Crispy potato latkes are delicious as an everyday appetizer and perfect for Hanukkah. Here are all the tips on how to make them perfect!

So we just celebrated the well-known holiday of showing and sharing love--Valentine's Day. But did you know that February 17th is Random Acts of Kindness Day? We decided as a family to spend an afternoon

If you think back to when you used to visit grandma's house as a child, I am sure grandma always had some special kind of dessert for you.

New Year. Every 365, sometimes 366, it rolls around like a mirrored ball on speed and suddenly, whamo, it's here! Resolutions: Mine are short and simple: Personal: I began a Whole 30 Jan. 1 (very stict whole, clean eating plan) and am so very thankful for the Facebook group of First Timers who have been so helpful with recipes, support, and encouragement! I am trying to lose the 20 pounds that crept back on while I was in the middle of moving, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! Yikes!!! Need to stick to Paleo- it has worked for me but the minute I go off I gain!! I have also gone back to working out 4-5 days per week. Amazing how much better I feel when I do. Professional: This has been an awesome school year!! The last two school years were not so hot as I had 4 surgeries during those two and was out a total of almost 6 months of school!!! So glad to be healthy again. Edit, edit, edit! I am in the midst of a book and my publisher and I will begin edits soon- I've already started editing and I am so excited about the book.. and leery of all the work during editing! The book has clapping songs and games from around the world! It's been so fun chatting with people in Johannesburg, South Africa, Indonesia, Scotland, and all around the globe. So thankful for email; this project would have taken years otherwise. Now to the goody, well, I hope it's a goody: Happy 2015!

We do this every year... and it's always a huge mess. one year my son kept cutting gun shapes and went around and shot us... but this year I thought we could try some patterns... first:

Looking for boredom busters? Grab this list of over 100 unique holidays and find something fun to celebrate as a family! Wacky & weird holidays every month!

If you have been reading blogs recently, I know you have seen so many fabulous and inspiring examples of RACK: Random Acts of Christmas Kindness! Check out Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade's post HERE. Cara Carroll has a beautiful RACK advent calendar for her family HERE. And my personal favorite, Judy at Kindertastic's HERE. It is actually Judy's work that I am using this year for our class' RACK Week-we still have a full week to go before Winter Break, so I needed something to keep us kind and in the holiday spirit for the next five days :) Note: I teach in a public school and we have lots of diverse celebrations, so I changed the "Christmas" to "Classroom" :) We started talking about this today by thinking about each of the words separately and also by brainstorming lots of ways we could practice Random Acts of Classroom Kindness both in and around our school. The kids were awesome at this and we linked it a lot to bucket filling and how, when we fill someone else's bucket, it fills ours up as well! I then used Judy's awesome Google Docs to not only download her PDF, but to adjust her Word doc to make some that my kids brainstormed- specifically, writing notes and cards to our office staff, school nurse, custodians, bus drivers, principal, and more. You know me, I love my buckets, so I made a quick bucket label and laminated the slips of paper to make sure they can be used over and over again. Next week, starting on Monday morning and going through Friday, as soon as Morning Meeting is over, I am going to have kids pull a RACK idea from our bucket to do that day. They will then record it on their "RACK Tracker" and try to complete it by the end of day. Of course, if they want to do more, they absolutely can, and if they pull a duplicate one from a previous day, they can re-choose. I'm not going to be too strict and force them to do a RACK they don't want to do! Here's a shot of the RACK Tracker that I'm going to copy onto green paper to feel more festive ;) I am having them do this just to keep their RACK in the forefront of their mind throughout the day and really work on intentionally practicing a different form of kindness each day. Click the image above to download your free copy from Google Docs It's pretty simple, but it should do the trick and I am so excited to get this underway! If you are interested in RACK in your classroom, be sure to check out all of the links above and, if you are thinking you may want the "Class RACK" bucket label and RACK Tracker, download them for free from Google Docs HERE. Happy Friday and I hope you have a wonderful weekend :) **Update: I posted this morning not knowing how this day would end... who could have ever imagined? My heart goes out to all of the families, teachers, staff, students, and first responders in the Connecticut tragedy :'(

I had my formal observation on Friday and I am so glad to be done with it!! Hopefully it went well enough that I won't need another :) ...

Okay, here are the last of the family reunion pics!Back-tracking a bit...the first full day there, Ian and I planned to just stickaround the house and play games and hang out.Probably the highlight of the

I've spent my weekend spring cleaning and working on spring related items for my classroom. I can't believe we're this far into the school ...

