Free Font Monday!

Alright y'all!  I have a fun freebie for you today!  I am an absolute font snob and I spent the majority of the afternoon working on these awesome new fonts while my husband watched the World Cup Final.  He was SO excited that Germany won.  I really like the World Cup because it gave me an excuse to talk to him at camp four years ago and now we're married. ;)

Anyway, the fonts are free for personal use.  You can grab them over at Teachers Pay Teachers.  My only request is that you credit the site if you use them on anything that gets published for free.  :)

The link to the fonts is here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sweet-Teacher-Fonts-1323317

You can also follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers if you like them! :) I hope you enjoy!

Happy Creating!
Katie

Our "UP" inspired Hopes and Dreams

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I have to begin my saying that I work at THE BEST school.  I truly, deeply, love my job and the team of teachers that I work with.  Working at a charter school, in my opinion (and I know there are others out there who disagree, which is fine), gives you the best of both worlds.  We get kids from all walks of life, but it makes a HUGE difference when families choose to attend your school, rather than being forced to attend.  At our charter school, we not only have an academic curriculum, but we also have a social curriculum which is called Responsive Classroom.  

Responsive Classroom has you use the first week of school to really formulate and think about what the students' hopes and dreams are for the year.  We sit down and really think about all of the things that we, individually and communally, would like to see happen for ourselves and for our classroom.  It takes a bit of stretching to help them understand what the possibilities can be, but after awhile they start to roll with the idea.  We then used our hopes and dreams to guide the discussion for what rules we would need in our classroom to make it possible for everyone (including the teacher) to reach their hope or dream for the year.  

Once the hopes and dreams are created, the purpose is to create a beautiful display that will stay up in the classroom for the ENTIRE year.  We'll reference it regularly to help us remember EXACTLY what we hope to achieve this year.  Which, led me to some detailed brainstorming, because there are FEW things I like enough to leave up in my classroom ALL YEAR LONG and that the kids would find inspiring. 

I spent quite a bit of time thinking about how I wanted to display our hopes and dreams.  Now, for those of you who know me...and for those of you who are just now getting to know me through this post, you'll know that I deeply love the movie "UP" from Disney Pixar.  I mean, talk about and hope and a dream...that guy had it going.  So, drawing from my love of UP, I had the students write their hopes and dreams on a balloon template, which I copied in many different colors and then we put them up in the sky with some beautiful clouds to showcase the bright colors.  However, I was left with the decision of what to put on the bottom of the balloons.  In the movie there was a house attached to the bottom, but that wasn't at all applicable.  I mean, this applied specifically to our classroom but drawing a "classroom" was tough to conceptualize in a bulletin board display.  Knowing that our hopes and dreams applied to all areas of school, though, helped me out and I ended up drawing a very tiny display of our school to put up in the room.  

Now, I need you to know that our laminator has been on the fritz and my quote "Never give UP on your dreams" has yet to be added to the display, but I've been DYING to share it with you.  So, here it is.  Drum roll please...........................................................................................................

I hope and dream that you've been inspired!  Thanks for stopping in!

Happy Dreaming,
Katie

FREEBIES on Teachers Pay Teachers

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Happy Monday!  :)

I have to start off by stating that this Monday was FAR better than last Monday.  Last week someone stole my "teacher bag" which also had some very important documents in it and it was a headache notifying all of the necessary agencies.  I mean, who takes a teacher bag full of student work, a wedding planning binder and a children's book?!?!  Needless to say the bag has not turned up. :(

In order to celebrate this Monday being much better than last week, I thought I'd share some work that I put on Teachers Pay Teachers last week.  At my school we implement Project-Based Learning and my second graders are in the middle of doing a life cycles project.  We launched the project by taking a visit to the Durham Museum of Life and Science to visit their Butterfly Conservatory.  Talk about neat!  We saw lots of butterflies, did an entire workshop on butterfly life cycles and had the chance to see some butterfly eggs.  Check out the pictures below from our trip inside the butterfly conservatory.

