Camp GoNoodle!!

Today I'm linking up with Holly from Mrs. Ehle's Kindergarten Connections to talk about Camp GoNoodle!

If you're a teacher, you probably already know how AWESOME GoNoodle is!! I used GoNoodle in my class almost everyday to take a break and work out our wiggles (I saw "our" wiggles because I was always dancing right along with whatever brain break we were working on #noshame). 

Well now, GoNoodle has started an AWESOME program for the summer called Camp GoNoodle! This is great for parents who have their kids home and have run out of ideas of things to do! Your kiddos are sure to love it!!

Here's how it works:

First, you sign up for a FREE account HERE! Did I mention that this site is completely free?! YAY!

Every Monday, starting today, Camp GoNoodle will post five new adventures at campgonoodle.com. These adventures are all about getting kids to use their imaginations, get moving, and get outside! They are fabulous and oh so fun! This week's camp theme is Friendship and here is an example of one of the activities:

Kids will also learn two new, fun camp songs every week! 

Kiddos can also earn badges for completing the week's adventures! Who doesn't love a badge?!

Now here a few of my favorite Camp GoNoodle-related things! Check it out!

Now hop on over to Camp GoNoodle and get started on the fun today!!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Summer Update

Okay guys, I know it's been awhile since I've posted. But I can explain.

First of all, the end of the school year is hectic for everyone. But with all sorts of new testing happening in our district, I just didn't have time for anything but school! On the bright side, my kids rocked the test and I couldn't be more proud of them! We also had awards days and all the end of year stuff that happens! Busy! Oh and I had to pack up my classroom and say bye to the sweetest group of women. What an emotional wreck I was.

(Please excuse the iPhone photos and their not-so-great quality. Who even knows where my camera is)

Second, we moved, y'all! That's right! Bye Mississippi, hello Arkansas! We are loving it!! But husband had to move a month and a half before I did (I stayed to finish out the school year), so I had to get our home moved by myself. Okay, thankfully not really by myself. My mom and mother-in-law came and helped me move and get the old house cleaned. Seriously, I don't know how I would have done it without them! 7 1/2 months pregnant and moving do not mix!

Look at all those boxes!

Now, the crazy thing is, our stuff got packed on May 29th. It's not being delivered until June 23rd! Are you hearing what I'm saying?! It took a month for our stuff to get delivered to us! We moved 5 hours away! Ugh. So we've been total redneck status and making due with the furniture we have in our new, empty house (see picture below). See those fancy dining room chairs? Keepin' it classy. (Also, excuse my husband's face. I told him to make a goofy face for our goofy dining room picture.)

And lastly, I've been working my tail off getting some stuff finished up for TPT before Miss Ellie makes her debut and I don't have as much time to work. And yes, sometimes I work in bed while everyone else is sleeping. I blame the pregnancy insomnia for that one.

So now I have one month to get our house unpacked and settled before our girl shows up, so the pressure is on, y'all! Time to kick it into gear!!!

I hope your summer has been just as adventurous as ours has been so far!!

Maintaining My Sanity During the Last Few Weeks of School

Summer Lovin'....

...had me a blast!

This will be my face on the last day of school:

OH.MY.HEAVENS.

Summer is so close I can almost reach out and grab it!!!!!

We have 9 more school days (with students). NINE!!! SINGLE DIGITS!!

The end of this school year is a pretty big deal for me because we are moving to Little Rock as soon as school is out! On to new adventures!

AND...

We're expecting our first child in August!!!

It's going to be a big summer for us!

Now to just maintain my sanity for 2 more weeks!

One way I plan to do that, is by making class funny. I love humor. Who doesn't?? It makes me feel better.

Last week I found this meme and showed it to all three of my classes and told them that I didn't want to have to be Grumpy Cat. Some laughed. Some were scared. HA!

Now when I give kids this face for talking while I'm talking, some smart aleck always says, "Oh! You just got the Grumpy Cat."

I then give them the Grumpy Cat. And try my hardest not to laugh. It never works out.

So on with my plan to save my sanity during these last two weeks.

The biggest part of my plan...

KEEP THOSE KIDS BUSY!

I learned last year that if the kids aren't busy, they turn into gremlins that you fed past midnight.

Rookie mistake, I know.

That will not happen this year! No way, no how.

First of all, we are going to continue doing our Early Bird morning work until the.very.last.day.of.school.

Yup. We totally are. It keeps them engaged with a productive activity during the morning and it's good review for language! Never would I have thought that my Early Bird Work would serve as a classroom management tool but it totally is during these last few weeks! 

We'll also be doing a ton of activities out of my End of the Year Activities Pack! 

Seriously. Like every activity. We're doing it. 

We're gonna do word searches, letters to our future teachers, letters to the incoming 3rd graders, making words, acrostic poems, a big fat memory book, and so much more!!

