Summer School Prep

The school year is winding down now. We only have three days of school left, plus a teacher institute day. Still, I can't help but start thinking about how much I need to do to prepare for summer school! After taking a year off of summer school, I'll be back to teach a group of our school's incoming second graders. It should be much more exciting than the fifth graders I taught last time! Even more exciting is the fact that we will be using our normal curriculum and resources to teach these kiddos. No learning a new system that has nothing to do with how the students normally learn during the year. I will, however, need to do a bit of learning because next year (and during summer school) we will be implementing a new math program.

We haven't officially been trained on it yet, but I do know that this new program will be a shift as it will include math centers. I just started going through the topics and making a list of possible center activities.

Our first unit of the year will be all about adding and subtracting basics. Here are some activities that I designed as possible center activities. Head on over to my TPT store for a download!

Next week we'll hear all about the new system. We flex-group for reading groups, so I'm curious if we will flex-group for math as well. I'm hoping that we won't! I really want to do math journals for centers next year, but I don't know if everyone else on my team will be up for them.

If I get to do math journals, I'll shrink these down and glue them in. Otherwise, I'll laminate them so that we can use them over and over again. I plan to make several more activities for our basic addition and subtraction unit. 

Here's another one I did too!

Like the first game, you can find this one over at my TPT store!

The game includes 9 different boards. The middle numbers go from 1 to 9.

Is anyone else teaching summer school this year? Are you thinking about it yet, or are you letting yourself relax a bit first?

Stitch Fix Take One

So, on my journeys in Bloglandia, I've come across a website a few times now. It's call Stitch Fix. It's this awesome site that you can use to get personalized styling in the comfort of your home. You should all check it out - it's super easy! All you do is create a style profile, select a date, pay $20, and your own personal stylist will send you five items to try on at home. Don't like them? Send them back in the prepaid bag. Love them? Simply pay for them and they're all yours. The $20 you originally paid goes toward your purchase.

I was smitten with the idea, so I scheduled my first 'fix.' I've been so busy and have stayed late so many nights this year that I hardly ever have time for shopping!

Check out the results! I knew it was going to be here today, and I was a bit nervous about it. Even though I had heard nothing but excellent reviews and experiences from others, I still worried that maybe there wouldn't be anything in it for me. The site does have a limited amount of sizes, and I'm on the higher side, but I still wanted to try it out. I eyeballed the box for several minutes before I was ready to open it!

The outside of the box is nice, but the inside of the box is super cute. They're definitely all about the presentation!

Inside the box was a personalized style card from my stylist, Octavio, with a letter about my items and some options for wearing the different pieces.

 Finally, I was able to check out the things Octavio sent me! I got a necklace, two tops, a cardigan, and a dress. I could tell just by looking at them that there were some winners!

I haven't taken photos of myself for a while, so I had to get in the right mode. My husband - who also took the pictures of me - got me ready by 'teaching me' how to pose. Needless to say, after his help, I was quite ready!

He looks gross because he just came back from a bike ride. He says next time, he'll make sure he primps first.

I tried on the dress first with the necklace. The dress makes me look even bustier than I already am, but I still liked it! It has a pretty lace top with a fun patterned bottom! I think I will be keeping that. The necklace was super pretty and if it was longer, I'd be a fan, but I'm not too big on collar necklaces. My hubs liked my second option, but I wasn't a fan. There was too much fussing that had to happen to make it look right. I can only imagine how much fussing I'd continue to need to do throughout the day.

The third piece I tried on was another shirt. I thought it was a button-up at first, but there are only buttons down the bust. The pattern certainly isn't like anything I have in my wardrobe, but it fit and the hubs insisted that I keep it, so I guess I will. Finally, the last piece that I tried on was the cardigan. I loved it! Unfortunately, when I tried it on, it didn't fit quite right. It was a major bummer.

I liked the pieces, but I think Octavio and I need to work a little to find our groove. I added a Pinterest board to my style profile so that Octavio has more of an idea of what I like. I'd call this first 'fix' a success, but I'm super excited to see what's in my next box!

Pairs of Pears

For my May Currently, I posted about the Pair of Pears homophone activity that we did in class. The students got so much out of it! I thought I'd share some pictures of one of the activities from the kit because they turned out super cute!

We just hung them on the wall in the hall, but it would have been super cute to have made it into a hallway pear tree!

The students got to choose their homophone pairs. The words are even provided in the kit, so it was super easy!

The students were SO excited to do this! There aren't many fun activities in our scripted reading program, so they loved the chance to go off routine for a day and make something creative.

I loved seeing how the students interpreted all these words into drawings!

Shh! Don't tell, but this one was my favorite! The student did not know what 'rap' meant, so I had to explain it to her. I love the little dialogue bubble in her illustration. In case you can't see it, the little girl is saying, "Yo, yo, I'm Claudia."

Whether the illustrations had lots of details or just enough, the students did a great job with it.

Check out the product on Sarah Cooley's TPT store - Pairs of Pears.

How do you teach homophones? Do you have any tips or any products that you use? I've probably asked this too many times already, but if it applies to you - what do you do to bring life to scripted programs if you are required to use them?

My fingers are crossed for a second blog post later this week. I can do this!

May Currently

It's May! One month down since I started up my blog again, and I with this post I will have almost doubled my initial efforts when I started two years ago. I think it's a win!

I'm linking up with Farley for May's Currently to share what is going on over here.

Listening: The Hubs is away shooting some turkeys spending the weekend with his friends, and the dog is scratching at the door waiting to be let out. I suppose that means that I will have to be the one to let him out now. I'm also listening to some sweet jams because I am preparing for a lipsync battle with some friends this evening. We've been repeatedly watching all the lipsync battle's that Jimmy Fallon does with his guests and have finally decided to do our own. Hopefully it will be EPIC. I know my songs are pretty amazing.

Loving: This week has been particularly trying. Spring Fever has most definitely kicked in for the kiddos in my class. I'm trying lots of different things to reel them back in, but nothing is working too well. A few days of break is much needed. Although - I have a huge grad school paper that I should be writing right now, so it's not that much of break at all.

Thinking: This is our first year with our new reading series, and now that I know that I am going to be teaching second grade again next year, all I can think about is what I need to do to make things work out better. It is a bit exhausting - especially since there is so much still to do right now.

Wanting: I don't want to sound like a terrible person on this one. Our school puts on a math and reading night each year and teachers are required to go to at least one of them. For some reason, I have always signed up for math and each year, I regret it. Our reading night is more or less an open house with a few fun activities. For math night, we do a lot of math games and it is much more interactive. It sounds more fun to me. I think that's what always sucks me in. The problem is that all but a handful of teachers sign up to go to reading night. So we have 20 teachers planning the open house that has 1 or 2 activities and 5 teachers planning the math game night that has 15 or so activities. I don't mind doing work, but two weeks before the end of school is not when I have time to do it. I have asked several teachers to remind me next year to pick reading night.

Needing: I'm hungry. :) I haven't gone grocery shopping in too long. Oops.

Surprise: Sarah Cooley's Pairs of Pears bundle is adorable. We used it the past two weeks as we learned about homophones and the kids loved it! Check it out.