I Just Love a Good Sale!

I am totally copying Erin from Creating & Teaching and throwing an end of quarter sale.  Thanks for the great idea :)

Yippee!  All of the products in my little TPT shop are 15% off from now until June 30th.  

Best sellers include:

 Family Word Cards in Spanish and English

Color Word Cards in Spanish and English
 

 Fun with Fire Safety

And two that are fantastic for this time of year are....

 Vegetable Games

Vegetable memory
Vegetable bingo with six gameboards
Vegetable graphing
What is a Vegetable? emergent reader

Plants and Seeds Math, Science and Literacy Fun!

Seed tracking journal
Plant dictionary
Plant labeling activity
Dolch sight word cards
Emergent Reader
Writing prompts
Vowel word family practice
T charts
Tree maps
Math journal prompts
Numeral recognition
Measurement
Patterning
Scissor skills
and much, much more!

Also, if you have any desire to vote for me by clicking on the picture above I will love, love, love you forever!

xoxo

End of the Year Madness

Okay, so I have something horrifying to confess.  I have only been out of school for three days.  Yes, three!  Then I had one night & one day of professional development and tomorrow I start a summer nannying gig.  YUCK!

Anyway, every June we have to pack up every single thing in our classrooms.  I mean EVERYTHING.  Everything off the walls, all furniture stacked and everything else boxed up and covered.  Then in September we unpack everything and put it in the exact same place that it was in June.  Is it just me or does this seem a little repetitive.  And silly.  And completely 100% ridiculous.

Here are a few pictures of my classroom before we started packing.  To be honest it's less "before" and more "Oh shoot... we started packing and everything is a mess and I forgot to take pictures."  So please forgive the mess and lack of cutesiness.

 Art center

 Block area with shelves pushed aside so the custodian would vacuum my rug.  Excuse the hot mess.

 Other side of blocks

 Writing center minus all the cutesy posters and student work that had been hanging there

 Writing shelf

I excluded a huge number of "before" pictures because I didn't want you to be completely horrified and unfollow my blog.

And here are the AFTER pictures.  And by AFTER I mean AFTER two days of over 100 degree temperatures trying to pack up while doing progress reports and paperwork, while entertaining several four and five year olds.

How scary is that?  Kind of like The Nightmare on Kindergarten Street.  Does anyone else have to pack up like this?  Please tell me that we are not the only ones!  I love these "rules" that come from the super-important-people-downtown-who-have-no-idea-how-ridiculous-their-rules-are.  The End.  Please don't have nightmartes tonight over the horrifyingness that is a mountain of child size chairs, furniture, shelves, tables, cubbies and toys.

So Fascinating...

I was just checking my blog email for the first time in a minute or two, and look what I found...  YAY!

They nominated me for this post about how to use both landscape and portrait orientation in one word document... essential to all of us loading our magical creations onto TPT. I am so honored to even be considered for this... I am seriously blushing over here!

Voting starts on Monday and lasts for one week.  Yippee!

Cookies & Compulsive Excercise

How true is this quote?!?  In honor of Pinterest, compulsive exercising and baked goods, here are a few things on my summer bucket list.

Source: lessonswithlaughter.com via Mary on Pinterest

Love this supply organizer!  First of all it's adorable, and second of all it would store all of that random junk that is constantly floating around on top of my desk, on the computer table, on the floor...

Source: overallsuccess.net via Mary on Pinterest

I will definitely be making a few of these sentence strip Question of the Days to introduce my kids to the concept.  PERFECT for fall when they don't all know how to write their names. 

Source: first-grade-garden.blogspot.com via Mary on Pinterest

Math game storage.  Hallelujah!  I'm not going to lie... I LOVE LOVE LOVE teaching literacy but math... not so much.  Having my games all organized and ready to go will be a huge help and just make everything 100 times easier.

Source: youtube.com via Mary on Pinterest

And last but not least, I LOVE this video.  I need to pick up a few of these attention grabbers.  How amazing are these kids?  Let's be honest though... you know there have to be one or two off camera rolling around on the rug or poking someone with a pencil.

End of Year Gifts

Okay, so I realize that this is probably too late for almost everyone out there in blogland to use since you all are all out of school.  I still have three more days... can you believe it?  I just wanted to share the best ideas that I have found on Pinterest for end of the year gifts for your students. Maybe you will find one or two that you can pin to use next year:)  Usually I just give them each a book (thank you, Scholastic points!) and a class photo.  This year I wanted to jazz it up a little bit.

                                                     Source: tamiwilsonblog.com via Mary on Pinterest

I hope you have a ball this summer... cute!  You could either give it to them still in the package, or blow them up and have all of the little ones sign a ball for their friend.  Very cute keepsake!

                                                    Source: swimmingintosecond.blogspot.com via Mary on Pinterest

And here is another version with a free printable.  Cute!

                                               Source: doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com via Mary on Pinterest

Framed class photo... I love this!  You could do something cute like have the little ones sign their name around the border or have each kid decorate their own frame.

                                                 Source: anythingbutperfect.com via Mary on Pinterest

See you later, Alligator!  This is both adorable and super cost effective.

                                                  Source: jenshappyspot.blogspot.com via Mary on Pinterest

Owl miss you.  I love all things owl, so this is right up my alley.  It's also super cost effective because it's just mini candy bars in the bag.

                                              Source: acupcakefortheteacher.blogspot.com via Mary on Pinterest

And last but not least, my own personal favorite!  It's a super fun krazy straw sippy cup from the Dollar Tree, complete with a packet of Kool Aid and a ribbon.  This is the one I ended up doing for my little ones, and they LOVED them!

