Summer, school planning, and babies!

I feel like so much has happened in the last few months, none of which involved me blogging. Oh well! That's life. Now that summer break is officially here and I can settle into the groove of being at home and feeling organized I'll be back on her throughout the summer months with some revisions and new ideas to kick off the next year.

I always try to limit my school work over the summer, but I'm admittedly a little too type A for that. Once I see a great idea I have a hard time not following through with it until it's finished. My current project is making Morning Work for my students. Our daily schedule is changing this coming year and we are going from Homeroom that went from 8:10-8:40 to one that is going from 8:10-8:30. Those 10 fewer minutes really will make a difference in what I can do.

So here's my BIG idea for solving that problem, and dealing with that hectic homeroom time of day. Morning Work! It'll be great structure for the kiddos to know what to expect each day, plus I think some of these activities are pretty darn fun :) Basic template will be:

Math Monday
Writing Tuesday
Reading Wednesday
Science Thursday
Social Studies Friday

Work in progress but here are a few screenshots of what I'm working through. I'm using a lot of resources I already have, or ones gathered from Teachers Pay Teachers (love them!).

Example writing activity

Example reading activity

Example science activity

Example social studies activity

Example math activity

As I said, work in progress but I'm making myself a big binder with black lines so I can just run and copy them each week. The other main reason I'm working on this is because I want to have a structured activity for when I have to leave for maternity leave this winter. That's right folks, baby on the way! I'm due early December assuming all goes well. Another reason not to have blogged the end of the year, that first trimester nearly did me in. Thankfully I had an awesome intern who took over basically everything for me. I'm looking forward to getting the year organized early so I can enjoy the first few months with my students before leaving.

I'll be back soon with more info on Morning Work as well as how our new math planning is going. Hope you get to sit in the sun and relax today. Enjoy it, you earned it!

Piles of Papers!

It's fall! Okay not really but it feels like it around here at the moment. We've had the windows open, puffy vests on..where is August? I will be the first to admit it, I don't mind. I like fall, it's my favorite season, and this weather makes me want to cookout and watch football. It also makes me think of school.

With only a few weeks left of vacation I have officially stopped my 'summer mind' and have gone back into planning mode. My dear husband has lost his 'summer wife' which he lovingly refers to me as during my time off work. I do feel guilt about not being able to dedicate as much time to the house, the hubs, and my daughter during the school year, which is probably why I try to make it up during the summer. Regardless, I love teaching and have great faith that at some point in my career I'll find a happy balance!

Now, why call this post piles of paper? Well, let me tell you! My partner teacher and I like to end the school year by sending as much stuff to our print shop in the district as possible. The goal is to get important and frequently used items copied, made pretty, and returned in time to file them away. Well, the only problem this year is that they wouldn't make our copies until after July 1st (our fiscal year). So this is what I spent the last day doing:

Yeah...this is only 2 tables worth, I had all 5 tables in my classroom covered with items. It was a little overwhelming! I don't like having file cabinets in my room take up space for papers that get used and recycled each year so I use crates instead. Yesterday I spent the time to organize all of this mess into the bins with labeled folders, I feel so much better now! There will still be A LOT of papers coming back for spelling and social studies but this is a good start. 

I also picked up a new planner (and made it sparkly) because I love my iPhone app to share events with the hubs but I am really a paper planner kind of girl. Don't get me wrong, I actually have an electronic planbook through our district: http://www.hellmansoft.com/  but something is special about seeing the week in front of me on paper. 

And just to leave you with a fun note on this cool August morning, enjoy this Pin that I found the other day. It makes me giggle and I'm seriously considering hanging it in my classroom somewhere. Have a wonderful Wednesday!