So, did you survive Halloween? I personally really enjoyed the fact that it was on a Friday this year. 🙂 Now that Halloween is over, I’ve started thinking ahead to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the holidays in general. It’s always such an exciting time of year for the kiddos! Unfortunately, I think it’s all too easy for kids to become too focused on the “gifts” part of the holidays. The media and advertising play a big role in this. BUT I do think we, as teachers and parents, can definitely do something about it! I think it’s important to teach kids about all the ways that people can give to one another. Giving doesn’t have to involve gifts – giving can include helping people in intangible ways, using kind words with others, etc. I recently finished a mini-unit that focuses on just that – teaching kids the many ways that people can give to each other. Read on for some ideas and books about teaching kids how to give, and for more details on the unit! The unit starts by having kids discuss their prior knowledge about giving (which likely includes giving gifts). You’ll make a class chart and/or give students a drawing/writing task to see what students believe about what it means to give (at the end of the unit you’ll give the same assignment to see how the kids have grown!). Then, you’ll use readalouds and writing activities to open kids’ eyes to all of the ways that people give to each other. You definitely won’t need all of these books for the unit, but here are some of the options that you can choose from: Books About Giving Tangible Items: The Mitten Tree (Candace Christiansen) My Most Favorite Thing (Nicola Moon) The Elves and the Shoemaker (Jim Lamarche) Books About Giving Help: Frog and Toad All Year – “The Surprise” (Arnold Lobel) The Berenstain Bears Lend a Helping Hand (Stan Berenstain) My Friend is Sad (An Elephant and Piggie Book) (Mo Willems) When You Are Happy (Eileen Spinelli) The Lion & the Mouse (Jerry Pinkney) A Sick Day for Amos McGee (Philip C. Stead) Books About Giving Kind Words: One (Kathryn Otoshi) Chrysanthemum (Kevin Henkes) Ish (Creatrilogy) (Peter Reynolds) Books About Helping the Community: Boxes for Katje (Candace Fleming) Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen (DyAnne Disalvo-Ryan) City Green (DyAnne Disalvo-Ryan) A Castle on Viola Street (DyAnne Disalvo-Ryan) In addition to the reading and writing activities, the kids will practice giving to their friends and families through a few different activities. They’ll make a “helping chain” with ideas about how they can help others: They’ll also make a coupon book for their families (with ways that they can help out around the house): After these and a few other activities, they will (with your guidance!) plan and implement a very simple community service project. By the end of the unit, the kids should have a more complex and complete understanding of what it means to give to others. The lessons are great for teaching around Thanksgiving, Christmas, winter holidays, Valentine’s Day – or any time at all! The unit also includes supplementary literacy materials like a poem, student reader, and reading passage. Click on the image below to find out more: Happy teaching!

Easter was kind of a big deal in our house growing up. My parents are from South Side Chicago Polish Catholic households where food was a big part of any celebration. This continued when they mov…

Want to help your kids learn about gratitude? Play the gratitude game with them. It's a fun game that the whole family will enjoy!

This Folded Paper Icicle craft looks fantastic! Kids will love how easy they are to make with the free printable template. Just print, cut and fold! Such a lovely Winter craft for kids.

Here are 100 acts of kindness for kids that you and your family can do together! Fun (and lots of free) kindness ideas that kids can do.

Whoever dreamed up these ingenious uses for empty toilet paper tubes was brilliant: my favorite ways to reuse, repurpose, and recycle these ubiquitous cardboard cylinders.

Today I'm sharing a list of 100, yes 100 frugal and fun Summer Activities with you which should be more than enough to see you through the Summer!

Trumpet craft to celebrate the Baha'i holiday Birth of Baha'u'llah

{via} In the wake of the Newtown tragedy I found it unfathomable to think about what recipe I was going to post for Mangia Monday. My heart was so heavy all weekend as the details

These silly holidays will brighten up any mundane day with your family and give you something fun to celebrate!

Everybody needs this homemade apple cinnamon toast flavored butter in their life.

Want to sound cool while speaking French? Some tips plus a list of verlan and slang words French youngsters use.

This easy gluten-free stir-fry sauce is full of flavor and perfect for any kind of stir-fry! Add it to your favorite meat and vegetables.

I decided to take on my own challenge of incorporating a STEM activity every day for a week. It turned out to be a huge success where both my students and I had a blast. Here were the various …

If you need STEM projects ideas, this is THE place to go! This is a collection of over 200 STEM projects and activities that kids love!

