Favorite things - Summertime!

I'm starting my July with some linkies... check out my July Currently here.

I'm linking up with Teaching Trio for Favorite Thinks Linky!

Since it's the first day of July, I HAD to choose my favorite summertime things!
I LOVE LOVE Summer! It's kind of hilarious how much I like summer because my husband hates the hot weather! He works on a golf course and so when it's super hot out, he has to work even harder... so my less than busy months are his busy months!

1 - LOVE LOVE LOVE the beach & live about a mile away from it, which means I can hit the beach up for an hour or two or camp out the whole day there.

2 - We share a driveway with our neighbors and they work at the same golf course as my hubby (the golf course is basically our backyard!) so we spend a LOT of time together whether it be brews at the fire pit or horseshoes at the pits we built last year or running our dogs around on the golf course or all beaching together. It is the perfect summer set-up!

3 - Running - it's my stress-relief during the school year, but in the summer there is SO much more time for running!

Go link up here!

It's July - Currently!

My summer resolution is to post on here at least twice a week and so I'm staring with a couple linkies! Check out My Favorite Things Linky here.

I'm linking up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade! for Currently July!

LISTENING - I'm a littttttle [read a lot] obsessed with Grey's right now! It's a realllllly bad thing that I chose it as my next Netflix show - there are SO many seasons!

LOVING - The hubs and I finally have a membership to BJ's Wholesale club and our obsession with Pineapple juice has skyrocketed since we can get a 24 pack of small cans for cheap!

THINKING - I just converted my Classroom Jobs TPT product into Chalkboard themed! I made a lot of little things for my classroom last year that were Chalkboard themed and have decided to do a lot more this year! Check out my Chalkboard Themed Jobs by clicking below!

WANTING - So this morning there was a crazy amount of rain and thunder and lightning and now the weather is a sticky kind of cool (I realize that makes no sense but the weather rarely makes sense in New England) so it's no beach today... Tomorrow is looking like a good beach day though!

NEEDING - I really didn't do a great job posting on my blog probably since January. I had a student teacher and with finishing grad school there was a lot on my plate and sadly posting on my blog fell to the wayside. This summer though I'm going to try to do a better job - hopefully 2x a week!

ALL-STAR - I have the best grade level partners like ever! I have always gotten along great with guys and my grade level team is made up of myself and 2 fabulous guys. They are so easy to work with and we always have fun together - all while managing to get A LOT of work done. Even though I'm the youngest I'm kind of the mama bear of the group. I am always making sure they remember deadlines, are ready for upcoming units, have copies of everything and overall make sure that our grade level team is completely on point. After 2 great years I'm starting to think we all couldn't survive without each other and it will be a sad, sad day if one of us ever leaves!

Now go link up to July Currently too!

Five for Friday: Summer Goodies!

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for Five for Friday with some fun stuff I've been working on for next year & summer fun!

[one]
I'm so excited to have 20 weeks worth of morning work ready for my second graders next year. They are in my TPT store split into 2 sets, weeks 1-10 and weeks 11-20. I hope to have the rest of the year done soon too! They are both on sale until Sunday at midnight $7 $5 each.

While we're on the topic of morning work, I'd love to share my love/hate relationship with morning work & would LOVE to hear how you feel about morning work.
My experience with morning work is this... the same kiddos always get to school early and/or on time and the same kids always get to school on the last bus/late. I think have the kiddos that eat breakfast at school and need to be reminded "take a bite then write" for at least half of the year and never seem to get quite all of their morning work done.
I try to stay on a tight schedule, starting our morning meeting shortly after morning announcements... but there lies my issue with morning work...
I LOVE it because it can be meaningful reinforcement of what students are already learning, offers time to work on grammar, parts of speech, and all those other 'little' things you're always trying to fit into the rest of the day...
However I HATE it because it's always the SAME kiddos who aren't finishing their morning work because they get to school late, can't eat and work at the same time, etc. And too often it's those kiddos who NEED that reinforcement that morning work allows for.
I'm thinking this year, as our first Daily 5 rotations, kiddos who aren't done with morning work will have to finish it before making their first rotation choice.
Anyway, that's just me... what's your opinion on morning work?

[two]
If you missed this week's Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday, go check out the 2 ways you can use "Switch" when students are teaching their partner.

[three]
I hate to post to yet another one of this week's posts, but Mrs. Jump's Book Talk Tuesday is another favorite linky of mine and if you haven't heard of Gail Gibbons for fabulous nonfiction literature, you should check out my post about How a House is Built and also check out Gail Gibbons' other fabulous nonfiction selections!

[four]
I had a "puppy day" this week while my hubby was at a turf conference. Our dog Bogey as you may know is a turf dog which means he goes to work with my hubby on the golf course every day. Since he wasn't running around on the course all day, he got to spend time with me at the pond... I think he had fun though :)

[five]
One more summer fun moment for this post... last week I saw Bruno Mars in concert and had a great time with one of my best friends (who I see wayyy too little of!) He seriously puts on a FABULOUS show (despite being so very far away)!!! ANDDD tonight I'm off to Justin Timberlake with the hubby! The 2 sets of tickets were birthday presents (back in February) and I've been waiting patiently (okay, not so patiently) for the concerts to arrive!!!

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 :)