Surviving Until Summer

Does anybody else just feel like this cat right now? Maybe it's because I'm 33 weeks pregnant and relate to his Garfield-like stature. Or maybe it's because I'm scared it's how some of my students feel. They're jumping for the moon, but the stars aren't even close enough for them. Or maybe I just died laughing and had to find some way to include it. Yeah, that's the best reason!

But seriously, summer seems SO far away, and I just can't quite get there. So I need a little motivation to make it through. That's when I saw Katie's post and had to join in!

OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM:

• I would love to be decorating Caffrey's room (he'll be here in 6 weeks!), but our house is on the market, and I'm hoping that we will be moving soon after he arrives, so I don't see much point in decorating. We have the bed, though, and some of our sweet friends from church bought his sheets (aren't they cute?).  So I guess I can still say getting ready for Caffrey's arrival! Right now, I'm counting down to each doctor's appointment. Plus I don't have to wait quite as long until school is over because I'll miss the last two weeks!

• Reading. I've got one children's book and one book for me that I'm working through right now, and so far I really like both! The children's book is Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein. It's on our Virginia Reader's Choice list for next year, and I will be sharing it on Book Talk Thursday once I'm done. For me, I'm reading the second Veronica Mars book, Mr. Kiss and Tell. If you haven't ever seen the show, start there (it's my favorite ever and I kind of idolize Kristen Bell because of it) and then watch the movie that came out last year. You won't regret it!

          

• Spending time outside. The weather has been gorgeous, and I'm so excited that it's finally here! Plus it means that I can wear dresses, which are the best right now this far into my pregnancy. I hope to spend even more time outside in the next few weeks.

• Going to the gym. Yes, I'm still going! It makes me feel more accomplished and better about myself! My goal through the entire pregnancy has been to at least get in 400 minutes of exercise each month to meet the minimum for our school district's wellness incentive. Each month, they draw names to choose a winner at every school, and I've won the past three months in a row! I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it to any more BodyPump classes because the one this weekend is cancelled and I'm not sure about my May weekend schedules, but I hope to at least get in and do something when I can find the time!

IN THE CLASSROOM:

• I got smart before Spring Break and made my plans for three weeks after. Of course, we are halfway through week two of those plans, but I only have one more set to make before we start testing. Once testing starts, I help with that and no longer pull kids. So basically I just sit and watch them take tests. Boring, but kind of perfect for right before I go out on maternity leave! It helps to know that I don't have much planning left to do at all!

• Stations and games. I feel like the students start to get overloaded with "test prep" during this time of year, so I try to provide a variety when they come into my room. We've been doing a lot more board games to review skills, and I've pulled out some of my literacy centers for them to use, also. If you're looking for great Reading Comprehension games, I highly recommend these from Edupress! I probably have ten different games in my room alone!

• Brain breaks! I do them all year, but they are even more special at this point. The kids are crazy, and they really need a way to release some of that energy. I know a lot of people use GoNoodle, but I love my Pinterest board that I've created for it. When you click to follow me on Pinterest above, it's my very first board! I do have to go through and delete some every once in a while because the video disappears on me, but I try to update them with fun songs that don't drive me crazy and are still appropriate and fun for the kids. My fifth graders are currently obsessed with In the Summertime, and I'm loving it!

What are you doing to stay sane these last few weeks before school is out? And how many weeks/days do you have left?

BIRTHDAY Five for Friday with a Pin It to Win It

Wow, it's been a full week since I posted (actually just 6 days since I was late last time). Sorry. Just remember that unlike most of you, I'M still in school. Until Wednesday. Grrr. I was pretty annoyed when our local radio station played School's Out for Summer for EVERY OTHER SCHOOL SYSTEM in the area this morning. Thanks for rubbing it in. I hate you.

Anyway, I've stayed busy and actually had a pretty fun week, so we'll just get started!

I forgot to mention yesterday that I was a guest blogger over at Reading Toward the Stars while Andrea is on vacation. I was able to share for her Book Talk Thursday! So honored. If you haven't checked out this weekly feature Andrea does, do so. I've learned of quite a few great books from it!

Tuesday and Wednesday were Field Day for our school (We have one for K-2 and another for 3-5, and I help with both since I'm part of the Resource team now). It was HOT, but I had some good helpers both days and ended up having fun. Although I did end up forgetting to put sunscreen on one arm Wednesday and have a wonderful v-shaped burn on my right shoulder. Lovely.

When I haven't been busy with Field Day, I've been working on some TPT products. I am slowly updating them and adding answer keys to all of my literacy packs. Camping and Summer are done! But I also put up three new packs on TPT that each include 12 centers to last all year! I'm doing a pin it to win it and will choose a winner for EACH set! Just click on the images to repin each pack. Then leave a comment below with the link. Please do a separate comment for each pack if you're trying for more than one. I'll choose a winner after midnight on Sunday!

