Five for Friday on Saturday

Well I survived the first six weeks of school. Unfortunately, my blog did not. But I took some pictures this week and my sweet girl is sleeping so I thought I would share a few things from the week. I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her weekly party.

1. This week was all about pets. We used Jennifer at First Grade Blue Skies Directed Drawing pack to draw pictures of dogs on Friday. I think they turned out great. This is a great pack if you haven't checked it out. The week before we did dinosaur but I forgot to take any pictures. We have been working on the sight words I, like, and the and writing sentences with spaces. So we wrote a sentence together to put on the picture.

2. Since we were talking pets and my husband is a veterinarian, he came to talk to the kids. He brought a few animals for them to check out too. It was great. They got to pet a dog, see the cat Martha and the parakeet Beaker. The kids really enjoyed it and bragging on my hubby he does a great job with the kids.

3.  This week the kids got to do a science lesson on germs with our eighth grade students. I teach in a K-8 school. I love the opportunities that can be created for students. The eighth grade science teacher is a former primary teacher and her daughter is in Kindergarten this year. So she asked k-2 teachers if they wanted to participate. It was fun and the 8th graders did a great job. They used glitter and lotion to show the spread of germs. Then they colored their own germ and pledged to wash their hands. I think the plan is to try to do these lessons once a month. 

4. This picture of our door is from a week or two ago. We had our book fair and the theme was monsters. So since my class theme is superheroes I went with The Hulk. Well actually my husband went with the Hulk. He made the door for us. I'm all about kids making stuff like this but I just couldn't handle it at this point in the school year. I had too much going on. I did let them color books.

 5. So I have been on the GoNoodle bandwagon for a while. But I was on maternity leave last year when Pop See Ko was released so this past few weeks have been my first pop see ko experience. The kids love it and I love anything that gets their energy out. We are crazy about GoNoodle!

I'm going to leave you with an extra picture of my sweet girl. I took a selfie of us yesterday before I went to school and she went to a friend of ours. She stays with some friends on Fridays. She loves it because she gets to hang out with her bestie. My friend has 3 girls and the youngest is 2 months younger than Sus.

Hopefully I'll be back again to share some more about what we are doing in the classroom. I would love to know what you are doing. So be sure to check out the linky party at Doodle Bugs!

Five for Friday

I can't believe it is already this far into July. School will be starting in a little over a month. I have such mixed feelings about it all. There is a part of me that is excited for a new school year and getting back into working again. But then I know I'm going to miss my sweet girl more than I can imagine. She has been my companion for the past 6 months. I have only left her a few times. (She wouldn't take a bottle so that didn't help out at all) We are trying to figure out childcare and that has been a nightmare. I just have to trust that it will all work out. I'm linking up this week with Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching for her weekly party.

1. I finally made it to Target not just once but twice now. The closest target is about an hour and half away so I alway enjoy when I can get to the dollar spot. I got some pretty good things. Here's my haul:

The dollar spot is my go to for name tags. I try to stock up on them when they have them. Then I don't have to worry about throughout the school year. I also found some puzzles and board books.

2. My sweet girl has started sitting up from the floor on her own now. We need to get on the baby proofing soon. She'll be crawling before I know it.

3. Sunday I posted a linky party all about advice for teacher mamas. It is open until the end of the month I would love for you link up with your advice. I'm so nervous about trying to balance it all.  Head over and leave your advice or add your link. 

4. I have been working on a color unit for about 2 weeks now. I'm still not done but I'm so excited about it. I took the things that I do each year with colors and turned into an awesome unit. There are play doh mats, books, and crafts to go with each color. Hopefully I'll get it finished this week. When you are trying to get everything done in a small amount of time (nap time), you do what you can.

5.  I read a couple of middle grade books this past week that I really enjoyed. They were Wonder and Mockingbird. I have seen Wonder on other older grade blogs, but this was the first time I read it. They both were great for giving an insight into how kids are different are treated. The main character in Mockingbird has Asbergers and it offered a unique perspective on how our kids see the world.

I am brainstorming a new series for my blog called "In my class" where I write about how I teach different concepts in the classroom. Some ideas that I have are phonics, sight words, centers/reading groups, morning meeting/calendar, and behavior management. Anything else you would like to read about?
So that's all for me this week! I'm so excited, my mom, sister, niece, sweet girl, and I are going to the farmer's market in the morning. I can't wait. There is a local dairy that I follow on Instagram that posts all this yummy goodness I can't wait to try.
By the way, do you follow me on instagram. You should. I post more about my personal life, teaching, reading, and such. Check me out here.

Five For Friday

Well I set a goal for myself to blog three times a week and this week I just haven't done well with that goal. I'm not even sure what I've been doing this week. Oh yeah! Getting ready for VBS.
I can always count on the Five for Friday linky party at Doodle Bugs Teaching to get a blog post in.

So here's what I've been up to this week.

1. My sister has been working part time since she had my youngest niece, so this summer I've been taking advantage of that and spending Tuesday with my sis and my girls. These two are a mess. Soph is pretty interested in my belly and what is growing in it. She is convinced it is a girl and wants to name her Flower or Rose. Ck has been growing so much this summer. She's five months old and is trying so hard to crawl but instead looks like she's swimming.

