summer

Thursday, June 27, 2013

How to Get The New Blogs You're Following to Show Up on Your Blog

Have you started following new people and blogs this summer?

 I know that with all the different rafflecopters and contests, I have started to follow a lot of fun people. But I need to take this one step farther and change the setting on my blog to show which blogs I've just added. 

Once I've changed that setting, their new posts will show up on my blog so I can go and check them out! 

Would you like to know how to do this? I know I have forgotten to do this and I suspect that some of you have too. 

So here are the steps that I follow to do this.  . . (if you have a better way, I'd love to hear about it!)

Go to your main screen in Blogger. Click on the words LAY OUT on the left hand side.

Find the words MY BLOG LIST and click on that.

Click the words MOST RECENTLY UPDATED.

Click ADD TO LIST.

Be sure the circle is filled in that says BLOGS I'M FOLLOWING.

Now in this spot you have some choices. Think about what you want to show on your blog. Do you want all the blogs to show that you follow or do you just want your favorites? 

If you want to have ALL of them show up, click the words ALL. If you want NONE of them to show up, go ahead and click NONE. (but then YOU will never be able to see the new things that others are posting!)

If you want to hand pick the ones that you want to show up, you can individually check each box beside the name of the blogs you want to show up. 

Now you are almost done. 

Click the word ADD.

And then finally, click SAVE!

That's it! Now you have a new and updated list of blogs that you like to follow or that you have just signed up to follow. 

That's pretty easy isn't it? Now each time you open your blog, you will see all of your new friends each time they post a message. How fun is that?


And just for fun and to make this post a little less technical and a little more homey. .. this is my daughter and I when we visited South Haven, Michigan this week. South Haven is on Lake Michigan and is oh so breath takingly beautiful!
 So is my daughter (I'm not biased or anything!) 

She lives in Houston and teaches in Pasadena. 
I had to take her back 
to the airport last night. (boo hoo!) 

However, on Sunday we are driving with her husband back to Houston for some extra time with them. 
So I'm not really that sad . .. yet!


Thanks for stopping by!

Patty

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

1st Time Guest Blogging

Shhhh! 
You don't see me here! 

Really, I'm not here right now. . . 

I'm guest blogging over at  Best Practices 4 Teaching

It's my first time guest blogging. . . I hope I did it right! You can be the judge! 

Go on over there and see what I wrote. . . and if you read it all, you'll want to come back here and leave me a message!

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

A Stormy Night is a Great Night for Blogging!

Thanks for all those who stopped by my blog and were able to pick up my updated Pumpkin Pronouns. It's way early to be thinking about Halloween. . . but at least if you get it now, you'll be able to get it printed, laminated, cut and packaged to put in your room.

If you missed the free copy, you can go to my store and pick it up. 

It's a very stormy, windy, rainy night here in south west Michigan. We need the rain, but the lightning and thunder are the coolest part! I love a good storm! My plants are saying "aaaahhhh!"


Patty

Monday, June 24, 2013

Updated Activity. . . Would you like one?

I know that Summer just started this past weekend, but let's face it. . . many of us are already thinking forward into the school year starting. 

Sad. . . but true!


I decided to update my Halloween Pronoun activity. It's made with DJ Inkers clipart and is oh so adorable! 



This particular version has both color and black and white pages.  So you can print out which ever one is best on your budget or your school's budget. For most of the pages, you can print the odd numbered pages to get the colored ones, and the even numbered pages are the black and white ones.

I'm feeling pretty spunky tonight and I'd love to give it away to anyone who would like it. All you need to do is be sure that you are a follower of my blog and my store. Then all you have to do is leave me your email address. . . . That's it!

Oh, but there is one more catch! I will only be giving this away for free until Tuesday, June 25th at 9:00 pm Eastern Time. So be sure to get it now!

Patty

Ashley Hughes is Having Some Fun This Week. . . so can you!

Do you know Ashley Hughes from The School Supply Addict?
She is having a Huge, no a HUGE, no it's really a 
HUGE Celebration!


Each day this week you should venture over there and
 pick up the freebies that she is offering. 
(that is so kind of her and you will love her stuff!)

Then enter the many rafflecopter gizmos and 
maybe you can win even more stuff!

Well, . . . . .what are you waiting for? 
Get out of here. . . there's nothing more for you here today. . . 
just git!

Oh, . . . and thanks for stopping by to see me today!

Patty

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Michigan Meet UP!

I am super excited! I get to meet a lot of you! 

