Make Your Students Feel Good About Their Reading with this FREEBIE!

Hello there!


Man, is it crunch time for me.  


I get married in 5 days!!!  5!!!  This will probably be the last post for me for quite awhile while I finish up everything for the wedding, then get married to a pretty cute guy, then dance a lot, and eat some cake (and s'mores, we're having a s'mores bar!! Yum!!!!), and then go on a romantic and worry free honeymoon for 10 days.


Hopefully Jenna will pop in a few times while I'm away :)


Anyways, on to the teacher stuff.


I am always looking for ways to make my little guys {and gals} feel good about themselves.  After all, we know how much a good compliment means to us, right?  Well kids like 'em too.


I plan on posting many of the ways I do this throughout the year, but today I'm sharing one I haven't done yet, but can't wait to start, come September.


I was inspired by this little picture on Pinterest.

How cute is this??

Which lead to me the website Grace is Overrated.  I love this website. I had actually pinned something of her's earlier.  See, the blog's author, Christie, is an amazing graphic designer who makes and sells all sorts of ADORABLE printables for adults.  Mostly journal pages, but also really cute stuff like that little note above.{Check out the free baby shower printable. Too cute!}


Christie writes that she was inspired by a comment on one of her posts about leaving random notes of encouragement for strangers in various places.  So she crafted the teeny-tiny inspiration note above.  Now, I'm all for random acts of kindness, and I do them regularly {so much fun, and make you feel sooo good!}, but the little note in the book got me thinking.


Which lead me to this. {Click on the picture to get your free copy!}

Graphics courtesy of My Cute Graphics.

Or, if you like the original version above, click here.


I'm going to leave these little note-doo-dads in the pages of my kiddos' books randomly.  Last year The Daily 5 changed my life.  I saw ALL of my kids reading for pleasure regularly.  Even my struggling readers.  It made me all kinds of happy.  And this year, I'm going to share the happiness!  I plan on leaving these notes in the pages of books I can tell my kiddos are really reading and enjoying.  I love that they'll stumble upon it, read it, start to feel pretty awesome, and then KEEP ON READING!!!  So cool!!!!


I even left the last one blank for an extra personal message.  Maybe something like this:


"You have really grown as a reader!  In September this book was too big for you.  Now it fits just right! Love, Mrs. H"


I'm gonna have to get used to that Mrs. H stuff.


I hope you can use them and enjoy them.  I cannot wait to give them a go in my room!


I'm off to practice walking in my wedding shoes, have a wonderful day!


Halle

I'm Backkk...

Well I know it has been quite some time since I have posted and I must apologize.  Luckily, my wonderful friend and grade partner has been keeping up to speed. I actually saw her yesterday for the first time ALL summer! ( HOW SAD Halle!) She has been busy getting ready for her big day and still manages to find time to make her little cutesy craftivities and worksheets for school. Almost a week away and I cannot wait to see how gorgeous she will look on her special day.

Whats new with me? Well, I just returned from 6 days in Vegas. It was Ant's (my boyfriend) first time there and I must say I did a pretty good job of making sure he saw and did plenty. We saw the fabulous Jersey Boys, The Beatles LOVE, and the hilarious Vinny Favorito. I also hit on a slot machine for $600 dollars. I never have that kind of luck, but I helped a woman in her wheel chair in the bathroom that night so I am considering my win, GOOD KARMA. We had a fabulous time and were sad to return knowing that we don't have another vacation planned yet. ( I have and would like to think that I always will be a jet setter.)

Aside from Vegas, I spent the week of the fourth of July in good old Sea Isle City, New Jersey. My grandparents rent a house the same week every year, its a tradition we've had for 22 years. My mom's side of the family all crams in a house and spends 7 days doing almost everything together. There are approximately 18 people in the house. The past few years my mom's cousin and their family come down which always makes for more fun when having dinner. You know how us Italian's are when we cook...we have leftovers for months! When heading to the beach it is almost impossible to miss us, there is up to a good 45 people on the beach. It's a week where we're bound to get on each others nerves, but it makes me realize how truly lucky I am to have such an incredible family. My Pop turned 86 on July 3. I am more grateful as each year passes to have such a wonderful man in my life. Here is a picture of us on the beach:

He is usually pretty sturdy on his feet, but we got him one of those wheel chairs with the big wheels. I was shocked he agreed to get in it, but he said anything to get to the beach with his family. ( We all know I'm his favorite) Here is another picture of him on his 86th birthday, He loves his Ray-Bans!

