Thursday, May 30, 2013

June Goals...

Last month... my May goals were set pretty high... I would say most of them have been successfully completed... but the one that hasn't has been more of a fail than an even halfway met goal.  I had planned on trying to get into the gym 3x a week... yeah well today was the FIRST time all month that I actually made it to the gym.  I have had good intentions and brought clothes several times to change, but I was either too exhausted, stayed too late, or had an errand to run.  Urg.

So now that May is basically gone and June is on the horizon... I am linking up again with I {Heart} Recess for her June Goals! :) I've got to be honest I love this idea...even more so because I can use it as a reflection piece once the month is over!!

Personal: My guest room basically ends up being my catch all room.   So it is in need of some major organizing... This will also require getting rid of A LOT of things... I think I will end up calling in a friend to aid me in the process of ridding the junk!

Family: I am so excited to spend my summer with B.  One of her very favorite things, EVER, is going to the park.  So my goal is to take her a MINIMUM of 3 times a week!  Should be easy peasy!

Health:  Sam, one of my favorite people ever who I can't wait to share exciting news about probably..... in a post tomorrow.... has convinced me to work out with a trainer 2 mornings a week.  I can't wait! :)

School:  I am convinced that I will not be rushing last minute like I always do to get things ready for BTS.  My HOPE is to be done with BTS centers by the end of the month!

Blog:  I had a S.L.O.W. start to joining this bloggy world.  I have to say though, now that I've made time, learned how to manage my posting, and started to make some great friends... I LOVE blogging, it's an amazing outlet and I love sharing ideas almost as much as I love reading about everyone elses! So my goal this month is to reach 100 followers!

Read: I started Safe Haven too long ago.... I'm ready to finish it so I can FINALLY watch the movie!! :)


Head over to I {Heart} Recess to do your June Goals! :)


Wednesday, May 29, 2013

EOY Madness!!

I feel like a huge sense of PANIC has set over my body, mind, ....Oh & classroom!  I have 7 days to pack up my classroom... which will mostly be done the last two because we aren't supposed to break anything down really until the end of the last school day. I have however been trying to reorganize. 


I received these AH-MAZING boxes on Tuesday!!! EEEE.... I might have done a happy squeal and dance when I got news they were on their way up to my room!  I purchased LOTS of new storage boxes... an even more AH-MAZING pocket chart (I will share about that on another day) & some new FABULOUSLY colored book boxes. 

This is what I got started on IMMEDIATELY after my kids were out the door!! :)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

You can see there is a major difference!! My favorite thing is that you can actually SEE what is INSIDE of the boxes!! Hello!  There has been even more change now after today... But I didn't think far enough ahead to actually take pictures of that!! Once it's all done & I'm happy with it I will share another picture!!

This weekend we had a B.L.A.S.T. & enjoyed every moment of our 3 day weekend!
B & I had a blast out on the lake with my parents and grandma!! :) 

We met up with a sweet friend 2 nights in a row to catch up!! She lives in Houston so it's a rare occasion for us to see her!  We love you Ker! :)

Then... Monday night I prepared for my end of the year BALLOON popping incentive!!
Of course B had to get in on the action!! :)  This year I added a little more fun to the balloons and put tissue paper confetti inside of the balloons!! It has made quite a mess, but of course my kids L.O.V.E. it! :)

Here is a close up of the cards!  You can get them for {FREE} in my TPT store!! :)



This has been a HUGE hit with my kids, just as it was last year!! My kids were ecstatic when the got into the room!!! :) Thank you Pinterest teacher who pinned it long ago.  If you were the original creator & pinner or know of them, let me know so I can give them some Kudos & Credit! :)

I got to thinking that these cards could also be used on a prize board or something too!  Just another idea.... :)

So tonight I shall TRY to get some rest & be asleep in bed BEFORE 10!    I will be back on Friday to share lots of other fun pictures of things I'm doing in my classroom for NEXT year... I've been having a blast using my vinyl and Silhouette Portrait machine this week!!! :)

Oh & my AC is FINALLY getting better.... That is it's only 76ish degrees instead of 80 .... It's amazing how much cooler 4 degrees is!!

Happy Wednesday!  6 more days, 6 more days, ONLY 6 more days!!!!!!!!!! .... school days that is... with my kids!


Friday, May 24, 2013

Five for Friday

Doing my usual link up with Kacey over at Doodle Bugs! :)

1. Working backwards.  Today was field day and we had a BLAST, but WE are all exhausted! The halls were filled with the smell of sunscreen and sweaty kids.  Not my favorite mix.
 Our NEON orange shirt was a hit!  I'm not sure why it didn't show up brighter in the picture!! :)
 The water slide is ALWAYS a big hit!
See the exhaustion!! Laying out watching a movie to unwind after field day!

