Five for Friday {Link up!)

This is my first link up in a few months and it looks to be a fun one!

This is my first full week off...well, I had a  Science Committee meeting yesterday, so I guess next week will officially be my first full week off :) But any-whoo!

1. I had time to change my last name...legally! I was really dreading going to the DMV, but I had had had to get this done for two reasons: first, I can't change my banking information until I have a new ID; second, I am flying to Tennessee in August and my ticket is in my new married name :) So I walked in ready to deal with rude employees when I saw big signs all over the office stating: Our Promise: Friendly service every time. I did a silent pfffffft! in my head. I have never had a pleasant experience here. But this time was different. I ended up talking with three different workers there throughout my 45 minute visit and every single one was so friendly! They congratulated me on my recent marriage, they smiled, they answered my questions like they actually cared... overall, it was a great experience!

2. I had time to order wedding photos!! 

One of the very thoughtful moms in my classroom bought me a little wedding photo album. It has slots for 130 photos and I thought "That's PLENTY of room!" Uhhhhh, nope! I sent her an email last night asking where she got it from so I could go pick up another album...or two :)

3. I have spent some quality time with my dog and kitty.

They like to keep me company while I work on my computer :)

4. My best friend flew in on Monday! YAY! She lived in San Diego but comes home every summer for a few weeks! Today we are having a girls day :) Nails, movie, then photo frame shopping! Did you know that Hobby Lobby's frames are always 50% off?! Yippee!!

5. I finished another freebie for my TPT store! One of my most popular freebies is my Force and Motion Vocab cards. Sticking with the science genre, here are my Organisms and Life Cycles Vocab Cards & Posters!  Enjoy!

Bloglovin'

Now that you know about Google Reader...and you know that it is probably a good idea to sign up for Bloglovin' so you will continue to see what your favorite bloggers are up to...but how do you ensure new followers find you on Bloglovin'?

Follow these easy steps!

1. After signing into your Bloglovin' account, click on the blue and white heart icon (top right corner)

2. Next, click Bloglovin' Button

3. You will be taken to a scree with three Bloglovin' Button options. Click the link underneath the you like best.

4. A small window will pop up--click where it says "Add Widget" and this will automatically take you back to your Blogger Template page and insert the new widget. 

5. While in the Blogger Template page, you can drag and drop the widget to where you would like it to show up on your page. I put mine right under the Google "Followers" tab. That way when people visit my blog and go to follow me on Google, hopefully they will see the Bloglovin' button too and push it!

I hope this helps a little!

Wrapping up year six

It is hard to believe that my sixth year in the classroom is over. 

My 10 year high school reunion is this year. Yeesh.

I am married. (click the pictures to see more from our amazing photographer)

2013 is awesome!

Our Mother's Day gifts! I LOOOOVE wishes!! One of our amazingly artistic para educators came to me with this adorable idea! She pulled each student individually and traced the outline of their heads as they blew out from their lips like they were blowing something. Then we cut the tracings out together and glued them to the dark paper. It was very hard to draw proportionate "wishes" for my students, so we helped with that too. On the back, each student wrote a letter to their mom that said:

Dear Mom, 

You are my "wish" come true!

Love,

_______ 

We went on our 2nd grade community field trip! Our school is lucky to be nestled into a growing community Tehaleh in Bonney Lake, Washington. This area is unique in that the community strives to keep nature and exploring at the center of it all! There are amazing ponds, trails, and organisms for us to explore. I created a booklet for my students to car around with them. If you look carefully they have "exploring bags" wrapped around their bodies like cross body bags. In the bag they had their booklet, two pencils, crayons, and a magnifying class. Our parent volunteers also had a long measuring tape so they could measure things, too! 

Even though we did not get on a bus (we walked from our school to the trails), all of our students had such a great time! The parents enjoyed it too! I was exhausted afterwards!!!

We had a Marshmallow Challenge.

This is the winning group's design. 22 inches tall with the marshmallow on top!

We decorated rocks and made photo holders for our Father's Day gifts.

I didn't get a picture but our card to Dad said "You ROCK, Dad!"

We made SCRAPPY MONSTERS using leftover scraps from projects throughout the year. Monster's University was quite the influence with my students :)

...and on Friday June 17th @ 12 o'clock... the teachers celebrated!!!!

Next year is already on my mind:

* I moved classrooms, yay! I have WAAAAAY more natural light now :)

* I am doing my National Boards next year... I am ready for the challenge and welcome any and all advice.

* I want to be a better "stations teacher" next year... managing stations is so hard for me. I kind of gave up on it last year...

* I am excited to start the new Lucy Caulkins curriculum in my classroom (district-wide implementation)

* I am SUUUUPER excited to have iPads in my classroom next year. I get to be part of a iPad Pilot Program :)

But for now... I need to change my last name. What a task!!! Everyone told me to start with the Social Security Office, so I did that last week. Now I just need to get my new license, change my banking, insurance, district info.... eh, I have a list... it's long. 

Two things I am looking forward to this summer:

1. Lincoln City, Oregon for the 4th of July (my FAVORITE holiday)

2. Bristol... yep!!! NASCAR race :) My 1st one! YIPPEE!!!

What are you looking forward to this summer???