EOY...now what?!

Well, I have officially moved off the island.  It took a lot of time & effort {and a few tears} but I have officially moved my last 8 years out of the classroom.  And it looks so...empty!!

Where did it all go?  Why, to my home office of course!  49 boxes, 47 plastic tubs & 12 crates later...

{who needs the to run inside when it's hot out?!}

{don't be sad, Audrey.  i can still see you!}

{that takes a lot of the pow factor out of my focus wall!}

I would like to thank my sweet friend, Donna, for her thoughtful gift of this dragonfly necklace.  Dragonflies signify transition and change and your sweet words will carry me through as I move on from the island.  I'll wear it whenever I'm facing a challenge to help me remember to breathe, trust God's plan and know I made the right decision for our family.

I also love this creative print of all my family members on the island.  Can't wait to put it in my new classroom.  Once you're part of the island family, you're always part of the island family...and I am thankful for that!

And now...it's SUMMER.  {project time}  I have a few projects from Pinterest that I can't wait to try.

{find project details on my Pinterest page}

I think I can, I think YOU can!

Summer.  It's SO close!  There have been some milestone events occurring in the past few weeks including the birth of my precious nephew!  {Mr. Magoo as he has been appropriately nicknamed.}

I am so super proud of my sister.  She is already the best mom and has agreed to send me a new picture every day.  :)  I can't wait to go back and spend more time with them after school gets out!!!

But don't let me get ahead of myself...

Our team {the residents of K-Town} always celebrate the end of the year with a team dinner.  This one was especially special since it'll be my last dinner with these ladies.  I've been with most of them for 6 years and that's going to be a hard bond to break!

They gave me some awesome going away gifts including a new {hilarious} egg hatching kit complete with a "manual egg turner" and some glittery eggs...although they couldn't tell for sure if they were fertilized.  I guess I'll find out in 21 days if I have sparkly chickens walking around!

The signed frame is a treasure and will go with me to sit on my new desk in my new classroom at my new school.

And the gold star is to hang on my door for my new teammates to see "so they know that you're fabulous."  Do they know me or what?!  So sweet.

Plus, my neighbor Erika made me these adorable cupcakes.  Ah!!  I had to eat 2 that night...can't leave a stiletto without it's pair!  ;)

Less fun and more time consuming than that, though, is the fact that I've been packing up my whole life {totally feels like it, right?!} to empty out my classroom.  Staying 2-3 hours after dismissal isn't the most fun way to spend these gorgeous afternoons but I know it has to be done...and the stopping point seems nonexistent!  3 carloads & a couple dozen boxes later and I'm about done , getting closer, making a dent.

It's no wonder I get home and crash.

{don't you want to just kiss those little lips?!}

But...I have 2 more days and I can make it.  You can make it too!  Just hang in there and be sure to get your daily laughs.  Hopefully this will get you started as you try to figure out what in the world you're going to do in those last few hours...

dinosaurs.

We're not actually getting into dinosaurs until next week but my sister is enormous...the size of a house...ready to deliver my nephew any day so I'm all set up and ready for next week.  Our tickets are on standby and as soon as we get the call we are headed to Chicago!  {unless we don't get the call in which case we'll fly out as scheduled on Sunday.}

I created these printables based on some ideas I read in Mailbox magazine.  For the estimation sheet you'll need to make a large dinosaur "footprint" {mine were cut from posterboard} and have the kids predict how many of their footprints would fit inside.  Have the kids take off their shoes {how much do they love that?!} to fill up the footprint and practice counting.  Then record and draw that many shoes inside the footprint.  The new dino species one is pretty self explanatory.  My kids are going to use their names {Kristinosaurus} to make up ridiculously silly facts {characteristic: covered in glitter.  activity: shopping for shoes. size 2,018}

I also love this idea I saw on Pinterest...but it was pinned wrong and it didn't link back to anything.  Luckily, Lyndsey contacted me and let me know that it was hers.  Don't you love him?!

More dinosaur stuff to come later...depending on how many days of dinosaur week I'm actually in attendance instead of listening to my sister roar!  {hardy har har}

Have a great weekend...tomorrow's Friday!!  :)

Here {dad} comes to save the day!

Our older kids are in the middle of EOG testing this week and it is hard hard hard to keep them in the room and quiet all day.  Can I get an Amen?!  {preach!}  I open up extra centers and find new fun projects that go along with our theme weeks to keep life fun & interesting but sometimes the noise level just gets so intense I'm afraid a proctor will come knocking at any moment to tell us to keep it down!

Did I mention I'm supposed to be doing my own end of year assessments right now, too???

So I did it.  A teacher's guilty bail out plan...we watched a movie.

But instead of just watching The Incredibles I went ahead and did a mini-unit on superheroes.  {after I finally got some running records done!!}  This unit by The Teacher Wife is fabulous.

I was also inspired by Mr. Incredible to make something for Father's Day.  I found this graphic and a similar activity at Craft Caravan and adapted it for my kinders.  Click for your free copy!

Our field trip to the strawberry patch was cancelled on Monday {puddles are one thing, but thunder & lightning and five year olds outside?  nooooooo thank you.} so I'm just hanging on til Thursday to try and make it out of the building.  They'll have so much pent up energy the strawberries may just blow off the plants in their wake!

And then there's only 15 more days!!  Hang in there.  We can make it!  :)

place value.

Because we all like having new things thrown at us in May :) I've been on the hunt for place value activities that didn't include the hundreds.  Our DPI has added a math unit for us to "work in" to the last few weeks of school.  {see me smiling?!}

I think the concept of base 10 is a little abstract for kindergarteners...but!...we're teaching K.NBT in the Common Core none the less.  I love this game from Positively Learning and that it only uses 10s and 1s to make a number.  The game is {free} so go pick up Place Value Blast and follow a new blog!  :)

And now that the month is half over I figure I'll link up with Farley & currently!

encouragement for mom.

I saw the sweetest commercial for Mother's Day and just had to share it.  For my mom, long time moms, moms of singles, doubles or entire baseball teams.  But especially for all of you brand new, first time moms {or almost moms to-be.}

You're doing {more than} ok.  Happy Mother's Day.

Good Reads {linky party}

Cute Mrs. Stanford is having a Good Reads linky party.

I have to admit, I don't do a lot of "educational" reading.  The only chance I get to read is right before I go to bed and I have to read something purely for fun.  Basically anything by Sophie Kinsella {who is also Madeleine Wickham} or Emily Giffin.  I've also read My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult multiple times and will buy another copy when this one is falling apart.

As far as something to help me as a teacher I really got a lot out of Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World.  If you try to do it all and find yourself often stressed out {teaching, home life, pinterest, blog.  yes, I'm talking to you!} this is a great book on focusing on what's important and learning how to say no to other requests.

On my list of books I'm looking forward to reading is Why Are All the Good Teachers Crazy?  Has anyone read it yet?  Because it sounds right up my alley!

For a read aloud, could I really pick anything else??  Shoe La La by Karen Beaumont!  :)

What's on your summer reading list?  Head over to Jessica's blog for new titles.