Sunday, November 4, 2012

Life Outside of School...And a 50th day Freebie!

Although this has been a wonderful school year so far- great kids, supportive parents and an awesome team-  it has also been exhausting!  Trying to get used to my district's word study program, new grading requirements and helping my team beef up our math instruction has worn me out.  So I am taking a personal day on Monday in honor of my birthday today!  I decided I would do as little school work as possible this weekend and do some crafting.  But first I had to organize my sewing/craft/office room!  Here is the box of school stuff I collected just to get it out of the way for a few days!

Then I went to Hobby Lobby and bought more stuff.

Going to Hobby Lobby reminded me of unfinished/unstarted projects at home so I dug a few of those out:

Then I had to pack up the Watermelon picnic quilt that never got finished this summer:

Now I might be ready to actually MAKE something!  My problem is craft and hobby ADD.  I get all excited about a new craft or project, buy all the stuff, get started and then get caught up in real life and don't finish.  Then I see something new that I have to try or make, buy that stuff... you get the picture!  Hobbies/crafts I have supplies and equipment for:  sewing, quilting and machine embroidery (3 sewing/embroidery machines and a serger currently live in my craft room!), smocking, cross-stitch, crochet and loom knitting (and way too much yarn!), needle felting, needle punch embroidery, bow making, dolls and making doll clothes, scrapbooking and  paper crafting (led to purchase of a Cricut and a Cuttlebug for embossing), and a lot of general crafting type supplies.
I'm like this with teaching, too!  Right now my current obsession is teaching math.  In the last few months I've bought at least 5 math professional books, a hundreds pocket chart, tons of stuff on TPT and  lots of "junk" to use as manipulatives.  Not to mention the hours I've spent on blogs reading about math and downloading great activities!  But I have to say it has really paid off- my little first graders are becoming incredible mathematicians!
These are Exemplar examples- both students are ESOL !

I'm off now to get a new project started.  Here's a little freebie I made for our 50th day of school on Tuesday.  Enjoy!
Click here to download