Crafting, tutoring, and summer shopping!

I think I have a problem.

A craft supply problem.

Yesterday I went through and cleaned out some stuff from my craft supply stashes and...well...there was A LOT of scrapbook paper in there. Except...I don't scrapbook. I haven't scrapbooked since high school. Which is why it doesn't really make sense for me to have 5 pads of scrapbook paper.

And don't get me started on all of the letter stickers that I found. Holy moly.

Here's the thing, if I walk into say, JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby, I feel an instinctive need to gather craft supplies for a project. Half of the time I don't even have a project in mine, just a rough, "This would be cool to use for something, someday."

Terrible idea.

And to top it off, none of the paper that I've collected will go with my classroom next year. So I guess my kiddos will be making super snazzy thank you notes for random stuff throughout the year.

Like for iPads if our Donors Choose project gets funded-wanna help with that? There's a link on the right.

:)

I was so proud of myself on Monday. I had gathered all of the necessary supplies (and then some, sigh) to make my super awesome teacher toolbox (you know, the one that everyone and their cat has been making lately). AND, I just knew that for once, I was going to be able to join the Monday Made It link up party.

And then, I didn't get it finished. Because I lost misplaced my label for Sharpies.

And come on, you have to have a label for Sharpies.

So I told myself, "Tuesday, I WILL finish it Tuesday." All I have to do is reprint the label.

Except, I only had 2 pieces of the paper that I used for my labels.

And only scraps were left.

So I was going to have to figure out some complicated way of printing perfectly onto that little scrap.

"Too complicated for a Tuesday," I thought.

So I didn't finish it.

To my credit, I did print that label today, but I've decided the labels should probably be laminated before I attach them to my drawers.

And, of course, I don't have a laminator lying around the house. (Though I would happily accept donations toward the "Laura Needs a Laminator Fund")

Seriously though, it's going to knock your socks off. If you're wearing socks. I REALLY want to show it to you (because it looks AWESOME), but I can't show you something that's not done yet!

Sometimes I frustrate myself.

Anywho, I met with my future 2nd grader for the first time today. We worked on handwriting for a bit; she's a lefty with some sloppy handwriting. Our writing goal for the time being is to make her writing worthy of writing a letter to a Disney princess. Have you seen this on Pinterest? Apparently, if kids write letters to Disney characters, they get an autographed picture back from the character. Cool, right?

She wanted to know how I talked to the Princess.

Man, I wish I was good at making stuff up on the fly.

I told her I heard about it online. I should have said that I'm Tinkerbell's BFF.

After we practiced our handwriting for awhile, we went and painted ceramics at a local place.

She painted "Sparkles the Cat." She decided that she will be calling her "Sparkle-icious" instead.
(A shiny gold star to the person who can figure out how to spell Sparkleicious. That just looks silly.)

My sister met up with us and painted a caterpillar.

Me? Oh, come on now-isn't it obvious?

I'm working on a new coffee mug, of course.

Go ahead, get the "duh" out of your system.

The orange part is teeny, tiny masking tape. How cute is that?!

I'll wait.

Because I'm a perfectionist, they both finished and I'm probably not even halfway done.

Hmmm...do you think there's any chance that at 13 year old boy would want to go paint ceramics with me tomorrow? Yeah, probably not.

Here are a couple pictures of my work in progress-hopefully I don't screw it up. I have a tendency to do that with painting projects...

I'll show you the final project when I get it finished and have it fired.

Since I'm not linking up with Made It Monday, I'll link up with the Summer Shopping linky party hosted by Ladybug's Teacher Files!

I'll admit it, at the end of every school year, I say that I don't really need to get anything new for my room, but seriously, who am I kidding?

I L-O-V-E getting new stuff for my classroom.

You've already seen my new chair and my crate seats, and truthfully, I have a lot more stuff on my "to make" list, but I just haven't been horribly motivated recently.

Shopping, however, has been another story.

So without further ado, my recent Summer Shopping finds!

First off, the black body pillow that I have in my reading area attracts lint and fuzz like crazy. Which of course drives me crazy.

Solution: Super cute zebra pillow case (and it's nice and soft!)

Then (because I have a SERIOUS Target addiction), I was wandering through the home decor section and found this awesome thought bubble white board. But here's the kicker-it lights up!!!

I know. Try not to squeal too much.