In personal life news, my little nephew graced us with his presence last night! He was born at 7 lbs, 7 oz, and we got to be some of the first to see him! Keagan still hasn't decided what he thinks of having a new little baby in town. He was very good at the hospital, though! Kindles help, especially when the waiting room is too full.

There is a picture of me with the baby, but Steven took it on his phone and tried to text it. Of course, it hasn't come through yet. So you'll just have to see my handsome hubby with the baby instead. He's already trying to corrupt his nephew!

And not only is today Friday the 13th and a full moon, it's also my 30th birthday! I'm actually kind of excited about it. Thirty, flirty, and thriving, right? Anyway, I found a few good laughs to end on in honor of my birthday.

Happy Friday, and don't forget to play in my Pin it to Win it game before midnight on Sunday!!

Tried-it Tuesday - Summer Literacy Packets

Today is my first official day of summer break, and I'm SO excited! We had a teacher workday yesterday which was pretty relaxing for me because I always have my room packed up by the last day of school anyway. I'm a bit of a minimalist and have the packing thing down to an arm form. Part of this is because I just cover all my big furniture and put "DO NOT MOVE" signs on them. There's something fulfilling about packing up my classroom (I think it gives me a sense of closure for the year), and I actually have fun doing it!

Since it's Tuesday, I wanted to link up with Holly. I want to link up more frequently, but sometimes I just have trouble thinking of things. This week, I want to talk about putting together Summer Practice Packs. Since I teach Title I Reading, I work with students who need extra support with their reading. Most of my kids are moving up, but they need to keep up the hard work over the summer to prevent too much of a "summer slide". I decided to put together a simple packet (that does not need to be turned in) to help them have fun practicing their reading this summer. Instead of creating everything on my own this year, I browsed TPT for some activities that were already created.

Blair Turner put together these cute little task cards (which include some math, science, and social studies).

I like these because they were quick things to do to make reading more fun. An example: one card will say something like, "Read a poem in a British accent." or "Put on your pajamas in the middle of the day and read." or "Collect a name of a country for each letter of the alphabet." Simple. Fun. Educational!

If I had had more time with the kids before I sent these home, I would have had the kids color each beach ball and cut them out. As it was, I sent them home (only the reading ones) in the solid sheets of paper to let them put together. Maybe next year I'll pull them to decorate the cards and discuss ways to keep up their reading over the summer.

The other thing I put in their summer packet was a list of book recommendations by reading level. Once again, I browsed the internet to keep from remaking the wheel. This isn't the one I sent home, but I like it because it gives even more recommendations. I highlighted their current reading level on the other sheet, but for this one I would probably reformat and just print one sheet for each reading level. If you want something a little more condensed (to keep from printing multiple pages, this one lists book series by level and I like it a lot, too!

I hope those of you who are still in school have a great last few days! Go link up with Holly, then check out Joanne's 300 follower giveaway!

A few random things on my LAST MONDAY!

**Make sure you read to the end!!**

It's the last Monday for the kids this year, and I'm so excited! Today was supposed to be Field Day #2 and I even made it to school dressed for field day, but we had to postpone again. The weather has been nasty since Friday. Last night, we were actually under a tornado warning. Somebody snapped this picture at the Lowe's not even a mile away from my house.

Our power had flickered, but everything was fine. I think it jumped around a few times, though. We were at my in-law's about 5 miles from our house and noticed it was really windy. I think we were very close to the tornado there. Craziness! Fortunately tornadoes in Virginia are nothing like the ones in the Midwest, though.

Have you heard about Sara's big 1 year celebration? She's had a giveaway every day for the past 5 days, and I'm involved in today's giveaway. Winner will get their choice of any item in my store, and you could choose my brand new summer literacy pack! Sara actually was one of the lovely ladies who reviewed it for me. I posted it in both stores this morning.

TN or TPT

Since I'm not running games today, I will be busy working on end-of-the-year progress reports, and I may even work on packing up my class. I'm dressed to work, after all!

Oh, and if you're still reading...did you see that I've reached 300 followers? So excited! I have a little something planned to celebrate. Just be sure to check out my blog tomorrow.

Five for Friday - June 7

It's a WET Friday, but we only have 5 more school days! I'm linking up with Kacey again to talk about my week so far. Now that testing is finally over, it was actually a more interesting week!

