Summer Days & Monday Made It

Hope your summer has been going well. Mine has been excellent! :) After teaching summer school for the first month of summer, I took a physical and mental break from all things teacher and spent a week doing a whole lotta nothing. 

I spent my relaxing time in this beautiful place with my beautiful family. 

My grandparents, mom and uncles have been coming to Clear Lake, CA since they were babies and now the fourth generation of our family is enjoying this special place. We spent a week in cabins lakeside with 25 of our closest family members. Lots of time floating, boating, talking and laughing. 

And with my family, lots of wine drinking is also a given......Of course we also had to find a lakeside winery to visit. (Pretty sure this is one of the ONLY wineries you can boat to!). 

We just docked our boat down on the lake and walked up to amazing wine and a great view! Gotta love that! :) 

We also did a whole lotta eating too. Take a look at what my uncle whipped up: 

These were amazing grilled chicken sandwiches with Saracha sauce and avocados with a side of grilled corn on the cob and grilled nectarines for dessert. He even grilled lemons and limes to squeeze over the top. Delish! Obviously we don't mess around when it comes to food! :) 

Speaking of food.....Time for my Monday Made It! I'm linking up with Tara from Fourth Grade Frolics for her adorable linky! :) 

Today, I want to share my favorite salads. Now, I am NOT creative or even skilled when it comes to cooking, but I can slice and dice and I do know what flavors I like. And I L-O-V-E this salad. 

It is a standby in my kitchen. I made it last week to share at the lake. I also love to make a big version and keep it in the fridge for a quick work lunch. Being as I am not a fancy-smancy cook, I don't really have a recipe but still wanted to share. I hope my directions make sense! :) 

Quinoa & Veggie Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing 

Here's what you'll need: 

    1 cup uncooked quinoa 

    1 can black beans (rinsed and drained) 

    1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn 

    1-2 limes (depending on how tangy you like your dressing) 

    Olive oil 

    1 bunch of cilantro

    Salt 

    A generous helping of a variety of veggies (I have used red peppers, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and red onions and what ever else I have laying in the fridge that day.) 

Here's what you'll do: 

Cook the quinoa according for the directions on the package and let cool in fridge. 

Rinse and drain the black beans. Defrost corn if using frozen. 

Slice and dice the veggies. I used 1/4 of a red pepper, a couple tablespoons of red onion, a handful of cherry tomatoes tomatoes, 1/2 a cucumber and chopped the cilantro for the dressing. You can add or sub any vegetables you have on hand.  

Mix the dressing using olive oil, salt and lime. I do all of this to taste. Then I throw in the cilantro at the last minute. 

Toss the salad. Combine the quinoa, beans, corn and veggies in a large bowl. Add the dressing.

Enjoy! 

***PS sorry for the poor quality photos. I am definetly NOT a food blogger. Hahaha***

Now that I am back from my teacher break, I am eager to get busy and start dreaming about my classroom. I am off to Target and Michael's to get the creative teacher side of me revved up again. I'll be stopping by some of the other Monday Made It posts for some inspiration too. 

Have a great day! :) 

Blog Lovin'

So apparently I have been living under a rock (or just spending all of my time locked in my summer school classroom) and didn't know much about Blog Lovin'. I had heard it mentioned here and there but had not yet investigated or jumped on the Blog Lovin' bandwagon.

That is until this morning! I just signed up with Blog Lovin' and am already seeing such value in this feature. So nice to have all my favs at my finger tips. I am also loving the app! This is perfect for summer travel. I will be hanging at the lake next week and thanks to the app, I will now be able to access my favorite blogs with my ipad and won't have to lug around my laptop to do some blog reading in the evenings.

To follow my blog on Blog Lovin',  click below.

I'm linking up with Laura Candler's Corkboard Connections  as she hosts a blog hunt! Such a fun idea and a great way to find new blogs. Don't forget to follow your new blog finds with Blog Lovin'!

Let the blog hunt begin! :) 

Click on this cute little bear to link up too! 

Made it Monday (And a FREEBIE!)

I'm finally linking up with Tara from Fourth Grade Frolics for my first Made it Monday of the summer.

Is it just me or is the summer flying by???? I have a feeling that teaching summer school has something to do with my feelings! But now summer school is now officially over. I t was a fast and furious three weeks! I really had a sweet, sweet class though, and we were busy every hour of the day.

Now that it is over, I am finally getting a chance to pretty-up some of my activities from our quick three weeks. Although I have about 3 million products in the works, I only finished one in time for this linky and its FREE!!! :) 

Clickity-Clack on the image and download a way! 

I hope you can enjoy using it in the fall! 

Until then enjoy your summer, teacher friends! 

PS Don't forget to link up with Tara, too!  

Disney & Social Studies???

Since I've been away for awhile, I wanted to rewind a bit and share some of my lessons that I meant to blog about but never quite got around to during the school year.

In the mix of testing we also started our Colonial Times Unit. (One of my favs!) We spent a lot of time talking about Jamestown (partially because I visited Jamestown last summer and had some fun resources that I brought home with me!)

