4th of July, 5 for Friday!

I must admit I'm impressed with myself, posting 5 days in a row... wooh! Luckily there are so many fabulous linkies to keep me organized and posting away!

Today, as every most Fridays, I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for Five for Friday! I must say, this is a linky party that is a little easier during the school year, but I think I can manage 5 things today!

[one]
Please, please, please go check out my Whole Brain Wednesday post from this week! I'm really hoping to keep this "Whole Brain Wednesday" going even though the school year and if there's enough interest, I'd LOVE even more to make it a place where teachers can link up their WBT ideas! So if you are a "Whole Brainer," are reading the WBT book, use even a little bit of WBT in your classroom and would love to link up some of your old or new posts on Wednesdays PLEASE go check out Wednesday's post & leave some love telling me you'd LOVE to link up in the future!!!

[two]
I've mentioned this in other posts recently, but I'm going to give a shout out for some help again... I am (supposed to be) working on a spelling sequence for my grade level team (2nd grade) over the summer. We had talked about using Words Their Way and then I found the Fountas & Pinnell 2nd grade Phonics book & really liked their sequence.
We plan on having a "rule" or "pattern" each week and have the kiddos generate words then pick their own spelling words. We tried this at the end of the year and loved it!

Does anyone have any suggestions when it comes to either of the "programs" we've looked into? I really need to get moving to get this all ready for us come the end of August and would LOVE any suggestions that any teachers out there have. I just really want spelling/word work to be meaningful and useful for my kiddos and not just memorizing 10 words for the spelling test on Friday then forgetting them immediately afterwards.

[three]
I realized I don't think I ever posted a picture of my class thumbprint tree (from my wonderful sister) after my kiddos from this year put their thumbprints on it. I only have 2 years of kiddos on here, can't wait to add more each year :)

My sister made one of these for Mrs. R (remember her?) and her son was very concerned about what we would do when the tree was all filled with thumbprints... too cute!

[four]
I keep seeing baby animals on my runs! The college athlete in me would scoff at the fact that I will stop and take pictures of beautiful, cute, awesome things on my runs these days, but hey, I guess I'm not that crazy runner anymore ;)

[five]
Another summer moment... yesterday I was lucky enough to join my friends on a boat ride to Rhode Island. I haven't been to the beaches there in a little while and sorta-kinda forgot how much bigger they are than in Long Island Sound... totally got knocked on my butt and lost my sunglasses :( but it was a beautiful day!

(Yes, if you hadn't already noticed, I am a beach bum!)

Hope you are all having a great 4th... it's all sorts of rainy here in CT, so today is not a day of festivity, but the weekend is supposed to be grand!

Summertime Linky

First link up of my summer... Linking up with Doodlebugs for Five for Friday, Teaching Blog Addict for Freebie Friday & A Classroom Full of Smiles for #teacherslovesummer :)
Scroll down to #5 for a spelling freebie!

[one]

Check out my post from earlier this week about my experience at the Whole Brain Teaching National Conference!

[two]

I've spent as many days at the beach as not at the beach... true my summer has only consisted of 4 days, but I'm pretty happy about it :) And I already have 2 beach days next week, LOVE living a mile from the beach :)

[three]

I'm also linking up with A Classroom Full of Smiles (a little late) to share my 3 summer goals!

#1 Take June & July off! The last 2 years I've had to set up my classroom from the ground up and spent nearly my entire summer in my classroom doing just that. This year I get to stay in the same district & the same room... which means far less work! Sure I'll do my computer, blog, TPT stuff, but not a foot into the classroom until August 1st! I'll let you know how that goes :-P

#2 Relax on the beach at least 2 times a week! DONE for this week, hopefully I can keep it up!

#3 Run at least 4 days a week all summer (then continue into the school year!) I'm on track for a 6-day week, hopefully I can stay that motivated ALL summer!

[four]

I spent a lot of time with Mrs. R. today making a presentation for when we share Whole Brain Teaching with our colleagues. I was so excited to find this youtube channel full of WBT videos that use my WBT rules & procedures posters! The teachers who made the videos even gave my TPT store credit. So exciting :) If you'd like to see some WBT in action, check out the youtube channel here.

[five]

I'm trying to do both "professional" and "enjoyment" reading this summer... I just finished Rules of Civility which was FABULOUS & downloaded the sequel Eve in Hollywood because it is ONLY available on Kindle or in iBooks!

In the teacher world, I'm just starting the Fountas & Pinnell phonics to help me create a spelling program for our grade level team. We will also be using Words their Way. If anyone has some suggestions for creating a spelling program I would love it!

I created spelling choice boards to use next year which you can find on my TPT store.

I also created this freebie for kiddos to correct and grade their own spelling tests.


Have a fabulous summer weekend :)