I am sitting here tonight ready to reflect on all that 2015 has brought me.  2015 was a year of surprise for sure!  2015 had some AMAZING things for me and brought me SOOO many amazing friendships that I am beyond blessed to have!  Without all of these crazy things happening this year I know that I wouldn't be the teacher I am today, so I am okay with things that have happened even though I know I don't have control over them.

I just wanted to take a moment and THANK these amazing ladies who have made such an impact on my life this year!  Vegas was AMAZING!!  I am doing everything I can to make 2016 my year and to make sure I can make it to Orlando to capture some of these amazing faces again!!  <3

These three ladies!!  I LOVE them!  Seriously, they are the ones who help me get through the hard times.  They are the ones who constantly push me, encourage me, and help me to know that I am not in this alone!  Without the three of them I know I wouldn't be the teacher I am today!  Ladies, I love you!  Thank you for being my bloggy besties, my tribe, and ladies that I know I can ALWAYS count on!

I am forever grateful that I live in a state, and an area that has so many AMAZING teachers and bloggers close by!  These ladies are inspiring.  These ladies are amazing! These ladies help me daily!!

These have been some of my favorite quotes this year, and I look forward to using them to help guide me in 2016!

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Cassandra

Can you believe the first week of November is already over!?!  Where is this year going?  So hard to believe that Christmas is approaching so quickly!!

It has been such a fun week in math this week!!  I can't wait to share more about our week, but check out these super fun pictures for a sneak peek!!

Today we used a balance scale to figure out which candies were heavier! They loved it! #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #scienceormath #iteachthird #mrs3rdgrade

A photo posted by Mrs. 3rd Grade (@mrs3rdgrade) on Nov 4, 2015 at 6:00pm PST

Today's candy math was more stem related!! We could only use 12 pieces of candy and toothpicks to build the tallest tower! #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #iteachthird #mrs3rdgrade #stem #teacherspayteachers

A photo posted by Mrs. 3rd Grade (@mrs3rdgrade) on Nov 5, 2015 at 4:40pm PST

Today I start parent teacher conferences and I am actually pretty excited about them!  I start with some amazing students today, and I am excited to share their progress so far this year!  I shared, along with some other amazing bloggers all about parent teacher conferences earlier this week!!  You can check it out here!!

I was so excited to work on my Pinterest boards this week, and find some awesome fall ideas for the next two weeks, and start thinking about Christmas and winter ideas!  Do you have a love for pinning as well!?  You can check out my pins here, and leave your name in the comments and I'll follow you!!

Follow Mrs 3rd Grade's board Fantastic Fall Ideas on Pinterest.

Have you checked out my amazing friend Jennifer from The Blessed Teacher!?!  She has some amazing ideas on her blog!  I am LOVING her newest idea on how to keep kids remembering RICE!

Not only does she have amazing ideas, but she is an amazing friend!!  I am so thankful that she is part of my tribe, and that she is so close that we can share ideas daily!!

This week's video is another one that is speaking to my heart this week.

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Cassandra

Happy Friday!!  I am so glad that it is Friday!!  It has been a long week, and tomorrow is Halloween! I am sure that every teacher is happy that we have made it to Friday!!

Last Saturday I was so excited to spend some time with some of my AMAZING Arizona blogging friends!  These ladies are some of the best people I've met, and I'm so lucky to get to talk with them daily, and brainstorm and share ideas!!

We have been studying matter in science these past two weeks. On Wednesday we wanted to show the kids how the states of matter can change, so we did a fun hands on science lesson.  Can you guess what we made!?!  Leave me a comment with your guess, and I'll choose one winner Saturday afternoon to win my candy math, perfect for next week!!

This week I saw this awesome image from Mel and it spoke to my heart!!

My number four spot is now going to be dedicated to an awesome teacher!  I can't wait to share with you some of my amazing friends, bloggy besties, and amazing teachers I have found and met through TPT.  Today I want to shout to my amazing friend Tami!!

She is an amazing person that I met in Vegas this summer, and I am so glad that I was able to connect with her!  She teaches third grade at a private school in Ohio, and she is just the sweetest person ever!!  I LOVE her!!  This week she is having her kids work on some amazing projects!!  Check out their research!!

My students were working so hard on their animal report research today for our upcoming event: The Living Creation Zoo-seum! I can't wait to see their hard work and creativity come together! #postitsmakeitfun #engagedinlearning #happyclassrooms #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #teachertalk #iteachtoo #iteachthird #OHSoBlessed

A photo posted by Tami Lynn Morrison (@tamilynnmo) on Oct 29, 2015 at 2:52pm PDT

This past weekend my family and I were driving.  This song came on and my husband said this was my theme song right now.  It is so true.  I know that God is with me in everything that I am doing, and is with me with everything that is going on.

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Cassandra

Happy Friday!!  We have made it to another Friday!  I have now survived my second week of school!!

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching today to bring you my Five for Friday!!

I am so excited for my friend Ashlyn who is celebrating reaching 1,000 followers on TPT!!  I am helping her celebrate and we are giving away a $100 TPT gift card!!  Did you have some more things on your wish list that you didn't grab at the sale!?!  Check out the giveaway here!!

