Five for Friday

I can't believe that my summer vacation is halfway through!! It's been really nice to be off of work but to tell the truth, I feel busier than ever!! I still feel like I don't have enough time in the day. I've been having class for the past two weeks (I take PD courses to try to get a tiny increase in pay). 

Other than that I've been try to stay busy and be productive. Linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to show you a peek at what I've been up to over the past week!


The boy and I headed out to the North Shore this week to hit  up some fishing spots. Of course, we had to stop by the famous shrimp trucks!! This is the garlic shrimp plate I had for lunch the other day. It was SO GOOD, I practically scarfed that entire plate down!!

Like I said earlier, we've been trying to find some time to make it to the beach since I am so casper white, lol. Sadly, during the school year I never find time to make it out much and turn very very pale. We've going to the beach and fishing lately...Here's my set up. I just reel the line in if the little bell rings, which of course means that I hooked a fish.  The boy likes walking around and casting his line out...so that's him with his pole in the background (even though you can't even see a pole). 

I've also been working very hard to organize all of our files. We used to just throw all of our files into this bin. It took me HOURS to organize this. Each of the files are color coordinated based on type of files. The papers inside are all hole punched and neatly fastened to the file folder (kind of like the files at a doctor or dentist office).  I got the inspiration because when I was at the vet, I liked how neat all their folders looked :) 

I've also been working on updating my plan book for this upcoming school year. I currently have one listed on TPT that I used last year but I wanted to add some things in it. This one I'm working on has a lot of color, to match my theme this year (bright colors). 

I'm debating if I should add this to my old plan book file (which is mostly black and white) or upload this as an entirely different product. 

Suggestions on this??

And last but not least, I've been using my time wisely at the beach. While my pole is waiting for bites, I'm working on reading this book by Stephanie Harvey. Reading has never been my area of strength to teach. The past few summers I've been working on reading lots of pd books to hopefully strengthen my craft. I'm looking forward to implementing all of the awesome strategies I've been reading about. 

I'm currently working on creating a Grade 2 Math Pre Assessment. I have one up in my TPT store for Grade 3, which contains all of the 2nd grade CCSS. I use this in my classroom to find out where my students are at when they come in to me. I'm looking for somebody to look through this file for me..someone familiar with grade 1 standards (or someone in 2nd grade that knows what students should come up knowing), editing, format, vocabulary being used... I haven't worked with kids that young in awhile so I'll need to make sure that I'm using proper vocabulary. This was a TPT request I had. If anyone is interested in reviewing this file for me, leave me a message in the comment section with your email. I'll email the file to you for free! I'm looking for 2-3 people to view this for me. 

Thank you!!

PS: It seems that everyone is making a switch over to bloglovin. I'm not too sure if I will lose all my followers if I don't make the switch...BUT just in case, make sure to follow me on Bloglovin...please.

 Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Monday Made it #1: Apple Cupcakes and Centerpieces

This was one of my favorite linkys last summer because it actually got me off of my lazy butt to do some work!! 

I'm so excited to be linking back up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for my first Monday Made it of Summer 2013!!! 

For those of you who are following me on instagram, you know that I have been busy getting ready to host a retirement party for one of my coworkers who has luckily retired from our grade level this past year. SO some of these pictures are probably a repeat BUT I will go into detail on what I did and how..so stay tuned :) 

This week I made some yummy apple shaped cupcakes!!

These cupcakes were given out as favors at the retirement party..

I've posted the pictures on instagram and I had a lot of people asking how I made them. I figured this would be a perfect post for a Monday Made it!

SO..here are MOST of the things I used (my girlfriend had the frosting which is missing from the picture!) 

Things You Will Need:

• Box cake mix 
• Optional: 1 box vanilla pudding and an extra egg (this will make the cake mix extra moist and fluffy)
• red cupcake liners
• green chewy candies (jolly rancher or laffy taffy)
• tootsie rolls 
• 2 dozen donuts 
• frosting
• red paste food coloring 
• red decorating sugar

What To DO:

1. Bake the vanilla cupcakes as directed in the red cupcake liners. You will want to only fill the liners about half way full or a little less so that when they bake, they are about level with the liners. Once the cupcakes are done, let them cool.
2. You can begin by prepping your leaves and stems. All you need to is cut the tootsie rolls in half, lengthwise and you may need to shape them a little. I suggest putting them on a plate because we laid them down on a paper towel and after awhile they got stuck on the paper tower. We had to repeat this step all over again! 
3. You will want to microwave your green jolly rancher chewy candies for about 5 seconds. This is going to soften the candy and make it more moldable. You then want to take some kind of mallet and pound the candy down to about 1/8 of an inch thickness. 
4. I used kitchen scissors and just cut the shape of leaves out. I also used a knife to make the little leaf line and then just gently folded the leaf.
5. Once you're done with this, the cupcakes should be cooled down.  You will want to cut your doughnuts so you have a flat bottom. Frost the cupcake and stick the donut on top of it (picture in background). Once you've got all your cupcakes topped with donuts, stick them in the freezer for about 10 minutes. This helps to set the frosting and will make your job easier when it comes to dipping. 

