Hop Into My Life

Busy 2011 and New for 2012

So it has been a very busy few months. I have been spending a lot of time learning kindergarten and doing school things. In the next few months I am going to try to focus on my self, physically and spiritually. For the physical I'm using http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ to track my food, exercise and progress. I have lost 12 lbs this month but have 100 lb to go. For the spiritual I first need to get on track with my Bible reading and personal study. Look for frequent updates on my fitness and faith journeys on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/scrapbunny and MyFitnessPal http://www.myfitnesspal.com/scrapbunny

I got a blog award!

I am so humble to get a blog award from my buddy Debi at http://just4teachers.blogspot.com/ , especially when I have been such a bad blogger lately. Thanks so much Debi for making my month and sharing so much on your blogs :)

Here are the rules of the award:

*Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them in your post.

*Share 7 things about yourself.

*Pass this award along to 15 recently discovered blogs.

Ok, so 7 things about me

1. I am now teaching kindergarten! It has been an interesting 16 days of school so far and I'm glad I was at least switched the day before school started :)

2. I love using technology with kids and was the technology teacher at Highlands Elementary for 7 years.

3. I have 3 blogs, am in charge of our school website and oversee a daily CAFE yahoo group. My classroom blog is a work in process as I switch from my first grade blog, http://ortunosocean.edublogs.org/ to my kinder blog http://mrsortunosocean.blogspot.com/.

My 3rd blog is my WholeBrainTeaching blog, http://scrapbunnywbt.blogspot.com/ and my school website is http://www.pittsburg.k12.ca.us/stoneman/

The yahoo group is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Daily_Five/

4. I love scrapbooking but have very little time for it so LOVE My Memories Suite because it is so fast to make a book.

5. I don't like to shop for clothes or groceries but love to garage sale

6. I repeated second grade, was home schooled in 4th and skipped 8th grade.

7. I live in the same town I teach in and my daughter goes to my school.

Now the hard part picking 15 blogs to pass the award onto. I am going to stick with the RECENTLY discovered part and share some of my favorite kinder, daily 5, and whole brain teacher blogs

http://mrsbrown26.blogspot.com/

http://wbtblogger.blogspot.com/

http://awholebrainteacher.blogspot.com/

http://debweigel-joyfulone.blogspot.com/

http://mrscrookswbt.blogspot.com/

http://mrsshipleywholebrainteaching.blogspot.com/

http://mywholebrainteachingjourney.blogspot.com/

WOOHOO Free teacher stuff

Kreative in Kinder is offering a free unit! She already is a fav kinder blog of mine and have GREAT stuff!
All you need to do is follow some quick easy steps and you get to choose one free unit! WooHoo because I don't get paid until the end of the month and need all the free I can get.

My Memories Suite Discounts and contests

Now that school is out it is time for some fun in the sun and catching up on scrapbooking. I have been using MMS for a lot of school projects and I'm ready to do some personal pages now :) I take my scrapbooking on the road with my laptop and My Memories Suite software. The My Memories Suite sites have a new look and there are lots of giveaways and challenges going on. Of course Camp Scrappy is in full swing with fun challenges on the MMS Facebook page and forum.
If you do not own My Memories Suite yet it is only a few clicks away! Click on the link on the upper left or here and enter the code FREEDOM15 at checkout for 15% off until the end of July! Hop over and grab MMS and join the fun this summer :)

Saturday Speed Scrap

Here is my page for tonight's speed scrap with the peeps from My Memories Suite.

The kit is part of the old company the Ettes designed for and is called Tressie

Wordless Wednesday

Tackle it Tuesday

It will be a busy Spring Break tackling some Spring Cleaning and working on some Whole Brain Teaching projects. Check out my Whole Brain Teaching blog to see more.

Sunday Scrappin'

Might be changing the pictures but here is my ABC album so far for the Treasures Sound Spelling Cards.

From Movies

Don't forget to visit the MMS forum for the Spring Into Scrapbooking ABC album pdf's

Faith -Serious and Silly

This is not a faith blog and I usually do not post about my faith but I thought I would share a little on this weekend when many are thinking about Jesus Christ and/ or Passover.

For the serious- “I have come that they might have life and might have it in abundance.”—JOHN 10:10.

and a little silly

New Whole Brain Teaching Blog

Want to find out more about Whole Brain Teaching? Well hop over to my new Whole Brain Teaching blog where I share all about my experiences with Whole Brain Teaching
http://scrapbunnywbt.blogspot.com/

Tackle it Tuesday

So thankful today was a first grade collaboration day because we got a bunch of great teacher stuff I'll share ASAP. We were challenged to share more with other teachers in the district so one tackle I hope to do this week and Spring Break is organizing my first grade stuff to share. Can't wait for Spring Break to start Friday!
I'm also working on

Spring Into Scrapbooking with My Memories Suite
Re Starting A Heathier Me Challenge once I'm on break

Hope everyone has a great week

My Memories Suite Monday

Jessica from My Memories Suite made an AWESOME cover page for her ABC album with a photo mosaic in the shape of Micky's head. I decided to create a photo template I can use with my Disney photos and made a quick video. Below is the MMS album for you to unzip and have the Mickey page. Enjoy :)

Sunday Scrappin'

Here are the I-N pages for my Sound Spelling Card book. Made all of them in less then 30 minutes in My Memories Suite

Brain Toys

ChrisRekstad posted this great explanation of Brain Toys, the newest goodies from Whole Brain Teaching. Here is the forum post and below it Chris' explanation. Enjoy

There are three levels of understanding: memorization, paraphrasing and original thinking. Brain Toys are used to engage the prefrontal, visual, motor and auditory cortex in original thinking, learning’s highest level.

1. Props: books, pencils, papers, keys, even a whole classroom can become problems, ideas, events, abstractions, etc.

2. Air Blackboard: clean the dirty left corner; pull the screen to any size you want, make invisible diagrams. Good for illustrating the relationship between ideas, creating outlines, anything that can be drawn.

3. Mirror: Use your hands to act out a story. "First", (Hold up one finger)"the man drove his car to town" (Pantomime driving a car), etc.

4. Sockless Hand Puppets: great for conversations between opposing points of view: can be used to compare and contrast or in any dialogue situations.

5. Infinity Sack: Use the Infinity Sack when you need something that can't be illustrated by a single prop. Pull anything you want out of your infinity sack: mountains, cities, people, an ocean, a mouse, a planet of daffodils to use in any explanation...

6. Example Popper: Pop example out of the top of your head to illustrate important points.

7. Vocab Candy: Pop one in your mouth and automatically use a vocabulary word in your next sentence!

8. Two Finger, All Terrain, Action Figures, with Anti-Gravity Boots:
use them to recreate any sequence of events in a story or a process. Walk your Action Figures on your desk, in the air, up your arm, anywhere. They're All Terrain! And they hop free of gravity!

9. Because Slappers: "Because" is probably the single most important word in clear thinking, because it introduces evidence for your conclusions. Slap one hand on top of the other when you use "because" to show your are "building" evidence.

10. Compare/Contrast: Bump your fist together when contrasting; lace your fingers together when comparing. Compare/Contrast is probably the most powerful, most deeply explanatory of all Brain Toys...use frequently!

11. Combos: Use any combination of the above.

Use these when you use the "Teach/Okay". Instead of (clap twice) "Teach"...try this...(Clap Twice) "Props" and the kids say "Okay".

This adds variety and builds massive critical thinking. Try it out tomorrow!