EOY: Beach Party

It's been so long since I've had the opportunity to write a blog post! My district went hybrid back in October, back to all virtual in December, then FULL TIME... every student, five days a week beginning in February. By the time that happened I had had 1 of 2 vaccine shots so I felt a little better about having 20 second graders in my classroom all day long. Where we learn, eat breakfast, lunch and snack and even have music. It's a lot to adjust to. Luckily, I have not had any student that needed to quarantine during this time so I could focus my time on planning classroom lessons and not planning for students at home as well. 

This school year is winding down and I'm planning our end of the year party. In the past, I've done a Hawaiian Luncheon where I made hawaiian Meatballs, ham and turkey sandwiches on hawaiian sweet rolls. The days of me cooking for my students are gone and due to Covid restrictions our classroom party this year will look different.

I decided to have a Beach Party. Students will dress is beach/ tropical attire and I plan to decorate the room, Party City has some great items. Here are the activities I have planned:

• eat beach themed snacks (Pinterest has tons of ideas)
• play board games
• Kidz Bop 2021 Dance Party

End of the Year Memory Bracelets

Ocean Coloring Book

Build a Sandcastle

How are you planning to celebrate the end of this unprecedented school year?

Photo Friday 1*6*17

I first saw this idea on Facebook. Learning in Wonderland had shared the photo below and I fell in love!  

Katie Mense from Little Kinder Warriors created the inserts for these mugs. I found the file in her TpT store for $5. I'm purchasing my mugs from Hobby Lobby (mainly because I have gift cards to this store). They are $.87 a piece. That would make them $10.44 for a dozen. Many people were purchasing theirs from Oriental Trading, but I saw they were $16.99 a dozen. As you can see in the top picture, the one from Hobby Lobby worked just fine. I simply threw the inserts that came with it away and printed off one from the file, cut it out and viola... a super cute gift! 

They'd make a great Christmas gift with a packet of hot cocoa, I missed that window. Even thought about Valentine's Day, with the cocoa and a card that says "You make my heart melt...". But I think my students would also appreciate them as End of the Year gifts. What do you think?

Ending Year 12

Year 12 was a challenging year for me. I've figured out that the every year I have a medical issue is a year that I find challenging. While previously suffering from ovarian tumors and uterine fibroids... this year I had a migraine headache every day for 3 months straight... all because of a blood pressure medication switch. Once we got that figured out, everything was back to normal... but I guess it still wasn't enough for some people. This was my first and last year teaching the "gifted cluster." Meaning 1/3 to 1/2 of my students were identified gifted in English, Math or both. This was new territory for me as I've also taught the special education collab class. I informed my admin that I was not willing to teach the gifted students next year so now I have been assigned a "noncluster." Which means my students haven't been identified as ESOL, LD or Gifted.

 

I struggled in two main areas this year, 1- Knowing I'm appreciated and feeling appreciated. I know that I'm appreciated for my efforts but for some reason I really struggled with feeling that way. I still haven't quite figured out why, not sure what the change was this school year but I just didn't feel appreciated. 2- Not being good enough for "man" but being more than qualified by God. This year as left me feeling insecure in my ability as an educator but a good friend told me that a moment of favor by God can get me further than any schooling or degree ever could. At the end of the day, I did the best I could for my students and let me tell you, the students who came to me reading on a first and second grade level all left on a third grade level so that just reminds me that in spite of all the criticism, my students made progress and that's all that matters.

  Now lets look at my end of the year in pictures...

I completed my first 5K, the Bubble Run, this June. It sounds like fun... running through bubbles, but I almost suffocated and died in those bubbles so I probably won't be back!

This is me and my husband at the finish line.

I had the pleasure of mentoring a brand new teacher and this is her and I at the Beginning Teacher Awards Banquet.

This is me and my "team BFF", you know we all have one, on Market Day, we bought some cool photo booth props to pose with.

This is me and my best friend on the second to last day of school. #straightouttalessonplans

This is me on the last day of school... yes it says "We out... Harriet Tubman 1849". That's exactly how I felt... I'm out!

This is the meme I sent my coworkers when an email went out saying no one could leave the building until a cume file was found. "Hello... 911... we have a hostage situation." Needless to say after the busses left... so did I!

This was me this morning on the way to get lab work done for my blood pressure. Have you heard of LuLaRoe? It's a clothing line... similar to a cult... once you start wearing them, you get addicted. Anyway this is the "Randy" shirt. It says "We the People." I bought it for Constitution Day, but couldn't wait to wear it!

Remember when I asked if you had heard of LuLaRoe... well this is me rocking their buttery soft leggings... yes they are pizzas, yes I bought them just for this Ninja Turtle Party, yes I will be wearing these randomly for the rest of my life!

This is my husband and I with our nephew, it's his 3rd Birthday Party... he loves Ninja Turtles and was so happy when they made an appearance at his party!

Just another picture of my leggings...

Well this is the first summer that I will NOT be working. The local school who wanted me to teach for a few days found someone full time to do it and I am not complaining. I will be resting and relaxing and making memories with all my friends and family. What will you be doing?

T minus 13 Days

Only 13 more days until summer vacation! Did you enjoy your Memorial Day weekend? I sure did. My husband and I traveled to Phoenixville, PA for our nephew's 1st birthday party. It was basically a 3 day event, between Monkey Joe's for the kids and Bounce U for the adults, shopping at the outlets and a family trip to Arnold's Family Fun Center, I'm exhausted. But I did make time to visit the Lakeshore Learning Store at King of Prussia. Here's what I bought...

I can't wait to use these Find the Evidence Clips. Students use them during
Guided Reading to mark their book. I'll probably do a test run with these
in Summer School.

I finally broke down and purchased these Nonfiction Question Sticks.
I purchased something similar years ago, but this year they came out with
two separate tubs, one for Nonfiction books and one for Fiction books.

Now that I have both tubs I can pull out the tub I need during Guided Reading
instead of reading through to find which ones apply to fiction and nonfiction.

So that's what I picked up on my excursion. I had a coupon and my husband had a coupon so I saved myself $14. I'll still make my yearly summer trip to the Lakeshore Store in Northern Virginia after summer school is over and... wait for it... before my surgery! After a follow up with my GYN, it was decided that it was time to remove the fibroids. So I will be having that procedure done on August 4th. Since it will be an incision there's a 2-8 week recovery time. I'll be missing all of those August Professional Development sessions that's required there's a possibility that I won't return until after teacher work week, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Now that my class has finished all of their state testing I've got some cute craftivities lined up for them. First, they will each teach a lesson to the class using this resource.

Click the picture for the link.

 Can't wait to display these cute cupcakes in the hallway!



Click the picture for the link.

And these guitars!

Click the picture for the link.

Oh and if you're in need of some FREE end of the year awards, there's some available on my website!



Click the picture for the link.