2. Classroom Organizer.  Um, have you head of this app?!?!?! Seriously awesome!  
You scan the barcode on your books and it adds it to a list that you can keep track of!!   Plus, if you want to use it as check out system for your classroom books, you can do that too!  I also love the fact that you can login on your computer to manage the settings, your library, etc!  I managed to scan in MOST of my classroom library books this week!

 The only flaw, which really isn't a flaw, it's a flaw of my books is that some oddly don't have barcodes.  I guess they are ones that I bought in a pack from scholastic and they didn't put one on them.  I have about 30ish without barcodes.  These are some of the books below. :(

If you are like me... I am always questioning if I have this book or that book when I place my scholastic order.  I am hoping that this will help keep me a little more organized and from purchasing so many duplicates!  

3. Berklee.  As you know B is my PRIDE and JOY!  So here are a few snapshots from this week! :)
 We made my last batch of girl scout brownies this week!! I received 4 brownies in a jar from my girl scouts for Christmas.  Needless to say, B enjoyed every last bit of it!!
This was Wednesday morning.  She woke up so happy and didn't fight once about me getting her out of bed!  B hit the "I DON'T WANT TO WAKE UP AND GET OUT OF BED" mode about 3 weeks ago.  Needless to say, these next 2 weeks I'm praying she doesn't get used to waking up early again!! :)  I want summer sleep in time!

4.  Elf Village! So one of my awesome co-workers came up with an idea to do a PEEP village several years ago.  It was a part of our economics unit.  This year however our economics unit came much later in the year, so purchasing peeps would not be nearly as easy.  She came up with the idea to do a Keebler Elf Village, so she asked me to "Pepperize" a paper for her.  So this is what I came up with and created! 
The kids began this almost 2 weeks ago as one of their centers.  There was A LOT of work that went into them and this week they were done!! I was so proud of how MOST of them turned out!  The kids worked super hard, they had to create the proposal, create the building, materials/tools they would need for their job, and then create clothes for their little elf! 
This is the Hotel in the Elf Village!! Love all the details, he has a vending machine, ice machine, elevator... This kid did EXACTLY what was expected.  However, this is not a surprise, he is one of my GT babies!
Elf Village Flower Shop!  I love the artistic ability of this sweet girl, she did an AH-MAZING job on hers, too!
Lastly, I will share the school!  You can tell she definitely had field day on her mind when making hers! :)

You can download this page, the kids checklist, and a rubric here!

5. My classroom is still H.O.T.  Still between 78-80 degrees.  This is the email I received from the secretary on Monday.  


Needless to say, it STILL isn't fixed.  I'm not sure how I'm going to handle this one for the next 2 weeks.  I pray I come in on Monday Tuesday and it is magically fixed.  

I hope have a great 3 day weekend!  :)



Thursday, May 23, 2013

Single Digits & OK Benefit

So it is OFFICIAL... we are down to single digits!
I'm pretty excited, but I would be even more excited if I was getting a 4 day weekend, instead of just a 3.  No, I'm not trying to be greedy... but all the surrounding districts... and well basically over half the people I know.... NOT just teachers have a 4 day weekend! Ugh.  I will suck it up though, I'm just excited for only 9 more days!!! Whoop, whoop!




You may or may not have seen the benefit that Teacher's Notebook is putting on for Moore, Ok.  Basically, it is one of the MOST AMAZING deals I've ever seen!  With a donation $20 minimum (but can be more) you will receive 511 items!! YOU READ THAT RIGHT, FIVE HUNDRED ELEVEN ITEMS!!!  It is actually an OVERWHELMING amount of things, but they range from pre-k to middle school... maybe even a few HS items!  I have to say that I have already found a few faves that I can't wait to use next year!  As of now when I'm writing this, 344 teacher shops have donated and $33,465 has been donated!! Talk about an amazing profession full of wonderful supporters, makes me wish I sold on TN too so I could donate a bit!! Gosh, I love my fellow teachers!!

Wish me luck... tomorrow is field day!  I'm excited that if I'm going to have to deal with 80 degree temperatures... that it is outside and not in my classroom!  Yes, if you caught my post last week about my classroom AC being broken... it STILL isn't fixed.  I'm one ticked unhappy, sticky, stinky feeling teacher... and bless my sweet babies hearts they too are so sick of it!  I even have two fans that I brought in to TRY and help keep it coolER.  None the less, tomorrow should be fun and I NEED to get some rest! :)



Tuesday, May 21, 2013

11 days ... and LOTSA new! {Look Quick!}

Thank you Melonheadz for the graphic.

