Sunday, March 9, 2014


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Friday, March 7, 2014

Five for Friday - March 7


I am linking up for Five for Friday



I made a Dr. Seuss sensory bin using blue rice and red alphabet pasta (which is really hard to find)


This has been out all week and yesterday, one of my little ones said, "Hey, there are letters in this stuff - how did you do that."  This is pretty funny, especially since I told them at the beginning of the week.  I guess we need to work on our listening skills, lol.


I added pompoms, fish crackers, plastic green eggs and Seuss erasers (that I found at Target in the Dollar Spot).  I am sure that this will be a bin that I will keep adding as I find goodies.





We made these headbands for Dr. Seuss' birthday.  It was the perfect project for my TK kids.  The cutting was a little challenging, but most of them did great.  We need more cutting practice.


I used Melonheadz's new clipart, adorable.  Then, we talked about patterns.  One of them told his older brother, "I bet you didn't know, but this is an A-B pattern."  I was in shock because he wasn't paying attention during the discussion - since he had just punched someone.  It is good to know that they do listen.







My newest shawl that I started knitting this week.  I haven't been knitting for awhile, so it felt good starting something new.  This just makes me happy.




My son took us to Yard House for my birthday dinner.  It was wonderful.  You know that you have done something right as a parent, when you sit down at a nice restaurant and your adult son picks up the tab.  I didn't want him too, but he did.  I love getting a gift that involves spending time with someone that I love.

I am very blessed to have wonderful children and grandchildren



My oldest grand daughter is in 6th grade. The student advisor asked  me to help with the decorations for her 6th grade promotion dance.  I, of course, said yes.

My heart did a leap.

I shed a few tears.

Because my precious grand daughter is growing up.  This girl is amazing and beautiful.  I am so proud of her.  
But, this girl wanted her grandma to help with the dance.

So, the theme is black and white.  I am sure my mind will be spinning this weekend.  But, if you have any ideas - please share.


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Thursday, March 6, 2014

Happy Birthday.....to me

Today, is my birthday and I am going to celebrate big, because when you get as old as I am - you can.  My phone keeps pinging with birthday wishes.  Don't you love social media, as reminders.

Yesterday, my kinder team took me lunch to celebrate - because it is a short day and we all can be together at the same time for lunch.  I received lots of gift cards, woo hoo.

This morning, it is breakfast with hubby.

Dinner with hubby, youngest son and grandbaby.

Tomorrow, is dinner with my oldest son, daughter in law and grandkids.

Sunday, spending the day with #3 son, daughter in law (it is her birthday) and grandkids.

I, guess, it is more like a Birthday Week - love it

My Birthday Wish is for all you to have a wonderful, blessed day.

I'm blowing out the million candles on my cake, 'cause I am really olllldddddd!!!!



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Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Rainbow Salt Printing - Conference Idea



My first conference project was inspired by Deanna Jump - Rainbow salt printing.  Deanna had a friend that used a box lid then added construction paper and salt for writing.  I  liked the idea, but I had visions of the lid being dropped during transporting and the salt going everywhere.  Plus, I was worried about storing the lid on a shelf.

I decided that I needed a container with a lid, so I went to Wal-mart to get a couple of containers. I thought I had the perfect size container not too big or too deep.  The problem - I didn't check the inside of the container and I bought the divided containers, geez.  I, really wanted to make it for my kids to use right away - so I checked the house and found two Ziploc containers that I could use.  Of course, I couldn't find any construction paper in the house - so I scavenged through my scrapbook paper.

Total cost of the project - $.48 for the salt.  Score.

Below are the directions for the project.



First, I made a template of the bottom of the container and traced it on to black cardstock for a base.  I thought it would be easier to attach the rainbow pieces to something.




Gathered my cardstock, which is so much brighter than construction paper.




I divided the base into 6 sections and made a paper template - then traced on to the color cardstock.



I found the middle and worked my way out.  I tucked the pieces under the other color cardstock - so there were no gaps.  I used scrapbooking adhesive squares because I wanted to be able to move it around a little when I was laying it out and tucking the paper underneath.


This is what it looked like when it was finished sticking to the black piece. I turned it over so the black side was showing and cut off any of the color rainbow that was sticking over.  Per Deanna's recommendation, I laminated it - so the salt wouldn't get in between the rainbow layers.


I taped it to the bottom, but will probably end up gluing in down - not sure yet.  Pour in the salt.  I used about 1/2 the salt for both containers.  If you put in too much salt, it is hard to move the salt around.  I understand why she used the box lid - it gave them a bigger working surface to move the salt around.  But, I still like the idea of not having the salt everywhere and the kids being able to manage this center on their own.

I gave them a small paintbrush to write in the salt with.  They enjoyed writing in the salt.  I will probably make letter and word cards for them to copy in the salt.  They were super quiet when they were playing with this center.  Cleanup was easy, they put the brush in the container and made sure that they snapped the lid on tight.

I noticed that I had a pin on my Pinterest page where they put the salt into a pencil box.  This idea would work that way too - but I didn't have any pencil boxes at home.  I couldn't wait to get it made for the kids.  I will probably try that idea, too.




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Sunday, March 2, 2014

Kinder Conference

I just got home from the Southern California Kinder Conference.  Oh my gosh, it was so much fun.  I'm not sure if I had more fun at the conference or hanging out with my teaching buddy.  There were a lot of great speakers, including Deanna Jump.  I went to one of her presentations and got so many good ideas that I can use with my TK kiddos.  My mind is spinning with all the possibilities for my class.  Hubby picked me up from my teaching bud's house and I made him take me straight to Wal-mart.  

