WOW!!  It is the last day of September!!  How did that happen?!?!  I thought that instead of featuring just one book for "Book Talk Tuesday," I would post some of my favorite pumpkin books to use in my classroom!

 Do you use any of these books OR do you have any other favorite pumpkin books??  

Don't forget to check out my Markdown Monday post for how you can get a FREE copy of my Pumpkin Activities Pack!!

Be sure to link-up and share!

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Recipe for Teaching

Happy Monday everyone!!  Have I mentioned how much I LOVE finding a new link-up?!?!  Only just about every time I find one!!!!  I follow KinderMolly's blog and she posted a blog post about this link-up.  It's called "Markdown Monday" and is hosted by Kelly and Kim's Kindergarten Kreations.  For this link-up, you post something from your TpT store that you have marked down.

 I'm featuring my Pumpkins Activities Pack!!  It's marked down 20% in my TpT store and it is FILLED with some awesome pumpkin activities for young learners!  Here's the preview of it that you can also see on TpT.  I'll have it 20% off until October 3rd.  Just click the image to go to my TpT store and SHOP!!!

But that's not all!!  Because I have been SO blown away by the support I have received in my TpT store since starting it over the summer, I'm also going to do a little giveaway!!!  

Leave me a blog comment telling me about your favorite pumpkin food or drink and you will be entered to win a FREE copy of the pack!!  Don't forget to include your email address in the comment.  I will randomly pick one winner on Saturday!!  Oh, and if you start following my blog with Google Friend Connect you will get an extra entry (if you already follow with Google Friend Connect, you will get 2 entries also)!!  Just mention that in your comment as well!!  Good luck!!

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Recipe for Teaching

So this is the last Sunday Scoop for September!!  This is such a fun link-up and I'm so glad I found it!  I'm pretty sure I originally found it through someone on Instagram, but I can't remember who!  I get so many ideas from Instagram, but the biggest thing is remembering WHO the idea came from!!  Does anyone else have that trouble??  Maybe it's just me!  HAHA!  Anyway, here is my Sunday Scoop!

3 things I have to do:*I have to enter some Scholastic Orders and check to see what books I want to order!!  I know I have some bonus points to use!*Folding laundry seems to make the list every week!!  I don't know how my husband and I have so much laundry!    *I have a nice pile of stuff that has been laminated, but I really have to get started cutting it out!     2 things I hope to do:*This is another one that pretty much stays on my Sunday Scoop!  Hoping the Baltimore Ravens have a WIN today!!*I hope to search around Pinterest today or sometime this week!  Sometimes I get so busy and realize I haven't looked on Pinterest in forever.  (To clarify, forever probably really means like a day or two!!) 1 thing I'm happy to do:*Any other Once Upon a Time fans out there??  It's the season premiere tonight!!!  Frozen is coming to Storybrooke!!  Be sure to link-up with your Sunday Scoop!

Have a fabulous week!!   

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Recipe for Teaching

Time to link-up again for Five for FRIDAY with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

 PUMPKIN MUFFINS!!!  And yes that is cream cheese icing!!  Are you drooling yet?!?!  My mom made the most delicious pumpkin muffins!!  SO good!  I may or may not have eaten 2!  Shhhhhh!!

 Sunflowers make me happy!  They are just so pretty!  I took this picture and then thought that was the perfect quote to add to it.  Some of you might have seen this picture because I posted it on Instagram earlier in the week. 

I posted this for sale in my TpT store last night!  It is a Pumpkin Activities Pack FILLED with lots of FUN pumpkin activities.  Perfect mix of reading, math, science, and writing activities!   

This commercial makes me laugh every.single.time!!!  Has anyone else seen it?!?!  It just never gets old to me!  I seriously could picture my husband doing something like this in the grocery store...maybe he has already!!  HAHAHA!!! 

Do you use Scholastic Book Clubs in your classroom??  If not, you totally need to start!!  I'm always excited to get an order from a student because it means more FREE books for my classroom!!  Scholastic is SO good to teachers!  I have tons of Scholastic books in my classroom and the majority have been free from doing book clubs!  I'm not even getting paid to say all that amazing stuff about Scholastic!!  Just my true opinion!! 
Hope you have a FABULOUS fall weekend!

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Recipe for Teaching

Today I am linking up with Teaching Trio for Technology Thursday!  I am going to share a little about QR Codes with you and I've even made a FREEBIE for you in my TpT store to use with your students at a math center!!  

