My Summer Bucket List

To celebrate the end of the school year, I am going to link up to a fun linky party!  Three teachers who I love to blog stalk follow are hosting a Summer Bucket List Linky Party!  (I have to fess up--my husband makes so much fun of the phrase "linky party." I don't get it either, but I guess it's just a teacher think! :)

I will admit, I am PRETTY excited about this summer.  It is the first summer in 4 years where I haven't been pregnant, nursing, pregnant with a toddler, puking my guts up from said pregnancy, nursing with a toddler in the house, or just too dang tired to do much of anything.  I have a lot on my agenda (both personally and professionally), but here are the top 5 things I want to do this summer.

1.  Potty train this little diva.  

I have loved every stage that my children have gone through so far, but the sooner my precious last child is out of diapers, the better.  Porter (my son) was so easy to potty train.  Maybe it was because he was a boy.  Maybe it's because we live in the country.  Maybe it's because he has such a sweet demeanor.  Whatever it was, I hope Claire is just as easy!

2.  Visit IKEA

I'm ashamed.  I'm ashamed to admit I have never been to IKEA.  There is one just a few hours away from me.  I feel like I haven't reached my full potential as a human being.  Sad stuff.  

A few of my teacher pals have talked about hijacking our district mini bus and high-tailing it to Ohio so we can feel fulfilled in life.  Okay, so we won't really hijack it, and we probably really won't even take a mini bus, but we are planning on making the trip. :)

Seriously though, I am pumped about this.  I want to stock up on functional things for my home and classroom.  One of my apartments in college was furnished with IKEA furniture.  While I wouldn't want it in my house, it would be PERFECTION for my classroom.  

3.  Paint my classroom

My classroom is my haven.  I love everything about it.  Well, almost.  Here is what it looked like almost completed at the beginning of the school year.

I love so many things about my classroom (the HUGE, ugly alphabet and number circle is NOT on my list of things I love about my room).  I want to freshen it up a lot bit and make it brighter and more inviting.  My district will pay for the paint if we paint it ourselves.  Suggestions wanted and welcomed! :)

4.  Be crafty, crafty, crafty!

Everyone who knows me knows that I am a little obsessed with the Hob Lob.  I love making things, whether it is for my classroom, my home, or for a friend.  The glue gun is my BFF, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  Burnt fingertips and all.  Here are some of the beauties I would like to make this summer:

Source:  Etsy  

GOOO HOOSIERS!!!

Source:  Pinterest

I can see this hanging in our sitting room!  I can also see paint being found in various nooks and crannies for years to come after making this with my angels.  :)

Source:  Anne the Adventurer

I want to make this for my classroom.  Loving the chevron!

Source:  Peace, Love, and First Grade

I love this.  I tried this on one half of my bulletin board at the beginning of this year.  Yes, one half.  After an hour of working and forty eleven staples, I ripped it down, cause ain't nobody got time for dat.  But it's cute.  It's really stinkin' cute.  This will be done this year.  I think going with a green background with pink border throughout my room.  Or maybe visa versa.  Either way, I think that will look like perfection. :)

5.  Spend as much time as I can enjoying and loving on these babies.

These are my babies.  They are my whole entire world.  I don't know what life was like before them.  My daughter, Claire, is 2 and full of spunk and sassiness.  She loves for Mommy to paint her nails and braid her hair.  My son, Porter, is 4 and the sweetest, most gentle soul.  He loves superheroes, Legos, and his iPad.  We all know teaching is a profession that is so tough at times for various reasons.  There is no other profession I would rather have than teaching.  I don't see it as a job; I see it as a great pleasure that I get to do every day.  However, there are many days when I would give anything to just be able to be Mommy.  I know, I know.  In just a few years, both of them will be at school with me every day, and life will be grand.  But these guys are awesome, and I sometimes feel like I miss out on a lot because I work.  I love my job and would never give it up, even if we hit the lottery and I could retire at 30 to be on the Real Housewives of Southern Indiana {it needs to happen}.  Being able to just be Mommy for a few months is the reason I so look forward to summer.  So here's to weekday snuggles; watching Dora for three hours on rainy days; water fights; picnics; trips to the zoo; vacation to the beach; scratching backs at nap time; making grilled cheese, hot dogs, PB&J, and whatever else they can think of to making me feel like a short-order cook; painting fingernails; taping Lego movies for my 4 year old to upload to YouTube (yes, I just said that... another blog entry in and of itself...); and getting to spend every minute of every day with my babies.

