Sunday, March 29, 2015

Springing into Spring



 
I am so happy to be celebrating with my dear friend Marissa from Inspired Owl's Corner. It's her birthday and we're celebrating with a fun spring themed linky!
 
 
I can't believe it's been a year!  I have been blogging and selling on Teachers Pay Teachers for a year this month.  I have been so blessed to meet such wonderful people along the way in this journey.  Many who have become such dear friends.  To celebrate, I'm having a sale in my Teacher's Pay Teachers store!
 
 
 
 
I am celebrating like it's 1999 over here because it's spring.  Holy smokes, it has been a LOOOONG winter. So long in fact, that as I type this blog post it is...snowing here in Massachusetts.  Yep. Snowing.  Therefore, I go my "craft on" to welcome spring.  Just in case it missed the memo!
 
 
I went to Michael's and bought a grapevine wreath, some artificial flowers, ribbon, and the white wooden letter.  For about $30 and 30 minutes, I have this cute wreath for our front porch.  Clearly, we will be adding powerwashing the house to our "to do" list this spring.
 
To make the wreath I used:
 
 
Use wire cutters to trim the stems of the flowers.
 
 
Push the flowers through the slats in the grapevine wreath. I tried to keep my clusters together so I didn't have gaps between flowers.
 
You can fill up the whole wreath or just one side. It's totally up to you!
 
Hot glue the letter to the other side. I needed to use a lot since the wooden letter was heavy. I have the burns to prove it.
 
Since I am "bow challenged" I took the easy way out and just cut large, medium, and small strips of ribbon, folded them in half with the edges in the middle and hot glued each piece with the edge side down. Then I layered the pieces on top of each other with the largest at the bottom and the smallest at the top. Lastly, I cut the strips that hang down and hot glued them to the back of my bow.  I'm sure there are some talented gals out there that can fold a bow like nobody's business but...I am not one of them. 
 
I then moved on to my next project.
 
 
Spring in a Jar!
 
I have lots of mason jars hanging around because I have these high aspirations that I'm going to do all a lot of crafts with them.  Well...maybe in my next life when I have more time!  So anywhoose....I was inspired by my dear friend Tamera from Rusty Dreams who creates gorgeous, I mean- downright adorable crafts that she has begun selling.  Every time I visit her I end up emptying my wallet because I can't resist. You can find her at Rusty Dreams Primitives.This spring jar is her idea that I did my own version of because I got bit by the "crafty bug". So minus the jar, I spent about $12 at Michael's on these supplies:
 
 
It now sits on my window sill in my kitchen so I can look at it and not the snow in my backyard.
 
 
 
Spring is in full swing in my classroom too. Now that parent conferences and report cards are finished we are springing into spring resources! I'm looking forward to breaking out our close reading toolkits and getting to work on Close Reading: Spring (pictured below).  You can find it here.
 

 
The growth in reading that my students have made is just awesome!  We have been working on close reads all year and they are just soaring! 

We have also enjoyed some fun science experiments this month with wind.  This one was a favorite:


Students made predictions about whether wind would blow certain objects.  We then put our theories to the test by blowing on each item and recording our results.  You can find Windy Weather here.
Spring on over here to pick up a little freebie. Spring themed bookmarks will make reading fun!
 
Make sure to enter our giveaway and visit the other blogs listed below for some fabulous spring ideas, resources, freebies and more!
 
Happy Spring!



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7 comments:

  1. Your wreath is GORGEOUS! You are so clever! I love the wind activity, too. I think my kids would love it. :)
    Carolyn
    Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together

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    1. Hi Carolyn,
      Thanks so much. My students loved the wind activity. It was a riot watching them all blowing and puffing. Sooo cute!

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  2. I LOVE your spring in a jar and the wreath is adorable! I'm not very crafty but I might be able to do these.

    The Busy Busy Hive

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    1. Trust me when I say, Heather that if I can do it....you can do it. Easy-peasy. :)

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  3. JULIE - I can't believe that you got your craft on!!!! They are adorable to boot. Just think, in less than a month you'll be down here with me sweating your butt off.
    xoxo, Amy

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  4. I love all of your home decor projects- wow! I love your close reads too! Thank you so much for all of your help! :)

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  5. Congrats on your 1 year anniversary! I love your wreath and spring in a jar craft. I always think that I could do crafty things like that when I see them, but when I actually try them...I remember how uncrafty I am. It is snowing where I am today too. I am trying to avoid looking out the window so that I don't see it!
    Crystal
    www.funandlearningatbba.blogspot.com

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