tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45084048717718249622024-03-14T13:05:26.756-04:00Eat.Pray.Travel.Teach.I have been teaching Kindergarten for 7 years and love to connect and share with other teachers!Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.comBlogger129125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-82426883042463349382022-01-28T15:29:00.002-05:002022-01-28T15:29:29.307-05:00Multicultural Children's Book Day 2022 Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2022 (1/28/22) is in its 9th year! This non-profit children’s literacy initiative was founded by Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen; two diverse book-loving moms who saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural books and authors on the market while also working to get those books into the hands of young readers and educators.MCBD’s mission is toEat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-28083665072683391102021-01-29T11:19:00.048-05:002021-01-30T11:45:23.636-05:00Multicultural Children's Book Day 2021
Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2021 (1/29/21) is in its 8th year! This non-profit children’s literacy initiative was founded by Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen; two diverse book-loving moms who saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural books and authors on the market while also working to get those book into the hands of young readers and educators.
Eight years in, Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-33373370031529426372020-04-03T13:42:00.001-04:002020-05-29T15:27:50.317-04:00Getting Started with Seesaw and Home Learning
Update - Home Learning Codes are officially here to stay and use with your students. Also, please be sure to update your Seesaw App as there are awesome new features being rolled out in June!
This week I have been helping out K-2 educators get set up with Seesaw. If you are new to Seesaw and are transitioning to this platform for home learning, take a breath. You've got this. So many are just Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-86575173892363607802020-03-18T09:59:00.001-04:002020-03-18T09:59:17.070-04:00How I Am Supporting My Students During COVID-19Friday was a whirlwind, to say the least. I spent my school day away from my students for a training in our building. I went from feeling so awesome from working with my colleagues all day to super emotional within 30 minutes.
How We Closed
Friday we received an email that we would have a staff meeting to discuss all that was going on. I can only assume that the meeting would of been for us Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-81211855391220648742020-02-21T13:55:00.001-05:002020-02-22T18:58:14.496-05:00Picture Book March Madness 2020It is my favorite time of year, March Madness! No - not basketball, that is for my significant other. No this is a tournament of books! I first started participating in a book March Madness in 2016. I originally found the idea from The Brown Bag Teacher.
In 2016 I used Dr. Seuss books and had the whole school participate as it aligned with Read Across America Week. However now those are not Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-12007828779620494202020-02-17T11:42:00.001-05:002020-03-27T14:58:23.463-04:00My Journey With Switching to Non-toxic Products
Disclaimer - this post contains ALL of the product switches I have/will make. The information is overwhelming and frustrating. I did NOT make all changes at once and am still making changes. The biggest reason I am making these changes is due to certain chemicals being endocrine disrupters aka they mess with our hormones.
Over the last few months I have been making conscious changes toEat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-87312244578236553782020-01-31T18:06:00.000-05:002020-02-13T18:07:48.905-05:00Multicultural Children's Book Day 2020
Each year I am grateful to participate as a book reviewer for Multicultural Children's Book Day and this year marks the 7th year.
What is Multicultural Children's Book Day?
Multicultural Children’s
Book Day 2020 (1/31/20) is in its 7th year! This non-profit
children’s literacy initiative was founded by Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen;
two diverse book-loving moms who saw a need to shine Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-5203439242104894642019-11-20T08:31:00.002-05:002019-11-20T08:31:20.589-05:00November Picture Books for KindergartenThis year I am moving away from teaching really anything about Thanksgiving. My focus for November will be Turkeys, Native Americans, Poverty, Thanks and Giving. Personally I found November a difficult month to plan themes for by eliminating Thanksgiving so I want to share with you what I am doing instead in hopes it will help you.
Why No Thanksgiving?
Basically for me - we teach a falseEat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-44843968865377856402019-03-29T08:06:00.001-04:002019-03-29T16:58:34.595-04:00Picture Book Madness
The past few years I have done a Tournament of Books designed around March Madness. The Brown Bag Teacher has a free display printable. This year I decided very last minute that I wanted to do a tournament with my students.. It took me about 2 hours to select the books and prepare a digital bracket for my students to view on our smart board.
If you have been following me you know that Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-22745461464887304972019-03-04T07:51:00.002-05:002019-03-04T07:51:27.873-05:00Favorite Recipes of FebruaryThis year I will be sharing some of our favorite recipes with you! I plan all of my meals for the week and do my grocery shopping based around that. I no longer spend hours in the kitchen on a Sunday to be prepped for the week. So, most of the meals I am making are easy/quick.
Eating Whole 30
I did my first Whole 30 a few years ago and think I have finally started to figure out my Food Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-74953538874381860522019-02-13T11:07:00.002-05:002019-02-13T11:07:40.192-05:00Being More Mindful About My MoneyIt is 2019 and my word of the year is MINDFUL. Mindful about what I put IN my body. Mindful about what I put ON my body. Mindful about how I spend my money. This is the year that I want to have financial freedom. Why? For my future. Everything I am doing now will impact my future quality of life and the quality of a family's life. I wish I would have started this earlier but to me, better late Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-56750616977308613452019-02-13T09:52:00.002-05:002019-02-13T09:52:28.679-05:00Come to Life Books New ReleasesLast year when I went to Book Con I came across Little Hippo Books. These new augmented reality books just blew me away!! I have shared about them before but I want to remind you how great they are BECAUSE there are new books!
