Frog Dissection!

Our Human Body Unit has come to an end and boy, oh boy did these kids eat up every second of it. And I must admit I LOVED it, too!! Last year, I did my human body unit a LOT different than I did it this year. {This year was MUCH better - more informative, organized, and generally more fun.} I bought a FANTASTIC human body unit from Getting Nerdy with Mel and Gerdy to help me along and let me tell you that it has helped exponentially. There are a ton of great slides for my informational lectures/discussions and then just some really great activities to accompany each human body system that we study. I also brought in some of my own stuff - like my Human Body Lab Stations - and some other really fun activities that I've found in my quest to having the most awesome human body unit ever in the history of teaching. {Not really.}

Yesterday and today was frog dissection. We loved it. I will spare you the gory pictures, but here is a pic of my room set up. It's very medical looking!

I made a presentation to accompany my dissection and I offered it free last year, but just wanted to offer it again in case anyone out there is also dissecting frogs. The material is great for grades 5-8. Also includes safety rules for your lab! Click here to download this fun presentation.

I have been neglecting this blog - but for good reason. I'm crazy busy with school, being a mom, a wife, and trying to maintain at least somewhat of a social life. We're also in the process of trying to buy a house, so it's just crazy all around.

I don't have anything in the works academically-speaking, but I have a TON of clipart in the works, and lots already posted in my TpT shop. I also have an Etsy shop if you prefer to purchase from Etsy! I'm in love with designing clipart and wish I had more time to devote to it. I've got some Valentine's Day stuff up and I should have St. Patty's Day done before the end of the weekend.

Thanks for stopping by! Properties of Matter is coming up and I cannot wait to put my hands-on, fun, and engaging unit to work! {Click here to check that out!}

Giveaway, CRAZY Offer, & a Hop!

Have you heard about Educents? If you haven't, you're missing out, my friends. It's basically Groupon for teachers. Educents offers all types of educational materials, bundles, games, and fun teacher-type stuff that all of us teachers love to get our hands on. I am SO EXCITED to announce the latest offering from Educents!! It's a HUGE bundle of over 1,000 fonts, graphics, and digital papers. I seriously cannot believe that I am a part of such an AMAZING offer. If you use clip art at all, then you should definitely check this out. There are TONS of talented artists participating in this and the package includes QUALITY designs that you can use to snazz up those products and classroom materials. Educents has taken products from 19 different artists and bundled them into one big, giant offer for one little, teeny tiny price. Excellent!   

This BIG OLE' bundled offer includes fonts, clipart elements, and background papers from 19 different artists, including myself. I decided to offer my Carnival Pack in this Educents bundle offer. I loved, loved, loved creating it and I am very happy, happy, happy with the way that it turned out. My portion of the offer includes everything you see here, plus 30 cute little banners that match the theme.

There are a total of 1137 graphics, fonts, or papers included in this bundled offer. WHAT!? I know, it's nuts. And I am jumping for joy over here. I can't contain my excitement about this offer!!! Weeeeeeee!!!! Want the offer? Go here!

Wanna see the rest of the goodies that are in this fun little bundle of joy? HOP ALONG!! Click the button below to visit Nikki over at Melonheadz Illustrations to see what cuteness she's included for this bundle.

Wanna Pin It to Win It? Just 'cause I'm so daggone excited about this, I will be giving away any clipart item from my TpT store. Pin any image from this post and enter below to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Please check out this bundle on Educents. It'll be available for 12 days and 12 days only. So, don't miss out!!

It's About Time for a Link Up!!

So on Friday, I started my post for Five for Friday...and then never went back to finish it. There aren't enough hours in the day and it breaks my heart. I am having to choose between adding new stuff to my Etsy shop, adding more goodies to my TpT shop, blogging, exercising, family time, grading papers, creating fun and meaningful lesson plans, making homemade baby food for my sweet girl, and trying to keep my house clean. It's exhausting being a teacher, wife, and mother!! But I love it and wouldn't have it any other way.

I have been making lots of fun stuff. The first thing I want to share is my baby food. I LOVE making my daughter's baby food. I'm a baby food-makin' machine. I make her food on Sundays and it will typically last at least a week, and sometimes, if I make enough, it will last two weeks. I just freeze it it these cute little OXO containers that I found on Amazon (my 2nd BFF, first BFF being Target).  Wholesomebabyfood.com has helped me exponentially with recipes and making/storing my baby food. It's awesome and highly recommended for all you mommas out there!! I just use my food processor and it's really so easy. I usually just bake whatever I am making for her along with my dinner, so there really isn't a whole lot of extra steps to make it. Zip, zap, done!