Monday was a personal day for me since we went to Chattanooga for my college roommate's wedding. It was so much fun! I had my camera, but I didn't end up getting any pictures during the wedding because Keagan was quite the handful. We also got to spend a little bit of time in Knoxville visiting Steven's brother and his family. I snapped this picture before we got on the road. These kids are SO sweet, and I wish we could see them more often! Marissa was my flower girl almost 7 years ago, and I can't believe she's about to be in middle school (5th grade for her school), and Jacob was born about a month after Steven and I got engaged. They've grown so much!

When I got back on Tuesday, it was time to get in full swing for running records. My para and I worked on these all day Tuesday and Wednesday, and we're trying to finish helping some more teachers today. Hopefully we'll be done by the end of the day because I want to focus on end of the year packets and progress reports next week.

Wednesday morning right at the end of first lunch, the fire alarm went off. The strange part was that we had had a fire drill the morning before. I figured it was popcorn burning again (isn't that almost always the culprit?), and it turns out I was right!

For some reason, though, the alarm didn't trigger and call the fire department, and there was some confusion with the SRO as to whether it was a drill or an actual incident. The fire department didn't get there until later because of this, and we ended up being outside for about 30 minutes. When I walked back in, they were still in the teacher's lounge with huge fans trying to blow out the smoke/smell. Since this is not the first time we've had this happen (burnt popcorn, that is), these flyers were placed in our boxes and by every microwave in the building that afternoon.

Oops!! Guess I'm not doing a popcorn party anytime soon!

Yesterday was Field Day #1 (for K-2), and I was in charge of running the Sponge Relay. It was the perfect day for a field day! Overcast and warm with a slight breeze. The kids had a blast getting completely soaked!

Today was supposed to be Field Day #2, but...

I should have taken a picture of where I was standing for bus duty. I chose to wear flip flops instead of dealing with my rain boots (regret that decision), so just walking out to bus duty was disgusting. I stood on the sidewalk where the water had already reached the bottom of my feet (it's the lower part of the parking lot) to keep the kids from walking through it. By the time they had passed, only a few minutes later, it was almost to my ankles. I had to quickly roll up my pants to keep them from getting soaked.

We're supposed to go out with our small group tonight to celebrate my birthday (next Thursday) and one of the other guys' birthday, but it's in "the bottom". I really hope it's not flooded down there because I REALLY want some Bottom's Up pizza!

Try to stay dry this weekend if you're in Andrea's path. And for those of you who are already out (and I'm aware that number's growing), I'll be joining your ranks NEXT Friday!!

Five for Friday

So glad that Friday is here again. Only 5 more left before school is out for summer! I'm linking up with Kacey at Doodlebugs Teaching again for her Five for Friday. Enjoy all the pictures this week (I'm so proud at how on top of things I was) because we start testing next Thursday, and that will be the end of picture-taking at school for a while.

I also decided to make these precious little numbers for my post using Kevin and Amanda fonts. Feel free to borrow them if you like!

I was loving some Teacher Appreciation! I posted some pictures from earlier in the week. This was a sweet little Pinterest-inspired gift from one of my students (the one who brought a little treat Monday and Tuesday). I LOVE it! And once again, they were sweet enough to make one for my para as well.

I participated in the TPT sale and was thrilled to buy a few items from my wishlist. Can you tell that summer's on my mind? Click on the pictures to view the items. I'm in love with all of them and can't wait to use the clipart in some fun products! And I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' to share what I bought:

I bought these to send home with my students for the summer. Thinking of cutting them up and putting them in baggies to take home. I may even be nice enough to print them on card stock!

Click on the linky button to see what others bought. I would love to browse and see some of my products!

I got my book order from Amazon when I went to the office on Wednesday! I wanted to buy some great read-alouds that I could use for teaching specific skills. I used Linda Hoyt's Guide to Interactive Read-Alouds to choose some books (and then I picked a few others that I was always searching for/using this year). Since we had $100, I had to choose carefully (plus I needed tape), but I managed to buy 12 books!

Recognize any favorites?

Since 5th grade went on a field trip Tuesday and we had a "wild rumpus" to celebrate reaching our goal for reading month on Thursday, I had time to work on my door. I thought about making it related to testing, but I stop pulling kids next Thursday, and none of the older kids walk by my door (I'm on the kindergarten/1st grade wing - don't ask why). So I decided to make it a cute countdown to the end of the year. Yesterday was 25 days. We're now at 24. So excited to be at a countdown number!

This little man has been quite the ham recently! 

Mommy taught him to stick out his tongue - yes, I'm a bad mommy!

Yesterday we learned that he's starting "pushing epidemics" at the sitter's. Not to be mean, just rough-housing like little boys do. Once he pushes someone, the other kids start pushing as well. So we were asked to work with him on that. Oops!

This morning, he discovered his sunglasses we bought last summer. I had to snap a picture - not the best lighting, but I thought it was cute!

How was your week?