I'm usually a clearance shopper when it comes to school stuff, but for $15, I couldn't pass it up. And you've all seen that awesome Pinterest idea about using a touch light to remind students that you aren't available while you're working in small groups. How perfect will this be?! I can even add a little message!

Off | On

I'm pretty excited about that one. Obviously.

Then, while I was at JoAnn's (looking for scrapbook paper, sigh), I found these bad boys.

Those Command hooks aren't cheap, but they are oh so very useful.

Get this: Not only were they $1.98 on clearance, but clearance was marked an additional 50% off.

Yup, you did that math right-I got them for a buck each. Naturally, I stocked up.

But I have BIG plans for those little hooks. Big plans, I say.

But that's a topic for another day.

Then I hit Dollar Tree.

Dollar Tree is awesome. Seriously.

I spent $20 and got a TON of stuff for next year. (You know, because everything's $1)

Check it out.

That's 6 stacking bins, 5 locker style bins, 4 fun pens, an expandable file (because I promised Matthew I would keep my receipts for school stuff for my taxes this year), a roll of masking tape, and a pack of foam paint rollers (for another project).

Not bad, right?

Whew. That's a lot. And I just realized that I need to get some math practice together for my former student to work on tomorrow. Bummer.

But I'm planning on taking him geocaching tomorrow. Wish me luck. I've never done it before.

I'm getting sleepy, so I'm going to wrap this up, but don't forget--only a couple more days left to enter my 100 Follower Giveaway!

And at the rate things are going, it looks like I'm going to hit 200 followers before this one ends-which is seriously AMAZING!

I never thought that my little blog would reach 100 followers, so seeing all of this growth the last week has been super awesome-you guys are the best!

You know what, I'll make a deal with you.

Ready?

If I hit 200 followers before the giveaway ends, I'll make myself make one of the projects on my "Future Teachers Pay Teachers Product List" and give it to you guys FOR FREE. Yup, everyone will get it! But that's only if I hit 200 followers before the giveaway is up.

So if you haven't entered the giveaway yet-what are you waiting for?!

And make sure that you get those extra entries by blogging about the giveaway!

Matthew just got back from his late night ice cream cone run, so I should probably go and actually spend some time with him! :)

Adios!

Isn't summer supposed to be relaxing?!

Holy moly.

I've been sooo busy this week!

Ok, maybe not THAT busy, but in terms if this teacher's summer vacation, I was running myself ragged.

Monday and Tuesday were spent at school with my 6th grade partner in crime. (I'm relatively certain she is blog stalking me this summer. Hi Teri!) We spent two full days working out details of our brand new Student Ambassador program

What is the Student Ambassador Program, you ask?

Excellent question.

We're still not entirely sure.

It's at least going to be a combination of safety patrol, student council, PBIS training buddies for new students, peer mentoring/tutoring, school store running (Oh, yeah-we're also starting a school store next year. No biggie.), school event assisting, and probably some other stuff that I'm forgetting.

Easy peasie.

Not.

I'm really excited about starting this next year, but I'd be lying if I said that there isn't a teeny tiny part of me that wonders if we've bit off more than we can chew.

But clearly we both have superhuman abilities (I mean, I pried myself out of bed two mornings in a row during the summer-that HAS to be a super power!), so this should be a cake walk.

Please remind me of that if I have a mid-year meltdown. (Not that that would ever happen.)

I was supposed to meet with my kiddos on Wednesday and Thursday. Due to some scheduling conflicts, it didn't work out to meet with either of them this week. Honestly, as much as I love them, it was nice to have a mini-break (I know, I know, it's summer and I really don't have THAT much going on).

So instead of tutoring and whatnot, I did some antiquing with my mom and sister Wednesday afternoon. And then we made a trip to PetSmart because my sister's 200 6 hamsters needed more bedding.

Ummm...we may have left PetSmart with more than just hamster bedding.

Soooo....my sister has been trying to talk me into getting a class pet since I moved into my classroom. And I've been putting it off because I've just had soo many kids in my room with above average volume levels.

But as of right now, our class sizes are looking pretty small for next year. (WOOT!)

And well, there was this gerbil...

Clearly, you can see where this story is headed, so without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to Walter.

Walter, meet my blogging amigos. Blogging amigos, meet Walter.


Ok, come on now, you can't blame me for not wanting to leave that cute little face in the pet store.

And teacher that had my classroom before me had rats. At least I didn't get a rat, right? Those naked tails creep me out. Walter's tail is completely covered in fur. No bald spots.