Currently June

I am linking up for this month's currently right {HERE}...

 

Can you believe I'm still in school?  Why is it that I feel like everyone in blogland has been done for days already?  We don't go back until September, so I guess that's why!  Also, can you believe that I have to work 50 hours a week during the summer?  How rude is that?  Student loans are literally the bane of my existence.

 {picture of cinque terre from kevinandamanda.com}

My wish is to take a leisurely tour all over Italy and Greece.  Technically, I did go to Italy with my grandma (she is AMAZING and a world traveler!) when I was 16 but that feels like forever ago  now.  I would love to go on a romantic trip there with my man.  Do you follow Kevin and Amanda?  They just went to Italy and her photos are out of this world!

 Old Orchard Beach during the day...

and at night!

Last spring we went to Saratoga Springs  for my boyfriend's boss' wedding.  Super, super cute town!  Other places we went last year were northern Michigan (where I have been every year since I was in the womb... LOVE it) and Old Orchard Beach, Maine with our BFFs.  Love, love, love!

 Lake Michigan

 Michigan sunset

I am dying to go to OOB and Michigan again this year.  We are going to Maine for my bestest friend in the whole wide world's wedding in less than THREE WEEKS (omg omg omg) in beautiful Maine (where we are both from).  We are staying the week after for some fun in the sun before they head off on their honeymooon (is that weird?  yes?  sorry... beaches and relaxing get me every time).  We are heading to Michigan in August.  Can you believe that the stupid airlines were trying to charge us $750 each to fly from Boston to Michigan?!?!?!?!?!?!  I still can't get over it.  We changed the dates so the prices are not quite as astronomical.  You wouldn't even believe how pretty and charming it is there :)  Yay, summer!

Monthly Planner

Even though I still have eight (YES, EIGHT!) days left of school, I am starting to think of next year.  There are definitely a few things that I did not get to this school year, which is such a bummer!  I whipped up a monthly planner that I can stick into my plan book (I type up all of my plans digitally, then put them into clear binder sleeves so I can either stick the planner in some extra sleeves or put it in the front binder pocket for easy reference).

Here is an example of my planner:

I included two class books each month, which is something that always seemed to get pushed to the side this year.  I also included assessment windows, holidays, themes, specific activities and to-dos.  For example, in the May Goals/Activities section I reminded myself to order butterflies around May first, instead of waiting until the last minute (which I may or may not have done this year... whoops!).  I also plan to include the little ones' birthdays in the "special dates" column so I don't forget anyone.  My August field is blank because we don't go back until after Labor Day, but I threw it in there because I know that lots of you go back in August.

I uploaded a blank copy of the planner in case you can use it too.  It is a word document, so you can just type write into it.  The font may come out funky unless you have Doodle Tipsy installed on your computer.  If not, you can download it for free {HERE} or just change it to whichever font you prefer.

You can download the planner below or by clicking {HERE}.  Hope it helps!

dsfw7

More Father's Day...

How freaking cute is this freebie from Paper Coterie?  Plus, it is a free printable and super easy!  If you're out of school, this would also be super fun to do with your own kids (if you have them... I don't think my cat would appreciate me trying to dress him up).  I think that any dad would love a framed photo of his kids acting all goofy and adorable. 

Also, CVS is running a promotion right now with 4 x 6" photos for 25% off (or 12 cents each), plus 25 free prints when you sign up.  Great deal!  I might just have to add this to our ongoing list of adorable Father's Day projects :)

*both images belong to papercoterie.com

Father's Day Ideas

For those of you who are still in school, here are some of my favorite ideas for Father's Day.  You could also use them for summer camp, summer school, Sunday school, etc.  Enjoy!

Father's Day shirt and tie cards

                                        Source: theadventuresofroryandjess.blogspot.com via Diana on Pinterest

And here is another version

Footprint Poem.  Click {HERE}for a free download from my TPT store.

                                                       Source: goo.gl via Celinda on Pinterest

Very cute and pretty easy

                                     Source: familyfun.go.com via Kirsten on Pinterest

Super cute and unique

                                                  Source: kiboomu.com via Kristy on Pinterest

Love, love, love

The Caterpillar Saga Continues...

This unexpected note pretty much sums up why I love my job: 

"Dear Pike, Sorry the kalipitter pooped on your hand."

In what other job could you get a note like this?!?  The best part is that it happened over a week before I got the note.  Apparently she was VERY preoccupied by this yuckiness.

In other news, we still have 13 school days left.  I am more than a little jealous of all those bloggers out there who are already done.  I do really, really love my class though and am glad I still have a little time left with this bunch of sweeties.  Now I am on the hunt for the perfect end of year party and gift.  I might just have to repeat the Hollywood Endings party from last year, since I do not have any siblings and none of the parents will know the difference :)  Plus, it was just too darn cute!

Butterflies

I wrote a butterfly science & ELA unit in college, and have been head over heels in love with doing butterflies with kids ever since.  I mean how amazing is it that they could look like this yesterday...

and this today?!  I just love it.

My favorite thing about watching caterpillars become butterflies is that it inspires SO much learning.  My kids love becoming little lepidopterists (aka butterfly scientists).  They love to observe, draw and write about butterflies.  They truly understand complex vocabulary and use it to explain what they see.  I can't even put into words how amazing their work is.

The kids' favorite part?

The caterpillar poopd on Ms. P's hand

Probably when the caterpillar pooped in my hand.  I haven't lived that one down yet :)  On the bright side, it gave us a firsthand understanding of the word frass (aka caterpillar poop).

Here are some of their awesome observations: