Keeping Up With Kirbys

Baby, it's cold outside and something about having soup makes me happy on a cold day.  It's like a meal and drink all in one.  When my family LOVES something they always say "Write it Down, so you don't forget this" - but here's the problem with my recipes, it's always a little of this and a little of that - a little taste here and a little taste there!  So let's try to write this down before I forget.  Here's my little recipe of the Tomato Soup my family loves - even Jenna loved this and it has TOMATOES in it.   Tomato Soup 1 Tbsp salted butter                                                             1 can tomato sauce                                             2 Tbsp finely diced onion -(I don't tell my family about this ;-) 1/2 tsp minced garlic                                             1 can Italian diced tomatoes                           1 cup of heaving whipping cream                            

I'm sure everyone knows how much I LOVE this guy right here. Yea, he's pretty great!  So I wanted to make sure that I got him an extra special birthday gift.  He hasn't had new cologne in yeeeeeaaarrss.  So I thought he'd probably LOVE some new cologne.  His favorite cologne is Gucci Guilty. If you know him then you know he's not ALL FANCY and he probably wouldn't want me to share that his favorite cologne is Gucci.  But it is. So I'm super excited for him to open his gift.  He opens his gift before school and is thrilled.  He takes it out the box and it looks like this... He laughed and said "this looks different than what I remember and well, the gold, that's a little over the top".  It was really GOLD and wherever you touched it you would leave finger smudges.  He did several spritzes and then a few more for good measure. After a few minutes he came in to tell me that he googled women's gucci guilty because he smells to

I don't know about you but I have been trained, trained some more and then trained again on Cultural Proficiency.  Let me tell you that I truly honor and value the differences within all the cultural communities that I serve.  ...but I'm here to share with you how in a matter of 30 seconds I completely ruined all training that I have ever been apart of. Let me set the scene for you: We are PUMPED, EXCITED and everyone is involved.  We are learning about common and proper nouns.  We are actually on day 3 of learning about common and proper nouns and the kids are really getting it and I am on that teacher high...just killin' the lesson. Me: Okay class, raise your hand if you can tell me a common noun. Student1:  baby Me:  Yes!! (super excited and squealy teacher voice) Me: Now, who has a baby brother or sister and wants to share their name? Student1: Butterfly (loud and proud) Me: Did you say "butterfly"? Stud

I'm feeling Super LUCKY.  I guess I was ready to get home today after school because I apparently left in hurry. I know I was in a hurry because of the red and blue lights behind me as I was leaving my school. And it wasn't this super cute guy.... ...no I wasn't that lucky. ;-) Ya'll to make it worse my registration is out.  I know it's out.  I know I need to take care of it.  I know.  I just keep forgetting. So the officer asked if I knew that was a school zone...remember I just pulled out of the school so I'm still wearing my TEACHER BADGE.  Ugh....Yes sir, I'm sorry I think I was so focused on getting out of here.  (wait, what?! Why did I say that? What does that even mean?) Now he wants my drivers license and I have no idea..........NONE.ZERO. why I have 2 drivers license but I do. One has my old address and one has my new address.  Guess what I CANNOT find my license in my purse that is as big as my the palm of my hand!!  How do you los

Well, we have spent the past couple of days getting things checked off our TO DO list.  My classroom is ready for future leaders, scientist, doctors and world changers.  Jenna thought I needed to do a room tour so if your curious and have the time then check out my classroom.     On Saturday, I volunteered my family to help with the school garden.  I LOVE the idea of our garden and haven't really utilized it like I should.  My plan is to change that this year.  We showed up Saturday ready to help but Josh is still recovering from a herniated disc and has only been walking good for about a week.  When we showed up someone asked him to use the auger....I knew there was no way he could do that so I was like...I'LL DO IT.   Out of the 4 men that were there only 1 didn't have a bad back.  I had already taken charge of this gigantic machine but I was thankful for Jojo's help.  I didn't think I was that much of a help until this morning.  Oh, I helped.

I think some of our sweetest times together are at the dinner table.  It's not all magic and rainbows every night at dinner and sometimes we sit there in silence.  There is just something important about sitting at the dinner table together thatI LOVE and feel in my soul that it's important for families to do no matter what the topic of conversation is. I'm always looking on Pinterest for ways to turn 2 ingredients in my cabinet into a magical feast for the family.  I don't always save my recipes on boards and I usually change things in the recipe based on what's in my pantry. Dinner usually goes something like this....Look in the pantry and fridge...okay, I have sausage and broccoli...so I go to Pinterest and type in:  sausage and broccoli recipes I go through and find the recipe that sounds good and make it.  Some nights it's success {{BOOM}} -everyone's impressed and some nights it's {{WOW}}-that was interesting, let's not do that again. T

Do your students have jobs? I'm talking about classroom jobs... I think classroom jobs are IMPORTANT and CRITICAL in the community building within a classroom.  The classroom is NOT just yours (teachers) it's ours (teachers and students).  If the kids have a job or responsibility they will learn to appreciate and take care of their areas, which only lessens some of the jobs that the teachers have. Seriously, kids need responsibility and by given them a job in the classroom you are helping them to understand the importance of everyone working together to make a classroom run smoothly. I've made a list of jobs that my students will have the opportunity to work throughout the year. These are jobs that my classroom needs. I know every classroom is different so some of these may not work for you but they are EDITABLE .  Just type in the name of the job you want for your kids. On each job sheet I list the responsibilities of that particular job.  For example, The Absen

For the past 2 years I have looked at seat pockets and thought I'd really  need  like to have some of those beauties for the classroom.  I've also thought there is no way I can pay that much for those.   I've sewn something once before so I thought "I really think I could do this."  Well, just as summer is wrapping up and I am running out of time to get things done I've decided to start this project. You're not allowed to examine them closely AND honestly, they are a hot mess.  I'm praying they last at least half way through the school year.  If you think they look like a mess I will tell you it's "Shabby Chic". 😉 I used Archer All Stars video to help me as I went through this little project.  She has a video that walks you through how to do this but on a smaller scale. If you're dying to take on this project yourself I say "Go For It"! Hopefully you can use what I did and didn't do to help you. I didn

Do you leave notes out for your kids?  Do you need something for a Back to School goody? Are you students anxious about a test coming up? I've made an editable DONUT WORRY note to leave for you kids. You can get it {{ here }} You could add little donut erasers with the note.  I found my donut erasers at the Dollar Tree but I'm sure you could find them on Amazon  - and of course, real donuts would be a sweet treat to have as you reviewed for an upcoming test, a treat at Meet the Teacher Night or just a reminder to Not Worry-They've Got This! Have a SWEET day!

How do you celebrate birthdays in your classroom?   Silly straws for the win from Dollar Tree!!  Plus, I have always made a class book with my kids and I decided to give a fresh, sweet new look. Every student gets a page the morning of the birthday student's special day.  This is the morning work for the day ;-) . My birthday student gets to decorate the cover. The kids love reading the sweet birthday messages from their classmates AND it's a sweet keepsake to go back and revisit.  PLUS, it's free!  I like to give my birthday student a little treat like a pencil or silly straw.  This year I found silly straws at the Dollar Tree, six for a $1.  Woot! Woot! But I think the birthday book would be just fine.   A lot of my kids would keep these in their desk or backpack and pull them out to reread throughout the year. You can pick up the tags and book { here }. Have a SWEET day!