A Year Ago

A year ago, I was teaching 4th grade in a small district and had just become a Younique presenter. I was trying to figure out how to mesh my two favorite worlds, education and all things beauty. I emailed Alexis at Laugh Eat Learn Designs and started talking with her about my ideas. During my lunch period one day, a small sketch became what is now my new blog design. Ultimately, I wanted somewhere to be able to share my life in the classroom as well as my journey learning new beauty techniques. Alexis captured my vision perfectly but that's where everything came to a halt. 

A year ago, I was not proud of the person and teacher I was becoming. I knew that I needed to make a change, so blogging was set to the back burner and I focused on me. Fast forward to today, and I finally feel motivation to blog and create new things for my kiddos. Motivation to share all of the great things that are happening in my new classroom. Motivation to be the best teacher and person to the little humans that walk through my door each day. Motivation to try new beauty regimens. But most importantly, motivation to just live my life with passion and love in all things that I do. 

My new hope for this blog is that you will find something useful for your classroom like this EXCLUSIVE FREEBIE! And something for your life. Enter the giveaway below to win a $10 TPT Gift Card, a pack of Papermate Flair pens in the Tropical Vacation colors, and a Journal.

Finally, If you enjoyed the freebie, visit my store to find a monthly bundle available for February. Until next time...I promise it won't be a year.



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A STAAR is Born!

Yall! I have been slaving away to share with you one of the hardest things I've ever created. As a math teacher last year, I understand the importance of repetitiveness when it comes to skills. My students have struggled this year with a lot of the basic skills of reading, like using context clues, fact/opinion, and cause & effect. So I started scouring the internet for resources that would quickly review those things and came up short everywhere I looked. I remember a resource our school purchased last year for math and I thought "I need that for reading" BUT IT DOES NOT EXIST! This is where my reading spiral review was born. Talk about a labor of love. I will be starting it with  my fourth grade babies the day we return from Spring Break to get them motivated and ready for the dreaded STAAR. 

Here is a SNEAK PEEK into what all is included:

9 Mini Anchor Charts!

They are low prep, print 2 to a page, and can be used to reteach and review the skills.

30 DAYS of Spiral Review!

Each day hits the same 8-9 skills!

Authors Purpose

Cause/Effect

Dictionary Skills

Context Clues

Drawing Conclusions

Point of View

Fact/Opinion

Similes/Metaphors

Problem/Solution

I really tried to make these meaningful and rigorous so that my students get the necessary daily practice. Stay tuned for how I will implement these into my classroom using Kahoot, Jenga, Trashketball, and MANY MORE GAMES!

You can find this in my TPT store along with a STAAR Math Spiral for 3rd.

Hello World

Hello World! I am so excited to debut my new blog design. I worked tirelessly trying to figure out how to mesh my education world with my makeup world. Hence, when Brains & Beauty was born. For those of you who have been following my journey, you know that I am an elementary teacher. I looped with my 3rd grade babies to 4th this year and it has been a whirlwind. I also recently became a Younique presenter because I fell in love with their products. Not one, but all! 

I hope that you continue to follow my journey as I trudge through the rest of this school year and the STAAR test with my 4th grade loves. Stay tuned for makeup tutorials and a fun giveaway as well!

Whoa Wait, August!

I cannot believe that it is officially August. I have been MIA in the blogging world because I was FULLY enjoying summer. Sleeping in, staying in pajamas ALL DAY, and doing a whole lot of nothing. 

Don't get me wrong, I had big hopes and dreams a giant to do list for the summer. BUT, when it came down to actually doing anything, I was down right exhausted from the school year. Only up until recently have I begun to check things off my to do list. 

Which brings me to the point of my post. I am in the thick of preparing for my new classroom. For those of you who don't know, I am looping with my babies to 4th grade to teach reading. As I begin my 3rd year of teaching, I realize what I should and shouldn't spend my time and effort on. So my sweet friend and teaching partner over at Mrs. Thomas's Class gave me inspiration for my new classroom. We are both trying to make our classrooms feel more like home. I knew the neon colors from last year were just not going to cut it anymore. I knew I wanted to incorporate some neutrals and burlap. Finally, she posted some tribal print stuff and I was in love! 

So the other day, I posted this picture on IG of some prints that I whipped up for my walls! 

I was thrilled by the love it received, so I knew I was going to have to have a freebie! 

I finally have them printed and framed, ready to put in my room. I bought the frames at Joann's. They were 40% off and I had an additional 30% off coupon! Woo!

I am so excited to share these prints with you for your classroom. I know I cannot wait to decorate my room. I look forward to seeing them in action. Tag me on IG @steponmemoreno with a picture!