6. Once the cupcakes come out...you want to then mix your frosting with the red dye. You then go ahead and frost your donut/cupcake. Place your sprinkles into a bowl and dip the cupcakes into the red sugar. 

7. Once that's done you can go ahead and add your leaves and stems.

I loved how the packaging of these cupcakes turned out! I was planning on buying individual boxes for each cupcake..but I couldn't find any and assume that it would have been pretty costly. 

I got these 9 oz. cups at target for about $3. 

Wrap them in some clear cellophane bags and tie it up with a cute ribbon and they're good to go!

Along with the cupcakes we also decided to make these cute little centerpieces for the tables! The cute little pail and all of the candied flowers came from the one and only..Target dollar section!! 

We then just made some cutouts using the cricut and arranged them. I was really happy with how these turned out. I forgot to take a picture of the finished finished product. We actually also added some sparkly easter grass, which made it even cuter! We hid some candy in there as well :)

Here's a blurry picture of the tables...

I sure hope this tutorial wasn't too rambly and was semi-helpful for you! Let me know if you have any other questions about recreating the cupcakes or centerpieces!! 

Christmas in June?! Nope, it's my Popsugar Must Have June Box!!!

I am so excited and feel like a little kid at Christmas time! I've been waiting patiently and checking the mail daily for this:

This is a Popsugar Must Have box! 

For those of you who have never heard of this, this is similar to a Birchbox. except WAY better (in my humble opinion!) 

This is a compete lifestyle box where you get goodies each month that will vary from fitness/health products, beauty, fashion, and home decor. The boxes are $35.00 a month but you will definitely make up for it and then some. The value of the box each month usually exceeds what you pay by 3-4 times. 

I'm not super knowledgeable about  beauty products but I am wanting to try new things out...I just don't know what to get! SO I've been watching youtube videos about the Birchbox and I have been wanting to order it. Birchboxes cost $10/month and you get a bunch of beauty samples. 

I like Popsugar much better because you get full sized products...and they aren't only beauty products. I like the idea of trying new things that I wouldn't normally know about or even try because it's probably way to expensive and I wouldn't want to buy something if I don't know what it's like. 

Here is what I got in this month's box. I'll list everything under it's designated category...

Fashion:

The fashion item for this month is a Gorjana & Griffin Zuma Scarf. 

I love the colors and the pop of that bright coral. 

This scarf's retail value is $62.00

Beauty:

The beauty item is a Juice Beauty moisturizer that is made with all organic ingredient. It is proven to reduce fine lines and fights signs of aging. It smells very clean and lemony. 

The retail value for this is:$65.00

Along with beauty I also got two samples of the Juice Beauty CC Cream...This is like a BB cream but is supposed to be a 12 in 1 product?! We'll see...

Fitness:

Fitness this month was a workout video. 

This retails at $9.99

Entertainment:

For entertainment, I got a hard cover book of Revenge Wears Prada. This seems like a pretty good read. It's supposed to be the sequel to The Devil Wears Prada. I absolutely LOVED that movie so am pretty excited to read this book.

The retail value for this is $25.99

Food:

This was interesting!! It is a by an amazing company called Project 7. They give back to a variety of different charities. In this month's box i got some wintergreen mints. For each tray or mints that are purchased (there are 12 tubes in a tray), a person in need will receive one years worth of clean water.

Also got some fit popcorn. Apparently this is supposed to be a guilt free snack. I'm holding out to try this since I want to be hungry for my turkey burger dinner that the hubby is grilling tonight! :D 

SO...I didn't calculate what the food items costed since I don't really know that...but the other products totaled about $163.00. I say that's totally worth it!! 

I'm excited to see what I get next month because I've watched some youtube unboxing videos and they get some pretty neat stuff. I've seen an exercise ball, glass coffee mugs, wide brimmed hats, beach bags, and all other kinds of neat stuff. 