He just moved out of his temporary home yesterday into his new gerbil condo. No more spare wire hamster cage for him, no sir.

He's living large, now.



By the way, those tubes? Not as easy to put together as you would think. It took Matthew and I at least half an hour to put that bad boy together.

Then my sister looked at it and told me that I put the lid on backward. Oops. And apparently the set up in the picture (which is how I set it up) makes it super top heavy. So she fixed it. Oops again.

I'll get the hang of this gerbil stuff sooner or later. Hopefully sooner.

Thursday afternoon I spent with one of my friends. She lives about half an hour away, but her in-laws have this awesome pool that she gets to use. We decided it would be great to just lounge around the pool. I needed gas before I left town, and wouldn't you know, as soon as I paid for my gas, it started raining. And it rained the whole way there. And for at least an hour after I got there.

Sigh.

But it did finally stop raining, it was about 75 degrees instead of 90, and we finally made it to the pool.

And then it rained again. Urgh.

This pasty girl needs some sun! Especially to help cancel out my bizarre tan lines from our canoe trip.


Please note that my tan vanished from the knee down.

Because that's not weird or anything.

And finally, I had a two part photo shoot to do, plus I had to get my awesome 100 Follower Giveaway up and going (you did enter, right?)!

The weather was MUCH cooler than it was originally supposed to be, which was awesome for my shoot--and from what I've edited so far, I'm quite pleased with the results!

But I'm sure you don't want to see those.

Do you?

Ok, I haven't even edited this one yet, but I LOVE it. Like a lot.


And because I really like the two that I went ahead and edited so that the couple could get a sneak peek at their pictures, I'll just go ahead and share those with you, too.

Cute, right?!

Today I (finally) finished editing some pictures from a concert that I shot toward the end of May so that I wouldn't have to feel guilty about editing yesterday's shoot.

 And quite honestly, other than watering my flowers and blog stalking, that's pretty much all that I've done today.

I know, I know, I'm not REALLY busy.

But compared to last summer when I didn't crawl out of bed or get dressed until 4:00, this is busy.

Don't judge me. You know you're guilty of it, too.

Before I go polish off the last of the chocolate chip cookies I just made (thank you Tollhouse for your break apart cookie dough), have you joined in my 100 Follower Giveaway yet?!

If you haven't you should! SO MANY awesome prizes! (It would be wrong if I entered, right? I thought so.)

Because you were kind enough to read this far into my ramblings, here is a fun font that I finished up this afternoon that you can download for FREE!

Just click HERE to download it! If you make anything with it, can you show it to me? I LOVE seeing all of the cool stuff you guys make!

Since I know you've missed Charlie here are a couple pictures from this afternoon. I've now given you your cute dog fix for the day. You're welcome.


Oh! Quick shout out to all of my new followers! Hi guys!!!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Projects, Canoeing, Awards, etc....

Oh how I've missed you, my blogging buddies!

I promise, I will try to start posting more than ONCE a week. I've just been so busy this past week-but not  busy at all (if that makes any sense).

Whew. So much to cover. Prepare yourselves for (yet another) long post. 'Cause that's how I roll.

For starters, I'm pretty sure that I told you about my seating project in my last post (not the chair, the crate seats!). Since I screwed up with the dimensions that I gave the nice man at Lowes who cut my wood, I had to have my grandpa re-cut the wood for me. (As an FYI-if you buy the cute Sterilite crates from Target and want to have Lowes cut your wood for you, the correct dimensions should be 14 3/4"x 12 3/4")


After a little play time with the foam, fabric, and a terrifying staple gun, I now have these beauties for my classroom next year! And, because my grandpa is awesome, I'm going to have a custom made table that will be just the right height for my super cute crate seating-WOOT!

(P.S. I really tried to make these pictures all fit together in a nice little area like I have in the past, but Blogger is NOT having it tonight. Grrr.)

While I LOVE how these seats turned out, they were a little more expensive than I had originally thought they would be.

To total it up:

Crates-$3.50 each x 6 = $21

Fabric-$7.00/yard x 3 = $21

Particle Board = $10

Foam-$40 X 50% off = $20

Approximate Total for 6 Seats = $72

Yeah.

Not what I had planned.

Granted, I couldn't have bought 6 seats for $72, and I could have gotten cheaper fabric (like the $1 clearance stuff).