Okay, I'm sorry...I'm sure you've had enough but I just love that man to pieces! In other life news..I've reached the big 2-7! My birthday was July 15th, I think this will be my best year yet. Well, aside from my year in Hawaii, that will be pretty impossible to beat.My laptop is currently  not working ( womp, womp...again), So I am using Big Deb's for now( my crazy mother).  Ant and I are still on the mad hunt for our *PERFECT* yet reasonable apartment in the city. Boy it is tough! All I want is one year in Philadelphia, then it's back to Jersey for us! We are trying to save so we have a price limit, but we can't seem to fins any place that we love and has availability for our price.  Now is the best time for us to do it, so why not? I'm still bartending and cannot wait until the day that I don't have to do it anymore. I also have been teaching summer school the past few weeks and trying to get myself motivated to get my butt and classroom in gear for this year. It isn't easy considering all of the changes that are being made. I am trying to work on some new exciting projects for my classroom and as soon as I am complete I will share. I cannot believe that we only have about a month left of summer! However, I did see an old co-workers post from Hawaii and they went back on Tuesday! Okay, that's all for me for now...heading to A.C. Moore, Target, Office Depot, and Lakeshore! Here's to hoping I don't spend too much money! Have a wonderful Thursday!

All About Me: A Linky Party!

I always love learning more about my favorite bloggers, so when Amy Lemon's decided to host a "Tell Me More, Tell Me More" Linky Party I had to jump right in!

Here are some things you may not know about me:


1} I'm terrified of drains.  When I was a little girl, I somehow convinced myself that Mr. Rogers said a little boy fell down the drain of his bathtub! I'm not sure what Mr. Rogers actually said, or if it was anything remotely close...perhaps a story about a boy, or a drain, or a bathtub?  But I still won't go near my shower drain during a shower, and I'm 29!


2} My grade partners call me Captain.  I love my grade partners.  Jenna, who occasionally blogs here when she's not living a fabulously exciting life, is one of them.  At the beginning of the year last year, they started calling me Captain, because I NEED everything to look cute.  My favorite way to cutesify any paper is by using fonts.  They're my addiction. You can find my favorites here.

3} I'm getting married in less than 2 weeks!!  It's crazy to think that something I've been planning for a year, is all of the sudden 12 days away!  On top of all the wedding stress, we're having 8 people stay at our house the Thursday and Friday before the wedding, so we've been putting together our fair share of Ikea furniture, and painting our fair share of guest rooms.  There's a chance I may wear a straight-jacket down the aisle.


4} Speaking of preparing for the wedding, I got my teeth Zoom Whitened today.  The good parts: It was a Groupon, and therefore significantly cheaper than the normal cost of the procedure and my teeth are definitely whiter!! {Not that they were that bad before!} The BAD parts: I have sensitive teeth, and I am experiencing the side-effect the dentist called "zingers" and let me tell you these zingers HURT.  They come out of nowhere, and if you have sensitive teeth, you know the pain I am talking about {just multiply it by 10}.  OUCH!!!


5} I'd pick TV over movies any day.  I'm not a big TV watcher in the first place, but I would pick a "Say Yes to the Dress" or "Friends" marathon over watching a movie anytime.

6} I'd make an exception for Clueless.  Hands down favorite movie of all time.


7} Cheeseburgers are hands down my favorite food.


8} I wish I was a southern belle.  It doesn't help that almost every blogger I love {Cara, Abby, Amy, Hope} is from the south!  What is up with that?!

9} I'm not a fan of the term "furbabies", but my dog Georgie Girl is definitely my baby.  I wish she could come to school with me everyday!


10} I LOVE ruffles. 

11} We're honeymooning in Lake Tahoe, Napa Valley, and San Francisco...and I CANNOT WAIT!!! I love my wine, but I am slightly intimidated by the thought of wine tastings.  Any advice?


12} My favorite stores are HomeGoods, Target, Forever 21, and Nordstrom...in that order

This is the actual face I make every time I get a "zinger"!!!

13} My teeth still hurt.


So, there ya go...nothing too amazing, but I do hope you learned a little bit about me!  And if you have any remedies for sharp, shooting, tooth pain, I AM ALL EARS!!!


One more thing!!! Tania, over at My Second Sense, is hosting a giveaway, and we're taking part.  You can win any item from my TpT shop, as well as some other awesome gifts by other awesome bloggers!

-Halle