Summer Bucket List

 

One and a half days, people! That's all I've got until it is officially SUMMER BREAK for this tired, tired teacher. I'm having mixed emotions, honestly, because I loved, loved, loved my class this year. Just loved them. But, like I mentioned, I'm so tired. I need a break.

 

Which leads me to...

 

 

a linky party!

 

Here is my summer bucket list: the things I want to do and accomplish these next two months.

 

1. Sleep

 

 

All I want to do is sleep. I'm one of those people who likes to stay up realllllly late and then sleep away the morning. I know, it's bad. But, it's what summers are for if you don't have kids at your house and don't have to be at work in the morning. The only hitch in this plan might be the little puppy who lives with me. Hmmmmm.... maybe she'd like to sleep downstairs this summer?

 

2. Exercise

 

So, I've been  on a diet. I've lost ten pounds or so in the last two weeks. I have a loooong way to go. So, my biggest goal this summer is to stay on track (or get more on track) with exercising daily. I'm not what you'd call an "exercise enjoyer." You know those people who say "I feel so much better when I run! I feel so alive!" Yeah, that's not me. Even when I was in great shape and the skinniest I've ever been, I hated working out. But, it's gotta' be done so I'm gonna' do it... begrudgingly. And there will be lots of whining...

 

3. Swim and Lay Out

 

I kind of just love to lay at the pool all day. I keep my float in my trunk year round. My friend Brittney has a pool and we just all congregate at her neighborhood pool almost every day. It's awesome.

 

4. Real Housewives of New Jersey

 

People, I cannot even tell you how excited I am about the new season of RHNJ! I'm having trouble sleeping at night just thinking about it. (Okay, that's a lie.) But, I am so looking forward to it. The fighting! The drama! Are they friends now or enemies? Will Milania get her own spin-off? Will Caroline stop being a bitter old hag and be nice? What will Teresa mispronounce? Was Melissa really a stripper? Will we have to hear about the misadventures of those Manzo momma boys? I. Can't. Wait.

 

5. The Bachelorette

 

I realize I've listed two tv shows on my bucket list, but I love tv. Especially in the summer when I'm not dog tired at night and can sit and enjoy a show without falling asleep halfway through. And, The Bachelorette will be awesome this season. I loved Desiree last season on The Bachelor and I can't wait to watch her find her true love date a bunch of strangers. Sign me up, ABC. I'm there. You convinced me.

 

6. Play with the Pup

 

 

As always, there will be tons of puppy love going on over here. I'm so happy to not have to cage her up all day and let her just play.

 

7. School Prep

 

 

I fully intend to take a break from school. For a few weeks. But, we're adopting a new reading series next year and my teammates and I have big plans to meet this summer and try to plan out our weeks. And, that will make me feel a lot better to have that accomplished. I also want to do some projects and organization for my classroom. But, that's not a job - that's like teacher Disneyland, right?

So, to sum up, this summer will be me sleeping, watching tv, swimming and playing with the puppy.

Sounds like heaven... I can't wait!




Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me....

  Guess what we learned about last week?

 

Swash-bucklin', plank-walkin' pirates.

 

And, boy was it fun!

 

I wracked my brain for a topic that would be fun for the kiddos and fun for me. Oh, and I also wanted the kids to have some stuff to do independently so that I could finish about a million and one things that needed to be done to close out the school year.

 

We started the week with an anchor chart.

 

 

We built our schema, thought of questions and then started our research. I read them the following book and they had a BINGO board with terms from the book that they had to write down the definition for as we read.

 

 

This book was the best - it even says so in the title! I happened to find it in a garage sale a few years ago and it's been used a few times. Good purchase, I must say :)

 

At the end of day one, we also started reading Treasure Island. I'll be honest, I'd never read it. But, we started it and the kids were absolutely ENTHRALLED in a matter of minutes. I think it's pretty cool that the kiddos got so sucked in to a classic book like that so easily. We read a children's version, of course. But, it still has the classic song in it:

 

"Fifteen men on a dead man's chest,

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!"

 

Okay, okay. Maybe my kids shouldn't have been exposed to that - but, it's a classic! And, they don't know what rum is. And, besides, they made up their own version in a matter of hours. Yo ho ho and a bottle of glue has a nice ring to it, huh? Ha!

 

The next day, the kids used books about Blackbeard the pirate that I printed off A to Z Reading to make a huge bubble map of the infamous buccaneer. They were pretty wrapped up in and it took them forever and a day to finish them. Which is fine by me because I was wrapped up in my own stuff. So, I forgot to take pictures of the bubble maps. Oh, we also read another really good book that day:

 

 

This started quite an impressive streak of pirate babble in my crew.