I know, I know, I wish I could meet ALL of you!



But for now, we're starting with Michigan. If any of you live in Michigan and would like to join us, we would LOVE to have you! You don't even have to have a blog. If you are a stalker reader, follower, or teacher, we want you to feel welcome!

Christina and I are planning this get together, so please hop over to Christina's blog to sign up so we know how many are coming. 

We will talk, laugh, share, giggle, eat, listen, and become closer friends. So why wouldn't you come?

We are meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan on the west side of the state, so maybe you are from another state, but you are in Michigan vacationing, then you can drive over to see us. 

Check your calendars, but hurry, it's this coming Saturday. . . yup that's one week from today. . . start the countdown!

Patty

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Winners and yada yada yada


I'm sorry, I got distracted and didn't announce my winner yesterday. So today, I sent out the prizes to Andrea and Melanie. I appreciate them and the rest of you for stopping by and leaving me a comment. I hope you found some new and fun clipart from both of my friends, Corinna and Krista



This week feels so good. I've been sleeping in a bit, being lazy in the morning, and then actually getting things done that I want and need to do. 

I plant flowers around the front of my school so I go back every couple days to weed and water. And Dab nab it! When I went back on Monday, I found some critters were eating my marigolds! The nerve! So now I add dusting with Seven to my list when I go there.

Today my daughter (who is here visiting from Houston) decided that we needed to clean the garage. . . our garage isn't really that bad, but of course, she thought so. Now you could just about eat out there! So Thanks Mackenzie for motivating us to clean and pitch because we really needed to!

That's all for now. . . go on and check out someone else's blog now. . . It's so fun to have that extra time to really read what others are writing. 

P.S. I know that there is a plan for a Michigan Meet Up. Not sure on any of the details, but if you're from Michigan and want to be included on this, please leave me your email below and I'll be sure to get a hold of you once it's decided.

Patty

Monday, June 17, 2013

Reborn Activity and You CAN Win It!

TGIS. . . . yup that's my new mantra. Can you figure it out?

Thank God It's Summer.

I feel so FREE!

I can now create and recreate as I feel like it. I know that time flies and I don't want to feel pressured at the end of the summer to do something, I have started already to get cracking!

My time is FREE now!

I (like many of you) have found some of my original projects are lacking luster and pizazz! So what could be more fun than to fancy them up! Today I'm going to highlight one of my first projects. It's still an important one, but I've changed the backgrounds and added another element to the activity.


This is a practice on adding with and without regrouping. 

The coolish clipart is from Corinna Gandara at Surfing Through Second. It's called All American Reds (even though it's the yellow stars!) And it's a free download, so git cher butt over there to pick this up. Don't forget to leave her some lovin' since she is giving this to you for free!

The colorful stars are from Creative Clips at the Creative Chalkboard. The striped stars are free also. The link for the polka dotted stars is here and they are free too. Don't you just love all these cute graphics. I am a big fan of both of these girls. I hope you are too and if you're not, check them out and you just may become one of their followers too. And as always if you grab something from them, don't forget to leave some feedback. 

(It's amazing the number of people who will download something for free and not leave one little word. As a seller we can see how many downloads we have, plus how many have left comments. I see it this way.... they gave it to me for free, the least I can do is say how much I like it!)

If you would like to have this set of Addition cards, please leave me your email address and tell me if you are followers of either of these girls, or both. On Tuesday I will pick two random names to award these to for free! I see a theme going on here. . . FREE!

Patty

Friday, June 14, 2013

Too many things to give it a fair title, but please come read this!

And. . . . I'm back! Whew! That was way too long to be gone, but I truly needed to step away from my blog and focus on my mom, my family, my report cards and finishing the year strong. So let me give you a snippit of a replay.
  • Mom has been given  orders from the doctor to go home and enjoy your family. There is nothing more medically they can do for her. She is on oxygen, (which she thinks looks stupid! but certainly has made her quality of life better!) She's to be off her feet more, so between me and my 3 sisters we get up there as often as we can (remember she lives 2 hours away). Hospice has been coming in once a week. . . and when things change they will be in more. I am ok with all of this. She is a trooper and we all have been blessed with her presence for 90 years so I can't complain. I only ask that she is comfortable and as pain free as possible.
  • My daughter is here from Houston. What a glorious feeling to have her back around us. She'll be here for about 2 weeks, then we will go back with them for a week down there.
  • I can honestly say that I have finished one of the more stressful years of teaching. The caliber of about 4 students was rough on me. I will not say anything more than that. I don't agree with teachers who say they hate their students but I do agree that some get more on your nerves than others. Nuff said!
  • Report cards done and I feel good that I was able to honestly phrase exactly the words that will tell the parents and future teachers how well that child performs. I usually send a positive letter home to all parents thanking them for a great year, yada yada yada. But I just couldn't this year. However there were at least 10 students who I could focus on and they would keep me balanced and calm. So for those students I wrote a heartfelt letter to let their parents know that they are doing the right thing as parents by raising respectful promising students.

