Easter Crafts

I know this is very last minute but I wanted to share with you the crafts I will be working on with my Sunday School Preschoolers tomorrow.  The story I am going to go over is when Jesus came to Jerusalem and people praised him and laid palm branches and coats on the ground in front of him.  (Matthew 21:1-11, 15-16; Mark 11:1-10)

Tomorrow on Easter Sunday, I was told I had to teach my class for a whole 2 hours because of the Easter service! I was sadden by this news since I was going to miss Easter service and the baptism.  So because of the extra hour, I needed to come up with more fun activities!

Since my lesson was focusing on Jesus entering Jerusalem, I was going to let the students role play the scene of laying down the palm branches and coats as he rode down the street on a donkey.
Here is the palm branch craft I came up with:

 Very cute right?

Palm Branch Craft:

What you need: green construction paper, scissors, green puffy paint, green glitter, flower tape, pipe cleaners, tape.

Here is a Palm Branch Template for those who want it.  I drew mine by hand.

Steps:

1. Cut the template and add a piper cleaner in the middle of the palm branch.  I used tape because I ran out of elmer's glue at home.  You can use either since this is on the back for a sturdy support.
2. Then use the flower tape to wrap the handle.
3. Cut the diagonal lines.
4. Use the green puffy paint to add lines on the palm branch. (Adults may need to help the younger ones)
5. Put green glitter on the palm branches and shake onto paper plate.
6. Then let it dry!

Jelly Bean Easter Craft

I used Kim Mitzo Thompson's Easter Jelly Bean Craft patterns and revised it for a different project for my preschoolers.  Check out her freebie above to download at the original craft.  Thanks Kim for the inspiration!

What you need: Jelly Bean pattern, crayons/markers, paper plates, scissors, yarn, glue, single hole puncher

Steps:

1. Color the jelly beans and cut them out.
2. Write a bible verse, poem, or whatever you like in the middle of the paper plate. 
3. Glue on each of the jelly beans around the plate.  
4. Punch a hole at the top and add string.
5. Then hang it up!

Have a happy and blessed Easter everyone!

Books, Books, Books, and of course a FREEBIE!

Every time when the book fair comes to your school, do you get a little giddy?  I sure do! Our librarian sponsored a Scholastic Book Fair and I think I spent WAY too much money there today.

Here are some of my new purchases:

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books! by Lucile Colandro
My kiddos are obsessed with the old lady books!  This is a definite must-read in my class!

Z is for Moose by Kelly Bingham
As a kinder class, we are still working on the ABCs and when I watched the "Book Fair Commercial, they were advertising this book.  I fell in love and immediately knew I had to get my own copy!  It's a cute story of Moose wanting to appear in the alphabet and causes mayhem with the other "letter representatives" because he was forgotten.

Exclamation Mark by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
This needs to be in every teacher's bookshelf!  A cute story about an exclamation mark on fitting in, finding your way, and standing out.

Wumbers by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
A "Gr8" book to read with the class on numbers.  Reminds me of the good, old days texting and AIMing friends.  Check out another "1derful" book! :)

On to my freebie...This is an oldie but still a goodie!
I created this book order wish list when I was a student teacher.  It's great for students to look at books and fill out during Library time and take home to their parents.  Parents love this because they can discuss with their kids on what they can buy and how much money they can spend. Click on the pic below for the freebie!

Pi Day Freebie and Other News

Do you teach/celebrate Pi Day in your class?  Did you know it's tomorrow?! 3.14 lands on March 14 every year!  Another cool tip is that it is also Einstein's birthday!

For the last couple years, I have used this neat Pi Day activity with all ages.  We make Pi Day bracelets.

This is an easy activity to do with elementary and middle school students.  Click on the pic below for the freebie! The freebie includes the student worksheets and a lesson plan for the teacher.  I would love to hear your feedback if you use this in your class!

TN Shop

Also, Teaching is a Gift, has a linky party for a lot of different and fun ways to celebrate Pi Day! Click {here} to check it out!

Have you heard about a new website that is about to come in the Education world?  It is called Educents.

