Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes....

As we all know, change is basically inevitable. Now that I am approaching the big 3-0, I am feeling not only more receptive to change, but also I feel like I am really thirsting for it. This, in addition to my "One Little Word" for 2015 (Grow). I have decided to take a huge step and move on from this blog.

No, this doesn't mean that I am leaving or quitting blogging, by any means. This means that I am starting a new blog and leaving this one behind. I feel like I need a fresh start with a new name and a new layout. This blog was fun for a while, but it no longer feels like me.

Also, I eventually plan to make products to sell, so I want my blog name and business name to be interchangeable.

I'm not linking my blogs together because I am ready for a fresh start and a clean break. So, this blog will still be here in order for you to reference my older, more popular posts. And my new blog will be completely separate.

So go check out the new blog at: http://rufflesrustandsawdust.blogspot.com/

My Pinterest and Instagram are linked up to the new blog and I have a new fan page created and ready to go. You can definitely follow along with me on all three social media sites.

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/RufflesRustSD/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/rufflesrustsawdust/
Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/RufflesRustandSawdust
Blog address: http://rufflesrustandsawdust.blogspot.com/

Also, lastly I want to make a huge shout out to Crystal at My Ramblings. She took my sloppy idea for a logo and turned it into something beautiful.

She is so incredibly talented and I don't know what I would do without her. She's amazing. You should probably go buy some Tupperware from her.

Anyway, be sure to change your bookmarks and I will see you over at Ruffles, Rust & Sawdust!

Strawberry Spinach Salad with vinaigrette dressing

Who doesn't love a good salad? Me, that's who. This weekend I got a huge craving for Strawberry Salad, and I had to have it right that second. Or at least that evening. I did a lot of searching around on Pinterest, but none of them were exactly what I wanted so I borrowed the dressing recipe from here: http://juliasalbum.com/2014/07/strawberry-spinach-salad-with-bacon/ and I made up the rest myself.

 

Ingredients:

 

Dressing:

1/4 cup oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

 

Salad:

Medium bag of spinach

10 strawberries, sliced

1/3 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup real bacon bits

 

 

Dressing:

Whisk dressing ingredients together. Set aside.

 

Salad:

Combine spinach, strawberry slices, Parmesan cheese, and bacon bits in a large bowl. Pour dressing over top. Toss to coat.

 

It can't get easier than that ladies and gentlemen!

 

 

I didn't even feel guilty eating this with a homemade cheeseburger and fries! (Ok, maybe a little...) This is definitely a new favorite!

 

Do you have a favorite "go to" salad recipe?

Grow

 

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great time ringing in the New Year. We took a more low key approach and hung out at home this year.

 

As the new year approaches everyone is all about making resolutions. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great to have goals. If we don't have goals then we have no aspiration to do better with our lives.  But, what I don't want to do is get into the trap of making resolutions that I will never be able to keep. Mostly because that ends up making me feel like a failure. And no one likes to feel like a failure. Especially me. 

 

As New Years Eve approached I was toying with making some resolutions, but then I found about "one little word". If you have never heard of one little word, it is basically choosing one word to reflect on and meditate on each day throughout the year. (More info about "One Little Word" here.)

 

It took me a little bit of time to settle on a word, but once the word came to mind it just stuck. My word will be "grow".

 

I have a lot of growing I want to do this year. I want to grow as a Christian, a wife, a mother, a teacher, and just as an individual.

 

As a Christian, I want to grow stronger. I want to build relationships with those that I am sitting next to on Sundays, and I want to serve in the church,

 

As a wife and mother I just want to do a better job. I want to be present more, and just continue to strive to make more memories with my family.

 

As a teacher, I want to continue to grow. I want to complete my CDA and my degree, but most importantly, I want to continue to learn constantly so that I can be the best possible teacher for these kids.  

 

As an individual I have a lot of growth to do. I want to spend my spare time doing things that make me happy. I want to be healthier, and just be happy with myself.

 

2014 was a good year, but I'm looking forward to 2015 being even better. Do you have a word to focus on this year?

Felt tree and fireplace for dramatic play

If you have been following along lately, you already know that I have really worked on my dramatic play center this month. Here are the finishing pieces.