Now that we've launched our project we are off and away with working on learning about life cycles.  Our main focus is butterflies, while envisioning that our final product will be an entire Life Cycles Museum that we put together as a class.  They came back with some GREAT ideas after our visit to the museum and noticed details that I had glanced over that would be wonderful additions to our final product, which will unveil itself sometime in October.

Seeing as we're focused on butterflies and the fact that they are due to arrive in our room any day now, I've put together a free download on Teachers Pay Teachers that is a life cycle observation journal.  We spent today talking about how to make good observations, so we're ready to use our journals when the caterpillars arrive. There are two journal pages, a black and white cover page and a color cover page, which is shown below!

Also, to keep your week a bit more organized, I have a quick download for those of you who like to stay on top of your daily "To-Do" items.  To download you can click here or you can click on the picture.

Have a Joyful Week!
Katie

Geocaching 101

With the beautiful fall weather just around the corner,  I thought I'd take a moment today to post about one of my favorite outdoor activities: geocaching!  

I know, you're probably thinking "what on earth is a post like this doing on a blog that features shopping, teaching and crafting?"  Well, the simple answer is that I'm about finding things that make life interesting and meaningful.  This was an activity that my now fiancé and I ran across a few years back and we've absolutely enjoyed doing it. 

So, you're probably wondering, what is geocaching?  Well, the simple answer is that it is an outdoor scavenger hunt...kind of.  It requires the use of a GPS device and access to an online network of hidden caches.

What am I looking for? 
The definition of a cache, per Merriam-Webster, is "a hiding place especially for concealing and preserving provisions or implements."  Caches have often been used during war to store or hide military provisions and troops were given a GPS location to find their cache.  A geocache is a hidden container that holds a log and sometimes items.  The items can be of worth, though most caches are only the log AND the rule of thumb with geocaching is that if you take something, you replace it with another item of equal or greater value.  

Why geocache? 
The answer is simple, it helps you explore new places.  There is an entire network of geocaches in the United States and overseas.  They provide you with a purpose for being outside and in a variety of settings. Check out the map below to see how many caches exist!

(Photo credit is http://www.geocaching.com/map/#?ll=47.04018,-36.73828&z=3)

What kinds of tools will I need? 
You'll want to make sure you have a good GPS device.  If you have a smartphone, you can always download the app from your app store.  I HIGHLY recommend spending the $10 for the actual app if this is something you plan to do long term.  The $10 app gives you access to online logs, pictures and clues.  We've found that it is worth the money.  You'll also need a good pair of shoes, keen eyes and anything that will prepare your for the elements of the day.  Caching can take anywhere from 10 minutes to a few hours, depending on the cache.  

Here are the steps for caching: 

1. Go online or on your smart and register for a geocaching account.  It is free and super easy.  

2. Use the Geocaching website to help you find caches in your area.  If you have a smartphone, the app will help you find nearby geocaches.  

3. Using your device you will navigate to the area.  Most devices will get you within about 16-30 feet of your cache.  From there, it is all about using your brain and your observations to help you find the cache.  

4. Once you find the cache, sign the log and return the cache to the exact same spot that you found it in.   If you notice that the cache needs some attention, notify the owner of the cache.  

4. Once you find the cache, log it on your online account.  You have to be logged into the website to do this.  The log is located under the drop down box that says "Play" and you will need the GC code from your cache.  

5. Find another!

Here are some photos finding a recent geocache.  This particular geocache took us two different trips to actually find.  The name of the cache is what eventually led us to the clue.  The cache was titled "A Branch on George's Creek."  Kudos to my man for finding this one!

The "branch" 

The clue was "clean cut." 

This is a microcache.  They are absolutely tiny.  Caches can range in size from an ammo box to something as small as a tiny magnet.  

Here is an example of a log that you would sign.  It was rolled up neatly inside of the container.  

We obviously weren't the first to find this cache.  Others had been there before us, and I'm sure others will come after!

Putting the cache back in its original spot, unharmed and unchanged for the next geocachers.  :)

Happy caching!

Katie