End of Summer Traditions

It really is my last day of summer vacation now... Tomorrow starts 3 days of meetings - I'll be learning about Common Core, planning with my team, having training on the new online grade book, and watching the mandatory yearly videos on sexual harassment and blood born pathogens. Fun! (Yeah right). Then Friday afternoon comes and I get 3 1/2 hours to work in my classroom.

I woke up thinking of all the things I normally do at the end of summer, all the traditions- some fun, some practical - and started wondering if it's just my family... I doubt it. 

Okay - here's a  relatively short list of things I do every year around this time: 

John's Incredible Pizza

We always take the boys for one last hurrah of summer. We are more Chuck E Cheese people, but going to John's Incredible Pizza - with the bigger kid games - is always fun. We went this past weekend. :)

Massage Envy

The past years I usually only get a couple of massages a year - and those are usually because I am given a gift certificate... and then I wait until I start getting eye twitches or I can't move my neck. One near my birthday and one for the beginning of school. After moving desks and classroom furniture, my back is usually begging me to relax. I went in yesterday afternoon and it was wonderful. There is a chance I dozed off... maybe not, but my to do list did disappear from my thoughts for a while. 

Haircuts 

Every end of summer means getting one last haircut for the boys (and sometimes for myself). I'm still trying to grow mine out this year after cutting it for Locks of Love, I want it longer. I am considering trying to get rid of my grays myself today. I haven't dyed my hair since college - and back then I had help... we'll see...

Cleaning the house 

It's the same thing as right before we leave on vacation... When heading back to school I want to have everything looking extra nice at home. Of course that's almost impossible since the boys are still not back in school and love to play...

Making Crockpot bags/prepping meals

Going back to school makes me so completely drained that dinner is usually the last thing I want to think about - so I like to make up some things for the freezer that I can whip out for dinner. Casseroles, cooking chicken, and getting the ingredients for crockpot bags ready helps keep food on the table during the first couple of weeks of school. 

Last Movie and Frozen Yogurt

Today my sister is coming out to visit and while auntie is here we are going to forget the work and go to the movies. Of course tonight we will also head for one last Frozen Yogurt stop. 

New Clothes

The end of summer - at least for me - means I have to find a couple new shirts and capris for the start of school. Its going to be capri weather until November, so I don't start worrying about long pants for awhile. Just need to pick up some things that aren't as "comfy" and more professional looking to move back into school mode.  The boys pick out a few new things, but for the most part we wait until they actually need something before we go out to purchase.  

Laundry

On the final day of summer I like to run the machine non stop - getting all the laundry done. It's weird...

How do you finish out summer? 

Read More

Monday Made It - Being Practical (and a Freebie)

It's Monday Made It!  Linking up with Tara to share what I've been up to lately.

This past weekend was lovely - other than the youngest being sick.  I had a debate going on between my laminator and my Kindle - both wanted me to spend time with them.  The laminator won for a bit, until I ran out of laminating pouches - then my Kindle was happy.

I know!  The horror of running out of laminating pouches!  I rushed over to Amazon to get an order pronto... and saw that on May 8th (my birthday) I ordered 5 boxes of laminating pouches - which means since then I've gone through all 500 (plus the random ones I had around).  That's a lot of laminating...

I think I have an addiction.

I also completed a bunch of random gotta-do-it-soon projects for school.  Not super crafty - just needed to get them done.

Onto the projects:

*Last year I used those crafting boxes for my ear buds - which was fine, but the cords didn't stay wrapped (since 9 and 10 year olds have a hard time wrapping anything into little spaces) and only having 2 boxes caused a traffic jam when it was time to get them out - so this year I'm switching to the baggie method.

My husband detangled the mess of cords and separated them out into individual sandwich baggies (this was after they were all thoroughly cleaned).  Then I stuck numbered name tags on them.  Easy.  They are going to be able to keep them at their tables.

*I laminated a bunch (before I ran out of pouches).  Back in the spring, I received the 4th grade Common Core Resources (which includes an activity for each math and ELA standard) because I gave it a shout out on the blog.  I wanted to print it, but it was 853 pages long.  Color ink was too much (going to run over $300) through district printing, so they printed it all in B/W for $24.  Much better deal though not as cute!  I mainly wanted all those resources at my fingertips though, so I dealt with it.

