Five For Friday

Ahhh, summer! How I love thee....Yesterday I had NO motivation. I'm talking so little that I didn't even take a shower until 3! Gross, I know. BUT! After my initial freak out and thinking I have SO much to get done, I realized it's only June. You have time. Take a lazy day. So I did. :)

Today I am back on top of my to do list, and I am taking a moment to cross one item off and link up with Doodlebugs Teaching and the weekly Five for Friday linky party.

So here we go...

#1. For Fathers Day this year we got tickets to go to a minor league baseball game. ( The White Caps for those of you familiar with that sort of thing.) My good friend Heather and her family were going with her sons little league team, so we kind of tagged along with them. I actually am the bigger baseball fan in our family ,but Kelly thought it sounded like a fun way to celebrate his day so I didn't feel too bad. :)

It was Peanut's first baseball game and we wanted to gauge whether she was ready to go to a Tigers game. ( She's not.) But we all had a lot of fun and will definitely go to another White Caps game next summer.

 

After the game the kids got to run the bases. Daddy went with Peanut and she did a great job!

 

 

#2 At my school, usually the 2nd week of summer break, we have a teacher institute where we focus on one particular area we need some help with or want to learn about/ work on for the next school year. This years institute was technology integration, specifically with our I Pads. Back in the beginning of May every classroom in my building got an I Pad for use in the classroom! Very exciting, but some of us didn't really know how to use it, or how we were going to incorporate it into our teaching.

 

My grade level team took a look at a Descartes strand for ELA and the MAP data for our incoming students. Then we labeled the strand with our students spring scores.

 







Then we took that data and found the areas that we felt we could use more work in for next year. We made a chart with that and then made a list of different kinds of APPS we wanted to search for. We got A TON accomplished for next year and just became more familiar with our I Pads in general. Plus, I always love hanging out with my grade level team in a more unstructured way.

 

                      

PLEASE excuse the fact that I CLEARLY spelled categorizing wrong on this. I have summer brain! :)

 #3- 5
Spending quality time with my Peanut!
Ok, so I realized after I had all of these pictures on here that they involved food. I swear we are not just sitting around and eating our way through summer break! LOL!

I also wanted to share that there is going to be a Michigan Bloggers Meet Up next Saturday June 29th. I am SUPER excited about it. ( Unfortunately I may not be able to go...boo, silly family vacation! HaHa!) If you want more information and to RSVP check out Christina's blog Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge.

 

                                                          

 

 

Well, that's all from me. I'm off to work on my students photo albums. I'll be back later to tell you more about those!

 

~Jean~



Five For Friday! FINALLY summer edition!

Happy Friday  Saturday Friends!
I started writing this on Friday night but got side tracked ( see below).

I am linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for the weekly Friday Linky Party.

1. Since I was too exhausted/ busy/ barely holding on to my sanity last Friday I never got a chance to share this cute little gift that I made for next years 2nd graders. Every end of school year we do an up/ down day with the 1st and 3rd graders.  The 1st graders come to visit 2nd grade and the 2nd graders go back and visit the 1st grade rooms. Then we do the same with 3rd grade. The 2nd graders get to go see what 3rd grade is like and the 3rd graders come back to see how much they have grown since 2nd grade. This year though, because we knew class lists ahead of time we only switched for our actual students for next year, instead of everybody touring through our room. I really super loved it and it was fun to see my next years students for the rest of the week waving and smiling at me.

So because I was going to get to meet my actual students I decided to get them a little gift so they would be excited about me and 2nd grade. It is a glow bracelet. I can totally do something cuter with the tag ( and will for next year). But its not bad for a spur of the moment thought!

 

2. When I was working on end of the year reports I happened across this little note that one of my peanuts had written to me during her assessment. I had written her back while she was working but I forgot about it....finding that stuff or re-reading notes from them during this time of year always hits me like a ton of bricks....I miss my kiddos!

#3. Wednesday was one of the best days of my life! My sister in law and my best friend and I went to go see Fleetwood Mac in concert! My best friend and I actually saw them EXACTLY 10 years ago to the date of seeing them this time. ( June 12th, 2003! Crazy!) It was amazing! Fleetwood Mac is my ALL TIME FAVORITE band!

