Five for Friday… Er, Saturday

AHH! How is it Saturday!? I used one of my personal days yesterday and now I am all kinds of thrown off! I thought yesterday was Saturday (because it felt like Saturday) and I forgot to do all of my Friday to-dos, including linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching! So here it goes! 

This week has just been crazy, in the best way possible! We are full swing in our last 10 days of school countdown. Field trips, field day, class parties, it has been exhausting but so much fun!

This was probably the highlight of my week! During "Marker Day", part of our countdown, a couple of the girls in my class started a "station" on their own for kids to make me giraffes. They know me so well :) They plan to glue them on to a large paper and make a background for them. I can't wait to see it all finished!

Okay, so I'm going to vent for a moment. Remember last week when I showed the before and during photos of my backyard in progress? Well I spent $150 on soil, fertilizer and grass seeds. Spent countless hours in the backyard pulling weeds, laying soil and planting grass. Only to find that our hose doesn't actually attach to the spigot, because of this stupid attachment.

I have no idea what this attachment is. We have also spent money trying to find ways to either remove it or in the wise words of Tim Gunn, "make it work". Nothing. I am so frustrated. The grass didn't grow and is dead because we can't water it. And now we have to start all over. :( 

Does anyone happen to know what the heck this is!? Or how I could make it attach to a standard hose. I don't wan't my vegetable garden to die next!

As part of our countdown, we are making an ABC book of advice for next years 1st graders. This is by far my favorite!

"Good people say nice words. Great people let you play" Look out Confucius, we have a new philosopher in the house. 

I spent my personal day yesterday going downtown to the Rose Festival. I love Portland, it is such a beautiful city. I had so much fun walking around in the amazing sunshine, riding the rides, eating the delicious foods and enjoying this GIANT snow cone. It took me over an hour to finish it! #snowconesfordays 

Perfect way to spend a day off!

I finished these end of the year gifts for my kiddos! Remember those compliment stars we did? Well, I typed them up into these word clouds and framed them! They turned out even cuter than I had hoped. 

It was so sweet typing/reading the compliments the kids left for each other. SO sweet. It is nice to focus on the positives. Great way to end the year :)

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! I am checking many things off my list this weekend! Feels great to be so productive!

OH! And I ordered Guided Math: A Framework for Mathematics Instruction and Daily 5 (Second Edition) this week as well. Can't wait to join the book studies that are going on this summer! Anyone else doing those book studies!?

Oh, Sometimes I Get Good Feelings

If you sang that title out loud like I did, then we should totally be friends! Anyways, I saw this cute idea from Wish Upon A Teacher on Instagram and thought I would adapt it to fit into our end of the year countdown.

For day 6 of our countdown, I wanted to do something that could be turned into a keepsake for students to take home on the last day and I also wanted to take some time to slow down and really acknowledge the wonderful qualities each student brings into the classroom! We too easily get wrapped up in the putting out those behavior "fires" that it is easy to lose sight of the positives. 

To start the activity, we reviewed adjectives and brainstormed a list of adjectives to describe our friends in the classroom. They came up with so many amazing words, I was impressed. Some of my favorites were compassionate, astonishing and  generous. I should have taken a picture of the brainstormed list *facepalm*. I swear some day I will get the hang of taking pictures! 

We then walked around the room and wrote compliments on each of our friends stars!

This was such a great activity! If you have time, I highly recommend it. It is so wonderful seeing them all so focused and excited to give compliments. :) 

Field Day {Exhausted} - Wordless Wednesday!

Excited to be linking up with the lovely Miss DeCarbo over at Sugar and Spice for another Wordless Wednesday.

This was the only picture I managed to get of Field Day today due to the chaos that ensued! With that being said, today is a 2 question day.

I have realized that many teachers have polarized feelings about this day every year. Do you love it or hate it? 

How does Field Day work at your school? At my current placement, teachers do not participate in Field Day and instead get the time for prep. At my previous school, teachers dressed down to play with the kids. I kind of missed that piece!

Anyways, I would love to hear your thoughts! I always love joining these link up parties and connecting with all of you! 

Trying to Keep My Health in Check During These Crazy Times

Well, it's official. I have lost my mind. We are smack dab in the middle of our end of the year countdown. Between grades, cum folders, end of the year festivities, packing, moving schools, etc, etc I can barely remember my name!

But I wanted to pop in and share a few things! I have gotten several questions about my health/fitness tips and tricks. I thought this was the perfect time to share because during all the hustle and bustle at the end of the year it can be really difficult to make time for our own health. Here are my 2 lifesavers right now!