 

So last school year I discovered using QR codes with my kindergarten students and my students LOVED it!!  Once I went over the directions, they were able to independently use the iPad to scan the codes and complete the activity at their center.  This is one of the free QR code activities that I used in my classroom last year - ip and it words.   Thanks to The Primary Buzz for creating that freebie on TpT!
After using the free QR code activities on TpT, I was interested in seeing how to create them myself.  I had always heard people say they were really easy to create, but wanted to see for myself.  After searching Google, one of the most suggested QR code generator sites was www.qrstuff.com and it is SUPER easy to use!   You basically just follow each step on the website: 1. Pick your data type (you will see all of your choices on the site).2. Enter the content (this could be the link, video, actual words that you type if you are doing a word family or sight word activity, etc.).3. Change the color, if you want.  You can keep it black or play around with the colors.4. Download the code image to your computer, email it, print it, etc. It's really THAT easy! You need to make sure you have some sort of QR code scanner/reader on your device.  There are SO many of them out there that you can use if you do a search.   I'll show you one that I made that links to Teachers Pay Teachers...1. Data type - website URL2. The content is the TpT website.  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/3. I'm just keeping the color black and then I click download QR Code.4. I saved the code image to my computer and TADA!!
I made this visual that might help:

 

Now I can insert my QR code image into this post and if you scan it with your QR code reader, you will be directed to TpT on your device.  Try it!! 

 

And here is a QR Code Math activity FREEBIE in my TpT store!  Just click the image to head over to my TpT store and download!  

How do you use QR codes in your classroom?? 

 

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Recipe for Teaching

Hello Friends!  My kindergarten blogger friend, Alex from The Kindergarten Connection, has nominated me for the Liebster Award!  Apparently liebster means dearest, favorite, or beloved.  How sweet and thoughtful of her to think of me!  I didn't even have a speech prepared!  hahaha!  

The Liebster Award is a way of recognizing newer blogs with fewer than 250 followers.  It seems like another great way of connecting with new blogs.  I'm always excited to start following a new blog!  

Here are the "rules" for accepting this nomination:

1. Link back to the blog that nominated you.

2. Nominate 5-11 blogs with fewer than 250 followers.

3. Answer the questions posted for you by your nominator.

4. Share 11 random facts about yourself. 

5. Create 11 questions for your nominees.

6. Contact your nominees by commenting on their blog or sending them an email to communicate the nomination.

You can add this as a sidebar widget to your blog after you have been nominated if you want!  

 First, you MUST check out Alex's adorable blog!  She has some super ideas to share on her blog!

    

Here are the questions that I have been given to answer from Alex:

1.  How long have you been teaching? 

This is my 11th year teaching!  That seems like such a long time, but I can't believe how fast these years have gone by!!

2.  What is your favorite subject to teach?

My favorite subject to teach is math!  Math was also my favorite subject when I was in school.  I know some people might think I'm crazy for saying that!!  I just love how hands on math is in kindergarten.  I have my students using a lot of manipulatives during math lessons and I incorporate a lot of math games in my lessons.  This really makes math so much FUN for me to teach and for my students to learn!  

3.  What are 3 things you would say describe you?

Honest, Caring, Hard-Working

4.  What is the best thing about teaching, in your opinion?

The best thing about teaching is watching my students grow throughout the year.  Watching students who started kindergarten not writing their name or knowing alphabet letters and then writing multiple pages by the end of the year is AMAZING to me!! 

5.  If you weren't a teacher, what other career would you have?

You can probably guess by my blog title, "Recipe for Teaching" - I would be a baker!!  I LOVE baking! 

6.  What is your favorite children's book?

The Hello, Goodbye Window - LOVE LOVE LOVE this book!

7.  What is your favorite movie?

I can't pick just one!  Sweet Home Alabama, Overboard, Grease, The Wizard of Oz, The Goonies....I could keep going, but I'll stop!!

8.  Are you a morning or night person?

I can actually be both, but I'm probably more of a night person.  

9.  Where is the best place you've ever traveled?

Bermuda - I talked about this in one of my first blog posts because I was so surprised at how much my husband and I LOVED Bermuda!  The people were nice, the water was gorgeous, the shops and restaurants were adorable.  Bermuda is a place we have said we would go back to!  

10.  Are you a coffee or tea drinker? What is your favorite morning drink?

Tea drinker!!  I have to really be craving coffee to drink it and even when I do have coffee, I have a little coffee with my creamer!!!  Usually my coffee ends up looking more like hot chocolate!  I love tea!  I like using the loose tea leaves to make tea - so good!  I love green tea or water in the morning to drink.   

11.  What is your favorite quote?

"Once in awhile, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale."  I love this quote because we used it at our wedding!  