Anyway, my summer project was taking each standard, sorting it into file folders, and then laminating the games of each standard - before I stuck it into my standard activity sorters at school.  I am almost done!  Just need 5-8 business days for my pouches to show up...

*I also spent time on the computer updating my class webpage with my new BTSN packet, and changed out all of the Unit 5 stuff back to Unit 1.  I'm sending out my welcome postcards soon to my new students - and it says to go check the webpage for more information on supplies and our year together.  Had to get that done!

*Then I went over to Spelling City and updated my list there too - last year I started using the site in Unit 2 - kinda important to add Unit 1 to the mix.

*Last night I made up my goldfish welcome bags.  I found my last 4 remaining laminating pouches (tucked under some card stock) and turned my bookmarks from last year into smaller rectangles - 9 per page.  Why is the text in blue?  Because I'm also out of black ink.  Have the other colors - but not black...  Anyhow, because of the encouragement of some nice teachers over on Instagram, I made up similar sheets for Preschool - 5th grade.  They are free over on TPT.

  There was other stuff - but you probably already saw my classroom with all the pictures I took this past week.  It's been quite the week of organizing and cleaning and more organizing.  2 days left of summer...

Have a great day!

Read More

Back to School Postcards

Postcards are ready to be mailed this coming week.  I'm aiming for Wednesday - so the kiddos will get them by Friday, in time for school to start the next Monday.  I just need to pick up enough stamps.  

This morning I sat down and wrote the addresses on the backs for all 32 of my new students.  

Since the printed back has a bunch of my personal information, I figure I'll just write the gist of it.

"Dear Families,

I'm looking forward to working with you this year.  Please check out our class website at ______ for our supply list and information about our year.  I look forward to seeing you on the first day of school and at Back to School Night.

Sincerely,

Mrs. S"

I posted the above picture over on Instagram this morning, and had a few questions regarding where I got them from... so wanted to share it was an old favorite - Vistaprint!  

I learned about Vistaprint 4 years ago.  Over the years I have picked up quite a few items from them - magnets, business cards (used for many different reasons), postcards, pens, stamps, etc. - I've written about them in the past as well.  Everything I buy from them is in the "free" section - they change up their free products every so often.  I just pay shipping.  I'm cheap.  

They aren't telling me to share about them, and I'm not being reimbursed for my shout out - they are just awesome at making life easy.  

I mentioned business cards too... well before a couple of years ago I didn't think I needed business cards.  I didn't know of any teacher that had them, but then I realized that it's so easy to stick a business card up on the fridge.  So I paper clip one onto each Back to School Night packet.  

The business cards come in sets of 250, the postcards came in sets of 100.  This was my second year using these postcards, I have one more use of them.

Just an idea if you are looking for some help in the paper department.  

Read More

Classroom Day 4 - More Pictures :)

Friday dawned bright and early... my 3 year old was burning up and only wanted his mommy to hold him - so my idea of spending lots of time in the classroom didn't happen.  My husband was able to give me a couple of hours though of daddy duty before he had to go off to work, so in 2 hours I finished up some projects.  You might have seen some of these pictures over on Instagram or on Facebook yesterday.  So... here is more pictures of my classroom from yesterday.    

This is my classwork bulletin board.  I still need to add the pushpins, but it's almost ready to go.  Usually I only put up cardstock, but this year I found those adorable birds at Office Max and had to get them.  I think it dresses up the board nicely.  :)

Here's my VOICES board.  It was originally going to have FACE strategies too, but all my writing stuff kind of took over.  The french fries cups are going to be synonyms that the tables brainstorm - and we will get in some thesaurus practice at the same time.  Planning on switching them out with different words once a month.  

This is the left side of my front wall.  My Lego calendar came down, and instead I have a gigantic desk calendar to write big on.  I tend to write huge anyway, so now there will be more room.  There is room on the far left to hang the Star Student's poster, and above is my school timeline ready to go.  We brainstorm the best parts of the month the last day of the month and write it on a dicut that gets placed up on the timeline.  

