Five for Friday

I am linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs to share my 5 for Friday.

Things are completely nuts right now, so I thought I would avoid my to do list and create this post instead! :)

 I am working on an end of the year slideshow for my students and oh my goodness...

I can't believe how much they have grown!!!

 

(August)

                                                                         (May)

Speaking of growing too fast...

Here is my son and his best friend arriving at his 6th Grade Dance. 

My daughter was SO excited about researching and creating a project about Sea Turtles. 

We found a lot of great info on National Geographic Kids:

So fun!!!

We only have 4 days of school left!?!

Almost time to create our summer fun list.

(click the pic to see what we did last summer)

Funny!

find other funny pins HERE! 

Love Notes Link Up!

Blogging Friends,

 I thought it would be fun to host a little “Love Notes” Link Up. It’s February and time to share all of the LOVES in your life.

Create a post with your “love notes” and link up!! It will be a super fun way to get to know more teacher bloggers... and provide some fun reading for the last full month of Winter!

“Lovely List”

Name: Amy 

Grade you Teach: Kindergarten 

State: Ohio

Birthday: February 12th 

Favorite Colors: Teal and Pink

Lucky Number: 22

Favorite Subject to Teach: Literacy!!

Go to Snack: Triscuits and Cherry Coke Zero

TV Show: Chopped, Pioneer Woman, X Factor
Last Movie You Watched: The Lorax :) : )
Music You are Loving Right Now: Bruno Mars
Always shopping at: Target & Kohl's 
Word of the day: Funny

“Love Links”

share links to…

a blog you are loving right now:

I die with laughter when reading this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your Valentine or February pin board:

a product you adore:

My Erin Condren Life Planner. 

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!!!! 

“We’d all love to know…”

What are your favorite hobbies or what do you enjoy doing during your free time? 

Being a mom!!!! I know this isn't a "hobby" but I really enjoy spending most of my free time with my children Scott and Madilynn. We love hiking, dancing (*our dance parties are getting serious now that Santa brought a disco ball and Scott deejays on his ipod, ha!*), going on adventures to the zoo, children's museum, King's Island, playing games (we play one every night and are currently obsessed with Uno), and just spending time together. Children grow up too fast and I am just enjoying every minute with them!

I also love going to cardio boxing, cooking for family and friends, blogging, photography, traveling, and shopping at Target.

Your favorite vacation destination?

My favorite "couples" destination is Hawaii. Mike and I went went we were first married. It was gorgeous, relaxing, and romantic! 

My favorite family destination is Naples Beach or Disney World. 

 (Naples 2012) 

 (Disney June 2010)

See what I mean about growing up fast - this picture makes me want to cry my eyes out. ;)

The best advice you’ve been given?

BE YOURSELF. 

I have SOOOOOO much fun with my friends who love me for ME! 

(funny quirks and all!)

Most rewarding part of teaching?
Helping children fall in love with books, watching their growth in writing, and seeing all of their smiles and eagerness to learn. 

What are you known for?

Being happy. 

: ) : ) : )

 I love to laugh. 

2 random facts:

#1

My husband and I met randomly online (not through a dating site!) and were married 8 months later. I was 18, he was 20!!! 

We just celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. And our children put this together (and cooked!!) for us:

So sweet!!!!

#2

I am obsessed with photo collages. :)

The Loves of Your Life:

Share a picture(s) of your LOVES.

Scott and Madilynn 

Scott and my husband Mike

 Madilynn

:)

Molly Moo

and last but not least:

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these beautiful faces! 

Please consider creating your LOVE NOTE post and linking up.

PLEASE be sure to include a LINK BACK to this post.

 Looking forward to reading all of your posts!!! :)

New Year, New Ideas, New Possibilities

I am SO EXITED to welcome a guest post by Rachael from Diving Into Learning

We're both participating in 

Click on the image above to check out this fun blog hop!

Hi everyone! I’m Diving Into Learning and I’m guest blogging today here at Literacy and Laughter. Today I’m going to share a fantastic website with you. Have you ever heard of Your Next Read? It is a website where you type in the title (or subject) and it will recommend books for you! I love using it to find new books to read.

This is what the homepage looks like when you click on the children tab. It brings up different age groups and you can click on a book to see recommendations. Or if you are ready to find books to go along with one you already have or need books for a theme, you can type it into the search box and start looking!

I’m getting ready to start my winter/arctic unit in January so I’ve been searching for books. I first typed in ‘arctic animals.’ It gave me a list of suggestions on the right hand side and then I clicked on the “Amazing Arctic Animals” book and it recommended all of these. Sometimes the books do not go along with the theme/subject of the book in the middle, such as you will get other books written by the author or a similar author, but you can click on the other books to get even more recommendations.

Next I searched for penguins and these are some of the books that it recommended. I am adding the “If you were a Penguin” book to my list of books to get!

I love “The Mitten” by Jan Brett so I did a search to see what other similar books were recommended. You can also see reviews for the books on the right hand side of the page.

So be sure to check out http://www.yournextread.com/us/  next time you need some book ideas!

Thanks for reading my blog post! As a way of saying thank you, here is an arctic theme freebie that you can download from my TPT store: Penguin Odd and Even Number Sorting http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Penguin-Odd-and-Even-Numbers-1-20-Sorting

Please go check out Rachael's Blog: 

You can find my guest post here:

Technology Tools For Teachers LINK UP

Last Spring I did a "Technology Tools for Teachers"

 presentation for Xavier University Grad students.  I used the glog below as part of my presentation. 

The professor has asked me to present on the same topic again (to a new group of grad students) and I would LOVE YOUR HELP in finding more technology tools for teachers.

LINK UP BELOW...

if you have have a great technology tool for teaching.

Ideas include:

links to online books

links to websites

great ipad/ipod apps

smartboard resources

pinterest technology boards

tips for integrating technology across the curriculum

links to technology blogs

smartboard/powerpoint files you've found or created

links to fun youtube clips for learning

technology tools for implementing common core

great CDs/songs for learning

and more!!! 

Really any tech resource that you think other teachers would value. 

Crossing my fingers someone links up with how to create a linky button. For now, please use this to link back from your post. :) 

Not too late to join the party!!!

I have been itching to "fix-up" my classroom library and reading corner so I hosted a Classroom Library Linky Party last month. 

It has been such a treat peeking into so many wonderful teachers' classrooms. 

I have been so inspired by all of your creative ideas and organization tips!

Thank you so much to everyone who linked up!

Did you miss the party?

 It's not too late to check out the terrific ideas shared or join in and share your library. 

Check out the party here:

Feeling super inspired and looking forward to revamping my classroom library this summer!

Spring Break Fun!

 My Spring Break has been wonderful!

The weather was beautiful and I shared many fun adventures with my hysterical children! 

We went to the Cincinnati Zoo and saw this cutie:

We traveled to Columbus to explore for a couple of days.

SO FUN!! 

Our trip included stops at...

 COSI:

The Columbus Zoo:

and my son's favorite... 

the Buckeyes' Stadium:

We also made several trips to the Cincinnati Nature Center to hike

and we celebrated Moo's 2nd birthday!

I shared my students' owl work with several blog posts:

Hosted a Library Linky Party:

and pinned a little:

click on the pictures above to check out the blog posts and my boards : )

Feeling rested, happy, and ready to take on the last 8 weeks of school. 


Hope you all had a wonderful break!


Looking forward to seeing all of my kindergarten friends tomorrow and hearing about their Spring Break adventures.