Kids love having the opportunity to give and receive gifts from each other, especially during the holidays. So, I took advantage of the...

Building a Christ-centered home is an ultimate goal for many. But, how can we build one? And, what are the marks of a Christ-centered home?

Catholic and Christian teachers, encourage your students to do good deeds during this Lent with this free Good Deeds Chart

Huge collection of kids summer activities, printables, games, party ideas, coloring pages and summer crafts from the Woo! Jr. Kids Activities Network.

I looked out my window this morning and decided that today is a cup of tea kind of a day. The sky is ugly gray and hanging ominously low, the Gabe is not feeling well and I may have eaten one too …

We saw a hilarious video from Gridley FFA where several of their finest chapter members played Mallow drop. Two students sit on the floor, leaned back, with noses pointed to the ceiling, and an ice cream cone in their mouth. Their partner standing on a table nearby has to drop as many mini marshmallows as possible in t

Incorporating activities focusing on Christmas kindness is a fantastic way to spend time before the much-anticipated Christmas break!

Fun STEM Challenge Minute to Win It Games for kids class parties, family holiday parties, or birthday parties. Little prep needed, easy to have materials.

Ready for Peep catapults?! My kiddos loved this STEM activity so much they didn't realize they were learning engineering, physics and math!

This week we had a lot of fun learn about Martin Luther King and focusing on the story ‘The Mitten’ by Jan Brett & Alvin Tresselt. We did lots of fun activities to go along with the story from my Mitten Unit. Check out below to also see some MLK activities we did & FREEBIES!!! […]

Use these Olympic Flag Coloring Pages to let your kids craft and color with them. Perfect to learn the countries, flags and more about the Winter games.

Discover Belgium's best hidden gem.

These colorful Spain crafts for kids are perfect for the National Day of Spain on October 12th! Let's celebrate Spain's wildlife, dance & yes, football!

Hello Everyone! More Daily Five stuff! :) "Read to Someone" is a component that my firsties love!! We practice over and over how it should look and sound. We practice sitting EEKK style, reading quietly, sharing, asking questions, etc. Many ask what my kids read during "Read to Someone." Most of the time they are sharing books from their book baskets, but at least once a week, they read poetry together. We build a collection of poems in a folder starting from day one of first grade! Many of the poems integrate reading and social studies or science. Some have to do with the word chunk we are working on. Some are seasonal. Some are interactive chants that specifically help kids share their reading! Perfect for "Read to Someone!" I just revamped the cover of our Poetry Collection. The folder also contains a letter to parents about practicing and returning the folder. By the end of the year our folders have at least 50 poems. A wonderful anthology of our first grade year. Here is what the cover looks like along with the poems with which I like to start the year. Click here for a copy of these if you would like! Stop by again soon for another installment of my D5 ideas! (and more poetry!) Joyfully! Nancy

This comprehensive guide explores the best things to do in Copenhagen with kids as well as useful information for visiting Copenhagen with kids.

Teaching young students about MLK Day is very important, yet it can be difficult to explain to students how things used to be long ago when there was segregation. Here is a great video made by young students that explains the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. in a very simplified way in which kids will understand. One of my favorite MLK books to read to students is "Martin's Big Words; The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." by Doreen Rappaport. This picture book brings to life Martin's powerful message in some of his own words. It tells the story of his life and it shows how he was a gifted speaker and influential leader. After reading this book, I love to show the video of it and have students be thinking about Martin's big words. We make a web on the board and students copy all those powerful words. Students can make their own "I Have A Dream" mini hand print booklets. It is important to have students be thinking about ways to make the world a better place for mankind and not about what they wish for themselves. After we are done making these mini books, I let the students read and share their thoughts with their classmates. During MLK week, Here is another great follow up activity that I enjoy doing with the students. Begin by teaching the students the song "With My Own Two Hands" lyrics by Ben Harper. This video version is sung by Jack Johnson. Students brainstorm ways that they can make the world a better place with their own two hands and share their ideas with a thinking partner. They can practice reading the song lyrics on this worksheet and color in their hands using flesh tone crayons. Students will then write a sentence about how they can use their hands to make the world a better place.Students who want to share their writing piece with the whole class may do so when they are done. If you like these MLK activities, you can grab get them here. What is your favorite MLK book or video that you enjoy introducing to your student? Please comment below. I'd love to hear any suggestions. .

Vanessa Kimbell’s post suggesting we take part in random acts (bakes) of kindness was compelling. She suggested we think about who deserved a spontaneous thank you, a kind word or some recogn…