Here's the front wall.  The whiteboard hasn't been sectioned off yet, but I love how everything has come together.    

I finally put up the whole brain teaching posters to start the year.

... and my hand signals are now up.  

The FACE strategies are now up too.  

My storage units are all sorted too.  These black ones have task cards and activities in the 5 drawer ones, and the 3 drawer have reading activities (fluency books, science/ss connections, spelling sorts, word work, and a drawer full of my thesaurus').  

The math bulletin board has also started to be put together - it starts off pretty plain but will soon be covered with anchor charts.  

Below the math bulletin board is all my math drawers - Math Facts, Mixed Fact Assessments, and lots of manipulatives.  

Overall, it was a good day and I'm feeling pretty comfortable with what's left to do.  Isn't it crazy how much stuff needs to be done in a short amount of time on top of getting everything organized paperwork wise to start out the year?

I hope you all have a great day!  

Read More

5 for Friday!

It's back!  Linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share about my week.  

One:  Setting up the Classroom

I worked hard this week - not done yet, but it's getting there.  I've shared a bunch of pictures this week - here, and here, and here...

Two:  Pizza Picnic at the Park

I bribed my older boys yesterday into helping me in the classroom, we tackled a few hours, and then picked up a $5 hot and ready pizza to head to the park.  Of course I didn't count on the wind that took off with the paper plates.  

Three:  Girl Time

The other day was L O N G... The boys were pushing every button each other had... so when hubby got home he was a sweetheart and took all 3 of them out for guy time.  Their guy time included dinner and errands, my girl time at home included a movie (interesting mystery), finishing up my book, and a foot soak.  It was so nice to have complete quiet and to be by myself for a few hours.

Four: Star Wars Cookies

I'm not a fan of Star Wars but my boys are.  The other day I pulled out the sugar cookie dough and made a batch of Star Wars cookies for them.  We got these cookie cutters a couple of years ago on clearance at William Sonoma.  

Five: Buying Stuff and Laminating

I'm having a hard time saying no to shopping when I can justify it for my classroom.  What did I recently buy?  What am I planning with them?  

I bought this Weekly Reading Bundle.  My plan is to make 8 copies of each text and review sheet and use these in my reading rotations this year.  They will make it through the whole class by sticking them in sheet protectors.  Since my kids do Read to Self (silent reading) full class, I want to give them another Read to Self rotation to work on comprehension.  

I just bought Math Moves last night for morning work.  I'm excited that the skills are constantly spiraling for students AND there is a list to keep track of every opportunity they have to work on them.  Did I mention the assessments or the answer key?!  Yay!  I'm considering saving copies and having kids complete the 4 problems on their whiteboards while this is under the document camera...  Maybe...  

I bought this Weekly Reading Record for the purpose of a quick check after silent reading.  Included are 5 different fiction pages... perfect for my 5 tables.  There are quick skill reviews to get the kids thinking of what they read.  I made enough copies of each so that each student can have a paper in front of them (8 of each page), then I color coded and laminated the sheets.  Kids will write their weekly responses in their journals and on Friday afternoon the different laminated pages will rotate to the next table.   It'll take 5 weeks for them to get the same sheet back again.  For the nonfiction sheets, I'm going to use them during our SS and Science time.  :)  

That's it for me.  I've typed this one handed while under my sick 3 year old.  He's finally sleeping.  

Have a great day!

Read More

Currently August

Hi everyone!  I'm linking up with Farley today for August Currently.  It's pretty much all self explanatory - and I seriously need that shower... but of course I wanted to link up before I get to running around again crazy like. 

Went to school again this morning - logged another 3 1/2 hours... total so far this week is 15.5 at school.  Almost done...  still more to do though.  I brought my oldest 2 with me this morning and they were helpers - for the most part.  :)  At least now they pretty much understand the drill  - do what mommy says and stay out of her way when she's running around the classroom.  

I forgot to take pictures though, so you'll see what I did tomorrow.  

Okay, okay - better get going!  Talk more later.  :)  

Read More