Before I get too far though.  I have to be honest, I feel like this year (school year) has been full of tragedies all over the US.  There was the CT shootings, the West explosion damaging several schools, and now the tragic lives lost in Oklahoma.  Maybe it seems like it has been full of more tragedies because all of these hit so close to home or well school.   I can not even begin to imagine being one of those affected by one of these tragedies.  To lose my school, my kids, my co-workers, my belongings.... devastated does not even begin to describe the feeling I would have.   My job, being a teacher, is one of the things that defines me most.  All I can do is pray, be thankful for my blessings, and pray some more.  You may have seen the picture below, but it is a perfect depiction of the love a teacher has for their students!

11 Days!   

You read that right, only 11 more days, I am SUPER excited, but pretty worried that I still have a LONG NEVER ENDING to-do list!

So ... new STUFF! 

You may have noticed as you came to my page that I now have a Facebook Page!  I know many people don't have a blogger account to be able to follow.... and well... to be honest google reader is about to be non-existant so I thought I would cave and add a FB page!

 I also have set up my blog on Blog Lovin,  this is a great alternative to Google Reader!  My favorite thing is that it marks the posts you've already read, definitely helps me stay up to date! :)

As if adding these two aren't enough.....I've caved and stepped into the Instagram world.   I added my first photo today for #teachertalktuesday!


In addition to all of this, I JUST uploaded my End of the Year Awards to TPT! Yeesh.  I'm exhausted! :)   I'm really excited about these because, well they turned out cuter than I originally invisioned AND I added them in a PDF form AND I added an editable version WITH a how-to incase you're not familiar with that!  :)

Oh & just because I've been dying to give something away since I haven't done any FREEBIE's lately.... The first TWO people to comment on this post with their email, will get them for FREE! :)



Did I mention we only have 11 days left?  I know... for some of you, you're already done...... OR are in the single digits, but I'm still excited! 

One more thing, I have to share!   Tonight as I was playing with B she grabbed Floppy.  Floppy is my bunny from when I was a kid.... seriously, I've had it since I was a year old.   The thing is old and has seen its better days, but I could not resist sharing these pictures, just too precious!! xoxo

You can see her dinginess from over the 20+ years!

Hope you're having a marvelous week! :)




Friday, May 17, 2013

5 for Friday

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If you caught my post yesterday, you know it has been one heck of a week, actually I'm going to go with month.   I'm exhausted and finally hitting the acceptance stage when it comes to realizing that it is almost summer break!  Not that I am not ready for it.... I just have SO much left to teach and do before the school year is over.  With that said, I'm going to start my five for Friday so you can see what I checked off our list this week!  Thank you Kasey for hosting the linky! :)
1.  The most exciting news about this week... I officially finished ALL of my end of the year assessments!! MClass (math), TPRI (state reading), and Fountus and Pinnell (our district reading assessment) are D-O-N-E!  I don't have to listen to the story about the firefighters, sharks, or Nathan for well .... a good 3ish months at least!!   My favorite part of the assessments.... wait the only think I enjoyed about the assessments was when my kids would read one of the assessment books for our F&P assessment... The book was called The Thing About Nathan.... in the first line it uses the word "crazy".... and if you've read my blog enough times, you know that CRAZY is NOT a word that is allowed in my classroom.  (Confused click here to read more on it.)  EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. one of my kids got to that word... their eyes got big and they looked to me with hesitation before saying it... I had to reassure them that it was "ok" to say it just this time! haha I think that they loved that part the most too!
It is literally in the first line of the first page!

2. I've hit my spring cleaning mode in my classroom.  I have managed to be the last one to leave multiple times this week on my team.... which is usually not the case.  Gwen and Diana ALWAYS stay later than me, but this week I outlasted them twice due to my spring cleaning freak out!  Eventually, maybe one day, I will have my room so nice and organized that I will not have this freak out EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR!  I have a feeling that I will be waiting quite a while too... Especially since Gwen, my co-worker who has lived next to me for 3 years, supported me, and taken me under her wing is moving to another position and leaving me a TON of her awesome stuff!! While I'm still bitter she is leaving our team, I'm happy for her!  This will leave only 2 of the original 8 that were on the team when I began 3 years ago.  So sad.
The mess. 
The organization.  My tracer templates have doubled thanks to Gwen! I am now super organized too! I labeled the boxes with the templates inside, then inside of the boxes they are in JUMBO ziploc bags organized by seasons or subject!  Makes me happy! :)

3.  With all the stress of this week has brought on... I've successfully, please don't confuse that with proudly, managed to empty this once full jar of peanut m&m's and down a pepsi.... everyday this week.  Thankfully I haven't gained any weight due to the fact that my room is like a sauna and I seem to have sweat out all the extra calories I consumed this week.

4. Once I finally made it home on the evenings, I've savored every moment.  We've spent a lot of time outside this week.  Her favorite thing this week has been the park though, this little girl would stay out there all day if she could!!

