Stylish Blogger Award

A few of my fellow bloggers have given me a special shout out:

The Stylish Blogger Award

A HUGE THANK YOU TO:

Mrs. Langston from Langston's Learners

She is an amazing 1st grade teacher with so many great ideas. If you haven't checked out her blog yet, do it now!! My son Scott was lucky enough to be in her class in 1st grade. So thankful!

Catherine Wood from Mrs. Wood's Kindergarten Class has a ton of great ideas for Kindergarten.

Finally, my friend and team member, Stacy from Off to Kindergarten. She loves teaching, has great ideas, and just happens to be sporting the cutest baby bump right now.

Here are the rules for receiving this award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award 5 recently discovered great bloggers.

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.

Seven Things about Me

1. I am a mom to two amazing kids! Scott and Madilynn add so much love and laughter to my life!

2. I L-O-V-E teaching All Day Kindergarten. I have an amazing team, teach in a wonderful community, and love my 5 and 6 year old friends tremendously.

3. I am slightly obsessed with Children's Literature. My library card ALWAYS holds 150 check-outs and my Amazon cart gets filled with new books weekly. : )

4. I love games! Catch Phrase, Cranium, Taboo, Euchre, you name it!

5. I love cooking... and trying new recipes.

6. I am terrified of flying.

7. I am itching to start working on another degree. It's a lot of work with teaching and having young children, but I absolutely love learning more about my craft.

There are so many fabulous bloggers out there. Here are five GREAT blogs:

1. ABC and 123

2. Growing Kinders

3. Put Your Whole Self In

4. Reflecting on Teaching, Learning, and Technology

5. Bishop's Blackboard

Meet the Teacher

First Grade Parade is having a Meet the Teacher linky party and I've decided to join the fun!

Check out the Party on Cara Carroll's blog: FIRST GRADE PARADE

My name is Amy Rider.

I am going to turn 30 (WHAT!?!!) next Saturday. : )

This is my 7^th year in Education. I went to UC for my Bachelor’s in Early Childhood Education and to NKU for my Master’s in Literacy.

I am teaching All Day Kindergarten this year and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT.

Love my class, love my team, love my school!!!

This is me with two of my kindergarten friends: Emma and Makenna. They drew a very flattering picture of me on the white board today- “beautiful dress and a tiara for being a great teacher”. Love them!

My husband, Mike, and I just celebrated our 11^th wedding anniversary. We are kind of nuts about each other…. We met on March 22^nd, 1999 and haven’t spent a day apart since! Yes, it’s true- 4336 consecutive days of seeing each other. Ummm I am not counting, I just found a nifty date calculator online. Mike is an amazing husband and dad- so lucky I found him. We spend a lot of time LAUGHING. : )

We have 2 children, Scott and Madilynn, and that we absolutely ADORE!!!!

We also have an adorable puggle named Molly. She is so sweet and lets me dress her up in ridiculous things.

Scott is in 3^rd grade. He is super smart, kind, helpful, funny, and amazing at math. Scott is known for loving non-fiction, hating vegetables, spiking his hair, playing baseball, and being an amazing big brother.

Madilynn is a 3 ½ year old spunky preschooler. She is hysterical, creative, sweet, and curious. Maddy is known for loving all things PINK, hating bugs, eating olives, making people laugh, and being a dance machine.

{Q & A}

Q: What would you be doing if you weren’t a teacher?

A: I love teaching so much, but if I had to choose I would have to keep my two favorites: children and literature…. So I would open a quaint little children’s bookstore.

Q: What are your hobbies?

A: Being with my AMAZING family- Mike, Scott, Madilynn and I are all weirdos who just LOVE spending time together. We love laughing, playing games, going on fun adventures to the zoo, park, King’s Island, etc., or having awesome dance parties that involve music from the Black Eyed Peas, James Brown, Britney Spears, and Poison, HAHA funny, but true…

I also enjoy: blogging, finding GREAT children’s literature, exercising at Boot Camp, reading professional development books, getting together with friends, trying out new recipes, playing games, cheering on the Bengals and Ohio State Buckeyes, and photography.

Q: When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A: T-E-A-C-H-E-R for sure!!!

Q: What are your guilty pleasures?

A: Watching reality TV (so bad, yet so good!) and Food Network, spending ridiculous amounts of money on books, shopping at Target, pretzel M&Ms, and my mom’s Chex mix.

Q: What is your biggest fear?!

A: FLYING!!! OMG, get me down!

Q: When you’re on vacation, where do you like to go?

A: We are definitely beach bums.

Relaxing on the beach = PARADISE. Our favorite place to visit is Naples, Florida, but our trip to Disney World last summer was AMAZING too!!

Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

A: BE YOURSELF. I have the MOST FUN when I am around people who appreciate all of my funny quirks.

Q: What do you value most in others?

A: Loyalty, being genuine.

Q: If you could choose one of your personality traits to pass down to your kids, what would it be?

A: My positive attitude!!! If you want to be happy, be! : )

Q: If you could have lunch with anyone in the world….living or dead…who would it be?

A: Oh my… I want to have to lunch with so many people:

My dad would be number 1…. I miss him soooooo much. I’d want him to meet Mike, Scott, and Madilynn.

#2 The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. Enough said.

#3 Ann Marie Corgill. My team is going to think I am a complete stalker for this one.

Now tell us one random thing about yourself:

I love contests!! I have won funny things like a hammock, and awesome things like a trip to Hawaii and a trip to NYC to see Michael Jackson’s 30^th Anniversary Concert. WOOHOOO!!!

Enter the contest on my blog here: BOOK GIVEAWAY

I love helping my mom with her salt and pepper shaker collection. She has over 3,000 pairs!

Happy Halloween From the Rider Family!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM THE RIDER FAMILY!!!

We hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween.

Check out our Monster Mash!

Mrs. Rider, Mr. Rider, Scott, Madilynn, and Molly

Let the Blogging Begin!

Okay… this is it… the very 1st entry of my new classroom blog. ☺ Where should I begin?? Let’s start with the name. Deciding on the name of a blog is tough! Should it be funny? Serious? Cute? I finally settled on two things that I just can’t live without: Literacy and Laughter

A little about me:

My name is Amy Rider. This is my 7th year of teaching and I am very excited about teaching All Day Kindergarten this year!
Interests: Spending time with Mike, Scott, and Maddy, teaching, reading, photography, Writer’s Workshop, rooting for the Cincinnati Bengals, playing games, children’s literature, and learning!

A few important people in my life:

My husband, Mike, works for the city of Indian Hill. He has been busy building a new bookshelf for our classroom.
Interests: playing with our children, landscaping, helping others, baseball, and rooting for the Bengals and Buckeyes.

My son, Scott, is going into 3rd grade this year. I just can’t believe how quickly he has grown up. He is so helpful and kind. He makes me smile- OFTEN!
Interests: spiking his hair, reading non-fiction, riding thrill rides, playing baseball, building with legos, and taking care of our new puppy, Molly.

My daughter, Maddy, just turned 3 this summer. She is very funny and makes me laugh- A LOT!
Interests: dancing, laughing, princesses, books, drawing, asking questions, and anything that is PINK.

Thanks for checking out my blog! I can't wait to meet my new class of kindergarten students and to blog about our adventures. Here's to a GREAT YEAR with literacy and laughter.