Get a free editable classroom newsletter template that you can use to send home monthly newsletters to parents! You will love the ease and flexibility of this fully editable PowerPoint newsletter template. Help strengthen the bond between home and the classroom with this communication tool!

Don't go to Albania unprepared, like I did! Read these Albania travel tips, covering everything I wish I'd known before visiting Albania.

This game is one of my favorite games ever. It’s killer easy and it’s way fun. You can use candy (M&Ms are my favorite) or any other type of marker (I’ve used Cheerios, Goldfi…

If you ask me how I'm doing after my miscarriage, I'll tell you I'm okay. Here are all of the things I don't say. How it feels to have a miscarriage.

Although I like most things at Disney World, there are a few things I don't like very much. Today, I tell

ISO is all about measuring light. The brighter it is where you’re taking your photos, the lower your ISO number needs to be. Therefore if it’s dark and/ or there’s not a lot of …

Hi friends how are you holding up? I don’t know about you but some days feel crazy busy while other days are slow and boring. On those days I like to dig throug…

Typical Sicilian food: what to eat in Catania and a guide to the best local gastronomic traditions in Sicily. From gelato to cannoli, granita to torrone, arancini to involtini and more!

No, your scone is NOT supposed to be a sad dry heap of useless carbs! The best scones are crispy on the edges and tender in the middle. They are buttery, flaky, perfectly moist pieces of breakfast perfection that are surprisingly easy to make with a few tips. Don't let the sad coffeehouse selections fool you into thinking you don't like scones. You just haven't tried this recipe yet!

Hello! Today I'd like to share another experiment I carried out, making natural ink! I've read about natural dyeing in an old book about pr...

Did you know there's only one hotel at Machu Picchu? Or how about the Machu Picchu passport stamp? Get tips from someone who's been there twice.

Almost all thyroid conditions stem from an underlying cause of auto-immunity. Here are 5 things your doctor won't tell you about your thyroid. Plus, how to improve your thyroid health and answers your common questions about thyroid.

We should want our students to like us, but not because we awkwardly talk about rap music and basketball.

If you’re planning to spend a weekend in Vienna Austria I’ve put together this Vienna 2 Day Itinerary so you can have the perfect 2 Days in Vienna!

Is there anything more annoying to clean than window tracks? I don't really think so. But, there is a trick that leaves you with no scrubbing and NO TIME!!!

I’m sharing one of our favorite summer recipes with you today! Vinegar cucumber salad couldn’t be easier to make and it is the perfect summer side dish! My husband grew up on this “salad” in the Midwest, so he’s thrilled anytime I make this!Super yum! Even if you don’t like onion (I don’t), continue on […]

I am 5'2" necessitating LOTS of hemming and shortening of pants, skirts, and dresses. I just can't find anything the right length. If you've ever priced the cost of professional seamstresses (and add in the time it takes to get your clothing back), it costs a fortune to have everything you buy hemmed. I learned years ago how to hem pants and skirts, but jeans always gave me grief. A couple of years ago my older sister showed me a pair of her jeans that she had hemmed professionally, and it was easy to see how it was done. The difference is that jeans typically have a worn edge. The hem is decorative, so cutting that edge off to shorten them takes away part of the character you're paying for. So I developed a tutorial for hemming jeans the way professional would. Hope you find this helpful! What you'll need: sewing machine dark thread to match the jeans iron straight pins measuring tape scissors The Process: You'll need to measure the desired length of the jeans. The easiest way I've found to do this is to have the person stand on a chair and scoot back so the heel of their shoes is even with the edge of the chair. It might be helpful to note that you definitely need to have them wear the shoes they'd typically wear with the jeans. I prefer to hem the jeans to the ground. So, using a safety pin or water-soluble marking pen, mark the desired length (in my case, where the shoe ends and the chair begins). Next, measure the amount you'll need to shorten them from the edge of the current hem to the mark you've made. In the jeans in this tutorial, they needed to be shortened 2 1/2 inches. Lay the jeans flat on a hard surface, and measure up the desired length (2 1/2 inches here) from the stitching on the current hem. Since the current hem will remain in place, that half inch or so will also remain. So, if you measure from the edge of your jeans, they'll still be a half an inch too long after hemming. Make sense? Now place a straight pin to mark. Next you'll fold the edge of your jeans up into a cuff matching the current stitching to just above the pin like this. Pin in place. To check your accuracy, divide your total amount needed to shorten (2 1/2 inches for me) by 2 (equalling 1 1/4 inches in my case). Measure from the fold to just under the current stitching making sure this amount is half of the amount you need to take it in. Next, keeping this length consistent, pin all the way around the cuff. Measure as you go to make sure you're still consistent. Repeat these steps on the second leg. When both legs are securely pinned, move the pants to your sewing machine. Carefully stitch in the ditch just along the fold of the current hem. Make sure to get as close to this fold as possible being careful not to sew on top of it or across the current stitching. Stitch all the way around backstitching where you stop and start. Repeat this step for the other leg. Remove your jeans from the machine, and turn the cuff up to the inside of the leg like this. With a steaming hot iron, press this new seam from the inside all the way around each leg. Now turn the pants inside-out revealing the new cuff on the inside of the leg. Using super sharp scissors, cut the cuff about a quarter inch from your stitching. Turn the jeans right-side-out, and iron again if necessary to reveal your finished hem. Easy, and your seam is almost invisible! As always, please feel free to comment with questions, and I'll do my best to answer.

