long and short vowel posters

If you are a parent or teacher to a young child, you know the joys and challenges of teaching a child to read. If you, like me, are a teacher (at a small school with limited resources), you are exceptionally familiar with the challenges.  I teach Kindergarten at a school that does not have a literacy program or curriculum.  Instead, all of the teachers are left to build their own.  Which, sometimes, is a blessing.  I have taught at a school with scripted curriclums and that is awful.  But building a literacy program is tough (especially when it's your first year teaching this grade!).  I am using the Daily 5 program and loooove it.  It's amazing.  I would highly recommend it to everyone.  I had some doubts about how it would work for Kinders, but I am finding that it's adaptable and wonderful and the kids are gaining so many skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking--but also how to work independently and take ownership of their learning).

I've taught Pre-K (2 years), 1st grade (1 year) and Kinder (this year) and find that young readers struggle with the differences between the short vowel sound and the long vowel sound.  We talk a lot about how short vowels make a sound (the short sound) but sometimes they also say their name (long vowel sounds).  I teach lots of silly rules about when to use the long vowel sound (when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking/bossy "e"/etc).  My students needed concrete visuals for reminders of the differences between the two sounds...So I made posters!  They have a permanent spot on a wall in my room and students frequently look to them.  They are great visual anchors for activities.  Here are two examples for long a and short a.   (Disclaimer: I do not own the photos, I am not selling the photos, they are simply a learning tool).

You can download the entire vowel set here.  Let me know if you have any problems accessing the pdf file.    

A is for...apple and angel

E is for...elephant and equal (love when you can combine math with literacy!)

I is for...igloo and ice cream

O is for...octopus and ocean

U is for...umbrella and unicorn

If you have any requests for a different picture to go with the vowel, let me know.  I know angel might not work for all teachers but I am blessed to work at a Catholic school where that kind of thing is embraced :)  I didn't write the words on the posters because these are meant to be purely visual sound clues and I don't want to the spelling of some of the trickier words (i.e. ocean) to throw them off!  

Here are a couple of ideas of how you could use them with your class:

• Make long vowel and short vowel flap books (saw this idea originally on Pinterest!), modified for my group.  We made two books, one for long sounds, one for short.

• Make picture sorts (provide the pictures or find in a magazine and sort by beginning, middle or ending sound)
• Brainstorm word lists with the sounds, have students write them down
• Go on scavenger hunts around the room for items that have a certain sound (i.e. look for an object around the room that has the short a sound)

Teaching children to read is no easy task, especially for struggling readers.  My struggling readers really thrive with visuals, so hopefully you will find this helpful!  

maggie.
places to find inspiration.

diy wedding photo booth props

Helloooooo!

I know photo booths at weddings are no longer a big surprise or something “different”…everyone has them.  In fact, we attended three weddings last year, and each wedding had some variation of a photo booth.  But I really wanted one-I love them.  They catch candid funny photos of guests that a photographer simply does not have time to catch (and there’s something about the concealed photo booth that brings out the crazy in people).  As I mentioned in my last post, I am cheap frugal. And after doing lots of pricing, I realized I could not justify paying full price for photo booth services.  But about a year before the wedding, we found a Groupon for half off photo booth services.  One of our best purchases, we booked the photo booth for half price.

I was lucky that this photo booth company are great.  I wanted to customize everything, and they were all for it.  I asked if I could make a backdrop, they said of course!  I wanted to make my own props, they were all for it!  Come the actual day of the wedding, when our allotted time was up and there was still a line of family and friends who wanted to take some photos—he kindly obliged and stayed past the time.  If you’re in the Denver metro area, I would HIGHLY recommend them  (Visit their Facebook page here, see our album here).

I made our backdrop by dying coffee filters.  I folded them into fourths and cut out hearts.  I made various patterns and attached them to hangers.  Which I never really thought about—because you can see the hangers in some of the photos, but oh well.  If I would have thought about it, I would have painted them black to match the backdrop.  But it was my first time making a backdrop for a photo booth, so let’s hope someone else can learn from my mistake :)  I liked the variety and now actually have them hanging up in my Kindergarten classroom, which the kids love.

I wanted fun props.  Are you, too, a little over the mustaches, glasses, gigantic neon colored sunglasses, and feather boa wedding props?  Wanting something different?  Something that represents you and your husband a little better?  Me too. We decided on a few of our favorite things… Superheroes (Hubster is a big nerd), Top Gun and Blues Brothers (iconic movies from the decade we were born), and Bride & Groom.  We also picked these themes because they were easy to shop for.   We had these posters displayed by the props at the props table…

We made a fake bouquet of flowers, bought a cheap-o veil from Hobby Lobby for the bride and made a (really funny) beard for the groom.

Enter a talented friend. We made the props on poster board with paint, sharpies and utility knives…

For the Blues Brothers we bought knock off Raybans and Fedoras and Walmart and made the quote “I’m on a mission from God”.  For Top Gun we found knock off aviators at Walmart and I borrowed leather jackets from friends with the quotes “I feel the need…the need for speed!”

We arranged the items in boxes to be displayed at the wedding. They did not stay organized for very long, but that didn’t matter.

 

And here are some of the gems from the night…

As you can tell…Austin had a lot of fun at the Tequila bar.  More on that later.

Places we find inspiration.

maggie.

 

mailbox love brought to you by wedding mad lib RSVP cards

So I got married in September last year, and I have a handful of things that I've been meaning to write about since then... But life is crazy. And the crazier it gets, the more I realize how much I will regret not writing about it. So you can expect a handful of wedding related posts here in the near future. (Followed by house posts, because we've been slowly updating our entire house since we bought it!).