Now on to some fun stuff! While I was in my cocoon, several friends had blogversaries and I was able to help them out I received a lot more followers on my blog and my TPT store. Yea! 
If you haven't entered these contests you still have some time. Go to http://missventrella.blogspot.com/2013/06/one-year-blogiversary-giveaway-day-6.html

Then hitch it on over to Christina's Blog.


Both have great prizes that you can win!

Now there is one more thing I 
have to share with you. 

Christina is hosting a Fabulous Feedback Linky Party. She hosted this a while back and it was so successful that she decided to do it again. 

Here's how it works: Read these comments below and check out the name. Maybe it's a feedback that you left on one of my items you bought from me. If it is YOU, then send me an email at pjrbar@charter. net.  And I will send you a little prize for leaving me such good constructive feedback. And if it isn't you listed below. . . it might be next time if you be sure to leave good constructive comments the next time you buy something from me or any other TPT stores.




Best Practices For Teachers and Laura Martin both bought my Spring Pronouns and left me such nice feedback. I truly felt that they appreciated my time to make them cute as well as effective in the classroom. So if you know these two please send them back over here to get a hold of me at pjrbar@charter.net. I will give them a freebie just for being so nice!

If you're still reading this, you just might want to go back to Christina's blog and look at all the other people who are giving away gifts for great feedback.  I know I'm on my way over there in just a few minutes! This is so fun and now that school is out I have much more time to stay up late and catch up with all of my friends!  Chao!

Patty

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Field trip Tomorrow and That's all for 2 weeks!

This will be the last post. .. 

For two weeks. .. 

I just have to stay away because I have assessments, {and checking them, :( }, report cards, and just wrapping up the end of the year. 

So IF you see me here, or on FB, any games, or on Instagram, please gently sternly tell me to get back to work!

Let me fill you in a few things.

First, my mom hasn't been so well lately. I'm pretty worried about her and have spent the last two weekends with her and dad.  Mom had a rough winter and got pretty sick. She pulled through and is doing ok now. She can walk, cook, drive, etc. But she is slowing down and her kidneys are failing. I'm just not sure how long she'll be with us. She is 90, but until this winter acted like she was 60. 

Second, we are going on our field trip tomorrow. Not sure how your school works, but field trips were cancelled because of no money. But the trip we take doesn't cost the students anything. So our parent organization is paying for the bus mileage and driver fee. 

We are going to Lake Michigan. This is about an hour and a half drive. There is a State Park there with a nice big sand dune to climb. (gosh, I'd love to post pictures here tomorrow, but I really shouldn't. . . hmmmm. . .) 

The kids do not swim, but we do a lot of other things.  First of all, getting to see one of the Great Lakes is something many of our students have never done. And Secondly (didn't I say that already?) seeing a land form such as a sand dune is something they also haven't seen.

We will climb the hill and roll down in the sand. We'll take walks and explore or do scavenger hunts. We also fly kites and explore wind energy. The best part is exploring architecture! This is our way of saying we play in the sand. The kids try to build castles and other structures to see how stable they are. Does the wind knock them down, did a wave sabotage it?  How tall can you get it? Can you make a drip castle? {I'm justifying how play really does work into important skills for life!} How deep can you dig? Can you bury your friend except for their head?

I'm really excited to go on this trip. Almost every year we worry about the weather. But tomorrow the forecast is for sunny and about 68 degrees. However, it's always windy near the lake, so I know it will feel cooler! 

To make the bus ride seem not so bad, we prepare a clipboard for each seat on the bus. Two kids will share this clipboard.

 Each clipboard has two Tic Tac Toe and 
Dot to Dot games on it.
They also have a word search puzzle and 
two blank pages to draw on.
I grab some spares just in case!

This crate of books will be slid back and forth down the aisle so they can read books if they choose to.

All of these things help to pass the time on the bus ride. What do you do on your bus rides?

Ok, that's it. . . see you after June 13th! You know that I will miss you!

Patty