"Hi Honey, can you please take me to Wal-mart.  Oh by the way, I missed you too."  I'm not sure if he totally believed me, sigh.



This was our view at lunch - Pasadena City Hall.  I love old buildings and wanted to get a closer look.  There was an antique store across from the Conference, so we checked that out last night.  I was able to find a couple more brooches for my niece - they were beautiful. 

I hope to get some of the ideas posted this week, as I make them.  So come back and check out my mind spinning later in the week.
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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Out of the Mouth of Babes

"Mrs. Sasaki, I can't run today because I have a loose tooth."

I love my job.

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Friday, February 21, 2014

Five for Friday - February 21

I am linking up with Kacey for all the fun things that happened this week.





I did some sewing when I was on my break.   I knew I had to make these for the girls as soon as I saw it on Pinterest.  I made two sets of each apron - one for school and one for the grand daughters.


Snow White


Cinderella's Work Apron.  My girls love them, one of the boys was wearing the apron during kitchen time, this week.  He told me that I needed to make some guy aprons - maybe I will get to it this weekend.






I made another flannel board activity.  The little people were matching the crayons to the color words.  We had lots of sounding out and talking going on in the room.  It was a great activity for my TK kiddos.





We are getting ready for Open House in March and doing an animal around the world theme.  We made these huge Pandas when we did Chinese New Year.  They each have their own personalities.  A couple of them at the top are zombie Pandas, according to one of my little ones - we forgot the white part of the eyes.




My antique store search was a success on Saturday.  I found a bunch of stuff, but only bought a few things.


I got so excited when I saw this brooch, it is perfect for the bouquet.  I did go over my spending limit on this one, because I had to have it.  I found other ones, but I needed to start with this one.  I sent my niece a picture from the store and she fell in love with it.  It is about 3 inches tall.  It is going to be hard giving this one up.


I, also, found some old keys for her wedding.  She wanted to use them for the table seating tags.  Of course, we saw the idea on Pinterest.  I think these are going to be a little harder to find.


The antique Valentine cards were still out and on sale.  So, I had to buy all the teacher Valentine cards.  They just make me happy.  I think old Valentine cards are so much cuter than the modern ones.




On Sunday, we went to San Pedro for lunch with one of my sons and his family.


Yum,  hubby is a sweetie because he cracks and takes the meat out of the shell for me. I didn't eat crab when he was gone, because it is such a pain to eat.  I missed him.


Yup, we ate at the Crusty Crab.  I kept looking for Sponge Bob, lol.


We were walking along the boardwalk and spotted this old building.  It looked like it was straight out of the movies.  We were fascinated with it.

Bonus

I have to post a picture of one of the grandkids.


Miss Remie Rose.  She crinkles up her whole face when she smiles, it is the cutest thing.  I love my grandbabes

Have a great weekend.
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Monday, February 17, 2014

Sensory Rice


I am kinda of obsessed with making sensory boxes.  My mind has been spinning all weekend with all the different boxes I can make.  These are the reasons:

1.  The little people love them
2. I enjoy making the little people happy.
3. My classroom is quiet when they are playing with them.
4.  Hubby and I get to go hunting for different things to put in the boxes - which always
includes lunch together after.

This is how I dye my rice for my containers.  There are a lot of different ways, but this is what works for me.

Gather all your supplies.


You will need a measuring cup, measuring spoons, a gallon ziploc bag, food color paste, rubbing alcohol, bowl, 2 - 5 lb bags of white rice (cheap is good), paper towels and cookie sheets or baking pans (for drying).


Take the ziploc bag and put it inside a big bowl.   A 5 pound bag has about 10 cups - so I just pull out 2 cups and set aside (I will use this later).  Then, I add the rest of the rice bag, about 8 cups, to the ziploc bag.

**Do not put all 5 pounds of rice in the gallon ziploc bag.  It fits, but you can't mix it.  I tried, lol.  You could use a bigger bag, but I didn't want to go to the store.

To the rice, I add 3 Tablespoons of rubbing alcohol and 30 drops of food coloring liquid paste (this will give it a nice rich color).  You can always add more if you want the rice to be darker. 


Close the bag and smoosh it all around- turn the bag.  


When you get it all mixed together - leave it sit for about 10 minutes, so the color soaks in a little.


Lay paper towels in your drying container and dump the rice in.  I use about 4 to 5 containers for all the rice.  You don't want the rice layer to be to thick.  It will dry faster.  The weather in California has been so nice, so I set mine outside for a couple of hours to dry.  You can dry them overnight inside too.


Repeat, all the steps again for the other 5 pound bag.

My big container fits 2 batches nicely.  It is enough to cover the bottom, but not too much that it escapes from the box, when the babes are playing with it.

To dye the other 4 cups of rice,  I added 1 Tablespoon of rubbing alcohol and 12 drops of color.  I am going to use this smaller batch in a smaller container and make it a color box.  So, I would add all sorts of blue things that I can find around the house, at school or from new purchases.  I want to make it an "I Spy Color Box".


Hubby and I went shopping at the Dollar Tree today for goodies.  I think he had as much fun as I did.  There are about 5 different box ideas in this picture.  Of course, we had lunch after.  I love  3 day weekends.


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