Just be warned, these little boogers are cute, but can get pricey very quickly! 

This last week has also been a week of about a bajillion firsts. 

Ok. Maybe not a bajillion. But AT LEAST half a bajillion. 

For starters, Matthew and I went canoeing with some friends last weekend. This may not seem like that much of an accomplishment to you outdoorsy types, but here's the thing-Matthew's a computer guy and I'm more of a surf the web/make stuff/blog kind of girl.

Neither of us are...how do I put it...built for the outdoors? 

But, nonetheless, we survived a 10 mile canoe trip  down Sugar Creek at Turkey Run State Park. But of course, the creek was a little low on water, so there was a fair share of getting stuck on sandbars and in rocks, and a few sunburns to top it off.

So I can now say that I survived a 10 mile canoe trip.

Woot!

We also did a bit of hiking at the park on Sunday. Am I the only one who wouldn't have considered climbing down a ladder part of the hiking experience? 

I am not a big fan of ladders, especially when they're the way off of a rock face. That one took a bit of coaxing. I'm kind of a chicken.

On Monday, a few friends and I decided to try out a yoga class. Again, this girl=lacking athletic ability. 

It probably would have helped to know that we were going to a hot yoga class. News flash: It's called hot for a reason. 

Why is it called hot yoga, you ask? Because all of the lights in the room are replaced with heat lamps, and the doorways are sealed off, and it reaches 100 degrees in that room.

HOLY MOLY.

I have never sweat as much as I did that night. So much sweat. And it turns out that I have ZERO flexibility.

I've also got a couple more firsts lined up for the next week:

-First time meeting with one of my former students in a tutor/mentor role

-First time tutoring a 2nd grader

-First time shooting wedding pictures (but not the wedding itself-whew!)

-First meeting with my principal about our plans to start student council next year (Did I mention that I'm doing student council next year? And that I know NOTHING about student council?)

I'm taking suggestions for the 12 year old boy and the 7 year old girl. The plan is basically to spend about half of my time working on skills, and the other half doing something fun. I'm planning on taking advantage of our library's summer reading programs for the little girl, but for my 12 year old, I'm wanting to think a little more outside of the box. I'm thinking about doing some geocaching with him, walking Charlie in the park, maybe painting some pottery at a local place, but I am totally open to ideas!

I'm really excited about working with this kid; he and I had a great teacher-student relationship this last year, and I really don't want to see him fall between the cracks, so Matthew and I are going to do a sort of Big Brothers/ Big Sisters type deal with him. And I'm going to give him some extra academic help to better prepare him for 7th grade in the fall. I'm SUPER excited!

Ok, only one more thing (I promise-more frequent posts so I'm not cramming SO much in!). 

I have been giving my first blog award!

WOOT!

Thanks to Allie at The Gypsy Teacher for giving my first award! I feel so cool right now!

I'll post my list of bloggers that I'm passing the award along to in my next post!

I'm going to have to do some serious list making for this one!

Time for some ice cream, my bloggy buddies. (And some peanuts, and whipped cream, and chocolate syrup, and whipped cream, and sprinkles...)

Have a fabulous Thursday!

P.S. I only need 13 more followers to reach 100! Hmmm..perhaps that will warrant another freebie...

(Successful) DIY Day

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm on a bit of a DIY kick right now.

And yesterday was anything but successful. Remember this?

Umm, yeah. I rest my case.

But more on that in a minute.

Today was "Charlie Gets His Teeth Cleaned Day." For those of you that don't know what this entails (like I didn't), you take your dog to the vet in the morning, they whip out the anesthetic, knock him out, clean his teeth, and you pick him up late in the afternoon. That's a lot of work to clean teeth, if you ask me.

Since I still needed to pick up some supplies for my projects, I had my sister come with me to take Charlie to the vet so we could run errands while I was out. We got to Matthew's house to pick up Charlie, only to find out that the leash was still in Matthew's car. Slight problem. But since he only works about 5 minutes from his house, we drove over, met him in the parking lot, and got the leash.

Did I mention Charlie gets REALLY excited about car rides?

REALLY excited.

And then, he saw Matt and was EVEN MORE excited.

But then we left.

Whoa, buddy.

Charlie was NOT cool with that.

He cried.

And cried.

And didn't stop crying all the way to the vet. Did I mention that we got stopped by not 1, not 2, but 3 trains on this little trip?!

