
Coconut on granola cereal. It is my latest comfort food every day after school. Love that stuff! (Trying to only eat half at a time.) :-)

Eat a few mini saltines afterward and you truly have the taste of macaroons going!

Well that is it for my random Sunday Smorgasbord. Thank you, Michelle for the inspiration!
You can link up here to join the fun!

Have a great Sunday!

Carrie

I Love Valentine's "Week", a Freebie, and a TpT Giveaway

Valentine's Day Week (It should actually be a season of the year.)

One thing that I love about Valentines Day is that it is a-ok to wear pink with red. As a matter of fact, it actually looks good together! 

As teachers, we tend to see it as a fun friendship day amongst the students and teachers. However, high school girls tend to see it as a nerve-wracking day. Hoping to NOT get a valentine from a boy “out of the blue,” or as the case may be, hoping that "the boyfriend" will actually follow through with something meaningful, yet not extravagant. It is truly a rock and a hard place for many. 

However, as far as young primary students go...it couldn't be more fun! (Except for Christmas, of course.) 

In the past I have used printables, or rather copies, from the oldie-but-goody resource books, for everything including Valentine bag decorations, classwork, and homework. Now that I know how to create things with PPT, I cannot wait to create the next printable that we will use for  ________________  (fill in the blank).

  

Creating things for TpT has certainly been a creative outlet for me. It is actually relaxing to me. Also, it is exciting to see one of my lessons that I have created in the past become an actual product that looks so cute with the graphics and clipart that I am now addicted to. :-) Thanks to Ashley Hughes, Krista Wallden, and Lovin Lit to name a few. Of course sometimes the cute clipart inspires activities galore, which was the case for my latest Valentine activity pack. 

So...here is my latest creation that is Valentines-ish as well as contraction-y and friendly letter-esque. 

FREEBIE

I have posted a freebie sample of the larger pack if you would like to check it out here.

I realize that it is very close to V-Day for all of you early planners, but I had to post the parts that are complete. I posted them once, and then decided to revise and expand the pack. I have other ideas as well, but they may have to wait until next year.

You can find the freebie sample here and the full pack here. They are both in my store on teachers pay teachers, The Think Aloud Cloud.

And now for the TpT giveaway...

The teachers who are a part of the Freebie-licious blog are have a big blog hop giveaway. They are each giving away $10 gift cards to TpT! Now THAT is the perfect Valentine's Day gift!! Would one of you please email my husband about that? If you would like to join in on the fun, click on the button below.

here.

BTW, I learned something new...

Lori from Teaching with Love and Laughter had this challenge on her blog to link to Freebie-licious. I did it! I would NOT have been able to figure that one out even 8 months ago. Good times! (Never mind...I haven't figured it out quite yet. Maybe next time!)

Have a wonderful pink and red day on Friday!!

Carrie