Weddings are crazy.  Planning is nuts.  The day is a blur.  Recovering from a wedding is equally insane.  But it helps to have lovely friends to help you along the way. 

Throughout the entire process, I found myself constantly shocked at how expensive things are.  You'd think I would have become more numb to how expensive everything is, but I think I just became more and more shocked.  Especially invitations.  Hellooooo, it's a piece of paper that lives on the fridge for a month or so and then goes into the trash.  And people spend hundreds of dollars on them.  The cost of stamps alone made me wonder if an Evite was an appropriate substitute... 

So we made our own.  I designed them on Microsoft publisher.  And printed them out.  Enter a lovely group of friends who helped cut, stamp, tape, assemble, and address our approximately 170 invitations. 

If you're a bride (or ever even considering getting married) then please, join Pinterest (I'm sure I don't need to tell you that.  I'm sure you're already aware.  But just in case you aren't...  Just do it.  We found so many ideas on Pinterest that shaped our wedding).  Searching for invitation inspiration, I stumbled upon a picture of a bride who did mad lib RSVP cards and I was immediately in love with the idea. In love enough to spend the money on return stamps (they were just post cards, so that helped). 

Our biggest struggle was finding the right wording for an RSVP mad lib.  We ended up using various ideas from a variety of examples we found via google.  Once we decided on the word, I spent a little while making a few designs and finally came up with something the hubster (fianster at the time) and I both liked.

If you are interested in a free download of the template, please leave a comment in the comment box with your email address. You'll have to have Publisher for it to work, but I'd be happy to explain the easiest way to print it out, what kind of paper to use, etc... It's pretty simple! The photo is super pixelated, the .pub file will be much smoother.

I was nervous to send them out (It's TERRIFYING to send out wedding invites.  Mostly because I kept thinking that perhaps there was a typo...) because I was  a little apprehensive about how people would respond.  Overall, people loved them.  Yes, there were a few party poopers who either (a) didn't get it or (b) didn't care enough to fill it out.  But that was maybe 2% of responses.  The rest were awesome.  Seriously, every trip to the mailbox provided at least a few laughs for at least a few weeks. 

We wanted to display them at the wedding to show everyone how awesome they were.  So we used peg board and ran some string through them with mini little clips.  We made a "Wall of Fame" devoted to ones that we thought were particularly funny and deserved an award.  Throughout the chaos of the wedding, the photographer didn't get a chance to snap any photos of them.  So unfortunately, I can't show you what they all looked like together at the actually wedding... but I've been told by many an attendee that they were fun to read during the cocktail hour.  And the best part...?  We put them into a photo album, to cherish forever.

Enjoy.

The photo album.

 

We recorded a few stats based on all of the responses.  We posted this on the wall of RSVPs, calling it The Wall of Fame.

 

Funniest advice/message we received: "I'm not qualified to give advice in such matters."

We received 3 RSVPs for 2.5. This one was for the baby she was growing at the time! Another was for a dog (who never did make an appearance at the wedding) and another for a baby.

 

Because who doesn't want a "straight up thug life"?

Hands down best response to attend/miss: "awkwardly insert myself into all of your coupley moments at"

Have you been toasted from the Swiss Alps...?  Because I have.

Jabberwock, anyone…?

At least all of the important information was in tact.

Unfortunately, Peyton did not win us a Superbowl.  Maybe next year.

This one was added to the board at the wedding.  If we had received it earlier, it obviously would have won an award.

And then, there was this...

 

My brother's response easily won our favorite.  He made his own. And clearly dedicated a decent amount of time to doing so.  Read if you have some free time and would like to laugh (he also officiated the wedding...  That's a key piece of info to understanding most of the letter.  And he has knee problems, so that explains the percocet).

If you're considering doing mad-lib style RSVP cards...do it! 

maggie.
places we seek inspiration.

Lavender Shortbread cookies

Looks like we broke the hiatus. It's been way too long, and life hasn't stopped for one bit.

I went to a giant craft fair this weekend and I was totally inspired by all of the talent! And I still don't have much time to hone any skills of mine but I still bake, and this time it's floral.

I have fallen in love with lavender recently. I never liked it as a kid, but it's really grown on me! I now have lavender oils, soaps, epsom salts and now cooking lavender.

It's not for everyone, let me be clear. But if it's a stormy autumn night and you're home alone having spent the last 4 hours taking notes on the psychology of perception, some times you have to take a break and make some cookies.

Especially ones that make you feel like you are in a bakery in Provence!

Adapted from Joy the Baker, a hero of mine.

Katelyn

Challenge 8: Warm Love

Like Maggie mentioned in her version of this challenge's post, we decided to make this challenge really open-ended. And by that I mean, there were no rules. Something about Valentine's Day. That's it.

I'm the kind of person who loves Valentine's Day when in a relationship and hates it when single. I am not the kind of person who buys cheap chocolate the day after. I like to spoil and be spoiled. Perhaps not the most flattering view of me... but when I give a Valentine's gift, I like to make it thoughtful and suited to the recipient's taste.

Have you ever heard of Dr. Who?
Until recently, me neither. I never watch it, but apparently it's all the rage to some people. It's a British Sci-Fi that has been running for about a billion years. And in an old, old (ok in the 1970's-ish) versions, there is a version of the Doctor wearing this scarf:

And using this, from a Dr. Who fanatic I found thanks to Google Images:

And my person of interest, being the nerd he is, got a version of his own (yeah.. picture quality could be better, I know):

As I stated in my last post, I have recently learned how to crochet. This one took me about 5 weeks (it's about 12 feet long!)

Katelyn