Five for...School's Out for the Summer!

It does not even seem real yet.

I checked out on Thursday. Spent yesterday shopping with my hubby. And now here I sit on a Saturday, trying to believe I do not have to work next week!

So...I've got a few fun pictures for this week's Five for Friday post.

1

I love adding in some exciting projects at the end of the year to keep my kiddos engaged. They really enjoyed using computers to type their animal research papers!

2

We took a field trip to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.

This sweetie thought he should read in the one room school house. :-) 

3

I'm trying to organize my new open shelving in my laundry room. I'd like to try something like this for my liquid detergent. 

Has anyone tried it? 

I've read that some of them get "clogged" and don't work well... 

4

New position = new space.

As I explained in this post, things are changing for me next year.

I'm moving from 2nd grade/K-2 science teacher to the Title I teacher (reading specialist). I'm very excited about the change, but I have a lot of work ahead of me.

This office will be my new "space" for most of the day. My time will be split between two buildings so I have another office there to set up and organize as well. 

5

We had some extra time the other day so I broke out the puzzles. It is always interesting to me and a little sad to see that some kiddos really don't know how to do a puzzle or where to start. They always enjoy the challenge though!

Bonus

Happy Summer to me! 

A new laptop means I will get lots of work done this summer, right?

I hope so...a little TPT and hopefully a whole lot of writing!

End of the Year Craziness = More Than Five for Friday!

Hey there! 

How are you holding up? Are you done yet? Still plugging along?

I have 8 more days...which is especially painful after my FB memory this morning was from the last day of school last year! Now don't misunderstand, I love my kiddos, but this teacher is completely past end of the year teacher tired. ;-)

So tired, apparently, that I completely spaced the Wisdom post on Wednesday. Sorry about that. It did not even cross my mind until last night! Kristi says that I have to make up for it by posting for the next six months. LOL! 

Anyway, all this end of the year craziness that is wearing me out has at least given me PLENTY of pictures for Five for Friday.

Let's get started, shall we?

1

Prairie Day!

Our little rural school is in the heart of the Flint Hills, and we received this map exhibit as part of an effort to give students a deeper understanding of the place where they live. 

The Flint Hills Map & Education Center gave a presentation earlier in the year at an inservice and encouraged teachers to try more place-based learning. As the K-2 science teacher, I felt like I needed to give it a try.

Fortunately, one of the teachers with many of the lessons on the website is one of our own former teachers. She agreed to come out of retirement for the day and help with Prairie Day! We had six rotations throughout the day where students learned about the Flint Hills, prairie grasses and plants, old sod houses, and prairie wildlife. Next week, we will visit the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve for our field trip.

2

Balloon Countdown

Yes, I do a countdown.

No, I am not a bad teacher.

Sorry, I get tired of some of the "articles" I see floating around on social media.

Every year, I do a balloon countdown. Inside each balloon is a special activity or treat for my kiddos to enjoy. It makes the last 10 days a fun way to celebrate a great year together (it also could be considered bribery for good behavior). 

I had to miss our first balloon this year for a teacher training. :-(

But I prepped the kids and they handled it well. So far, we have had Bubble Gum Day and Art Day.

3

Mother's Day

We baked muffins for our moms and made these cute paintings.

4

Team Builder

I organized a painting party for our staff. Due to busy schedules this time of year, I included some other people too (i.e. my daughter on the left). We had a fun time and I liked my painting until I say hers... ;-)

5

Farm Day

Our FFA teacher and members put together a great Farm Day where we got to learn about farm equipment and animals. We also made ice cream (baggie method) and planted flowers. 

  

Bonus

Date Night

Nice weather means we get the hotrod out for date night...only this time we had a little trouble. Thankfully, this guy knows his engines. We coasted to the parts' store. He bought a new alternator, put it on, and away we went. My daughter has decided she should marry a mechanic too. :-)

That about covers it! 

Hope you have a wonderful, rest-filled weekend!

Five for Friday - Push and Pull, Sidewalk Spelling, and Getting Orgnaized

Hey there!

It is a cold, dreary, rainy day here. Perfect day for curling up on the couch and doing a whole lot of nothing. I did try to muster up the "motivation" to at least go price some wood for my next home project, but even that didn't seem so appealing as I stood at the door and thought of running to my truck in the pouring rain. So I settled back on the couch and here I am...

Here's a peek at my week Five for Friday style:

1

I just love the way I have been able to teach science this year! Our little school has kind of a creative schedule without anyone to teach "specials" and in the past my prep time for teaching K-2 science was nonexistent. This year, I get a few minutes during morning recess to get ready and I have been able to prepare and do so many more fun activities. 

Here are some pics from a Push and Pull activity we did (idea from here):

2

I bought sidewalk chalk for my kiddos a LONG time ago with the intention of doing some sidewalk spelling. We finally had a nice enough day on Monday to go for it. When they were done spelling, of course, we had time for free drawing. 