First, a tree!

I bought a package of green felt from Hobby Lobby and cut out a large triangle with it. I glued it to a poster board to make it a little more stable. I didn't get a picture after I added the trunk, but I just glued a brown rectangle to the bottom to finish the tree off. I cut out a felt star and several felt circles for the kids to decorate the tree with. They had a blast decorating their tree and making gingerbread cookies!

 

I also made a fireplace! I attached red felt to a poster board and drew lines to make it look like bricks. Next, I attached black felt to the middle to give it the fireplace effect. The flames weren't as easy. Turns out, I can't draw flames. At all.

 

 

So, I found this image via google.

I can't find a good source for this image, so if it's yours let me know!

 

Anyway, I printed it off and used it as a template to cut out flames in various sizes and colors. I just glued them into place.

 

Lastly, I added a "mantle" made with brown felt and cut out stockings for the kids to hang.

 

Also, the picture above was when the glue was wet. Once the fabric glue dried I couldn't see it anymore.

 

The kids are loving this set up! It will be hard to compete with for sure!

 

Christmas Felt Boards

Happy Saturday! I spent some time last night working on a few felt projects! I made two fun Christmas felt boards... One gingerbread man and one snowman.

I started by printing off a gingerbread template I found online and tracing it on to brown felt. 

Then, I used some different colors of felt to cut out the buttons, eyes, nose, mouth, hat, icing and hair bow. Then, I used red felt for the background.  The kids will love it!

Next, I made my snowman! I used a bowl, a lid, and a mason jar lid to trace the snowman. 

Next, I cut out the eyes, carrot nose, buttons, a scarf, and a bow. 

Then, Rachel made me a Katy Perry snow woman. Haha.

This is just the tip of the iceberg! I'll have more to share later! Now off to shop til I drop with the family! 

Felt Gingerbread Cookies for Dramatic Play

Happy Thanksgiving weekend! I hope everyone is relaxing and getting some family time in! I was sick yesterday, so I definitely got a lot of rest. Now tonight I am attempting to get to work on some projects for my December dramatic play center. I made these felt cookies last weekend, but I thought I'd show them off before I get to work.
 

I started out by using a cookie cutter to trace onto some cardstock and some brown felt. After cutting them out, I glued the cardstock and felt together using fabric glue.

After I stuck them together I stuck a magnetic strip to the back of each "cookie".

 

The cookies stick to a cookie sheet with the magnets. I bought a spatula so they can scrape the cookies off the sheet before they are served.

 

Once they were made I used some puffy paint to make faces and buttons. I just need to pick up a oven mitt and this project will be ready to go! Stay tuned for more projects that I'll be churning out this weekend!

 

Christmas Sensory Bottles

Happy Sunday evening! I am just wrapping up another very productive weekend. I'm hard at work getting stuff ready for my Christmas lesson plans.... So, I thought I better give you guys a peek at what I've accomplished!

I made a whole row of fun sensory bottles!

 

First, I dyed a bunch of rice red and green. I will be using some in my sensory table, but I filled up a bottle with colored rice and added buttons so the kids will have a Christmas Eye Spy bottle. The buttons are Santa, a red bird, a pinecone, a snowflake, a gingerbread man, a Christmas tree, and some pine needles. This turned out so cute!

This bottle is filled halfway with water, halfway with corn syrup and then silver glitter was added. This will be for my sensory center.

This bottle has water, glitter and pine needles. When its shook up it looks like a winter storm blowing around a pine tree!

 

These are red and green pipe cleaners. When the kids rub a magnet wand up and down the bottle the stems will attract to the magnet!

And the last one is filled with red and green pom poms!

 

I glued each bottle shut with E6000 glue. I can't wait to see my kids enjoy them!

This is just the tip of the iceberg, so stay tuned for more fun Christmas projects!

Christmas and Winter Sensory Bags

Happy Sunday Evening! I don't know how the weather is all over the rest of the world, but we are dealing with our first little bit of snow today! We only got about 2 inches of snow, but man does it have me in the Christmas spirit!