The next thing I've been busting my rear making is CLIP ART!! Now here's a question - is it clipart or clip art? Who knows. 

I LOVE making clip art [clipart]. I have so much fun finding inspiration through just looking around outside, or on clothing patterns, or in even on some of my daughter's toys. I find inspiration basically everywhere I go. I WISH so bad there was more time to fit in making all of the creations I have in my brain. I have a mile-long list of different clip art packs I would just LOVE to sit down and make. All I know is during Christmas break, I know EXACTLY what I'll be working on!!! I've managed to make a handful of stuff, all of which are on my TpT shop. Here's a peek:

I'm very much obsessed with this new hobby. I wish, wish, wish I had more time. I'd have a gazillion creatives to offer!! There are lots of these in the works, but it's a long process to get them completed and up for sale. I've got a Christmas one, a butterfly one, and about 10 different background packs that I'm working on. Who the heck knows when they'll all be done!!!???!!! 

One more thing about clip art...I got an amazing offer to be a part of an Educents clipart bundle that will be rolling out this weekend. There are over 1,000 clip art elements that are going to be offered in this bundle...and you DO NOT want to miss this offer. It's going to be VERY reasonable and if you are a clip art user (what teacher isn't???!!!) - make sure to be on the lookout for the clipart bundle that will be coming your way this weekend.

Speaking of Educents...have you heard about this? It's basically Groupon for teachers. They offer all sorts of  teacher-type products for a big ole' discount. They've even done bundles of resources from TpT products. I highly recommend becoming a member. They also have a blog and I actually starting following it this weekend. I found a really neat online book catalog resource on there. I made a mock online library to test it out (I will probably not teach science for the rest of my career, so I figured I'd better start cataloging my books now, right?) - and I really love it. So that's my next Made It. My online library. I don't have very many books in there right now, but I will later. Go to classroom.booksource.com to create your own classroom library. It even has a feature to let students checkout the books in your library. All you have to do is add your students' names and then they login in to checkout/check in books that they borrow. I love it.

I really only have these three Made Its to offer, but I will also say that I am working on getting some Common Core resources up on my TpT site. {I know, right? It's about time!!} I am focusing right now on math because....it looks like I'll be teaching math along with science next year! I am very excited about it, but I'm a little overwhelmed with this prospect. I want to really familiarize myself with Common Core, since we are making the ole' switch-a-roo. 

Thank you to Tara for hosting the Monday Made It linky again! 

Monday Made It {Late, As Usual} and Last Call!

So I'm linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics - a day late. Having a kid + summertime + lazy me = late post. Sorry!

I'm super duper excited to be linking up this week because I am venturing out into the world of clipart and I cannot get enough of it! I'm obsessed. And I'm so happy to share my creations with the teaching world. My clipart is simple, no frills, and can be used commercially without the requirement of providing credit. I'm happy enough to have my clipart used! 

Before I went back to school to pursue teaching, I was a graphic designer {BrownCow Creatives was/is my brand that I "did" freelance under...if I ever did freelance. Ha!} . But I never had the confidence to draw clipart. This summer, however,I'm staying home with my newborn trying to find ways to occupy my time and I started doodling. Turns out I love it! I'm not so great at drawing people figures, but I'm sure with practice, I'll get there.

So far, I've created some Chevron backgrounds:

A Weather Pack:

A Back to School Pack:

And my favorite, a Halloween Bundle:

For the Halloween Bundle, I started playing around with different frames. I didn't think I could make frames, either! But I did it. Too much fun. I'm losing sleep {double time, since I also have a baby}, but I can't stop. I have a Christmas pack in the works, which I started last night. I turned on a little Christmas music to set the mood. Ha! Christmas music in July. What a nut I am! I'm also going to have a sweet shop pack, a space pack, and a few more choice holidays before the year is up. 

I'm giving away my first three creations, so make sure you enter! Last call, because it ends tomorrow!

I'm also getting ready for going back to school and I'm becoming more and more obsessed with getting organized. So, I made some binder covers and spines for my plethora of binders.  I'm getting very anxious for the school year to start!

So that's what I'm working on. Looks like lots of teachers out there are gearing up for the school year, too. Link up with Tara and show us whatcha got!