I may have already started my own memory book to share with the kids...

#notashamed

Also saving my life during these last few weeks...

Class Dojo!

Now if you don't know what Class Dojo is, it is a classroom management tool that allows you to create little monster avatars for each of your students. You can then reward them for good behavior with positive dojo points or you can punish them for bad behavior with negative dojo points. I like to use the positive points more (keepin' it positive, y'all).

I can honestly say that my students have not lost interest in Class Dojo once this year! They are so in love with getting points! When they start to become little wild things, all I have to do is take out my iPad and say, "I'm going to give so-and-so a positive dojo for not running around like a little wild thing." And immediately, they all get super quiet, sit up straight, and stare straight at me. LOVE IT!

And then the last bit of wonderfulness that is going to save my sanity during these last two weeks...

GONOODLE!

Now if you don't know what GoNoodle is, you need to come out from under your rock and check this website out! Seriously. Everyone uses it and blogs about it and instagrams it because it is awesome! It's a website completely dedicated to brain breaks for the classroom and they are FABULOUS!

Pretty sure my students and I both could Pop See Ko all day long if I allowed it...

And there you have it folks.

How I plan on not losing my mind during the few weeks before summer!

And in 9 days, this will be me...

We're in the home stretch guys...

YOU CAN DO IT!!!

My Summer To Do

Ohmyword. I CANNOT believe that summer is almost halfway over! Slow down, summer. I have way too much to do before school starts! I'm going to share with you all 857647856 things I want to do so that maybe you can get some ideas of things to do in your class and so that maybe I won't forget all I plan to get done this summer! :)

1. Finish reading the second edition of the Daily 5 and read The Cafe Book for the first time! I did a modified version of Daily 5 last year (don't we all) and I just loved it (more on that later). Of course, when I heard that the second edition of the Daily 5 was out, I knew that I had to add it to my summer reading list! I'll let you know how that goes :)

2. Recover these beauties: 

These milk crates were so beautiful at the beginning of the year (see bottom pic). Pride beamed from my heart every time I looked at them (even though Mr. Cain was mostly responsible for them:)). Well you can imagine how they look now. Dirty handprints, footprints, glue and FRUIT PUNCH (???) are all over these things. Not to mention, one got broken in HALF! I'm not even kidding. One little sweetie was a little overzealous when he went to sit on one and broke it clean in half (note to teachers: don't try to be thrifty and piece together the end pieces to get one full board out of the leftover particle board). Luckily the child wasn't hurt and he was actually pretty impressed with himself (ninja skills, anyone?).

3. Redecorate this nightmare:

Um that little fur ball looking thing is a pile of dirt I swept up, not a dead animal. Promise.

Oh the joys of packing up your class for summer. I went up to the school a week ago and completely forgot that I left my classroom looking like this. What chaos! Hopefully the floors will be all waxed and ready to go soon so I can get to work! I plan to cover all my bulletin boards in black fabric (i'm obsessed with the way it makes colors pop). And y'all see those tables there? I had to scrounge for those babies! Last year I had two tables and 4 pods of desks made into tables. Well now I have all tables and I'm thrilled, but they don't match. And my little OCD heart aches when I look at them. I thought about covering them with contact paper but I haven't found any contact paper that isn't woodgrain or roses. Suggestions??

4. Re-do my morning work:
Last year I created what I called "Early Bird Work" for my students to do every morning. It was just a short, half-page assignment that the kiddos did every morning when they came in. It covered language and spelling skills and I loved it. Well now I want to re-do it so that I'll have the whole year ready to go (instead of creating a new one for the week on Sunday night and panicking to get it copied [I mean, what? I'm always prepared]).

5. Common Core Units (say whatttt???)
So lately all I have been hearing is that we need to be teaching in units if we want to have any hope of our children passing the PARCC assessments (which we'll be taking for the first time this coming year...YIKES). So I guess I should get around to planning some units because I want my kiddos to have the best chance of passing that test for sure. How are these units going to work with D5?? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller...

6. Put together the most fabulous teacher binder ever:

That's my binder from last year. And I made everything in it. And I loved it. And it was fabulous and saved my life. I think I have a binder addiction (#teacherprobs). So now that I've taught for a year and have a better idea of what I need all year, I'm re-doing my teacher binder and it is going to be even more fabulous than the original. I'll post about my binder when I finally get the thing assembled and I'm sure I'll put in my TPT store if you're interested :)

Well if you made it through all that, you're the best! And to show you how much I love you, here's a little freebie from me to you, Pinkie Lou (Grease, anybody?). This is the first thing that I have actually gotten finished for my classroom this summer (impressive, I know). A welcome banner to welcome all your sweet darlings and all the guests into your class! Just click the picture below to snatch it up!

So now tell me...what's on your teacher to do list??