To top it off, he was shaking up a storm like he had just experienced the greatest trauma of his life.

He was temporarily transfixed by train #3.



We finally got him to the vet, and he was NOT cool with that either. Scratch that. He was fine getting out of the car and walking into the building, but as soon as I started filling out the paperwork, he was heading for the door.

No, he was literally walking to the door.

And when they came to get him, it was the barking, the cowering, the pulling at the leash, the mid-air acrobatics. Like his adventure at PetSmart the other day, but not quite as bad.

After dropping my favorite drama king off at the vet, my sister and I hit Panera (home of the world's hottest coffee) before running to JoAnn's and Lowes to finish getting the supplies I needed for my projects.

I would like to point out that these were supposed to be CHEAP projects. So not the case.

I got my awesome zebra print fabric for my crate seating and the chair I bought yesterday. Then I went to get the foam for the crate seats. Thank goodness for a 50% off coupon, because that stuff is ridiculously
E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E. Even with 50% off it was still $20 for 2 1/2 yards of the stuff-CRAZY!

At Lowe's, I found my beautiful paint for my chair (and was talked into buying a gallon of the stuff-lots of painting on the horizon). I was also able to show off my nonexistent lumber knowledge base as I struggled to explain what I needed for my crate seating. But, awesome thing about Lowes, they will cut the wood for you in store.

Turns out that it helps if you get your dimensions right. I'll be visiting my grandpa and his workshop tomorrow to make my particle board fit my crates.

Oops.

I also learned that my Jetta is not built for hauling leftover sheets of particle board. Mental note made.

Since I totally screwed up my crate seats for the day, I decided to start in on my chair. Ooo-and I didn't show you my chair yesterday, did I?

You are in for a treat.

You can't tell me that that chair isn't the most beautiful chair you've ever seen! Oh, and the fabric on the seat-LOVE IT! Absolutely gorgeous!

NOT.

So this afternoon, I sanded, I tightened screws, I painted, and I reupholstered.

Behold, my new classroom chair:

Not bad, right?! I'm pretty much in love with it. 

I also salvaged my disaster of a picture frame, which now looks like this:

MUCH better.

Ok, I know this is getting long, but when I got to Matt's this evening, Charlie was still a little drowsy from the anesthetic. 

He was so out of it.

I'll post a video later. It's quite entertaining.

EDIT: Here's that video I promised. I would like to point out that a)his right eye really can't stay open and b) he's falling asleep while sitting up.

Charlie After Anesthesia from Ms. Ellison on Vimeo.

Fail. Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail.

Went to Hobby Lobby this morning. Since I usually end up spending $100 on random stuff that I don't really NEED, I felt that my $35 trip was pretty impressive.

I really wanted to find some cute fabric for the crate seats that I'm wanting to make (you know, the cute ones from Pinterest?)

But, I didn't find anything that I loved.

Ok, there was this black fabric with white polka dots and a few randomly scattered silver glitter polka dots, but my sister didn't think that my students would want glitter on their butts. Weird, right?

I did find a picture frame for my class picture (the composite one that you get with everyone's yearbook pictures), and I found a black glitter spray paint to spruce it up with.

I was all excited to get home and start painting my frame, so I ran outside and started spraying away. And then...the can started making this hissing sound when I wasn't pushing the button. When I pushed the button, nothing happened.

Thinking it would run its course, I put the lid on the can, and let it hiss away.

Bad idea.

When I took the lid back off, it sounded like it had been seriously contemplating exploding.

So despite the fact that there was still PLENTY of paint in the can, I couldn't get anymore out of it. I then noticed that there was a puddle/glob of paint in one of the ridges of the frame. Thinking that I could just dab at it with my finger to spread it out, I instead wiped all of the paint off, leaving a giant white spot.

"Ok," I thought to myself. "This is easily fixed. Just make it look like you planned it to look like that. I ran in the house, grabbed some trusty paper towels, and went to work.

Sigh.

So NOT the look I was going for.

My next thought was that I could just paint the white area a bright color, but then my sister pointed out how uneven the glitter was (especially on the sides).

I now have another can of paint so that I can attack it again tomorrow. Wish me luck.

This was supposed to be an easy project. Fail.

Then, my parents' computer had a virus(s) that needed to be dealt with. Problem was that their antivirus software had expired, and they had been without it for a week. The subscription had been renewed, but the virus was blocking the software from activating (and just about everything else on the computer, too). It even tricked my sister into paying for "System Shield," a nonexistent virus remover, with her credit card. Needless to say, Visa received a phone call from her this afternoon. Sigh.

