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

Ten Things I Want to do This Summer and Freebie

Ten Things I Want to Do this Summer

I am linking up with that cute Deanna Jump to list my top ten things that I want to do this summer. Don't we always have ten thousand things on our lists and we hope to get to 4 of them? Nevertheless, here goes...

1. Take time for a hobby. My new favorite hobby is finding a use for all of that CUTE new clip art that I have bought in the last 6 months. Since I have ideas for worksheets, booklets, and anchor charts for my students, I thought that I would combine the two and then it doesn't feel like work at all! Here are some of the sets. Maybe I am addicted! Just maybe...

I am even a VIP Member of Krista Wallden's Clip art summer club. Is that sad...or exciting?! I think it is exciting!

2. Clean out drawers and cabinets at home. I used to love watching Peter Walsh's show, "Clean Sweep." We used to call it, "What Not to Keep," because we also liked the show, "What Not to Wear." I need to keep his show in mind whilst cleaning out.

Peter Walsh

3. Clean out my school files. They are bugging me!

I don't know about you, but I have so many cool new resources from TpT that I really don't need lots of those old files that I have just hanging around. Those "just in case" files. 

I am not naturally an organized person, so I have a hard time thinking about things in an orderly way sometimes. I organize my files, then I don't remember where I filed them. Does that ever happen to you? However, the top of my desk looks neat and clean!

That leads me to the next thing on my list...

(Was that a good transition? My students would be proud!)

4. Decide on a system to organize my electronic files as well as my paper files. I have so many great resources and I find my self spending WAY TOO MUCH time looking for them. Maybe Ashley Schroeder's notebook organizers will help.

I bought them a few weeks ago and have not gotten the chance to put them in motion. 

5. Work on my to do list for my TpT store. I have lots of ideas in my head, products that need to be completed, some that need facelifts, etc. I added some summer things yesterday including a freebie. The preview of the freebie is the fifth picture down.

Friendly Letter Writing Bundle {Summer / Back-to-School}

June Set

July Set

August / Back-to-School Set

Free Sample from the July set. Click here to get it from TpT.

Here are some pages from the FREEBIE Letter Writing Sample {July} ~ Templates:

6. Spanish 1 classes, here I come! I am thinking that if I can begin to understand the structure and syntax of Spanish, then I may be able to help my ELLs translate their thoughts into the correct English syntax. I took the ESOL Endorsement classes last summer and fall. It was so helpful to me to have an explanation of the common mistakes of ELLs in their speaking and writing. 

7. Time at the pool. A pool. We do not have one in our neighborhood, so it is a little tricky for us.
At least 2 times a week. Is that too much to ask?

8. Go to my daughter's musical performances with Atlanta CV Marching Band. Atlanta Corps Vets. It started as Veterans to the Drum and Bugle Corps. Now the members don't even have to be veterans. My daughter is so EXCITED to be a part of this marching band. Since she has graduated from high school a few weeks ago, this will be her marching band connection. She has loved her four years in the high school marching band. It has been a fabulous experience for her. She plays the marimba.  

Warming up before a performance on the football field.

"Her" marimba.
Actually it is the property of her high school band,
but this is the one that she played regularly. 

9. Try a new recipe a week. I have several Rachel Ray cookbooks. I need to crack them open.

10. Jazz up the look of my blog. I like the clean lines, but truly it needs a bit of pizzazz! I think if I use some of Krista's clipart, it will have plenty of pizzazz.

Thank you to Krista Wallden's Creative Clips for the clipart on this post that was not labeled.

I am glad to have the time to focus on those things. What will you be working on? Or will you just try to relax? Relaxing is hard to do after a whole school year of running about. Can I get an amen to that?

Have a great weekend!

Carrie

Big Sale and Life Cycles

BIG SALE on TPT

Great news...Teachers Pay Teachers is having a Teacher Appreciation Sale! 

See the sign below for the details.

Thank you, Krista Wallden for the very cute sign!

Life Cycles

We are studying life cycles now and I am so glad that we have had the opportunity to witness the eagle family at Berry College via the Eagle Cam. Right now the baby is not a baby anymore! Apparently she is a "she." Also, she is 10 weeks old and bigger than her dad. When she is about 12 weeks old, she will fly from the nest. What a big day that will be! Hopefully that will happen during the part of the day that we are tuned in...or maybe not. One can hope. We have recorded our observations in this little booklet.

If you would like to read more about the eagle family, please see one of my previous posts.
These are exciting times!

Have a great week!
Carrie