If you're interested in signing up for a subscription (you can do this monthly or sign up for several months at a time) you can get more information at the Popsugar Website

Also, use the code: REFER5 to get $5 off of your first delivery. 

I know this post is totally non-teacher related...but if you're interested in seeing what I get in these boxes each month, let me know in the comments!!

Now I'm off to walk my pup who has been waiting so patiently!

Vistaprint Addict!!

For those of you who have never heard of Vistaprint...you must check it out! Let me warn you though, you will probably get sucked in and addicted like me. I can spend hours on that darn site creating things to use in my classroom. This is a website where you can pretty much create anything and everything for your classroom...magnets, business cards, banners, t-shirts, hats, pens, and the list goes on! 

I try not to order unless there is a really good sale going in. They usually send e-mails about their latest sales..and they usually happen pretty often too. There are also groupons every once awhile. I feel that you can get extremely good deals on this site....but shipping (for me) is always the killer. Not sure if it's because I live in Hawaii...or if shipping is outrageous no matter where you live?! 

SO for those of you who are looking for some new Vistaprint inspirations or just curious to see how I use VP in my classroom...you are in the right place today, my friend. 

This is probably one of my most frequent orders. I will purchase return address labels for this order and use them to label all of the books in my class library. They have a ton of cute designs too!!

This is one of my most recent creations. I used a business card for this and plan on using it to send home or staple in students planners when we have a parent/teacher conference. I won't need to worry about printing anything or writing a note in students planners. All I'll need to do is grab one of these cards..write the date and time and students name.

I'm really not sure on the pricing of all these products because they always vary depending on what kind of sale and or promotion they are running. I will recommend to not ever buy things at regular price. Wait till there's some kind of sale or promotion going on. I believe you get about 250 business cards...and if I'm not mistaken I may have got a set for free before too. 

This is another way that you could use the business cards. On each child's birthday..they get a birthday lei, a pencil and a homework pass! 

These are address labels (I believe) or small stickers..can't really remember.

My class library has really grown over the past 3 years. I now have nearly 1000 books in my library. I have three tricks that have helped me. 

The first is shopping at garage sales. I was finding books in amazing condition that would range anywhere from 10-50 cents a piece. There were books that cost $1.00 but I was cheap and usually wouldn't get it unless it was a hardcover :P (Now I'm spoiled and think that even the scholastic warehouse sales are expensive!) 

The second way my library has grown has been ordering books through scholastic with points.

And the third way is with these bad boys up above. When students borrow books from my library they notice that some of the books have these stickers instead of my "This book belongs to: Miss Mizufuka" sticker. I'll usually have a few kids ask about it. I then tell them that they are welcome to donate books to our class library that they are no longer going to read (and if it's okay with their parents). Most of them get so excited because they really want to have a 'plaque' in one of the library books that will stay in my library forever. Most kids will bring in a few books...some even bring in boxes and bags full of books!

Here are two more that I have....

 Under this sign I write the kids' "what to do" list. Below is where all of their assignments and page numbers are normally listed. 

I also order small car door magnets that go up on my front whiteboard. These are for things that are written up on the board on a weekly basis and always have a 'spot' 

 You can also get personalized post-its. 

The options are really unlimited with Vistaprint...These are some of my favorites that I have created on the site and use all the time in my own classroom. I hope I sparked some interest and creativity for you...now go and check the site out.... You know you want to!!

Have a great day!

June CURRENTLY!

Happy Thursday to you all!! I had to remind myself what day it is today..because I've been getting my days all mixed up. I love that I don't need to know what day it is! lol

Last night I couldn't sleep because I had so many ideas flowing through my head of things I wanted to create for next school year. SO I woke up at 1:30 and stayed up until 4:30 working on some new products!! I had to actually force myself to go back to bed. Lucky thing for summer though, I have all day to work on finishing what I started. SO..I'm giving myself a quick break and decided to link up with Farley for this month's CURRENTLY. 

*I just moved out to Kapolei which is very far from town. I no longer hear 'city noises' but lots of peace and quiet (which I love)! So..as of now I'm just listening to the lawn mower going outside.

*I am absolutely loving that it is summer!! Who doesn't love being on vacation?!

 Even more, I actually get to spend some time with the hubby. We have opposite schedules so I really don't get to see him very much during the school year. He gets home when I'm already asleep..and is gone to work by the time I make it home. He will usually wake up in the morning to help me make my breakfast and lunch so that we have some time to talk to each other. We do get two days a week during the weekdays that he is off, so that is nice. We've been making use of all this time together by hanging out at the beach a lot!! 