Let me first preface this in saying that I completely understand that Disney's Pocahontas

  is NOT an accurate depiction of the life of Pocahontas. I discussed this with my students and they had completed an accurate study of the life of Pocahontas during our Native Americans unit. 

To start of the discussion about Jamestown I started off by using this movie clip form Disney's Pocahontas

 (Yes, again, I know this movie is NOT historically accurate, but it was a great hook!): 

The clip is only about two minutes long so we actually watched it several times. 

Round 1: 

The first time we watched just to watch it no expectations. The students then pair-shared with there neighbors and discussed what the video clip was about. Lost of students recognized the clip.  "I've seen this before!" 

Round 2: 

Before playing the video for a second time I asked the kids to focus on making OBSERVATIONS. I was clear that these should be observations and NOT inferences. The students were supposed to look for the who and what when and where and why of the video. Some observations: "They're are getting on a boat", "I see mostly men", "They are in a city". 

After discussing the observations they could make inferences: "I think they are leaving England because of the flag on the ship and also because of their accents." Some students also made predictions:  "It looks like the mean are the only ones going because they are kissing the women and children goodbye. I think they might be going to work for the Virginia Company." 

Round 3: 

This time  as we played the movie they were given the lyrics and told to highlight anything that was repeated. From this they gathered lots of information: gold, Virginia Company, New World. Again, they had time to discuss this with their neighbors.                                                               

After 3 rounds of the video clip and discussions (all of which took about 15 minutes) we were ready to dive into our social studies books. My students were deeply engaged (which is not usually the case when we open up our textbooks). 

As we read the information about Jamestown, the students filled out a graphic organizer. They did an excellent job comprehending the information in the textbook and were quick to point out the historical inaccuracies in Disney's version. 

Round 4: 

After the reading, I had them watch the video one final time, this time looking for specifics like the date of the voyage. 

After this initial lesson, the students completed this reading comprehension sheet from Redworks.org. I love double dipping with reading comprehension in the content areas and this site is great for that! 

We also spent time working on some of the Jamestown computer lab activities I blogged about <HERE>. 

We completed Jamestown back in Mid March and April but the students were still talking about it as we wrapped up the year last week. I will call that a success!

Hope you are all on summer break and enjoying yourselves! If your still in school I hope you can see the light at the end of the tunnel! :) 

June Currently

I've been a little MIA lately but summer is (finally!) here so I am BACK! :) I'm linking up with the ever popular Farley for the June Currently. 

Explanations: 

Listening to Arrest & Development...and have been since Monday. :) 

Loving that I am officially on summer break. Our last day was Friday and I have been living it up (and sleeping a lot) since the final bell rang.  :) 

BUT...

I'm thinking about Summer School which starts in just a week. EEEK!!!! 

This should help with my want: more funds. Who am I kidding, I always want more funds but with all of the quick trips and mini vacays I have planned the extra funds are really a necessity. Work hard, play hard, right??? (And don't feel too bad for me because summer school is only 3 weeks.)

Bringing me to my 3 vacay essentials.....

1) Us Weekly --A guilty pleasure of mine which I enjoy so much more if read by a lake, pool, beach or other body of water. 

2) A floatie for said lake, pool, beach or other body of water. This one is my fav. It's from Target and super cheap, too! 

3) AC  If I'm inside I want to be cool....too bad my summer school classroom does not have AC. Seriously! No, AC. I do live in the SF Bay Area so it doesn't get hotter than 80 degrees but still....a little cool air would be nice! 

Hope you are all enjoying your first days of summer or your last days of school! 

Cards for Hospitalized Children

Today my kids and I spent about an hour of our time making cards for children who are hospitalized. The cards my kiddos made will be sent to Cards for Hospitalized Kids. They will then distribute the cards to hospitals like St. Jude's and Shriner's.  This is a great organization that was started by a high school student!

It always breaks my heart to hear about  sick children and makes me feel a bit helpless. How can I help???? Although these cards might not seem like  much, I hope that we brighten these children's day. It reminds me of this quote:

It made my heart happy to see my students working so hard on their cards and really thinking about the child who would be receiving it. \

This would be a great activity to do with your students, church group, girl scouts, etc. Pass the word along. :)

For more info about sending cards, check  here! 

Currently

Happy Cinco de Mayo, all! 

Well, I'm a little late to the fiesta but here's my May Currently:

Anyone else feeling that end of the year crunch?!?!?

 I am so ready for summer but I have about a million and one activities I want to throw in over the next few weeks. (Were outta school in 25 days....)  Not to mention the fact that I still need to plan the end of the year field trip and figure out the end of the year party stuff. So I sit here with my coffee cup (ready for a refill) and my laptop planning away....

Good thing I will be relaxing next weekend in one of my favorite places, Chico, California. 

I will be here: 

SOURCE 

And Here: 

(See more gorgeous shots of the market from Wayward Spark  HERE) 

And no trip to Chico would be complete with out a stop here: 

SOURCE

I'm excited!! Can you tell?!?!? :) Our annual May Chico trip always makes it feel like summer is truly here! So nice to take a break from the foggy Bay Area weather and head to my college home for a littlle R&R and summer sun! 

What do you have up your sleeves these last weeks of school???