Summer camp depression and it's almost September?!!

Take me back to the candy land where the cotton candy grows... pufffffff, puffffff.
or
Take me back to summer camp. I miss the sunshine, the people, the bugle, the craziness. It's weird being able to be by myself for longer than an hour or so. It's weird not being able to be twins with AnneMarie every day (on purpose or not).

And I definitely am not ready to go back to school.

A few things making BTS time better is 1) three of my best friends are either teaching, long term subbing, or student teaching this year (2/3 are in first grade!); 2) my idol Cara Carroll and I are doing the same classroom theme: chevron; and 3) THIS IS MY SECOND YEAR!

Yep, when I went to make my welcome letter to all the little firsties, all I had to do was search my computer for "welcome letter," change some fonts, add some chevron, and print!

I tried to go into school earlier to drop them off, but a large sign on the door let me know that school was closed from 1-2. I'm off to try again and then even take a walk around my room. I'm not moving, unpacking, or doing anything today, just easing myself back in. You know why?

for TWELVE more days!

Holla for a dolla!

Heeeeeeyyyyyy! Today I was finally able to get online to Scholastic's Teacher Express to view all of the great Dollar Deals.

WOW.

After my cart was jammed pack at lunch, it was cleared out after I had to do an annoying little thing called  "teaching" and couldn't complete my order. After school, I immediately purchased a few books. (Like 70.) And then I realized I hadn't finished all of the essential purchases I needed and bought just a couple more. (30.)


But I needed all of them, most definitely. As I was browsing through them, a poem from this book totally captured my afternoon today

Only 20 more school days left!

EXCITING NEWS! and a linky

It's official... today I got my contract for teaching at my school next year! I am so happy and proud of the work that I have done this year--and so indebted to all of the amazing teacher bloggers I stalk daily. Truly, without their wonderful ideas, pinterest, and my friends' and family's support, I never would be here.

And even though I am proud of what I have accomplished this year, I am already furiously planning at the back of my mind what I want to change/do differently next year (in whatever grade I wind up!)

SO I'm linking up with Mrs. Stanford's Good Reads Linky to get new ideas of summer books.

Here's what I already plan on taking with me to camp:

1. 
   
   I received a copy of this in October from my financial planner and subsequently threw it in a pile of things. I can't wait to have the time to sit back and read this one, especially because my friend Megan is OBSESSED with Ron Clark. Like, in college we watched the Ron Clark Story on Lifetime at least 5 times.
   
   
2. 
   
   After reading some interesting blog posts about inquiry-based  learning, I wanted to learn some more. A few clicks and an Amazon prime order later, It is already packed in my backpack for camp.
   
   
3. 
   
   Anything "Common Core" and Lucy Calkin catches my eye, so I'm hoping this will be useful next year as I attempt to long-term plan instead of jast having a mad rush every Sunday night.
   
   
4.  and 
   These are two I'll definitely be rereading and rereading and rereading this summer. I'm really proud of the growth of my students in reading, and I definitely think this structure helped foster their love of reading.
   
   
5. 
   I need more minilesson ideas than Lucy Calkins has in her books, so I'm using this to help me structure writing. Minilessons for each month? Please and thank you.
   
   
6. 
   This is our district's summer reading book this year. I'm excited because I have been told it also has lesson ideas inside! Hooray for an idea of curriculum! Hooray for structure! Hooray for not mapping my own curriculum!
   
   
7. Of course.
   
   
   
8. Miscellaneous thrillers and mysteries? I need more fun books to read! {Hence the linky!}

Click the link below to link up and share your summer reading list!

I already had a cinco

Forgot about yesterday's infamous share session where one student told us all about his Cinco de Mayo party...

Apparently said student--let's call him Cinnamon because he was the same one who said he had become really smart by eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch-- went to bed on Saturday night early because his parents were having a "cincodemayoh". After Cinnamon woke up, he went downstairs to find his father. In his words:

My dad was wearing his cinco hat and he was walking around bumping into things and his eyes were kind of shut and he knocked over his cup and then my mom yelled at me to go back to bed!

Dear parents, I'll forget what the kids say about you if you forget the things they say about me. Deal?

(Arriba!)

FIELD TRIP!

Sitting on the bus coming back from the zoo! So proud and amazed the trip went so painlessly. Miss Megan and Miss Lauren were absolute life savers today helping out with my group. Some favorite memories before I forget:

My boys using the map to navigate-looked like little men
Their schema for the animals they remembered from our animal research this week
When asked whether they wanted to play on computers or see more animals, one cherub said "I want to see more animals so I can learn more!"
Seeing their eyes light up when they saw a new animal
How unbelievably smart my little babies have become this year

Almost back to watch lion king and decorate our zoo frames!
Best day in first grade!! (and only 29 more to go!)

First Grade is a Zoo!

Tomorrow is our field trip to the zoo and we cannot wait! By that I mean my entire classroom management facade has ended and the inmates are running the asylum. I keep telling myself they're only 6/7 and it's almost summer (THIRTY MORE DAYS OF SCHOOL!!!!!) and we have a field trip tomorrow and that's the whole reason we're so wacky. Mhmm. This will all be over on Monday.

I am freaking out for the trip, typical, and am terrified that my kids will wind up scaling the monkey fence and getting into the monkey pit. (Note: not an exaggeration, this is an actual occurrence from last year's field trip.  Weeeeeeee!)

To distract me from impending field trip doom and distract the kids from the fact I haven't brought in the promised guinea pigs yet--long story-- we've been doing tons of crafts. I usually think beforehand they will be less stress and yet it never works out that way. Here are some shots of the latest things we've been doing in room 131:

Someone who has not yet joined our class... maybe because I love him too much

Hellooooo

Crazy calculations during my prep

Tie dye recipe- a lot easier at camp

Bright green tie dyed shirts for easy spotting in the crowd

Excited to survive the field trip and start the celebration

Cinquain poems inspired by Cara Carroll, of course

Adorable handprint animals

Our flock of fractionpillars

I love how different their feet look

This one's on stilts-haha!

Some of our schema for zoo animals before reading our nonfiction books

Love the creative spelling!

Here's hoping we all survive tomorrow! And thank god I have Megan and Lauren coming in to help out with my group, especially since I've given myself the wild child group. Packing extra Tylenol, TGIF.

Things I heard in first grade

Child 1 talking about baby sister: "She cries a lot when she wants my mom."

Child 2: "She cries all the time? You should put her in a cage or something."