Ringing in the NEW YEAR

I hope everyone had a great time ringing in the NEW YEAR whether that consisted of dining with friends, relaxing on the couch or family time like me. My sister had us all over. It was fun and I honestly tried to hang but I was feeling weak. The temptation was too strong. Everyone brought over appetizers and finger foods... my weakness. I'm now on day 5 of a juice cleanse so I had to get out of there before I stuffed my face with sausage balls and buffalo chicken dip. I'm so excited for 2014. I'm starting a new chapter. HEALTH is going to be a top priority. If you want to get some motivational tips, recipes or quotes follow me on instagram. I plan on posting regularly. I also need your help and accountably. I've already seen so much inspiration so thanks for posting. 

  I'm linking up with my sweet friend Tara to share my 1 for ME and Farley for currently. My ONE for Me is going to be focus on my HEALTH by doing less of my old ways and incorporating new habits. Did you know it takes 21 days to form a new habit? I've got this!!!!!

My little word for 2014 will be LESS

Thanks Farley for hosting such a fun linky. 

Elf your Students

Have you ever wanted to make your students into little elves? This little trick is super easy if you have adobe photoshop. All you need to do is click on the filter  tab found up top and then liquify. It takes two seconds. 

Right now I only pay $9.99 a month for photoshop and lightroom. They are both awesome resources to use in the classroom. I added the free elf hats from searching santa hat clip art vector images in google images. I love my cute graphics because there tons of free images.

Have you seen Christmas Jammies? I can not stop watching this precious video. How cute? 

Hope everyone is surviving the last couple of days.

Snow Globes and Reindeers

Have you read the book The Snow Globe Family? It's such a neat story and it really got my students writing today. The family that lives inside the snow globe is just like the family who owns the snow globe. The little family keeps wondering when will it snow. They long for a snowstorm. We used the prompt -If I lived in a snow globe.... My students were using some great adjectives and really trying to pull in their five senses. I was so impressed.

I think the original idea was Deanna Jump's idea found here. You know I love talking photos so I tweaked mine a little.  

Here is our version

Directions

1. I printed my photos 5 x 7 on my home printer and then used an x-acto knife to cut out the background.

2 Mod podge the photo to the clear plastic plate. I used gloss mod podge but I think matte would be better.

3. Add hole punched circles with mod podge. I just emptied my three hole puncher. 

3. Lightly paint an area using mod podge and sprinkle some glitter towards the bottom of the plate.

5. I free handed the base of the snow globe with scrapbook paper.

6. Hot glue snow globe base to the bottom of the plate and add ribbon up top for a hanger.

We also made these darling reindeer. It was a directed drawing found at Artventurous. It was super easy but oh so cute! We used watercolors instead of oil pastels. Click on the link to see the step by step directions.

What fun things have you been making this holiday season?