 

Wednesday, we strayed off a little bit and read this book because we took the Math Constructed Response Assessment (gag me) and my kiddos were all spread out and arrived back at the room at different times:

 

 

It's so cool! It's a mystery about this boat a long time ago where the crew went missing. I had the kids make a hypothesis first. Of course, they almost all thought it was pirates. But, as we read clues (that the kids recorded in their notebooks), we eliminated pirates as a possible cause because the cabin was neat and tidy and nothing on the boat was disturbed. From our reading, we knew that pirates caused destruction on board ships they plundered. The kids were so into the story and we had a ton of great discussion. They were using a lot of inferencing and synthesizing. Very cool book...

 

Thursday, we did a lot of crafts. We started off inventing our own pirates. They had a list of things to think of: what they wear, what they do, what they look like, things they like and dislike. Then, they went back to their desks and made wanted posters for their pirates. They turned out so cute!

 

 

We were having a 50th Anniversary of our school on Friday and the principal asked us to make sure the hallways looked good. So, I got it in my head to make pirate faces out of paper plates. The sign says "We aaarrrghh ready for 4th grade, mateys!" And, the pirates have little speech bubbles telling what they are excited about next year.

 

Friday was the best. In the morning, we made treasure maps. They did SUCH a good job! They had a rubric to follow but basically they had to make a map with a compass rose, map key and at least five symbols. Then, they had to write a letter explaining the directions to find their treasure. They had to use direction words and highlight them.

 

 

 

Notice the pirate talk?

 

I bought the kids eye patches out of the party section at Target and we made hooks out of tin foil and red Solo cups. Mr. Hedgepath dressed up as pirate for us and we had a treasure hunt around the school that ended on the playground with popsicles!

 

Today, we finished Treasure Island. I let one of the boys read while I slipped out for a second to get some paper in the hallway.

 

How adorable is this?

 

Well, this will be my last school post of 2013. We're on our last week and there will be NO blog-worthy activities going on, I'm afraid.

 

 



Happy Mother's Day!

Somehow, I got blessed with the best Mom a girl can have.  She's funny and silly. She's currently obsessed with Duck Dynasty and has called me "Jack" more Times in the last two days than should e allowed. She taught me everything I know about decorating and taught me that if I like something, I should buy it. She's not a cheapskate and neither am

I :) She went to every single baseball game that my brother had from age five to, well, now. And believe me, that's a lot of games. She loves and adores my little puppy. She's honestly my best friend and I love her so much. I'm at my grandmas right now and so I have access to lots of old pictures. So, here's to the best mom around...

Here's my mom as a baby. Can't we all agree she was the cutest thing ever? 

I love you, Mom! Thanks for everything you do for me!

Fifty Nifty United States

Well, it's over. TCAP's over. I don't know how they did - I honestly tried not to look! But, I'm supremely happy that it's over! In fact, I feel so free now!

 

This last week, we spent a lot of time learning about the fifty states. To say that my kiddos were happy would be an understatement!

 

One of the things we did was make state brochures. The librarian helped me find a book for each state! So, the kids picked states and they each made 2 brochures. They worked so hard and did such a great job!

 

 

 

 

 

They worked on these for two days and when they finished, they shared with each other about their states.

 

I took their brochures and put them up on a bulletin board outside our room.

 

 

The whole time that the kids were working on the brochures, they sang along with maybe the cutest song about the states I've ever heard:

 

 

Seriously, they listened to it about a hundred times. Listened, sang along, danced... they just loved it. LOVED IT! One kid said "I'm gonna' tell my mom to make this her ringtone!" Well, okay then :)

 

Our school gets these awesome social studies kits and they come with laminated maps for the kids so they can write on them. So, we used them to trace routes across the United States using the interstates. The kids ABOUT DIED!!! They were all saying "Tell us another one!" Whenever I would tell them a destination, they had to tell me which states they had to travel through.

 

 

 

We read the book Alice Ramsey's Grand Adventure. It's a super cute book about the lady who made the first trip driving across the US. While we were tracing routes, we made sure to trace her exact route across the states using the text.

 

 

Another day, we made a T-Chart to compare traveling in 1909 and traveling today. It really led to some good discussion from the kids.

 

We read a big book about the regions of the US, too.

 

 

As we read about each region, we color coded the region, wrote notes about what the region is known for and then filled in an anchor chart about the major exports from each region. We did this because next week we're going to focus on economics.

 

 

 

 

One other book we read was The Scrambled States of America. The kids ADORED it!

 

 

I actually printed off a reader's theater for the book, but got sick and missed a day last week. Sooo, we didn't get to do it. But, we're going it. I know the kids will think that is so fun!

 

It was such a fun week! This week will be fun, too! I already said we were focusing on economics, but we're tying it all in with a novel that we've been reading. Want a clue what it is??

 

Ha!

 

Have a good week!