 

I am trying to get a little bit of a jump on my Christmas and Winter themed toys for my classroom so I'm not trying to get a lot done in one weekend so tonight I threw together some new sensory bags!

Aren't they too cute?

 

 

 

And they are super easy to make!

 

Here's what you need:

1 bottle of white hair gel (found at the Dollar Tree)

Foam Christmas Trees

Foam Snowflakes

Glitter

 

Fill a sandwich bag with hair gel. I didn't use any real measurements, but we did use the entire bottle between 6 sensory bags. I used just enough so that after you close the bag you can manipulate the stuff inside.

 

Throw in some glitter, trees or snowflakes.

 

Tape the bags closed with packing tape!

 

I'm going to take my Christmas ones to school after Thanksgiving break, and then take the Winter ones in January. My kids love these so I know they will be excited!

 

Stay tuned for more DIY Christmas and Winter classroom projects! What toys are you making for your Early Childhood Classroom?

10 Things I've learned in my first 90 days of teaching Early Childhood

I can't believe it's only been just over 90 days since I started my new job. The amount of lessons I have learned in the past three months is amazing... and none of them were mentioned in my Early Childhood Education Textbooks. So, consider this a public service announcement!

1. Go ahead and plan to be sick for the first month of working in the classroom. If there was an available germ, I picked it up!Vitamin C is your friend, wash your hands constantly!

2. Floats and Subs are your best friends. You can not (and will not) survive without them... which leads to #3.

3. If you get a chance to go potty... take it! Even if you don't really need to, just go! You never knew when you will have another opportunity. Like seriously... take them as they are offered to you.

4. If you think you can go to work without wearing makeup, just this one time, forget it. Your kids will notice and call you out. One girl said "You look really sleepy since you don't have any makeup on." Haha, whoops! Point taken!

5. Comfortable shoes > Cute Shoes   I walk 5 miles every day at work, and comfortable shoes are a staple. I'll stick to my cute shoes on the weekend instead.

6. Cheap and free classroom toys are better than expensive ones anyway. Hair gel taped inside ziploc bags are the most sought out toy in my classroom, while my new store bought toys collect dust! Pinterest is overflowing with ideas!

7. Build up your collection of songs, and have them ready. I now have a running list going through my head, but some that I didn't think of before were "I'm a Little Teapot", "Old McDonald" and "BINGO". These come in handy whenever my kids are getting a little antsy in the classroom. I randomly burst into song all day long!

8. You can never have too many sensory recipes on the back burner. Homemade scented play dough and slime are great rainy day activities!

9. You'll never really learn to dislike rainy days until you have a classroom full of kids that need to get outside and run.

10. Even a rough day at a job you love is 100 times better than a good day at a job you hate. Every. Single. Time.

Thanksgiving Dramatic Play Prep

This week my class and I will be starting our Thanksgiving lesson plan for the month of November. It's full of turkey's, manners, and lessons about lots of yummy food!

Last night and today I sat down and made some felt food for my dramatic play center. I made turkey legs first and loved how they turned out....

So I got to work on making more. I did mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and corn.

While I was moving along I copied my templates so I can share with you!  Print off the template on card stock, and then trace onto the felt, and some card stock. I used fabric glue to stick the felt to the card stock to make them sturdy.

 The only one that doesn't have a template is the green beans. I just cut slits of green felt and made a pile of green beans.

Here are the templates:

 

Excuse my amazing drawing skills. ;) However, these work great as basic shapes.
I used the following colors of felt:

Turkey leg- Brown and white for the bone.
Cranberry sauce: red
Gravy: Light brown
Mashed Potatoes: Off white
Pie: Orange
Corn husks: 1 yellow, 1 green. Cut the green one in half, length wise and attach as husks.

In addition to my food I hit up Hobby Lobby and bought a few things.  I got a child's apron a child's chef hat, and some paper plates.. (I'll just give them a few paper plates at a time.)

I also picked up some fabric scraps to use. I got the gingham to use as a tablecloth for our dramatic play table and red fabric to use as cloth napkins. I can't wait to see how much fun they will having cooking Thanksgiving dinner!

 

I'm about ready to start coming up with ideas for Christmas! I will definitely do a felt tree. Any other suggestions?