Friday, July 11, 2014

Five for Friday

I am just finishing up my second week of summer vacation and man it has already gone by quickly! I am hoping it slows down some, but I feel like it is not likely since I have so much to accomplish before it is over. I was hoping to be back on a regular blogging schedule this week, but it didn't happen. So I thought I would link up with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday, to get myself back on the blogging train :)


Here we go……..




One of my big projects for the summer is to plan for my maternity leave. I am due around October 6 and we go back to school on Sept. 3. I am hoping that means I will have at least 3 or 4 weeks with my kiddos to get our routine up and running, so things will go a little more smoothly while I am out. With that being said I know I need to plan for the fact that I may be out earlier than I am hoping for. Earlier this week I had a really hard time sleeping one night, so I decided to get started on my maternity leave binder. I have a sub binder that I currently use in my classroom, but I felt like I needed something with more detail. I feel like I am off to a good start, I got about 46 pages completed that night, but I am also worried that I am leaving things out. I would love to hear from others on what they have included in their long term sub plans or maternity plans. I hoping to get the bones of it completed in the next week and add to it as the summer goes. The hard piece is I am still waiting for a final class list, so it is making it hard to plan at the moment. 



I was running so errands this week that were baby related at Target and Ikea, but of course I came across some things for my classroom. My husband never seems surprised by this, I think he even expects it anymore. At Target they had started redoing the Dollar Spot for school. I was really excited to see it so early in the summer, but the other part of me was a little sad- we had only been out of school for like a week and half and already they were building the school supply section. I was impressed with myself that I only bought a few things, I found some erasers and foam shapes to use for manipulatives and that was about it. The one purchase I was excited about (and I posted about on Instagram today) was the teacher totes. They are in the $3 section, but much cheaper than I had seen at other teacher supply stores. I am really focused on organization this summer and I think it is because I know I will be on my leave at the start of the school year. My first thought was that I would use them to organize work for my Instructional Assistants to use to work with students. Everything in one place and they can just take it and go. So that is currently the plan for the two I bought, but I might be going back for more :)

At Ikea, I managed to find a handful of things for my room. I bought another set of their colored plastic cups and bowls for snack time ( I will be doing a post soon on our snack time and how we use them) and some of their kids organizing tubs. The purchase I was the most excited about was something I came across when I was searching online for some kids storage for the nursery. When I found it I was hoping it would be as perfect as it looked in person. It is a large trunk/suitcase looking like container. I have been looking for something to use as a treasure box for a long time now. They are either too small, too expensive, or fall apart too quickly. This guy is perfect! It is large and can fit different size items, but still has a look to it that makes it look like it is something special. My plan is to keep my students preferred choice activities/rewards in.


I had to drink this bad boy this week.

I was a little worried going into it. When they gave it to me a month ago they gave me a choice of flavors and I asked which one tasted the best and I was basically laughed at and told none of them do. I picked the orange and was little worried about it up until this week, especially after reading the instruction paper that came with it, stating that it could cause cramping or vomiting. I will report that it was not as bad as I was led to believe by everyone I talked to. It tasted like an orange soda and left me feeling like I had just eaten spoonfuls of sugar. I got lucky and got my results back yesterday and I passed! Thank goodness because I didn't want to have to do the three hour test!


We are having construction done at our school this summer, so we basically had to pack up our rooms and we won't be able to get back in until not too long before school starts back up. I spent a couple of days after school got out getting everything packed up in the room and packing up things I thought I might want to take home with me to work on over the summer since we don't know when we will be able to get back in. I left to go back home for a while for a baby shower and to see my family and my husband left all the stuff from my classroom in my car while I was gone and it got brought in this week. The pile use to be a little bigger and I managed to get some of it moved into my office, but I still have all of this to move and go through :/ 


I am going to be doing a little give away on both my Instagram and my Facebook page. I will pick a winner from each to win one of these cute cups (Instagram-teal/ Facebook-pink). 




Happy Friday! Have a great weekend!