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Monday, June 3, 2013

Monday Made It and Must-Have! (Cupcakes, Book Clubs, and Monday night TV!!)

I am linking up today with two awesome Monday linkies!!  
First, the amazing Tara from 4th Grade Frolics is beginning her WEEKLY Monday Made-It series today for the summer!  I LOVE this linky and it kept me going all summer last year on my to-do list!  Although I am not on summer vacation yet and I blogged about many Made-Its here on May 13th, I have a couple Made Its to share:)

Home Made It:
I already posted about my 6 year-old daughter's diva birthday party 
(think nails done, face painting, and dancing!).  
All I had to do was bring the cake to the party!  So stress free:)
I decided to make cupcakes and found this awesome rainbow cupcake on Pinterest from CosmoCookie.
Since my daughter's favorite colors are pink and purple, I decided to go with those.
I followed the directions and bought a white cake mix (I do love to bake from scratch but who am I to argue when the directions say to stop overachieving and go with the box mix?).
I divided the cake batter and colored half of it pink (with just a touch of red food coloring) and the other half purple (half red and half blue food coloring).
I poured each color one at at time into the middle of the cupcake paper cups.  I layered it pink, purple, pink, purple.  Here is a picture of the first two layers.
Here they are baked:)  So pretty!
 My daughter had a fairy theme for her "diva" party and I bought fairy cupcake holders, toppers, invitations, thank-you notes, and gift bags from the 
Isn't the pink and purple layered in the middle so fancy?
 I thought they turned out super cute and they were super easy and inexpensive!  The moms were also so impressed and asked all about how I made cupcakes this way:)


Classroom Made-It:
I made a couple handouts (that counts, right?) that I wanted to share with you to accompany the Book Clubs I am doing in my ELA class right now.  You can read more about their kick-off here.  I purchased Laura Candler's Classroom Book Clubs and am loving this amazing resource with step-by-step how to videos!  
We just started Book Clubs last week and were only able to meet two days due to Memorial Day, Science State Testing, and a Field Trip.  However, my students have finalized their calendars as groups for reading their books and when to complete their reading response assignments by June 11th.  I made these guidelines for groups to know what is expected on full meeting days and daily quick checks.  The written assignment directions are also provided.  
For the written assignments, I made a tic-tac-toe choice board (students LOVE choices!) of some of my favorite reading response activities from the amazing Rachel Lynette's Reading Response Worksheets for Grades 3-6.  Here is a picture collage of my Tic-Tac-Toe board and snapshots of Rachel's Reading Response worksheets.
Click here to download my Book Club modified directions and Tic-Tac-Toe Board in editable powerpoint (minus the cute border that needed to be removed due to copyright...but you can add your own cute border!).  The font doesn't show up right unless you have that downloaded on your computer too (I used Oh{Photo}Shoot for the title font).  We will be continuing Book Clubs this week and I am anxious to see how it works out!  I will update and share more soon:)

I would also like to share a Must-Have and link up with the wonderful Sabra from Teaching with a Touch of Twang.
I apologize for another personal link up here but since it is Monday, and my Must-Have just makes Mondays super special, I have to share my guilty pleasure of the Bachelorette/Bachelor.  Currently, it is the Bachelorette (with Des?) and I am THRILLED that Monday night TV over the summer will be so entertaining!  Seriously, I have watched every season of Bachelor/Bachelorette and will be super sad when it doesn't continue anymore (all good things come to an end eventually, right?).  
Barely anyone I work with watches this show (they look at me like I am crazy when I start trying to talk about it!).  I don't think they know what they are missing!  Haha!!  If you love this show, you have to check out Teeny Tiny Teacher's Talk About It Tuesday.
She is a huge fan and her reviews of the show are hilarious:)
Definitely a MUST-HAVE for me!  

Oh, I almost forgot to update you on the Tried It Tuesday survey for continuing over the summer!

I was actually surprised by how many readers and bloggers wanted to continue the linky WEEKLY over the summer!  Yay!!  It wasn't unanimous though (about a 75/25 split).  
So, I have worked out a little plan in my mind.  I would like to:
Continue hosting WEEKLY FOR JUNE (Yes, check back tomorrow for reading or linking up!)
Host JULY ONLY ONCE on the 2nd Tuesday of the Month (July 9th)...
"TWOSDAY"...get it? :)
Go back to hosting WEEKLY IN AUGUST.

Thank you all for your support and I think July will be a good break since just about everyone is off this month.  Of course, as always, you can link up ANYTHING you have tried (NEW or OLD) and it can be classroom or home related!  I love reading about them all and have learned so much.  I will need the summer to sort through all the new pins:)  Thank you again for your bloggy love, whether it is by reading, commenting, or linking up!!

16 comments:

  1. Holy cow....you're number 1! Your daughters party looks like it was amazing:) What a great momma you are:) Thanks for linking up:)

    4th Grade Frolics

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  2. The cupcakes came out so cute! I'm sure she loved them.

    I really appreciate you sharing your book club stuff. I read you post the other day and just added your sheet to my Dropbox. I have used book clubs for the last two years and it's always great to have additional resources.

    Heather
    room 4 imagination

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  3. Those cupcakes are adorable! Thanks for sharing your book club tic-tac-toe. My students love the personal choice as well. Happy Monday.

    Hunter's Tales from Teaching

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  4. Awesome cupcakes Holly! Your book clubs look super organized! Thanks for the Tried it Tuesday schedule - that is perfect for me : ).

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  5. I love the cupcakes! These are too cute! Thanks for sharing your book club idea. I just had to pin it. Enjoy your week!

    Krista
    Stellar-Students

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  6. You are so awesome Holly! Cupcakes=super cute! And your daughter is ADORABLE! Thanks for more info on the books clubs. I definitely think I am going to do these next year.

    Tina
    Crofts' Classroom

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  7. The cupcakes came out great! Love the colors! I enjoy doing book clubs with my 4th graders also and giving them choice on the assignments is always the best way to keep them motivated. What book are they reading?

    Erica
    Shepherd's Shining Stars

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  8. HAHA you are too funny! You had me laughing out loud with your Must Have! I've only ever seen one season of the Bachelor and that was Vienna's season because her little sister was in my grade and Vienna had gone to our elementary school (small town) so everyone still remembered her! Thanks so much for the freebie! Don't you just love Laura??? I'm glad that Tried It Tuesday will continue!

    Thanks for linking up!

    Sabra
    Teaching with a Touch of Twang

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  9. The cupcakes look delish!! Thanks for posting about the book clubs. I'm going to look further into it!

    -Tasha
    ATenderTeacherforSpecialNeeds

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  10. Thanks for the book club freebie! What did you think of the Bachelorette premiere? I'm not sure how I feel about this season...there were some pretty STRANGE guys and Des cried WAY too much! Should make for an interesting season!
    Bethany
    FabandFunin4th!

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  11. We were just at a birthday party that had rainbow cupcakes. I hoped that they would be easy to do! And what little girl doesn't have pink and purple as their favorite colors?! Mine do, too! :)

    Diane
    Fifth in the Middle

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  12. Your cupcakes are so cute!!!! What a good mom you are!!! Love it!!
    Thanks for the tic-tac-toe board!!

    I love the Bachelorette too! My husband watches with me. ;O) And, I agree, A Teeny Tiny Teacher's Tuesday posts are hilarious!

    Have a great week!
    Amanda
    Collaboration Cuties

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  13. Those cupcakes are adorable! Looks like a fun party;)
    Elizabeth
    Fun in Room 4B

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  14. I love the cupcakes!!! I just found your blog through the linky party :) So glad I did!

    Bridget
    Literacy Without Worksheets

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