Holiday Activity Roundup!

Today I'm blogging over at "Busy Bees Activities" and sharing TONS of great holiday activities to help you make it through the next few weeks of school.  Click on the picture below to check it out. 

Savvy Curls - A Teacher's NEW Best Friend!

Hi friends, notice anything different?  My blog got a little facelift over the weekend… I am thrilled with the results!  Special thanks to Laine from A Little Peace of Africa for this beautiful blog design. I absolutely love it!  

Now, let me just say, I don't normally do posts like this... But when I find an amazing product, I sometimes want to share it with all of my wonderful teacher friends out in bloggy-land. AND, if you follow me on facebook, you know I am NOT a morning person... So getting ready in the morning is a daily struggle!!  I recently stumbled across "Savvy Curls" which claimed to be a simple headband that would curl your hair while you slept and didn't require any heat. I was totally intrigued and decided to order one. If this headband could deliver on its promise, I knew it would be my new best friend!! What could be better than going to bed and waking up with perfectly curled hair??

My headband arrived on a Saturday, so I decided to wash and wrap my hair and give it a shot, knowing that if I totally messed it up, it was the weekend and I wasn't rushing out the door to get to work the next morning. I followed this simple video tutorial and went to bed. The head wrap is not uncomfortable and I didn't notice it at all while I was asleep. I woke up, started getting ready for church, and unwrapped my hair... And guess what?? IT WORKED! On my very first try, it worked!! I was in shock!  I continued to use my wrap each night and found that my hair was more and more curly each day. I couldn't believe that I could spend only 5 minutes on my hair right before bed, and have awesome curls all day long the following day! Below is a simple photo tutorial showing how easy it us to use the Savvy Curls Curling Headband - one thing that makes this headband unique is the special thermal insulating material and it's cylindrical shape; both of these elements help to form the most amazing curls I have ever seen!

I packed my head wrap with me when I headed to Disneyland last week and decided to put it to the ultimate test! The great thing about the savvy curls band is that it can be worn during the daytime to keep your hair up and out of the way. I tried doing my hair curly the first day at Disneyland, but my hair was definitely not used to the California humidity, so I decided to wear my hair wrapped up for the remainder of the trip. I was a bit worried about how well my hair would stay wrapped while I rode Splash Mountain, Tower of Terror, and other fast / wild rides at Disneyland, but I think the photos speak for themselves. I took these pictures at the beginning of the morning, and again around midnight as we waited for the shuttle to come pick us up. WOW!! I was sold!!

Before & After photos - a day at Disneyland with my Savvy Curls band!

I reached out to Tami, who is the genius behind "Savvy Curls" and was pleasantly surprised to learn that in addition to being from Utah, like me, she was also a former school teacher! OF COURSE this was invented by a school teacher! Why was I not surprised?? Tami was so sweet when I contacted her, and offered to let me host a giveaway here on my blog. She also sent me the "convertible wrap" to try out as well. The convertible wrap is great for long/thick hair or hair with lots of layers, or for anyone who wants more curl and body. I will admit, this wrap had a little bit of a learning curve for me, and I think some of my layers are still a little too short for the extra band, but the great thing about it is that the additional piece is detachable, so I can still wear the single band on its own until I master the second part of it. And, hello?? It's PINK!! I am all about the pink!!! I actually LOVE wearing my hair wrapped up with just a little bit of pink popping out :) it looks so cute and I get so many compliments on my hair. Take a look at some of the fun things I've been able to do with my hair using the Savvy Curls head wrap:

Top: I put my hair up for a Halloween party (hence the mouse ears); bottom: getting ready for school the next morning. WOW!

Top: Single band; bottom: Convertible Band; the cylindrical shape of the headband forms the curls while you sleep, workout, shop, etc. It's amazing!!

To enter the giveaway, use the rafflecopter below. Also, if you want to order a Savvy Curls curling headband for yourself, you can save $2 by using code krysp1 at checkout (I plan on ordering a few more colors so I can wear these at school!)  Be sure to follow me on facebook and instagram to see more fun photos too!

**GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED** Congrats to the winner! If you didn't win, you can still use the coupon code "krysp1" at checkout to save $2.00 on the headband of your choice. Enjoy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Introducing: The Purple Pencil Sharpener!