Yesterday we went fishing! That is my brand new pole :D I didn't catch anything though..maybe next week?! 

*I really need to get on it with reformatting all of my worksheets and things I use for the school year. I have an entire years worth of morning work that I have been giving my kids for the past 3 years. It has a LOT of word problems. I feel that this is the reason why my kids were always really strong with word problems AND explaining why and how they know their answers are correct. (I'll post a little more about that later). Unfortunately, I could never upload it to TPT because almost everything I created prior to last year is all in DJ inker fonts and clip art. I've been meaning to re-do them all but haven't found the time. Hopefully by the ending of this month I'll get them all up! 

*I, along with all of you..(I'm sure) am totally wanting an all expense paid vacation. We usually try to take a vacay somewhere each summer...but since we just bought our new house, we're broke! Can't afford a vacay for awhile..especially since we're now saving up for our wedding!!!

*I'm needing to exercise daily and eat better this summer. During the year, I just don't have the time ( I know, I know..that's no excuse!). So far, I've been doing really good. I take my dog for at least a mile walk 2-3 times a day and usually also get some lap swimming or yoga in. I'm a major foodie so it's so hard to not eat everything that I want. I've been starting the mornings off with a smoothie (yogurt, banana, strawberries, soy milk, and acai) and some fresh fruit...so that's a start!!

*AND last but not least...3 vacay essentials for me are:

Loved ones...of course! Who can have an awesome vacation without their family and/or friends?

Second, cell phone. cell phones have all that you need. Yelp apps to research the best eateries around, camera to capture all of the great memories, music, games, GPS, and of course..the capability of getting a hold of whoever you need whenever you need. 

And finally..cash!! Every good vacay needs cash to enjoy the shopping, great food and drinks. Those three things and you're set!! :D 

What I'm Loving: May

Hi Everyone and Happy Summer to those of you who have already started summer vacation :) We've been on break in Hawaii for a week already (today marks week 2). I must say, it is nice to sleep in and relax a little but I really miss my kiddos.

The last day of school for us was filled with water works. I have never had so many kids sobbing, with tears streaming down their faces on the last day before, but it touched my heart that they were so sad to leave!! I also had the cutest girl who was crying so hard and said that she never thought it'd be so hard  to leave me and that third grade was the best thing that ever happened to her! 

I'm a bit bummed I hadn't found the time to blog about some of our end of year activities, but maybe I can post it some other time, or next year. 

I will be starting a new monthly post series called: What I'm Loving

In this series, I will be posting about all of my favorite things during the month (at the end of each month). The things I will be posting that I'm loving will be all sorts of random goodness...anything goes.. teaching tools/products, cleaning supplies, household decor, beauty/fashion products, and I may have to add a little something in for my little fur baby. 

Here are all my favorite things from the month of May:

These are the best pens EVER. I don't know about you but I seem to always be making mistakes when I write in pen....and I absolutely HATE when I write things in pen in my planner, and then I need to change it. These pens have an eraser top. They are not your typical eraser top pens..it's actually like a little rubber piece (that doesn't seem like it would erase) but it  magically erases the pen away. It erases so well, you can see no trace of the ink. They also have highlighters from this same brand that erases away so nicely. They're pretty pricy, but totally worth it.

I've also been in love with my Magic Bullet this past month. I have been using it everyday make delicious smoothies for both breakfast and a cool me down, healthy snack. 

A typical smoothie will have some light flavored yogurt, soy milk, a whole banana, 2-3 strawberries, acai and some crushed ice. They taste DELICIOUS!! I also put some kale in when I have it on hand.

I finally gave in and decided to try out the Bath and Body Works Wallflower plug-in air fresheners. I LOVE THIS!! I currently have the scent sweet pea, and it leaves my house smelling sooo goood!!

This is by far my favorite sun screen. It smells just like those orange creamsicle pops we all used to eat as kids. It doesn't have that yucky sunscreen smell either.

Last, but not least...I'm loving these yummy veggie chips. You can find these at costco as dippers (the bag is green instead of orange) and the chips come in 3 flavors: spinach & garlic, red beet & onion and Carrot & Tomato. They're all natural and gluten free but still taste delicious. I love to scoops up some guacamole and salsa with this. 

Feel free to join in with this monthly post and share the products that you are loving each month. If you do make a blog post, please leave me a comment, I'd love to check out what you're lovin this month!! 

Enjoy your lazy summer days!!