So there you have it, friends.  My summer bucket list.  Oh, but how could I forget the most important one...  BE PART OF A FLASH MOB.  It. Needs. To. Happen.

Whoa Nelly! I'm BACK!!!

Well, it has been a BAJILLION years since I last blogged.  I have been SO BUSY keeping up with my Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teacher, and so on...  My poor little cute blog has suffered.  I plan to change that!

Anyway, we are full-swing in weather mode!  On Monday, we studied clouds.  We read It Looked Like Spilled Milk by Charles Shaw.  We then watched a video from my My Big Campus bundle on clouds.  The kiddos loved learning about cumulus, cumulonimbus, stratus, and cirrus clouds.  I made this cute little anchor chart (inspired by the amazing Abby at The Inspired Apple).

The kids loved it!  After we labeled each cloud, the kids put on their thinking caps to make cotton ball clouds and write about them.  Here are some of those sweet babies' works of art!

" My cloud is cumulonimbus.  It looks like a potato."

"My cloud is cumulonimbus.  It looks like Si." {Nothin' like a little Duck Dynasty love!}

On Tuesday, we began our Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs book study.  The kids began to write their very own versions of this classic story.  Unfortunately, I totally forgot to take a picture!  We will be finishing them up tomorrow, so hopefully I can remember to break out the camera. :)

We also studied the water cycle.  I used a lot of ideas from Cara Carroll's weather unit.  We made an anchor chart of the water cycle, and then the kids labeled their own water cycle.  We also watched another video from my MBC bundle.  Here are some of the pictures:

Our anchor chart

Student version

Today, I was in meetings most of the morning.  This afternoon, we did our Scholastic Weekly Reader about wind.  Does anyone else get a subscription to this?  If so, you can access SO MANY resources from this site to go along with your Weekly Reader.  My kids love everything about that site!  It has made the Weekly Reader so much more engaging and INTERESTING to the kids!  I'm all about that!

Now for a FREEBIE!  I have mentioned My Big Campus a couple of times in this post.  My district has an account for each teacher.  In older grades, the students use it for everything.  It is an awesome tool for those kiddos!  For the youngins', it is a great way to deliver digital content (such as YouTube videos) without all the hassle.  Since I am blessed to have a set of 7 iPads in my class, I often use QR codes to help my sweeties easily access content I want them to view.  

QR codes are AWESOME for little ones.  All you need is a device, a QR code reader app, and a QR code.  Each week, I create a bundle on MBC that goes with our unit.  There are so many wonderful resources on the Internet--I found just a few on weather that I thought my students would love and created this nifty little QR code.  Click the picture to get it for free!

Tomorrow is a huge day for our class.  Christie Dutton from Wave 3 will be visiting our class to discuss being a meteorologist!  

Next week is SPRING BREAK {squeals}...  When we get back, we will be in full-court basketball mode.  I created a sweet little unit and posted it to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  Check it out!

Two Days In a Row!!! :)

This makes day number two of posting on my blog!  Yay for me! :)

As I mentioned yesterday, this week our kindergarten classes at my school are learning about community helpers.  To be honest, the first few weeks of school, our units consist of mostly reading about the topics.  Back to school time is chaotic insane, and our sweet babies just learning to come to school.  Our units tie into learning routines, procedures, how to be a good friend, getting to know you, etc.  Our first big unit is our apple unit, which is next week.  We have TONS of fun stuff planned for that...  But back to community helpers...

We have been focusing mainly on police officers and firefighters.  Today, the assistant chief from our local department came to talk to the three kindergarten classes on what he does in a day.  And the kids also...drum roll...got to see his police car.  Here are a couple of pictures:

My babies loved it!

Funny story of the day though...  One of my sweeties was standing back from the police car with his hands covering his eyes.  I thought for sure that when Mr. Policeman set off the sirens that he had gotten scared.  I asked him what was wrong, and, in his deep, southern twang said, "I don't like that car.  It's a FORD!!!"  :)  Those kids crack me up! :)

I'll post some pictures of our apple activities starting next week.  I am really excited to share them with you!

Whoa!!!

School has been in session for almost a month, and I have yet to update my blog. :)  My professional goal of keeping my blog updated has not been too successful so far, but I am working on it!  

This week, we are learning about community helpers.  I am so excited to have a real police officer visit our classroom tomorrow, and on Friday, a real firefighter will be visiting our class.  I'm sure my Kindergarten Kids will be PUMPED to see them, not to mention get to see their car and truck. :)

I'm really hoping to get some pictures of things we've done in class on here ASAP.  

Check back next week for our first big unit--Apples!