3

This is my favorite thing from this week--a new calendar and message board in the teachers' workroom! I had this crazy idea because during our lunch period, we are always making plans and then forgetting to tell someone who wasn't there at the time. I shared my idea with two of our amazing paras and they did the work to get it done in time for this busy time of year. Did I mention they are amazing? 

4

We had an extra FUN Friday yesterday because I broke out the paints and brought a washers game from home.

These paint trays are awesome!

5

Each year, our students make a quilt square and we have a wonderful lady who turns it into a beautiful quilt. The quilt gets auctioned off at our spring program. This year we did one with our school colors and mascot. It turned out great!

Have a great rest of your weekend (hope you get some sunshine)!

P.S. Does anyone else think Apple sabotages your old phone camera in an effort to make you upgrade? My pictures used to be AMAZING and now...ugh! Maybe I'm just crazy, but...

Five for Friday--A Whole Lot of Random!

Happy Friday (a day early)!

If you are like me (and are off tomorrow), all day today felt like Friday and you are completely confused.

For some reason, I could not wrap my mind around that!

Add to that Spring party day, and I was completely confused. 

Really.

This was a real conversation this morning...

Student: "Yay! It's party day!"

Me: "What? What party? 

Student: "Easter party!"

Me: "Rrrrriiiigggghhhhttttt." (said slowly, as I thought, Is that today?)

Thankfully, our PTO is in charge of getting room parents who will plan parties, so I knew everything was fine for the actual party.

Despite my confusion, I did manage to snap some pictures to share this week (two of which made this teacher do the happy dance). 

Kacey even has the linky ready early!

1

 I have a cabinet of games (inherited from previous teacher) that we pull out for Fun Friday. This is my fourth year at this school and this is the first time my students were curious enough to open up a bag that was unmarked. They were excited to put together and play this bean bag toss game. :-)

2

Let's just say last week didn't go so well... 

However, I'm happy to report that with me being EXTREMELY consistent (sometimes that is so hard--can I get an amen?), we had a much better week!

3

This was such an exciting moment, I had to snap a picture! 

I had a student actually transfer what we have been learning about open number lines to his counting coins on his HOTSHOT!

WOOHOO!

P.S. Open Number Lines task cards came from Blair Turner.

4

These boys were actually choosing to read during our Spring party! We are having a friendly AR competition between the boys and the girls, and right now the boys are behind. The party games didn't last quite long enough, so everyone was working on some Easter coloring pages. These three opted to read instead. Insert heart emoji here. :-)

5

Our church recently hosted a ladies retreat for about 300 ladies. I had my table set up in the craft room to sell copies of my Bible study, There's a Fly in my Tea! The retreats are always a good time and the messages were wonderful. It was also fun to meet people who had been reading the study and those that were seeing it for the first time. I pray daily for those who are reading it--that it would be a blessing and an encouragement to them. If you are interested in my writing, please visit me here.

That does it! I'm officially ready to start my long weekend!

It is going to be a wonderful weekend to celebrate The Risen Savior!

Five for Friday - Peek at my Week!

Happy Weekend!

I'm linking up with Kacey again to give you a peek at my week.

1

I missed last week's post, but I think I had a good reason. Our volleyball team (I'm the assistant coach and my daughter plays) made it to the state tournament! We played pool play Friday and advanced to Saturday. We lost a close one in the semi-final match and then played flat in the 3rd place match to come away with 4th. It wasn't the finish I had hoped for, but I'm still thankful for a fun 40-5 season with these girls!

#6 is my niece. She missed the Saturday games because she was running in the state cross country meet. It was tough on her and the team! The girls carried her jersey around all day and took pictures with it.

2

After such a big weekend, I was feeling pretty rough on Sunday and Monday. I was exhausted, fighting some sinus bug, and my back was out either from sleeping in the hotel or cheering so much for the girls. Yes, that last one reminds me of how old I really am. ;-)

Even though I was feeling awful, I survived the Halloween party on Monday! I dressed up as a "coach" so I could be comfortable in sweat pants. #Lame #ButSweatsMakeMeFeelBetter

Check out these cute Capri-Sun drinks one of the moms brought:

3

And this is me the next day...it was the first day I had to "dress up" for work in a week (thanks to Red Ribbon week and Halloween) and I was definitely struggling. Ha!

4

The election is fast approaching (I'd love to end this sentence with an exclamation mark, but I don't think this election has left most American voters--including me--too excited.). I've spent the last couple weeks teaching about our government, election process, and the U.S. Symbols. We will have a mock election on Tuesday and then keep right on moving into Veterans Day activities this week.

These activities are from this Social Studies interactive notebook pack. I'm glad I figured out a way to use them even though we don't do INBs for Social Studies!

5

 This is the mess I make when I'm preparing for a sub. Ugh! 

I'm headed to an Autism Conference on Monday. I'm very excited to learn more about how to help autistic students be successful in the classroom. 

6 or Bonus, I guess...

I was so excited to sleep in and have nothing planned on a Saturday that I had to snap a screen shot of the time when I woke up. 

I love coaching volleyball, but I miss my Saturdays at home! We had tournaments every Saturday (except for one) since the beginning of the season so this was long overdue! :-)

Have a great weekend!