5. I was contacted the other day by a reader.  Her name is Heather Von St. James. Heather had a very touching story, she was diagnosed with Mesothelioma when her daughter was was just three and a half weeks home.   Heather's story hit me hard, one because I think about how devastating it would be to be told I only have a little over a year to live when my sweet baby has just been born.  I couldn't imagine, even now having to deal with the fact that I wouldn't be able to see my little angel grow up.  When I learned that it was Mesothelioma though, it hit me even harder.  My grandfather died almost 10 years ago.  I still have very vivid memories of him.  My grandfather worked for a company called Alcoa for about 40 years after he got out of the Navy.  Alcoa was a company that used products with Asbestos, even though they were aware of the harmful side effects.  While I don't have memories of my grandfather working there, my mom explained to me that workers had to change clothes when they arrived, shower after they were done working, and change back into their normal clothing.  My grandfather died due to a heart condition, however it was a condition that he could have had surgery for to fix, except for the fact that his lungs were too weak due to the exposure and effects of the Asbestos.  It is believed that is health declined so rapidly and his lungs were so week due to Mesothelioma, however it was never officially confirmed.  The purpose of sharing all of this is because Heather has asked me to share her video on my blog.  Not for donations, not for any other reason, but to make people aware.  If you have a moment, it is a very touching story.
I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!! For some of you, I am super JEALOUS... you have less days than me... Only 12 more school days!! :)

Oh & one more thing... I don't know about you, but when I get my book order boxes from Scholastic, I'm in what I like to call Book Heaven!  My kids are hilarious and now say it when we get boxes in!! My new favorite thing from Scholastic are their Knowledge Quest sets that are a mix of fiction and non-fiction books within a specific category!  Love.  I ordered almost $300 worth of Knowledge Quest sets with grant money!! Yippee, I'm obviously a little bit excited!! :) 


Thursday, May 16, 2013

What a week.

I don't know about you, but this week has been EXHAUSTING.  The kids are crazy wild, wait maybe crazy is the actual word... they seriously have lost their everloving mind!  I mean seriously.  My second graders have decided they need to begin passing notes.  Not listen to the teacher.  Ignore each other.  Not care about their work, whether it is doing it correctly, neatly, or for some even at all.  It's obvious that they have hit summer mode.  We had to have our little "come to Jesus" discussion today.  I threatened expressed that just because there are only 15ish days of school left that I can still let their parents and the principal know they need to go to summer school.  I explained that I still have A LOT to teach and they have A LOT to learn!  I'm pretty sure I will be teaching up until the last school day with as hectic as this year has been!  Luckily this is not my first rodeo and I'm fully aware that this happens in basically EVERY classroom, EVERY year at THIS time.  However, I'm still not okay with it! 

Last week, I fully intended on doing 5 for Friday..... but the week was even MORE exhausting than this week and when I got home with pizza in hand, we seriously laid on the couch watching Tarzan, snuggling, and eating pizza.  Then when we got finished with pizza, we went for the Swiss Miss Fudge bars!  See here is the proof!





Yes, I let her eat it on the couch.  No my couch did not get all dirty... just the cover under her did.  A big ol' bath followed!  Needless to say, I did not have energy to write.  So before tomorrow... I thought I would catch you up to speed on last week!  :)

After buying too much several things on Tuesday during the TPT sale, I went back for seconds!  I bought several other things and I think I will be set for ... well a little while at least! :)


I'm pretty much in love with all three of these purchases!! Especially the American Heroes, there are differentiated passages about many of the people we study in Social Studies, I can't wait to pull these out next year!!

Last week was also the Spring Expo at my school.  It was our first one and quite a hit with both parents and kids!  During the expo, we had projects, demonstrations, videos, pictures, and displays of our enrichment groups.  Each Friday, students get to go to their enrichment group (they choose twice a year) for about 30 minutes.  Our enrichment groups range from photography, lego robotics, archery, board games, crocheting, cheerleading, baseball, running, and oh so much more!  Science fair projects were also displayed through the school during the expo.  The most exciting thing being displayed though were my kids GT projects that they have been working ALL year on!!  These turned out so great!!   I wish I had pictures of all the amazing work my kids have done.... but to be honest as many times as I meant to take pictures... I didn't :(  Not even my science fair board that won us first prize got a picture! :(  The only thing I managed to snag a picture of was my enrichment group display. 
You can see how Miss B enteratined herself during the Spring Expo.  Thank goodness for Kinder teachers and being put in the Kinder hallway! :)

I can't even begin to remember what else happened last week, I just know we made it through the week and I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend with my sweet angel!! B even made this for my mom for Mother's Day!

It said had her handprints all around it with the quote " A garden of love grows in a grandmother's heart!"  My mom was in AWE of it!! :)  I'm so thankful to have such a loving and supportive family that spoils me and gives my baby an opportunity to give me presents on special days like Mother's day!  Seeing how excited B was to give me something was so special!! :)


I hope you all have almost survived your week and all had a wonderful Mother's day as well! :)

See you tomorrow! :)