I was able to track down and remove a couple of the viruses myself, which let me run the (real) antivirus software and scan the computer. It even looked like it cleaned everything up. Then I got the phone call on the way to dinner to let me know that the virus was back. Fail again.

We also hit a antique/thrift store this afternoon where I found a chair that I'm planing on reupholstering and painting. That's on the agenda for tomorrow.

On another note, I've been really wanting to revamp my classroom for next year, but I didn't want to start from scratch. Right now, my "theme" is bright colors on black. I don't want to reinvent the wheel, but after seeing so many AWESOME classrooms recently, I need a change. So I've decided to finally remove the multicolored bulletin board border that I've had up for the last two years in lieu of something new.

But I've been having trouble deciding. I looked at some stuff at the teacher store in town, but nothing really jumped out at me. I was thinking something black and white to accent the colors, polka dots, chevrons, etc. Then it finally hit me as I was looking at upholstery for my new chair. My new theme is doing to be...drumroll, please...

ZEBRA!

How cute will that be?!

I'm thinking lime green, hot pink, or turquoise for the paint color and a zebra seat on the chair. The crates that I bought for my Pinterest project are a coral which I think will look really good with the zebra.

I'm excited!

Hopefully I'll have LOTS of SUCCESSFUL project pictures to share in my next post!

Wish me luck!

Oh, I'm also taking Charlie to the vet in the morning to get his teeth cleaned. And I'll be trying out the doggy seat belt again. Pray for me.

Have a great night!

New look, new resource!

Ok, I know that I promised a freebie when I hit 50 followers, but, well, it took A LOT longer than I thought to finish it up.

And I mean A LOT longer.

And it certainly doesn't help that I'm a perfectionist and spent a insane amount of time moving text boxes around the page-and not big moves, mind you, teeny tiny, minuscule nudges around the page.

I know, I'm ridiculous.

Of course, it didn't help that halfway through my awesome resource (see how I'm building suspense?) I got momentarily distracted inspired and ended up redesigning my entire blog.

Oh yeah, I made this from scratch. By myself. Google helped out, too.

No more generic template for this girl-my blog now has a one-of-a-kind design. And I love it. (Can you tell?!?!)

Wouldn't you know, my freebie that I made just for you is pretty darn awesome, too! (Not that I'm going to tell you what it is yet. Suspense. Duh.)


Charlie and I had a lovely walk this morning-it was nice and cool, the birds were chirping, he barked at every dog in the neighborhood (and the nice old man that was just trying to say "Hello").

This afternoon while I was creating, Charlie took a nap. I'm pretty sure this dog should be named "Pretzel"-I really have no idea how he gets himself into some of his crazy positions. Stranger yet, he actually sleeps while contorted. Weirdo.

This position doesn't actually look all that weird at first. But then you realize that there's something crazy going on with those front paws. And the dangling leg. He's just too cute for his own good.

Anywho--I know you're just DYING to know what I've cooked up for my 50 Follower Freebie! So without further ado, may I present to you...

The Laura Ellison

Independent Reading Journal of Awesomeness!!!!!

(What? Too much?)

You get:

• 4 color covers (with a super cute chevron background
• 2 black and white covers (one with chevrons, one without)
• A journal checklist
• Book Fact Sheet
• Daily reading log
• Character Portrait
• Setting Snapshot
• Point of View Postcard
• Book Review
• Journal completion/scoring sheet
• 2 Daily Journal pages (4 designs)

Basically, your kids can use this with any book that they're reading independently. Consider it...an alternative book report. And, it's an easy way for you to hold them accountable for their independent reading. 

On the daily reading log, they can log how long they read and how many pages they read. After the finish reading, they fill out (half) a journal page. Because there are two entries on a page. In their journal entry, they write a short summary of what they read that day, and then make a connection to the text (which is GREAT practice for those pesky extended response questions!). 

There is a TON of fun stuff in this set! Seriously, I am in LOVE with it! 

Since you were one of my first 50 57 followers, you get it for free!!! Yay, you!!!

You better hurry and download it, because it won't be free forever! It'll be $3.00 in my TpT store starting Saturday, so spread the word! It's too late for this freebie, but you can still get buy it in my TpT store!

Enjoy your evening!