This is a horrible picture but it is of Lindsay Buckingham playing his guitar. They had his image blown up on a giant screen behind him. *sigh and swoon*

#4 Now for the reason I got sidetracked! We had my nephew and my niece ( who is also my God daughter) over for a sleepover. Adding 2 extra kids to the mix is always a crazy but fun time. Needless to say I got nothing done. ( Including finishing this blog post.) But look at those faces! Can you blame me? :)

#5 Professional Summer Reading List. The book on the left is my Sitton Spelling book. That is the spelling program we use at our school. This was the first year we used it and now that I have a better understanding of it, I want to review and see what things I can do better for next year. Plus I want to type up the word list to make cards for my word wall. The one on the right is Debbie Diller's math stations book. TRES excited to read that one! I love Debbie Diller and already do Literacy Work Stations based on her book. I am excited now that we are getting a new math curriculum with units to finally be able to implement some of her station ideas.

 

 

Before I go I wanted to let you know about an awesome giveaway that I am a part of. My very best bloggy buddy Angela over at Hippo Hooray for 2nd Grade is having a 3 day giveaway to celebrate 300 followers! So stop over and check that out!

                                              

 

Well, that's all for me. Now that my online class is officially finished I will finally have time to create again! Happy summer to me!

Quick Tips Linky #4

Happy Thursday Friends!

I am back today with my Classroom Quick Tip. For those of you that don't know. Angela and I started Classroom Quick Tips to get back to what we loved about blogging: the sharing of idea's. And let me tell you, we have gotten some GREAT ones from this linky party. If want to link up with us we would LOVE that. The only thing we ask is that you do not link up with a paid product. ( Freebies are ok and welcome!) Oh, and please post our button so others can join in on the fun as well. :)

Ok, so on to my quick tip.

This is actually one that I "stole" from one of my team members.

Last week I shared with you how I store my bulletin board letters and numbers. If you missed it you can check it out HERE.

This week I am going to share with you how SHE stores her bulletin board letters and numbers because it is pretty genius as well. :)

She has her letters separated not by color but by letter.

A couple of years ago, she had a parent volunteer who punched out, laminated, cut out, and sorted ALL of her letters.

She has all of her numbers in one big bag.

 

And all of her baggies are stored in one plastic tub in her closet.

 



So that is my quick tip for the week.

 

Angela and I have had a lot of fun hosting this linky. But we figured with most of our fellow bloggers out of school for the summer we should put this on hiatus. We'll be back middle/ end of August to start this back up.

 

Until then, have a quick tip to share? Link up with us below.

 

 

 



Currently: June!



 

Happy Saturday Friends! I hope yours has been more exciting than mine! I spent 5 hours at school today working on end of the year "stuff"...making sure that writing binders were organized and ready to go, working on my presentation for my new 2nd graders that are coming to visit on Monday, getting our end of the year booklets and summer work packets ready to go... PHWEW!

 



 

Taking a moment to do something fun and linking up with Farley for her monthly Currently linky party.

 



I know it is a little hard to see, but my cutie cute font is by Rowdy in Room 300. It is Rowdy Summer Fun! You can check it out HERE.

LOVING: My bestie raided my Pinterest board and got me these for my birthday. ( Only my scarf has my initials in yellow.)


OBSESSED!


THINKING: So even though I spent 5 hours in my room today, there is still SO MUCH TO DO before Friday. I will pretty much live at school this week to get everything done.

WANTING: I can not WAIT to hit up the local flea markets this summer to find some " junk". Both of my grandpa's were junk sale lovers and they both helped to inspire my love of antiques/ junk/ and sales in general. It is fun to pass that love on to Peanut.

NEEDING: Yes, my reading assessment class has been beneficial. But it is sucking EVERY LAST OUNCE of time out of my life. I have a list of about 20 things I want to make or do and I can't because I just do not have time. I NEED to be creative again!

3 VACAY ESSENTIALS: Pretty self explanatory. All the things that make life great....my kid, some good food, and a good book and I am pretty set. :)

That's all for me. Have a great night and enjoy the rest of your weekend!