You can find them HERE.

Stay tuned for a full classroom reveal when I can get in and start setting up!!

TPT Seller Challenge Week 1: Makeover Madness

I have been on the TPT journey 1 year this summer. I was so anxious to get products created for my new classroom and truly learning the ropes of this business. Several of the first products I created were mainly for the new Personal Financial Literacy TEKS. Over the year, most of my oldest products have gotten a makeover except for one. I took my Income Sort product and revamped it! 

Here is the BEFORE:

Voila! After:

You can find the updated version of this product HERE for 50% off.

As one of my first products, I look back and can't believe it actually sold, but I think the new version is much better. I'd love to hear what you think! 

<3

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Much Love!

Testing Season

Hey Y'all! It is that time of year again, the dreaded "TESTING SEASON" It is hard to believe that I've endured this for 3 years and still forget what the stress feels like. I'm talking, tired like I've never been tired before. Tired driving to work in the morning, tired. How is it that each year, I forget what it feels like? Lets just say, I am counting down the days for my sanity, not the kids. And seriously, these poor 8 years olds of mine. The stress is torture for me, I can only imagine what their little minds are going through. 

I thought about testing season and knew that I needed something engaging but meaningful for test prep. So I created a set of task cards for all of the major topics in each of the 4 Reporting Categories for the 3rd grade TEKS, also known as ROCK THE STAAR! While task cards alone are a huge hit in my room, we have 12 days for review and task cards will get boring after a few days. So I came up with "Battle of the Bands" Basically, I split my kids into 4 groups on day 1. This is going to be their band until the STAAR test. I even let them create their own band name. 

The idea is that each team will have the opportunity to battle against each other using the task cards from my ROCK the STAAR Bundle. When the band gets the correct answer, they will be rewarded. Here is the catch, each day they will earn points in different and fun ways. I want to be able to hold each kid accountable so that everyone has many learning opportunities so my points system is random and can change on a whim at my discretion.

Day 1: + dice 
I start my day with my morning class but my afternoon class looks entirely different. Different kids, different levels and they tend to need more guidance. I will refer to them as AM and PM since they did different things today. My AM was a breeze, we rolled a 30 sided dice to tell us what task card to answer. I projected it on the board and they had a matching set at their tables. Each band battled another. The rules were that each person had to agree on an answer before their team leader could hold up their answer. I looked for speed and accuracy with this group. Since there are 4 groups. The winners of the first battle, battled each other for the points. Today, I rolled a single die which told us how many points each card is worth. Kids were having a blast and even requested to stay in my room all day.

In my PM class, I had to rack my brain on how this could work. I knew I didn't want them racing against each other for time. This group needs practice and less of a stress with the game. So my wonderful colleague suggested that each team will have the opportunity to earn points as long as their answer is accurate. Rather than a race for time, points were random. If the group had a consecutive answer, they would pick a domino, multiply the numbers and voila, points! THEY LOVED THIS! This was so much less stressful for them and everyone was able to answer and earn points. Winners are random so in my opinion ANYONE can win. I had the same team pick a domino with 0's twice. They were such goos sports about earning zero points because they thought it was hilarious. 

I loved this structure of this so much that I plan to implement it for the next 10 days. They will earn points differently, but everyone will have an equal, but random, opportunity. 

Day 2: +/- dice

Students will roll a positive and negative dice

Day 3: Easter Eggstravaganza

Students will choose an egg filled with random point values. Some positive and some negative. 

Day 4: Jenga

Students will play Jenga. Each block will have a point value. If the team knocks it over, they will lose double the points on the block they chose. 

Day 5: Stinky Feet

I got this idea from a fellow Texas blogger, Teaching in the Fast Lane! You put sticky notes on the board with positive and negative points. Each time they get a question correct, they choose a sticky note. I plan to make this a little more challenging by telling them what color sticky note they have to choose each time!

Day 6: Trashketball

Students will attempt to toss a trash ball in 1 of 3 containers different distances apart. Which ever container it lands in, is the point value they will earn. 

Day 7: Musical Chairs

Four students will play musical chairs with task cards. One person will represent each band. The person who doesn't earn a chair will choose one person they want to battle against to earn a chair. The last person standing will choose a domino to determine the amount of points their team will earn.

Day 8: UFO stacking

Students will stack cups until they fall. Students will earn 1 point for each cup before they fall. 

Day 9: Vote on Favorite game

Day 10: Vote on Favorite game


I want to give them the opportunity to enjoy their favorite games for the final 2 review days.


I really hope that you can find some of my test prep activities useful in your classroom. So far, we are having a blast reviewing and preparing for the big day. 

HAPPY TESTING YA'LL!