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Negative leaf print by one of my second grade students earlier this year. Hey, guys! This post has been very popular on my blog...if you are interested in other leaf-y projects, look at my Leaf Relief project and my Pressed Leaf Project as well. Thanks! I don't know what it's like where you live, but here in Tennessee, we are experiencing spring-like weather. For the most part. I mean it did snow the last two Saturdays (and, in Tennessee, "snow" means just a few flakes and a couple of inches) but the other day it was 78 degrees. Crazy, right? For that reason, I've got touch of spring fever. You too? Well then you might enjoy this leafy printmaking project I did at the beginning of the year with my second graders. It's simple, scientific, beautiful and fun...okay, enough talking about me (!), on with the lesson. For this project, you'll need the following: gelatin, not Jell-o. Most grocery stores carry a brand called Knox which sells in boxes of 16 pouches. cookie sheets printmaking brayer, sold at most craft stores printing ink variety of leaves paper Print pulled from the same printing tray, this time the positive version. The night before you begin, you'll need to prepare your sheets of gelatin. To do that, bring about 3-4 cups of water to a boil. Once boiling, whisked one pouch of gelatin into the pot. You don't want any clumps of gelatin, so whisk like there's no tomorrow. You'll end up adding about 12-15 pouches of gelatin into that one pot. Sorry, I'm not into exact measurements. Which could explain a lot about my cooking. If there are any remaining unwhiskable clumps, remove them with a spoon. Pour mixture into a cookie sheet filling it about 1". Leave uncovered over night. If you see any bubbles in the cookie sheet, pop them or remove with a spoon. For my class of 20 students, I made three trays. Pulling the first print always managed to get oohhhh's and aahhhh's aplenty. The following day, we were ready to print. The surface of the gelatin was squishy yet very firm, perfect for holding our printing ink. I think I can explain this best in steps, so here you go: Using a brayer and printing ink, cover surface of gelatin in ink. Place leaves onto the ink-covered cookie sheet with the veiny side down. I don't recommend using anything with pine needles because that will puncture the gelatin. But experiment, you never know! Once leaves are in place, lay paper on top of cookie sheet and rub (er, we call it "massage") the paper. Pull paper off, as you see in the above photo, and viola! You have your first print! Notice how clear the gelatin looks. All of the ink that was once on the tray is now on the paper. I love her dainty fingers pulling up the second print. So sweet. Now for the second print: Gently remove all of the leaves from the tray. It's best to pull them out by the end of the stem. Place a new sheet of paper over the now-empty cookie sheet and rub. Pull second print which will be a positive image of the first. Looks like a black and white photo, don't you think? Once both prints have been pulled, re-ink the tray and begin the process all over again. With a class of 20 students and 3 pans of gelatin, about 10 kids were able to print per half an hour class. The pans of gelatin can last about two days with an endless amount of printing. I tried to cover the gelatin and keep it for a little longer, but condensation droplets created strange little craters on the surface. If left uncovered for too many days, it begins to dry and crack. For that reason, if you plan to do this project for longer than a couple of days, you'll just need to prepare more gelatin pans the night before. Our second go-round of printing involved using white ink on black paper. Just as pretty. This project is so easy and the results so stunning that everyone is successful. I've now had a couple of craft get-togethers and this is always a hit. Once those leaves start growing in your neck of the woods, I do hope you'll give it a shot! I love the photo negative quality of this print.

When I posted a couple of my products on Teachers Pay Teachers this summer, I had not yet used them myself. I had brainstormed the ideas over the summer for my new kiddos! I knew that I would be receiving more kids than any other year (and no additional adults) and I needed more ways to incorporate independent work for my students to keep them busy and learning all day (which prevents boredom and temper tantrums!). For my students with higher academic and social skills, I was not too worried...I have plenty of stuff to keep them busy and they are great at adapting to new activities (check out this post for what my higher academic students do at Reading/Math Centers). However, for some of my lower functioning students independent work is harder to come up with and new activities do not go over very well (this group of students in my class struggles a lot with any sort of change). As you probably know if you have read my blog, I love using work in binders for my students. It keeps the work predictable and lets students know exactly how much work they have to complete. It also allows for switching different work in and out without the student feeling like too much has changed. I store these binders in a little plastic bin. I put a piece of velcro on the side of the binders....that way when a student is bringing their schedule picture to the station, they attach it right to the binder they are responsible for completing. This is what is in my reading binders for students who can match letters. This is from my Functional Spelling Product on TPT. The product also comes with pages that have blank boxes, for kids who are beginning to spell words on their own. I store the pieces in a labeled baggie on the back of the previous page. I use these in my reading binders as well. This is from my product Sorting Pictures by Letter from A-Z on TPT. Each kid only has 3 or 4 letters worth of pages in their binder and we switch them around every couple weeks. Again, pieces are stored in a baggie (I ask for these as school supplies in the beginning of the year since we use so many). For the example below, students sort pictures of alligators to the left side page and apples to the right side page. I also have some students who are not yet able to match something as complicated as a letter and cannot yet sort. For these students, in their reading binders, I use matching pages from my Easy Matching product on TPT. When I made this, I tried to make each item on the pages (there are only 4-6 pictures per page) a different color to help aid in visual discrimination for some of those beginning matchers. Not all of my students make it to my "Math Centers" station which takes place in the afternoon because we get so busy with inclusion and functional skills stations (life skills classroom, science lessons, social time, drama time, etc.) Don't worry, we still work on math...just not independently as often as reading. So, these binders are a bit less developed. Right now, I am just using pages from my product Patterns and Beginning Math Skills on TPT. Students match patterns in blank boxes below a given pattern. I tried to use picture of common items/things my students like to make this activity more engaging. That was kind of a long post...happy Tuesday!

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Do you suck with budgeting? Traditional budgets just not working? Check out this great beginner budget with 6 simple budget categories. Can easily be combined with other methods like Dave Ramsey's Cash Envelope method. Click here to read more and get control of your spending today!