Saturday night I went out with some of my favorite Arizona bloggers!!  We met up for some coffee, periscope, and then dinner!  It was so much fun!!

This week we started math centers.  and I was so excited to get these prepped for my kids!!  You can read all about our weekly plans for the week here.

I got home from dinner with a friend Wednesday night and I was so excited that this beautiful box of clothes was waiting for me at my door!!  I plan on sharing more about it later, but let me just say that this is only the second time I've have a Stitch Fix box delivered and I am keeping ALL five pieces!!

Our worship leader sang this song in church on Sunday, and I LOVED it!!  I texted him Sunday afternoon to find out what it was!  I am so glad that I did!  This song has been on repeat all week for me!

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Cassandra

I am home now from Vegas, and I cannot even begin to explain how AMAZING my trip was!!  I was excited to meet some of the Elementary Entourage bloggers, and am excited to be linking up with them!!

My hubby and I left last Sunday to head out to Vegas!  It was great because we were able to spend Sunday and Monday together before the craziness began!!

On Monday we hit up the outlets, and I was able to pick up this cute purse and wallet!  I LOVE them, and they came in super handy!!

  

Monday night my best friend came to stay with us!  She lives in Vegas now, so we hung out for the night and day!  I LOVE her because we can just sit around and not do much!!  We met her hubby off the strip for dinner Tuesday night, and it was delicious!!

Wednesday the fun of #tptvegas15 began!  I couldn't wait for my #bloggybestie Ashlyn to fly in!  I headed over to the Venetian early so that way I could meet up with Tami and Tammy for coffee!!  (We didn't get a picture, what were we thinking!?!)

While I was waiting for Ashlyn to get there I might have hit up the Clair Lynn table!!  Their shirts are AMAZING!!  I was so glad I picked up these three!  I can't wait to wear them around and show them off!!

Ashlyn and Lindsey threw an AMAZING pool party!!  They had fantastic decorations, super fun people came, and the best giveaways!!  I was lucky enough to win something from Krista!!  I can't wait!!  I might have a slight addiction to all things Krista!!  :)

It was so fun to hang out with some of my favorite Arizona bloggers at the pool party too!  These ladies are inspiring, and help push me to do my best!!

Wednesday night was the BIG TPT meet up!!  It was CRAZY!!  There were people every where!!  The room was much bigger this year than last year, but there were still SOOOO many people!  They had a Go Noodle photo booth that was a ton of fun!!

This collage shows so many amazing women that I met, or connected with Wednesday, Thursday and Friday!!  These ladies are ALL amazing!!

For dinner Wednesday night after the huge meet up a few of us headed down the street!!  Ashlyn and I shared this huge plate of nachos!  I wish we had an after picture, but it wouldn't have looked too much different than this one!!  We dug a hole into the nachos, but it didn't really look like we ate too much!

Thursday morning the conference started with some networking sessions!  I will be honest, I definitely sat on the second floor talking to my kids and then checking every email I could before I headed downstairs.  I was so nervous to go!!  I am so glad I went though, because I was able to meet some amazing people like Jenny, Farley and so many more!!

After lunch sessions started!  My favorite session on Thursday was with these amazing ladies when we heard from the talented Erin Cobb at I'm Lovin Lit!!  Her session was SPOT ON and I couldn't get enough!

We loved that we were color coordinated with our flair pens too!  Of course we use the pens that best match our binders!  Wouldn't you!?

After the sessions we headed to the Go Noodle pool party!!  Arizona is in second place and we wanted to make sure to introduce ourselves to Holly so we could hang out with them soon!  Plus we had to check out the new videos coming to our classrooms soon, and score some awesome shades!!  My son LOVES them already!!  If you don't Go Noodle yet, make sure you check it out!!  Your kids will LOVE it!!

After we relaxed a little after the Go Noodle meet up we decided, thanks to the amazing inspiration by Angie and Ashley, that we should do our first Periscope!!  IT. WAS. A. BLAST!!  We shared with you #2truths1lie!!  We LOVED hanging out with you guys, and seeing which one you thought was our lie!!  In case you missed it, here are mine and you can guess in the comments!!  1 - I cheered for ten years, 2 - I have a black belt in karate, or 3 - I have bowled a perfect 300!!

Friday morning we had our keynote speakers!!  Paul, Amy, and Rachel Lynette all did amazing jobs!!  We had our Arizona meet up a few weeks ago, and it was awesome to see our picture on the screen!!  Yes, that is us!!

The sessions on Friday were amazing again!!  It is great to be able to learn SOOO much, and come home and apply it!!  I can't wait to share with you some of the big things that I am going to start working on during the next school year!!

I am even more excited about all of the relationships that I was able to continue to develop, people I was able to meet in person, and the friendships that are going to continue to grow even when we are hundreds or thousands of miles apart!!  Thanks to things like Periscope, IG, Facebook, google hangouts and our blogs I am so thankful that we will be apart in distance, but we will have the opportunity to share and connect!!

There were so many people I wanted to meet, and we just ran out of time!  I am already looking forward to setting up meetings next year, and making sure that I have time to spend with my friends that I won't get to see in the next year!  I miss my friends already, and can't believe I have to wait until next July for the fun to continue!!

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Cassandra