Whew! Who turned up the heat?!?!

Ok. For starters, it is NOT supposed to be 98 with a heat index of 103 in May. Or ever, for that matter. But definitely not in May.

How am I supposed to keep my flowers alive if it's going to be this hot this soon?!?!

And how will I survive in my non-air-conditioned classroom in August if this craziness keeps up?!?!

Needless to say, very little of my day was spent in the great outdoors. Went to church, had some Panera for lunch (yum!), stalked caught up on a few blogs, took Charlie to PetSmart to get his talons claws trimmed, cooked out with Matthew's parents, parked back at my computer and listened to some tunes.

Pretty uneventful.

Except for Charlie's trip to PetSmart.

We got Charlie from the animal shelter a few years ago. We don't really know anything about his past (though we've heard a rumor that he lived on a farm for a while), but he's got some issues. Don't get me wrong, he's the sweetest dog ever. Super cuddler. (Is that a word? It should be.)

But yeah, issues.

When he meets someone new, he FREAKS out. Like howling, barking, cowering, you name it. And don't even THINK about trying to pet him--he'll pee on you. He's not agressive; I've never seen him even think about biting someone (Ok, there was that one time when he nipped at me, but in his defense, I was trying to put a sweater on him. And he wasn't going for blood. He just didn't want to wear that sweater.) Give him 20 minutes to get used to the idea of you, and he'll be curled up on your lap, sound asleep.

Needless to say, a trip to PetSmart is always interesting. First of all, I doubt that any dog enjoys getting his nails trimmed, add in Charlie's issues, and you're in for a wild ride.

It's SUMMER!!! Woo hoo!!!

Whoa.


No seriously. Whoa.


Thanks to Lindsay at My Life as a Fifth Grade Teacher for giving my blog a shout out in her last post! My followers have more than TRIPLED in the last couple of days! SO EXCITING!!!

And, it's SUMMER!

Ahhhh. I feel more relaxed already.

So it's been about 5 6 days since my last post, and I've missed you! (Yes, you!)

Man, the last few days of school were a big ol' bowl of craziness.

Let's start with Monday.

A totally scatter-brained post

Let me apologize ahead of time in case this post is slightly incoherent. I'm watching the Lakers/Thunder game, and the Lakers are getting destroyed. Not cool. Fingers crossed that things start turning around soon.

Anyway, I thought that my post today would be photo-centric. I mean, who doesn't like pictures. I like pictures. Surely you must like pictures. So, my dear 5 followers, today you get pictures to look at.

So, I don't know about your kids, my mine are getting a serious case of summervacationitis. It's a highly contagious infection that quickly spreads through your classroom, causing bouts of daydreaming, frustration, agitation, and desk drumming. The only remedy I've found so far has been a small dose of extra recess at the end of the day. I write "Extra Recess" on the back board, and erase a letter each time the class is too loud or off task. If they have any letters left at the end of the day, we go outside. If the letters are all gone, we stay in.

Me being me, and having the need to make things pretty...well, I might get a little carried away.

So. Many. Freebies.

I set aside some time tonight to attack the big Teacher Appreciation Jackpot that a bunch of teachers are participating in. I knew there would be some awesome freebies, but seriously, I've spent the last 2-3 hours downloading like a crazy person. No, seriously, I've downloaded 136 files onto my poor MacBook tonight, and the only reason that number isn't higher is because I had to cut myself off (so I could blog, and because I missed the entire Lakers game because I was too busy downloading--they won, so it's ok). If you haven't taken advantage of these freebies--DO IT!

In other news, Matthew and I had planned to continue on in our yard work adventures today, but it was just  too hot! Temperatures in the 90s in early May is not ok in my book. So instead, we went and saw The Avengers, in a nice, air-conditioned theater (because his air conditioning is currently not working-boo). Even though we didn't really make any additional progress today, I did remember to take those "after" pictures that I promised yesterday. Hopefully we'll be able to finish up tackling the backyard this week (and the air conditioning gets fixed-I'm breaking a sweat just typing!).

Keeping it Short and Sweet

I don't know about you, but I only have 16 school days left before summer vacation! As we all know, things are crazy this time of year. For example, yesterday I found out after school that I was going to get a new student today. Yup, that's right, a new student with 17 school days left in the year. So I scurried around my room yesterday afternoon, trying to figure out which group I could add my new student to so as to not disturb the careful balance that I had established with my seating arrangement.