My Miracle, a Freebie, Proud Momma, & 100s of Box Tops!

A few weeks ago I was in class and we were talking about dimes and quarters when one of my darling EL (not designated, but definitely EL!) student raised her hand and started to say, "Oh, dime...that's like diamond!"  I said, "Quarters & dimes are coins a dia...." as lifted my hand and looked down and saw THIS:

an"Well a diamond WAS here!!"  I felt sick to my stomach.  I emailed all of our staff in case I had lost it somewhere on campus.  I called my husband and told him; he was wonderful!  He emphasized that it was a thing and that he didn't want me stressing out.  (I did stress quite a bit).  I had NO idea how long it had been missing or how the prog could have been damaged.  I did find out that someone had noticed it two days earlier so I tried to think of everywhere I had been in those two days.  I checked at Starbucks, AM/PM, my car, my house, everywhere I went at school...no success.

Now I don't know if any of you go through this, but when I have a sub I find myself shoving things here and there to straighten up.  I had been out for a day with our district's coaching cycle, visiting other 3rd grade classes at other sites. (All of us are a part of this cycle) & another 1/2 day for my stepson for his IEP.  Well, I was cleaning up in my room searching for where I had shoved stuff and trying to reorganize.  I had recently bought this rolling cart:

I started with the bottom drawer which tends to stick (REALLY bad!)...cleared it out of what I didn't want there...

removed stuff that was on top of this pencil tray and saw something in it:

YES!!! There it was my MIRACLE!!!! Praise God!!  I am VERY blessed!  I figured that I would NEVER see it again!! My hand must have banged when the bottom drawer was sticking and then I must of taken out or put something in the top drawer and the stone must have just slipped out of the setting! I have not had it reset yet, but have such a peace that we can reset it!

I have been making a lot of 'anchor charts' for a bit over a year, and I have seen a lot of great subject area journal ideas and foldables online.  I decided to do a blend of these ideas and I have a Freebie for you! :) Here are some pictures of what we have done. 

 

 

 

 I am not going to fight with Blogger any more to get these in the format and order I want!  The Math section is the second section in the journal and Language Arts is the third.  My freebie is the foldable boxes that I used for the nouns.  I blew up the pages and made them charts so that the students could see what I had written. They were to add more examples of the kinds of nouns.

Oh. my. goodness. I forgot how to include a document....HELP...I will be happy to edit this post and add it when I either get feedback help or figure it out!!!!

Now for the proud Momma....
Andrew MADE his costume!! :)  Sieanna looked great & saved Mom money by using her dance recital outfit & being a mime! :)

 Did I put 100s of Box Tops?? Make that 1,000s of Box Tops!!! I'm the Box Top coordinator at a school of about 560 kids....That's 5,000 individual Box Tops bundled in 50s then in 1,000s & 313 'special' Box Tops.  Whoo hooo for 'free' money! (but a TON of work!)

Oh, and one last thing...here's the necklace I bought last month...I found it! :)

Diorama's, an 'Apple Basket' Day, & Dad's 81st

On the 29th, (yes, as usual, I am waaaay behind) my kids and I met up with my parents in Oak Glen, CA, to celebrate my dad's 81st birthday.

 I think Dad looks pretty great for 81!  And that lovely couple there, my parents, will celebrate their 53 year of marriage next week!!  We had a great day and the kids and I picked all these berries!!

  Oak Glen is known for its apples...what a perfect place for 'The Apple Basket Teacher' to visit right?!?

These are a few of my 'Apple Basket' finds for my classroom! :)  I also bought a cute handmade necklace that I've managed to misplace in the last week! :(  

If you live in Southern California and have never been to Oak Glen, I highly recommend it, especially right now as it is 'apple season'!!  It is just above Redlands.

Last month my students did dioramas for their book reports.  I wanted to share these with all of you:

By the way, have any of you fellow bloggers had challenges with 'Blogger'?  On my home desk top Chrome won't let me sign into my blog, and Explorer won't upload my pictures in to the blog  :-(...I had to post this on my school laptop...wondering if it was just me or if anyone knew how to solve these problems.  I hope to post again within the week....we will see!