Fall Faves, Must Haves, and a Counseling Craftivity

Hey, y'all. I'm baaaaacccck. I finally feel settled into my new position as an elementary assistant principal (which I absolutely love) and I have some things I am working on that I am really excited about that I will share with you soon! It feels good to feel back into the swing of things and to have the ability to create, blog, and network with all my fellow educator friends!

First up...my Fall Faves. This is one of my favorite seasons. I love feeling cozy, baking with pumpkin and cinnamon, and relaxing with a nice cup of coffee (well, I may do that all year round), and just enjoying the season with my family.

So I have to share my new favorite family picture with you all. It's nothing fancy but I feel like it captures our personalities so well. Joey and Ella are being silly and Grayson and I are just cuddling! Can't wait to get it framed.

Speaking of coffee, one of my current favorite things right now is this coffee (Kauai Coconut Caramel Crunch). Oh.My.Word. It is so good that I have cut down Starbucks from about 4 or 5 times a week to just 2 or 3. I went with my mother in law last weekend to Costco and sampled some and then went back and asked for one more cup...after the 2nd cup I knew I had to have it. I am not a fan of flavored coffee but this was an exception. It is literally the best coffee I have ever had that you make at home. It was around $15 or $16 but seems like it will last a long time. I am the only one at our house that drinks coffee so I will really be able to stretch it out. It came as whole beans but Costco had a coffee bean grinder. It smelled amazing! I brought my Keurig to my office at work and got a new coffee maker at home that takes ground coffee so it worked out perfect!

Mug from The Sister Studio

With fall weather comes some of my favorite wardrobe items like booties, scarves, lightweight kimonos, jackets, and vests. I would love to break out some of my new sweaters but here in Texas it has stayed around the mid to high 80's so I am keeping my fingers crossed I can wear them soon.
When I was looking at pictures of my favorite outfits lately, I noticed a common theme: black and white stripes. I love to stick with classics and add trendy items but giggled when even the clip art version of me had black and white stripes on. I think I love how versatile it can be. You can mix different prints, color, and textures and it can work.

 

Top Left: Utility Jacket and Striped dress (Groovy's), Leopard booties (Larue), Necklace (Kendra Scott) Top Middle: Favorite striped top ever (Groovy's), Necklace (Kendra Scott), Booties (Groovy's) Top Right: Striped dress, choker necklace, booties (Groovy's), Bottom Left: Leopard kimono (Amazon), Striped loose tank (Maurice's), Necklace (Kendra Scott), Moto Jeggings (Groovy's), Wedge Peep Toe Booties (Lucky Brand: Nordstrom), Bottom Right: Educator tee (LaRue), Striped cardigan (Groovy's-a few years ago), Old Navy jeggings, Converse High Top (Nordstrom)

My must have this month are moto jeggings. They are seriously the best invention ever. They are so comfy but you can dress them up with a longer top and jacket for work or wear a cozy shirt and booties for the weekend. I have bought my burgundy (shown above) and olive ones at Groovy's and hope to get some in black soon. And y'all....they are stretchy which are perfect for brunch and Thanksgiving meals..lol.

It also seems that a huge must have item are booties.Side note: everytime we are out shopping and I say booties, my kids can't even handle it...they laugh and just lose it. My favorite ones have been my Lucky ones (in black) I scored at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. The price has went up a bit but they are well worth it. You can find them HERE. 

 I have my eye on these TOMS booties, as well, and am hoping they might go on sale later since they just came out. They are very different and would look so cute with some rolled up jeans, a tee, and a cozy cardigan.

Each weekend, we have been doing fall activities (painting pumpkins, baking anything and everything pumpkin) and yesterday when my niece came over we decided to make some paper plate pumpkins. When the kids were talking about how their pumpkins looked (angry, mean, scared), I thought "this would be a great counseling craft-ivity" for a guidance or small group lesson." 

You can have students paint a paper plate and then decorate it with a feelings face. We used glitter, scrapbook paper, and other craft items. My kids are 6 and 9 and my niece is 4 so this would be a great K-2 or K-3 activity.

Sad, worried, and angry

To extend, the kids could write their feeling word or could reflect and write about a time they felt that way. There could be a lot of discussion on what different feelings mean and examples of when we have felt those feelings.

If you don't want to deal with the paint mess, you can try using orange paper plates as shown on the Kids Activities Blog seen HERE. I am thinking painting them would be better for a small group activity and using paper plates that were already orange would be better for a guidance setting. This along with their writing would be a great bulletin board, as well. 

You could ALSO  just have students create pumpkins with their own style and discuss the importance of being unique and looking at how special we are and that it's okay to be different. You could even read the book Spookley beforehand. If you don't have the book, you can find the book being read aloud HERE. 

 Do  you have something you would like to see on the blog? Leave a comment below or on the FB post and don't forget you can follow me on Instagram @melroseacker or on Twitter @melroseacker. Hope you all have a magical week! Remember, we have the best job ever...so no matter how crazy or stressful it gets....remember you have the opportunity to change someone's day, week, and even their life!!!