The first one is this bad boy! I posted a picture of this on Instagram and it blew up! So I will share more about it! This little guy is my lifesaver. Fun fact about me: I am the absolute WORST at drinking water. Like seriously, I don't know how I'm not dead. It's not that I'm drinking other things, I just don't drink anything at all. SO a few years ago my husband bought me this and while I still struggle to reach my water goals, it has definitely had a huge impact and made me more aware! I like to see my average oz/hr go up! Weird, I know. 

Upon set up you get to input your water intake goal. Mine is set for 60oz. The bottle tracks how much you drink, your average oz/hr and what percentage of your goal you are currently at. Best $30 I ever spent! :)

Get your Hydracoach {here}. 

The next thing is this app called 30 Day Fitness Challenges! It is free on the Apple app store (I'm not sure if it is available for Android)! I found it a few weeks ago because a friend of mine was looking for a 30 day challenge. So far, it has been great! It has been difficult to get my regular workouts in with the school year coming to an end and my mile long to-do list. This app reminds me every day to do my workout. And it is only 2 moves so it can be done quickly. NO EXCUSES. 

It can be difficult to balance everything in this crazy thing called life. But it is always important to keep your health a priority. These 2 tools help keep me focused even when I can't go all out at the gym like I want to. Every little bit helps. 

I hope you guys are all ending the year strong or enjoying some much deserved down time. You all rock! I am so happy to have started this blogging adventure and am excited to see where it takes me. :)

Our Countdown:

9 - Marker day: We got to use markers for all of our activities today. Something so simple, but they loved it! And I loved the no prep!

8 - Glow stick day: We will get to turn off the lights and use glow sticks to read/write.

7 - Students become the teacher: We will work in partners to come up with words of wisdom for the incoming 1st graders.

6 - Compliment day: We will go around and write one compliment for each of our friends. I am going to compile these on Wordle for an end of the year gift.

5 - Field trip day: We're going on our field trip! That was convenient for planning :)

4 - Letter day: We will write a letter to next years teacher.

3 - PJ and stuffed animal day: We will wear our PJs to school and bring our favorite stuffed animal. We will read to our animals, write them a letter and help teach them the rules of the school.

2 - Game day: We will spend the day playing board games that we bring from home!

1 - Movie day: We are going to watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and compare it to Chocolate Fever the book we've been reading!

Can't believe the year is almost over! Going to soak up every last minute :) Happy Monday!

Holy Moly, Is It June Already!?

I can't believe it is already June! Where did this year go!? I only have 9 more days with my kiddos. This year is going to be more bitter sweet than past years because I am changing schools. I'm very sad to leave my kids and my team, but also excited for the change!

How many days do you have left? Or are you already on break!?

Well, as the year comes to an end and I have serious writer's block due to the million things running through my head, I thought it would be fun to link up with Oh' Boy Fourth Grade for Currently June. Since I am new to the blogging world, this is my first time joining the currently link up. But it looked like fun! So here we go!

Listening: My husband and I just recently started Game of Thrones. And by recently, I mean binge watched 2 seasons in a week. Oops. I don't know what took us so long. We've had the first 1 (maybe 2?) seasons on DVD for a couple years now but never got around to watching them. 

Loving: I live in Oregon so sunshine is kind of a big deal. We rarely get it, especially this early in the year! We're lucky if we get it in July. I am soaking up every bit of this that I can! 

Thinking: The last few weeks of school are always such a whirlwind, not that I have to tell you that. Every time I check 1 thing off my to-do list, I add 5 more. I can't seem to shut my brain off these days!

Wanting: As I mentioned above, I am switching schools next year, but haven't been told my exact placement yet. I am hoping to find out this week *fingers crossed*. 

Needing: See above. 

Summer Bucket List: This part is pretty self explanatory!

1. I want to spend as much time out in the sun as possible. Soak up every bit I can. 

2. I want to re-structure my writing program over the summer. I would love to hear how some of you teach writing! 

3. My husband and I are hoping to visit NYC this year. One of our best friends recently moved there and we want to go visit him and check NY off of our travel list. I would also love to see a broadway show while there. :)

4. I didn't have space for this one on the image, but I also want to fill out my TPT store. I have so many items from before that I never posted and several others in progress. It's going to be a busy summer!

Well, back to Game of Thrones. Have a wonderful week! We start our end of school countdown! Tomorrow is Marker Day where we get to do all of our work in markers. So simple, but they love it!