Happy Third Birthday to My Blog + Linky Parties!

Let me start on a positive note:  I am on summer break!  Woo hoo!  Even though I just completed by fifth year of teaching, I have never had a true summer break before, as I was teaching at a year-round school.  I am excited to have time to work on classroom projects and spend quality time with my son.

Which leads me to my next point... I will be home with my two year-old for the next two and a half months.  O.M.G.  It has only been a few days and already I am going insane!  The weather has been not-so-great here in good 'ole Wisconsin, so we have not been outside much.  I have been trying to keep him occupied (lacing cards, coloring, stamping, looping cereal on a shoe string, stickers, pillow mountains, movies, music, toys, chalk, bubbles, video chats with Daddy...) but nothing lasts long.  Help!!

Okay, I got that off my chest.  :)  Moving on...

I am joining my two favorite linky parties:

"Monday Made It" hosted by 4th Grade Frolics and "Five for Friday" hosted by Doodle Bugs Teaching.

(Please ignore the dusty chaise.)  Well, as of Friday the 13th, it is official:  I am teaching Kindergarten again next year!!  Yaaahhhooooo!  (Who says Friday the 13th is an unlucky day anyway?!)  I will also be teaching at a different school, which is the brand new public, charter school in my district:  RCLA (Racine Civil Leaders Academy).  I cannot tell you how much I need and want this...everything feels right in the world again - or, at least, in my teaching world.

So - I made a "1st Day in K" frame, like all the adorable ones that I see on Pinterest.  My Kinders will hold this frame, stick their cute little faces in the hole, and I will snap a picture of them.  I am not done yet though; I am going to add different-sized polka dots, using flat colored duct tape.

Update:  Polka dots have been added!

I certainly did not make these adorable printables; however, I did make the end creation.  I bought some cheap frames at the Salvation Army and garage sales, ran some sand paper over them, spray painted them with my new classroom colors, and this is how they turned out!  (Or at least two of them...I need to print more mini-posters for the rest of the frames.)

I am not sure what I will do with these drawers, but I like them and they were FREE!  One of my neighbors was tossing this little gem, so I snatched (yep - I am a garbage picker apparently) and sprayed it using my new classroom colors.  I may end up adding stickers; we shall see!

Anyone who knows me well knows that I.love.to.read.  When I get moments of "me time," I happily pick up a book.  These are the two books that I am reading now:

"The Morning Meeting Book: K-8" by Roxann Kriete and Carol Davis - If you are interested in this one, make sure you get the third edition!  When I went to Barnes and Noble, they only had the original edition, so I ended up returning it and buying the newest edition on Amazon.  This is an easy, but great read and I am SO EXCITED to implement Morning Meeting school-wide at RCLA.

"The Power of One: How You Can Help or Harm African American Students" by Gail Thompson - I have been plugging away at this one little by little for some time now.  It seems like I am doing more reflection writing (as the author insists) than reading and learning.  Also, I don't think this was a good choice for me, as I often find myself thinking, "Really!?  People still do that!?" and "Duh!" 

This is the book that I finished reading most recently, "The Leader in Me: How Schools and Parents Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, Once Child at a Time" - This book is AMAZING!  I love it!  Read it, read it, read it!  I am fortunate because my new school (Racine Civil LEADERS Academy) will be taking on a leadership theme.  I am so pumped to see what this will do for our students, staff, and community!

 This last picture is a two-parter:

1) Happy third birthday to my blog!  I know I am a horrible blogger because I infrequently write, but when I do, it makes me happy.  As this summer develops and my Kindergarten school year starts, I am certain I will blog more because I will have content to write about and photos to share - yay!

2) Check out my brand new MacBook Air!!  My school district gave every teacher a computer refresh.  It is so light, which (in my opinion) is the best part - my last Mac was so stinkin' heavy to carry around.

That is all I have for y'all!  I am going to try and hop in the shower before nap time is over.  Enjoy the rest of your day and, as always, thanks for stopping by!  :)