If you like sites like Groupon, it is like that by for teachers, homeschoolers, and parents.  They will offer discounted products like learning tools, curriculum, educational toys, e-books, software, and lots more!  I'm excited for the site to launch on April 2!

If you sign up now, you will receive a $15 gift card to use on the site.  They email to you ASAP!  But you better hurry because in TWO days (March 15), they are lowering the gift card to $10.

So click on the logo above or {HERE} to learn more about Educents and don't forget to sign up for great deals for great products!

Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party

I happened to stumble upon Latoya's awesome linky party today and I knew I had to instantly join!

It's super easy and fun to do!  My intials are AMH and here are my 3 things about me starting each letter.

A is for Air Traveller.  For some reason A took me forever to think of a good word to talk about myself. I was very fortunate enough to have parents who instilled my love for flying.  I tend to associate flying with family because I always have to fly somewhere to visit extended family members.  My closest family member outside my intermediate family is in California and Hawaii.  I love going to new places near and far and learn about the culture, food, attractions, and history of each place.  I'm lucky to have family living all over the world (Hong Kong, Australia, Paris, London, & more!).

In honor of the new pope being selected right now, here's a pic of me at Vatican City.  I went to Italy with my boyfriend this past summer.

M is for Movie-goer.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE going to the movies!  Recently, I watched Jack and the Giant Slayer, Identity Thief, and Safe Haven (Love Nicholas Sparks books!).  I am still in the hunt for a good dollar theater near where I live though.  If I'm not at the movies on the weekends, sometimes I'm glued to my TV at home watching Netflix movies.  Anyone see the new OZ movie yet?  That is on my MUST-GO SEE list!

H is for Hair.  I love my dark black-brown hair!  I try to keep it long so I can style it many, many ways.  I love curling, braiding, and accessorizing it!  I have a crazy stash of headbands and I always on Pinterest looking for new ideas to do my hair.  I think if I didn't have a teaching blog I would most likely start a hair blog. Haha!  You can check out my "Bombalious Hair" board here!

Here's a quick snippet of my hair today.  Just a simple headband braid, very Lauren Conrad from Laguna Beach.

Well I hope you liked learning a little more about me!  Definitely go back to Latoya's blog to link up!

Happy Tuesday! :)

Bloggers by State (Midwest)

While I was blog stalking I stumbled a fun way for teacher bloggers to connect thanks to All That Glitters in First Grade's earlier post this week.  Diane from Fifth in the Middle has an awesome way to network with other bloggers by state! I can't wait to meet new bloggers in my NEW state!!  (I just moved to Illinois from Ohio this past summer)

So if you haven't done it already, link up and find other bloggers from your state!

My Snow Day and a Freebie

Yesterday we had our first snow day of the school year!  I was surprised and excited because I was so convinced we were still going to go to school in the crazy snowstorm.  I couldn't believe it because when I moved to the Chicago area, the first thing everyone told me was schools don't add in snow days into their calendar.  Which I don't mind adding another day to the end of the year.

Did you have a snow day on Tuesday as well?  I did a lot of laundry and a lot of catching up on sleep.  It's so nice to lay around in PJ's all day.  Also, it was my first time to tackle the snow blower on our ridiculously long driveway!  Man, did it take a lot of work.  I just have to say the new house I moved into is at least 2x longer than my old one in Ohio.  Thank God, I convinced my dad to buy a snow blower.  My back would not be able to handle all the shoveling because it snowed so much yesterday that we had to plow the driveway 3 times! Yikes, wish I was living in Hawaii.

On to my freebie (Thanks for reading my snow day rant if you made it this far)...This month we are tackling community helpers and I made this short, cutesy freebie.  It's a writing prompt for both younger and upper elementary grades (3 types to choose from).  I've also included a word bank of many common careers like to be when they grow up.  Click on the pic below or the stores links to get it!

TN Shop

TpT Store

When I was 5 years old (actually up into I went to college), I wanted to be a ballerina.  I love to dance and thought being a ballerina was the coolest (well I still think this) profession ever! Here's me at the annual dance recital when I was 5.  I was a cupcake and the show was Alice in Wonderland.

I would LOVE to hear your feedback on my freebie!  Also, what did you want to be when you were 5 years old?