A few years ago, I first introduced you to the "quietest classroom pencil sharpener". I have fallen in LOVE with this pencil sharpener and even ordered myself a pink one when they were released last year. I share my pencil sharpener with all my co-workers and try to spread the word every chance I get... Well, you can imagine my excitement when I recently found out that Classroom Friendly Supplies was adding a PURPLE pencil sharpener to their collection, and I knew that I *must* add it to my collection as well.... so, allow me to introduce you to.... the "Popular Purple Pencil Sharpener"!!!  Look how cute it is!!  I love purple almost as much as I love pink, so of course I was thrilled with the new color choice.  In addition to being super functional, I love the cute retro look of these sharpeners, and I love how small they are.  


Since I now own THREE of this fabulous pencil sharpeners, I decided to see how they are holding up after one and two years of use in the classroom, and compare it to the brand-new purple sharpener.  I also compared it to a popular electric sharpener that was kindly "donated" to me at one of my schools this year.  Check out my results below:
As you can see, even after one and two years of daily use in the classroom, both my green and my pink sharpeners are able to keep up with the quality of the new purple pencil sharpener.  I am in love with this new color and so happy to add it to my collection.  Stop by Classroom Friendly Supplies to order your sharpener today!

New Blogging Adventure + a Giveaway!

I'm so excited to share a big secret with all of you today. The darling Kelsey from "Wife, Teacher, Mommy" had this great idea to create a collaborative blog featuring all Utah teachers, and I'm honored to have been chosen as one of the authors for this new blog. I was able to meet up with about half the group last week and am so excited to be a part of such a talented group of teachers representing the "beehive state". FUN FACT: Utahans relate the beehive symbol to industry and the pioneer virtues of thrift and perseverance. The beehive was chosen as the emblem for the provisional State of Deseret in 1848 and was maintained on the seal of the State of Utah when Utah became a state in 1896. Because Utah is often referred to as the Beehive State, "busy bees" seemed like a natural name for our blog... I couldn't be happier with how darling the blog is and how fun it has been to watch it all come together over the past few months. 

To celebrate the launch of our new blog, we are having a HUGE giveaway. But before you head over to the new blog to get the scoop, let me tell you about my giveaway too. Two lucky followers will win the product of your choice from my TPT store!!

Here's my little bio that is featured on the Busy Bees Blog :) So fun!

Use the rafflecopter below to enter, then head over to the new blog to enter the BIG giveaway. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Click on the image above to visit our new blog!

Top 5 Ways to Use GoNoodle in the Classroom!

I am so excited to be participating in GoNoodle’s Back to School Blogger Blitz today. GoNoodle is definitely one of my favorite websites and it is always a big hit with my students too!

Today I'm going to share with you my Top 5 favorite reasons to use GoNoodle in the classroom:

1. Brain breaks: when the day gets long and we've been sitting too long, I like to get my kids up and moving. Zumba kids and ultimate champ training are some of my favorite "get up and get active" videos.

2. Calming / de-stressing: we've all had days where our kids seem to have ants in their pants and can't sit still to save their lives. Maximo yoga style videos and airtime are great calming activities to help the kids settle down and focus again.

3. Test prep / motivation: Flow is one of my absolute favorites for a lot of reasons.... it is the perfect combination of calm and motivation that my students often need.  There are two categories in flow: attitude and stress.  Within each of these categories, there are three videos to choose from.  My personal favorite is found in the attitude category, called "Victorious".  I love the message of this video. Seriously, go listen to what it says. Such a simple yet powerful message for students as they prepare for a test.

4. Indoor recess: one of the greatest features GoNoodle added last year was the "indoor recess mega mix" videos. These videos are like a pre-made playlist: a variety of fun GoNoodle videos with different lengths of time already set to accommodate different recess lengths (you can choose from as little as 7 minutes up to as many as 19 minutes! Woot woot!) These videos came in handy when it was snowy and the kids couldn't go out to recess. I especially appreciated that I didn't have to keep starting new videos every 2-3 minutes - the mega mix just keeps going!

5. Being silly: sometimes, you just need to take a break for no other reason than to laugh. When it's time for a good laugh, my students and I LOVE LOVE LOVE pop-see-ko. Seriously, how can you not be in a good mood when the kids are doing this?!

So tell me, what do YOU love about GoNoodle? Comment below with what you love about GoNoodle and a random winner will be chosen to win a free pencil pouch from GoNoodle! (Be sure to include an email address so I can contact you if you win!!) How cool is that?!

But wait - there's more!!If you're interested in picking up some GoNoodle swag for your classroom, you can save15% off your purchase in the GoNoodle shop! Use the code: BTSwithGoNoodle - this code is valid until September 11th.

** And the winner is....

Congrats Breanne!!