Summertime!

So it has been forever since I've really blogged. This end of the year stuff was killing me. Yesterday was our last day with kids. Monday is a work day but I'm trading it out with a day I worked back in the summer, Tuesday is a half day where kids can pick up report cards, then Wednesday is an inservice day. I'm not excited about the day weds. The county tacked on an extra day for us teachers and I'm none too happy about it. We used all our snow days and then they took away a couple of vacation days and I still think we had a day left. But oh well. What can I do. I think the worst part is they are making us all meet for a training and the training is soooo far from my house. So summer is pretty much here. I've been wanting to link up with Mrs. Jump's Class for her linky party. I'm only a week late to the party.

1. First up is doing some shopping for my classroom from Creative Teaching Press. I was lucky enough to be part of a group of exclusive bloggers to check out their new back to school stuff. Well all that stuff went live a week or so ago. I am late to that party too. These past few weeks have been crazy and I'll explain a little more about it later in this post. But I'm planning on updating somethings using their chevron line.

I love these stickers and I think they'll be perfect for some back to school creating. Be sure to head over to CTP and find some great new things for your classroom.

2. Read! Read! Read! I've been stocking my kindle and my kindle wish list with new books this week in anticipation of the summer. Summer reading is one of my favorite things to do.
I recently purchased these books.

And pre-ordered these two.

The newest Stephanie Plum will be here just in time for my beach trip.

3. Enjoy some quality time with Chris at the beach.  Last year we went to North Topsail Island in North Carolina and we are headed back again this year. We plan our vacation around our anniversary. So we'll be spending our 2nd anniversary at the beach again.

4. Spending time with nieces. For the past 2 summers I've kept my niece Sophie one day a week but now that my sister is working part time, I won't be keeping her officially. But I still plan to hang out as much as I can with my girls.

5. Finish catching up on Downton Abbey. I think I'm on Season 3. I want to have it all watched so I'll be ready for the new season when it comes out.

 I also want to start watching this show on netflix. I've heard good things about it and mindless fun is what summer is all about.

6. Reading Outreach with our public library. Last summer my BFF Cassie and I started a reading program with our library that brought books out into our community. We plan on continuing that fun this summer and hopefully adding the component of checking books out. Bookmobile here we come!

7. Getting materials ready for a new year. I haven't created anything new for TPT in quite a while. I have some projects I've started on but I haven't finished. Then because I loop, I'll be moving up to First grade. So I'll need to get on making some materials to go with our Journeys series in first grade. My fluency homework for kindergarten has been my best seller. I hope to do something similar for First grade. You can check out my kindergarten one here. 

8. Just relaxing and doing not much of anything. I live in the most beautiful place so I plan to take walks and bike rides around my house.

9. Get my craft on. I have pinned all kinds of crafty things and I can't remember the last time I did a craft project. I have been working on a blanket for a while and I'd like to get it finished. I'd also like to get to my sewing machine back out.
You can check out my craft board here and my sewing board here.

10. Lastly and definitely not least, my biggest project this summer is going to be take our guest room and get it ready to be turned into a nursery! Chris and I are expecting our first baby in December. Currently our guest room is full of all kinds of stuff. I had to clean it way out when Chris and I got married and it's time to clean it out even more. I don't know what I'm going to do with all my books. We are thinking of a Hawaiian theme for the nursery. It would work for both a girl or a boy. We have some pictures and a Hawaiian quilt we can hang in there from our Honeymoon. We couldn't be more excited about our news. I have felt pretty yucky the past few weeks and so exhausted which is why I haven't been blogging and have been late to all the parties.

So that's my plan for the summer. We'll see how it goes. I loved my class this year and I'll have them again next year but I'm so ready for this break!
Be sure to head over to Deanna's blog and check out what everyone else is up to.

Five for Friday on Sunday

So Friday we got out of school an hour early because of a parade. I had ever intention of posting this then. But I ran an errand for my mom and then came home and tried to take a nap and it just didn't happen. Then yesterday I really wanted a day to just spend at home getting somethings done. But that didn't happen either. Chris wanted to get the oil changed in one of the cars so off to we both went. By the time I went to get him, it was about a 20 minute drive. So we didn't really want to drive home only to turn around and drive back again. Anyway, I didn't get anything done yesterday but the kitchen cleaned up a bit and to see the new Spiderman. I liked it. But we're kind of comic book geeks in my house. So here I am Sunday morning trying to do too many things including post to my blog.

1. This week was all about the letter u. Which means it was all about underwear. This is our circle map we write every week about our letter. We also read several books about underpants. Like Pirates Like Underpants and Aliens in Underpants.

2. We started our state testing this week. I made treats for the first two days. If you check back later today, I should have a freebie linked up with all the testing treat cards. I've been making them as I go but I hope to finish up the last two this evening. I know there are lots of these as freebies on TPT, but I wanted to be able to fit 6 on the page and to be kind of simple. Plus I have some food allergies so my treats were a little different. I used smarties, starburst, fruit roll ups, and blow pops. Here's a link to the freebie on my TPT Store. 

3. Because it is state testing, we have to cover everything. It is so depressing when everything is covered. Last year, the only available paper was black. This year it is purple. Here's our word wall covered. I keep looking at it to try to remember if a word kids are spelling on their papers is a word wall word, so I can imagine my kids are having trouble. 

4. We have started a 20 days of school countdown. I love all the abc countdowns but with the way our spring break fell we didn't have enough days when we got back. So starting May 1 along with our testing window, we started the countdown. Thursday was bubble day and Friday was game day. We had a blast playing board games. I think it is really important for kids to play games with each other where they have to interact, so I don't let them bring electronic games or get out my iPad and iPods. They had a blast. I helped put a 100 piece puzzle together, played don't break the ice, uno, jenga, candy land, chutes and ladders and more. 

If you would like to see what our countdown looks like, you can click here to see the pdf.  Monday is going to be ice cream day. 

5.  I don't have a last picture. I realized this as I'm finishing the post. I'm a little annoyed with my computer right now because I was trying to edit a screenshot and it never would cooperate. So I'm doing a little shameless self promoting which I usually don't do. I have a giveaway going on right now for Sharing Kindergarten's Math Computer sheets. Be sure to head to this post and enter. They are awesome!

So that's my five for Friday this week. Due to testing, I really didn't do much this week worth documenting. We have testing Monday and Wednesday and then an inservice day Tuesday. So maybe I'll have more to share next week. At least of our fun countdown days. Be sure to head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching and check out the party.