How They Work
These Come to Life Books utilize augmented reality. You use your device by downloading the Hippo Magic App. Each page that has the Hippo Icon will be Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-61584789662812035422019-01-22T07:35:00.001-05:002019-01-22T07:35:12.609-05:00Multicultural Children's Book Day 2019
Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2019 (1/25/19) is in its 6th year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in homes and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-10580225170427401422019-01-01T13:24:00.000-05:002019-01-01T13:24:00.469-05:00Simple Christmas Activities in KindergartenOkay teachers, we made it. We have finally earned our well deserved break. The last week of school before break is NO JOKE!
While I love all the fun activities we do before we leave for winter break they are EXHAUSTING. I love my job, honestly, I would never do anything else. But those days before break I was in bed by 8:30 most nights.
Our students are typically off the walls because they are Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-9114261928420452772018-08-13T10:01:00.002-04:002018-08-13T10:01:39.946-04:00Golden Pineapple Awards
Do you incorporate Character Education into your classroom daily?
I began my teaching career in a Catholic School. The main reason being that it was hard for me to get into Public School in PA. However, I believe in Catholic Education and am a product of it myself. Those years at my little school were some of the most trying, most special and most rewarding. Teaching Kinders about God's love Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-91625210119460281632018-08-07T09:24:00.003-04:002018-08-09T09:41:30.860-04:00Bring Storytime to Life!The future of reading is here and I am all in!
I believe in using technology in such a way that my students are not constantly on a device or staring at a screen. If there is screen time, it is limited and purposeful.
This year I attended BookCon. In addition to meeting authors and falling in love with new books, I came across a new booth - Little Hippo. While waiting in line to spin the Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-67048391160497513392018-07-27T16:26:00.000-04:002018-07-27T16:26:35.942-04:00Picture Books for the First Week of SchoolThere are bound to be hundreds of lists like this floating around the internet. Lists of the best read alouds for back to school. However, here is my list! These are my favorite books to share with my students for those first few days of school. Some I have read before, others will be new to me this school year. Either way, I can not wait to share them with my students!
1. All Are Welcome
Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-66282950034645011502018-07-24T13:02:00.000-04:002018-07-24T13:02:10.712-04:00Eating My Way Through LouisianaThis summer I am spending 2 1/2 weeks with my best friend in Florida. It is also the first summer EVER that I am not working all summer. CRAZY! I am 1 week into my trip and have only been slightly going stir crazy; but I have my laptop, did my BTS shopping and have plenty of books to read at the pool/beach.
During my stay my Mr. came down for a long weekend. He has never been to New Orleans so Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-56942365806979402512018-07-23T10:18:00.002-04:002018-07-23T10:39:57.863-04:00Scholastic Reading SummitLiteracy is a passion of mine. As an educator, I am always looking at how can I improve myself as a teacher. My students deserve the best, that is why I continue to return to school and attend Professional Development Conferences out of my own pocket. When I am paying out of pocket I select ones that feed my teaching soul and lift me up.
Scholastic Reading Summit was a conference I first Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-37226446080632732112018-04-30T06:30:00.000-04:002018-04-30T06:30:07.187-04:00Bringing Culture Into Your Classroom Through Picture BooksAre you trying to bring more culture into your classroom? Not sure where to start? Then you will love this brand new collection of picture books from Idunnu Studios.
When I was first introduced to Oladoyin and her books I was blown away!
In her collection A-Z And Things In Between she is releasing one book a month for each letter of the alphabet. That's right, 26 books celebrating cultures fromEat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-9112371895703811822018-04-04T05:59:00.000-04:002018-04-04T05:59:18.346-04:002nd Grade Pirate Math Review
Ahoy!!
I am back at it again with another classroom transformation! As I was reflecting one day I realized I wanted to bring more fun into my classroom. Personally, it is easy for me to get caught up in day to day of my classroom routine. I have to make myself stop and think "am I giving my students the best year I can?" I only have 180 days with these students. 180 days to prepare them for Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-80844360551498909672018-03-29T20:17:00.001-04:002018-03-30T12:51:50.524-04:00Building a Community of Readers
Picture the first week of school. You walk in and tell your students it is time for some independent reading. They instantly run to your classroom library and grab a book they have been eyeing up.
And then you wake up.
It was a beautiful dream. Sadly, that is not how most of my students in my 2nd grade classroom are were. Goodness it wasn't even how my 5th graders were. Why is that? Why Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-24197545843873790322018-03-14T12:29:00.000-04:002018-03-14T12:29:05.495-04:00My Travel Quest: 7 Wonders of the World
Every now and then you read a book that changes you or inspires you. Recently, my very dear friend, Keep Calm and Teach Fifth Grade sent me one of those books. Myranda and I have a friendship that I hold dear to my heart and one I would not be complete without. We have seen the world together. Spent the night in an airport together. Sweated our butts off together. And all of this Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-29456145121361235082018-03-11T12:28:00.000-04:002018-03-11T12:43:29.220-04:00My Travel Quest: The Colosseum
My quest of visiting the New Seven Wonders of the World began in 2012. The best part, I did not even know it at the time. Click here to read about how my travel quest began.
Part 1: Venice
In the summer of 2012 I planned to meet Myranda in Italy. We began our journey in Venice. This was probably my favorite part of the trip because there were so many moments of "Oh, Snap"Eat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508404871771824962.post-45698698169538441492018-01-01T16:14:00.001-05:002018-01-01T16:14:21.516-05:00Christmas Gifts for Parents
The last two years I have just been throwing together our gifts for parents so last minute! This year is no different, bring on the stress!
I decided 2 weeks before our break to have my students make directed drawing calendars. I saw the idea all over Instagram and knew that I had to recreate it. The final project was amazing and worth all the craziness.
I created a calendar quicklyEat.Pray.Travel.Teachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907546226155467261noreply@blogger.com1