And since I teach kindergarten, I love this quote: "All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten." ~ Robert Fulghum

11 Random Facts about Myself
1. I can play the piano and flute. 
2. I can't stand pulling cotton out of a medicine bottle - ick!
3. I'm a slight shopaholic!!  
4. I could go to Target and Michaels every.single.day.  
**Refer back to #3
5. I love reading magazines - US Weekly and People are two of my favorites!
6. I always wanted to be a teacher growing up!
7. I love trail mix!
8. I really don't care for carrying purses!  I wish I liked carrying a purse because I think they are so cute, but I prefer a wristlet! 
9. I love traveling to new places! 
10. I get excited when there is a new Hallmark Movie Channel movie!!
11. I LOVE Christmas!  I love Christmas shopping, Christmas music, Christmas movies, Christmas church services, Christmas parties, Christmas decorating, Christmas baking!  I love it all!! 

I'd like to nominate the following blogs for the Liebster Award! 

Steven over at The Superhero Teacher!  Check out his SUPER blog!

 
Katie at The Pawsitive Pencil!  Her blog is so cute!  

 

Another fellow Kindergarten Teacher, Molly at KinderMolly!

 

Megan over at Cardigans and Caffeine!  I love her blog name because I own just about every color cardigan - walking into GAP or Old Navy and seeing cardigans on sale just makes me happy!
 

Tasha from Confessions of a Tiny Teacher!  Another cute blog name!
 

Here are the 11 questions I would like you to all answer:

1.  How long have you been teaching? 

2.  What is your favorite subject to teach?

3.  What are 3 things you would say describe you?

4.  What is the best thing about teaching, in your opinion?

5.  If you weren't a teacher, what other career would you have?

6.  What is your favorite children's book?

7.  What is your favorite movie?

8.  What are your hobbies?

9.  Where is the best place you've ever traveled?

 10.  What is your favorite food?

11.  What is your favorite quote?

 
There you have it!!  That was a LOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG blog post!!!   

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Recipe for Teaching

I hope everyone is having a "Terrific Tuesday!"  I missed the Book Talk link-up last week so I'm glad to be back again this week posting about an apple book that is great to use with your students for so many reasons!   The title of the book I'm sharing is Red Are the Apples.  It is written by Marc Harshman and Cheryl Ryan and illustrated by Wade Zahares.  This book talks all about the things you can see in a garden during fall.  I love how it incorporates color words throughout the book.  This really helps students visualize what is in the garden.   I'll share a few pictures with you!  Here is the cover of the book.  If you click on the picture, I have it linked to go to Amazon so you can shop shop away!

I just love the illustrations in this book!  They are SO colorful!

And I love the perspective the illustrator gives in this picture to show how tall corn stalks really are. 

This is my favorite page because the author uses the color word "crimson."  You don't see that word used in many books with color words!

Again, the illustrations are just amazing!

Mmmm apple cider sounds delicious!!  

 Have any of you used this book before??  It is a good one to use for fall/apples/farms/colors!  

If you need some apple activities for this week or next week, you can visit my TpT store by clicking the apple below!  It's been a pretty popular item in my TpT store the past few weeks!  I'm so thankful to those of you who have supported my store and purchased it!  THANK YOU!!!

Join the link-up if you have a book to share!  

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Recipe for Teaching

It's Sunday and time for Sunday Scoop!  Did anyone else get to watch Perfect on Paper (the new Hallmark Movie last night)?!?!  I had posted about how I was having a girl's night to watch it in my Five for Friday post.  Snacks, pajamas, chats, and a Hallmark movie make for a perfect evening of girl time!  It was a really cute movie!  We saw some previews for some upcoming Hallmark movies that also look really good.   Here is my Sunday Scoop!

 3 things I HAVE to do:1. My "Week in a Peek" is what I use instead of a homework planner - it keeps track of behavior, gives homework ideas, tells if we have PE/Art/Music/Library, and gives any notes/reminders for the upcoming week.  It is a one page document that stays in my students' folder all week and it is wonderful!!  This is what it looks like: front

             

back

2. Does anyone ever try to go climbing on their laundry pile????  I feel like that is what I could do - have to fold some laundry!! 3. I have to check my fantasy football team!  My team won the past two weeks - yippee!!  I totally knew had no idea what I was doing when I drafted my players for my team hahahaha!  Somehow my team has done well though!   2 things I HOPE to do:  1. We'll be watching football today and cheering on the Ravens and Redskins!!2. I really hope to order the book Peanut Butter and Cupcake this week.  I saw someone (I can't remember who) post about this book on Instagram and I must have this book!!  

1 thing I am HAPPY to do: 

1. I decorated for fall yesterday!  I kept the summer decorations out long enough and it was time to get the fall decorations out!  You can print the fall subway art printable in my second picture by going here.  There are some really great subway art printables if you check around that site.  Another site I love to go to for subway art is here.  Both are great websites for finding FREE subway art to decorate with!!

 Hope everyone has a GREAT week!   

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Recipe for Teaching