2. Vacation Bible School starts on Sunday at my church. We don't do things like other churches and buy a kit for VBS. My pastor and hubby work together to come up with a theme and then Chris writes skits for each night. This year it is all about Sci-Fi with a Doctor Who flair. Monday and Tuesday we worked on decorating our Sunday School room to do some taping for the skits. This is my handiwork, covering the robot in aluminum foil. Chris is trying the costume on. VBS should be a lot of fun. I'm working with crafts so I've been busy with the other group members to get all our crafts together. All I can say is thank goodness for Pinterest. 

3. Our reading outreach program with our public library is going really well this summer. We started with 10 kids the first week and this past week which was our fourth week, we had 20 kids. It has been amazing. I'm am so proud that our local library lets us take books out in the community and allows kids to check them out. I'm also so proud of how the teachers I work with are willing to give up time in their summer to read with the kids.  This little girl is 3 or 4 years old and she has been so interesting to watch. 

 4. I finally finished a Teachers Pay Teacher project for the summer.  If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that I loop. Last year I was in kindergarten and we adopted the Journeys reading series. I created materials to use with it for homework and word work. So this summer the plan was to create what I needed for First grade. So far, I've been slow going. But I did get this big project done. It has activities for each lesson and every sight word in the series. You can check it out on TPT here. 

5. I finally finished a project I brought home over Thanksgiving break. Organizing my Kindergarten Journeys materials and my letter work into notebooks. But it didn't happen. I just kept adding to the crate until it was a crazy mess. I finally started the project this past week. I organized all the papers and then this week I put all my Journeys Kindergarten stuff in a notebook. It is organized by lessons with homework and sight word work. I don't have a cute cover for it or anything but I need to!

So that's what I've been up to this week. I've got to get my rear in gear and get some things done today. Like starting on my homework pack for next year and finishing up the bookshelves I was organizing in the soon to be nursery. Be sure to head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching and check out the rest of the party.

Five for Friday: Beach Addition

I hadn't planned on linking up this week since I'm on vacation. But I'm awake and Chris is not so here I am. 

If I am being real honest, this summer you will probably see more personal stuff than teachery stuff. At least for a little bit, this is just where I'm at. This week marks my twelfth week of pregnancy and the end of my first trimester. So my brain is really on home mode and baby mode and just relaxing. Hopefully that will be ok with you guys! If not, well don't read. Anyway, so here are  some pictures from the week.

1. This has been my view all week. I am not sleeping great so usually I get up and sit on the porch for a little bit and check things out on the iPad before Chris gets up. Today is our last day.

2. We celebrated our 2 year anniversary. There is this restaurant we like here called The Bistro. They have great food, great drinks(not for me). And delicious dessert. But they were closed Monday so we went Tuesday! Here is my present from Chris. I have been wanting a bracelet like this for a while but he did a great job picking out the beads. The pearly one is for my birthstone and the turquoise one is for the baby's and his. 

3. I posted Tuesday about the books I had read so far. I think my total for this trip is 8 books and I'm working on the 9th. Here are a couple more I read and enjoyed. 

This is part of the Stephanie Plum series. I love this series. Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter who has 2 love interest who are equally appealing, a side kick who used to be a prostitute, and a hilarious grandmother. She lives in New Jersey and has a knack for getting in trouble. Love these. I read this one in a morning. 

This one is a young adult book I read about on someone's blog. I enjoyed it greatly. The main character Georges is easy to love as he navigates some big changes to his life. 

I have been wanting to read this one for a while but didn't really want to buy it. No idea why not, but Chris finished his books he brought and we had to take a trip to Barnes and Noble to get him something else to read. So I picked it up and started it last night. So far I'm intrigued.

4. While we've been on vacation we've been discussing the nursery and what to do with all our stuff. Here are a couple of things I pinned for some inspiration.

We're going with a Hawaiian Beach theme. I'm in love with this mobile and hopefully will be able to recreate it.

5. This picture is technically from last week of my baby bump. I think it has gotten bigger this week. So weird how it pops out. I haven't taken a new picture yet.

So that's my Five For Friday. Be sure to head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching and check the party out! 

Five for Friday

It is my first Friday of the summer and there is no better way to celebrate than linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. It has been a while since I linked up. End of school and first trimester exhaustion has just been too much. 

1.  I tried out Jamberry nails for the first time this week and loved them. I just bought one set to see if I liked them. But I didn't really want my toes and my nails to match. I definitely need some practice with application.

2.  Technically I have only been on summer break two days but the last day with kids was a week ago. My favorite thing to do in the summer is read. I've read these three books in the past week and a half. Loved them all. I'm working my way through the In Death Series by JD Robb. I'm trying to read them in order so it is slow going. 

3.  Chris and I are dog sitting for my parents for a few days. Ellie Mae has been sulking since my parents left but this sweet girl cheered her up with some head scratching. I spent my first day of Summer with one of nieces and had a blast. She is one funny, smart, sweet girl!

4. I posted this picture on Instagram this week. One of my teaching friends gave us our first baby present and then we bought the rocking chair at a fundraiser.

5. I don't have a fifth picture from this week, so I looked back through some pictures and found this. Soph drew it a while back and it was the first time I had seen her draw something more than scribbles. When she drew it she said it was Chris but then when she saw it again it was her mom. I'm do amazed all the time with her development and how much she has learned. 

So that's my five for Friday! Be sure to head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching and check out everyone else's.