Taking Care of Me!!

 I have been a terrible blogger!  Covid kicked my *** and had some big personal things going on in my life!  Well, while I was gone I was taking care of me and I recommend this advice to everyone! I actually made my personal educational goal about my health!  See...  I was 321 pounds! I hated to type that out!  Wearing the mask all day and teaching was a personal hell.  I couldn't breath, I was sweating all the time and my heart rate would spike just to walk the class to music!  Enough of this - it was time for a change!  

This was me August 2022.  I started a little TikTok Challenge to get myself moving.  I made it about 9 days,  I didn't make it through the recording of the 30 days because I actually joined a gym instead.

That was the beginning of my journey!  I started following Corinne Crabtree with NO BS Diet!  She taught me to stop eating like an asshole!  

Eat When You're Hungry!

Stop When You're Full!

I journaled!

I kept track of my food!

I exercised!

I loved listening to her podcasts!  Check her out!

August 2022

December 2022

Then I started meeting with a doctor to work on my weight!  Many of my friends were taking Ozempic but I was not prediabetic so my insurance wouldn't support that.  I was very frustrated!  But in the end it was for the best.  I have heard that you will need to be on that medication forever to keep the weight off.  Plus there were a lot of side effects.   My doctor did prescribe an appetite suppressant. I met with her monthly.   She was very pleased with my progress.  She said it is a tool and I need to use it.  So I needed to eat high protein and exercise so that is what I did!  

February 2023
Down 44 pounds!

April 2023
Down 60 pounds!
Even had sinus surgery!


July 2023
80 pounds gone!!
I am feeling so good!!

August 2022

85 pounds down!

Buying new clothes to go back to school!! Yahoo!!!

That brings us to today!  220 pounds!  101 pounds gone!!

I'd love to tell you it was easy!  Some days were better than others!  

I gave up soda and treats but honestly didn't miss them!

I learned to like water!  I would love to get one of those soda streams!  I like the fizzies!

I have been doing things I haven't done in a long time.  Swim every day of the summer, went to a water park, walk up the stairs without having a heart attack, stopped sweating so much and have been dating!!

Things that are not so fun with weight loss....extra skin, (but I'll take this any day than being overweight) and hair loss!  That will have to be another blog post!  

So that has been my journey... so Little Priorities took a backseat for awhile and that is ok. 

I am 53 years old and am finally learning priorities in my life!  

Our littles in our classroom are important but they cannot be our only priorities.  

Life has to have a balance and it's ok to put yourself first!

Catch Your Little Leprechauns Practicing Addition! Plus a Freebie!

I put together this easy and fun math center.  The students even play this during free time!

I found these goodies at The Dollar Tree!  Not sure if your store will still have them available.  I did buy mine early in the season.  I added some links at the bottom at Amazon for the supplies if you can't find them.

Cute little Leprechaun Pots with Handles!

I used a Sharpie Silver pen to write numbers 1 through 10 on the pots.

These have a nice smooth surface to write on. I noticed many on Amazon have a bumpy surface.  Not sure how well it will work to write on those.  Maybe add a sticker instead.

Then using green round stickers I wrote the addition problems for the sums 1 through 10 and attached them to the pretend gold coins. 

Students add the coin to the correct pot!

It's a quick and easy center to make.

It goes pretty fast for the kids to complete.  Would make a great morning activity and they love doing it more than once.

We have the students make a leprechaun trap at home as a family project.  They set them up the night before and lay out gold and pennies to entice the Leprechaun into their trap!

When the leprechaun steps onto the top it tips in!  So clever!

He used the Lucky Charms box!  They have the houses on them again this year.

This one lit up with lights to lure the leprechaun in!

They were all unique and the kids absolutely loved the project!

When the kiddos show up the next day they can't wait to see if they caught the little guy!
I leave little green footprints around the room with a tiny foot punch (link below), chocolate coins or any gold wrapped candy, and a green necklace!

Keep scrolling for a wonderful differentiated Freebie!

  

    

  

Thank you for visiting Little Priorities.  Here's a differentiated freebie for addition and subtraction!  

All you need to do is print out and you are ready to go!

Low Prep - that's what we all need!

                   

 

                    

 

 

Days of the Week Freebie

After Thanksgiving we are going to focus on learning the days of the week!  Most can recite them in order, although some start with January... 

Now we need to learn to read and spell them!

We will start the week by reading Today is Monday.   It's a classic loved by all.  I love singing the song with them.  This will help with learning the order of the days of the week.  I also like to hand out cards labeled with the days of the week and have the 7 kids get themselves in order and they hold up the cards as we sing their day.

If you are musically challenged here is a video that plays the song for you.

TODAY IS MONDAY song from lizamr16 on Vimeo.

At their centers they will make this cut and paste book of the days of the week!

You can grab a copy by clicking on the picture.

Some more great books about the Days of the W eek!

  

Funny and cute book!  Check out the others in the series too!

This post contains affiliate links with Amazon.

USA Postcard Exchange 2019-2020

3rd Annual Postcard Exchange with Little Priorities!

Join us in writing to other classrooms around the states!

https://forms.gle/8Z4UnG1Ubdk32gP26

This link is for a Google Form for you to apply!

We are in need of 30 more states to make a complete group - so chances are your state is available!

This is a lot of fun and your class will love getting snail mail!

If you apply please know that we expect you to send a postcard to each of the states by the due date so the kids are not disappointed!  Thank you!

Find It Activity

Switching to kindergarten from second grade has been a whirlwind of emotions and learning.  It took me the first two months before I was happy to go to school!  Now I am in love with these kiddos!  They make my day!  Mind you... I am completely exhausted!! But I love what I am doing!  I just found out I get to stay in kindergarten and I am very excited!  Time to perfect what I have been doing and change what didn't work!

One activity that the kids are loving is a Find It activity that I made with Power Point.  The students are working on decoding and blending.  They are so proud of themselves for being able to read.  We are currently working on long vowels.

If you would like to try this out with your kiddos click the picture for the link.

Currently I have Short O and U and Long U uploaded and I am working at uploading the others.  I have a growing bundle available for a huge discount that will include all the vowels.