Summer Break is HERE!!

YAH!!! Yesterday was my last day of school for the 2015-16 school year and I am proud to say that I am officially on Summer Break! As a tribute to my summer vacation, I am sharing my summer bucket list with you.

My Summer 2016 Bucket List

1) go camping at Lake Moultrie
2) take Miss M to Tweetsie RailRoad to Day Out with Thomas
3) clean out my closet
4) meet Dorothea Benton Frank (again!)
5) organize my pantry
6) go to the beach with Miss M
7) organize the files on my school computer

My Summer Reading List

1) See Me by Nicholas Sparks

2) The Walk Series by Richard Paul Evans

3) All Summer Long by Dorothea Benton Frank

I will let you know how I do on accomplishing these things as I get a chance to do updates this summer. I know I won't be checking in often because I will be spending time with Miss M! I hope you have a wonderful summer as well!

Summer 2014 in Review!

I can't believe that I am back at school already. I know I have been MIA this summer but I have thoroughly enjoyed spending it with my sweet & very busy baby girl! So here's a quick recap of my summer vacation 2014 in pictures.



Excited about Mommy's first day out of school for summer!



Ready to go to the zoo!

Filling up her swimming pool

Having a tea party

Helping Daddy cut the grass with her bubble mower!

Putting her toes in the ocean for the first time!

Loving the waterpark!

Needless to say we have had a very busy and super fun summer! I have enjoyed every minute with my sweet girl. She is growing so quickly but doing so many cute things! I hope you had a great summer as well.

5 Things I Miss About Summer

Joy of Kindergarten is hosting an adorable linky party about the top 5 things we will miss most about summer. I had to join the fun because I am sad that summer is over too! :(

I already miss my summer, since I am just getting home from school...so sad!

Good-Bye Summer & Bright Polka Dot Binder Covers

Wow! I can't believe that Wednesday I officially go back to work for the 2012-13 school year. I can't believe that our summer break went by so quickly. In honor of the ending of summer, Peterson's Pad is having a Good-Bye Summer 2012 Linky Party.

Here's the rules:

Share 4 things about your summer!

1. A place you visited

2. A book you read

3. Something you did or made for your school class

4. A fun thing you did

1) A place I visited: This summer I visited the lake for a week on vacation with my husband. It was so nice and relaxing.

2) A book I read: I read many books this summer, but one of the best was The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks.

3) Something I did or made for my school class: I made so many things for my classroom this summer so here is a small sampling. I made several sets of quiet dice, a polka dot name canvas for my door, and a welcome banner to go above the classroom door.

4) A fun thing I did: I spent time laying on the beach, reading and relaxing. It was fabulous! This spot is on an island that can only be reached by boat. It was peaceful and quiet!

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This year, I am doing a very generic classroom theme with primary colors (green, yellow, blue, & red) and polka dots. I have seen so many adorable binder covers in blog land and I wanted one to match my theme so I decided to make my own.

I made these in PowerPoint. You can customize them by opening them up in PowerPoint and adding a text box with your name or initials. I also made a box at the bottom of the cover to add a text box with the contents of your binder.

I think these covers look adorable in my new binders. I can't wait to show them off at school! These binder covers are available in my TN shop and TpT shop. If you download them, I would appreciate some feedback! Thanks!

Summer Bucket List Update

So back in May, I linked up with Teri, Hadar, and April for their summer bucket list linky party. You can check out the detailed list by clicking here. Here is an update of my progress so far.

1) Read a few good books I have been wanting to read
Done! I have read about 12 books this summer and loved every minute of it!

2) Organize my monthly materials into the correct binders and boxes 
I have been working on this one. I think I have most of my materials in the correct locations now. YAH!!!

3) Some trips to the beach 
I have taken several day trips to the beach and spent some time basking in the sun with a book in my hands thanks to some great friends and family!

4) Create some activities and units for my TpT store 
I have been really bad about this one and haven't gotten any units completed. I really need to get busy before getting back into school full time.

5) Create a photobook of our wedding on Shutterfly 
This is a work in progress. I can't decide where to put every picture and I am so much of a perfectionist!

6) Learn more about my new Nikon d5100 DSLR camera
I have learned so much this summer from Pinterest and just playing around with the settings.

7) Some day/weekend trips to Lake Moultrie 
Actually, I got to go this past week for 5 days which was fabulous!!

8) Organize my classroom library  
I completed this about a month ago. I used slats from my window blinds cut in half to divide my books into themes and made labels to stick on each divider. It looks fantastic!

I think I have done pretty well so far. So now how are you doing with your bucket list??

Too Long Without a Post

Melonheadz

Sorry that I have been MIA for the past couple of weeks. When I got out of school, I had to have some down time. Here is what I have been up to:

I spent a couple of days at the beach with my toes in the sand with some great friends at Myrtle Beach. This was the view from our hotel room.

Our oldest niece turned 12. She is my husband's brother's child and we love her to pieces. We took her out to eat for her birthday.

Last week, I had a full day of PD about the Common Core math standards and revising our district's pacing guides for the new school year. We are getting a new reading series this year - Houghton Mifflin's Journeys. Is anyone else using this reading series yet? If you are using it, how do you like it?

You Know It's Summer Vacation When...

I had to link up with Kindergarten Lifestyle for her summer vacation linky party!

 

This was me last night so now I am going to be a TIRED lady today! Haha!  

What do I do to join?

1. Right click the picture at the below and save it to your computer.
2. Open in Word or Powerpoint and insert a text box and type in your FINISH.
3. Save the slide or page as a jpg. Done!!

You can link up on Kindergarten Lifestyle's blog post! Join in the fun!

My Summer Bucket List

Happy belated Mother's Day! I spent the weekend with my wonderful mother-in-law since this is her first Mother's Day without her mom. We lost her back in October. She also has 2 boys (my husband and brother-in-law) so she doesn't have any girls. We had a great time in Charleston, SC. Then on Sunday evening my husband grilled hamburgers for my parents, his parents, and brother's family. It was a great weekend with my family!

I have only 13 more school days until summer break! Actually, the teachers has 14 days, but only 13 more with kiddos! Woo hoo!!

Teri at A Cupcake for the Teacher, Hadar from Miss Kindergarten and April from A Modern Teacher are having a great linky party right now about everyone's summer bucket list of things they would like to get accomplished over the summer break. This sounded like a great idea to me so I had to join in the fun!

1) Read a few good books I have been wanting to read - I can't seem to read very much during the school year since I work and then want to look over all the great teaching blogs I have found when I get home. Not to mention that I fall asleep as soon as I stop to read something, so I plan to do some catching up this summer with these great books!

2) Organize my monthly materials into the correct binders and boxes - I started out pretty well but I need to work on the 2nd half of the year. They are pretty disorganized!


3) Some trips to the beach - I only live about 45 minutes away so it is an easy trip for me to make! I plan to spend some time with my toes in the sand and a book in my hands.

 4) Create some activities and units for my TpT store - I am envisioning some fall themes and beginning of the year activities that correlate with the Common Core standards. I have also purchased some cute clipart that I want to use to create some useful acitivities!

5) Create a photobook of our wedding on Shutterfly - I figured this is an important summer project since I have been wanting to do it since we got married over 6 years ago! Wow! It has passed by so quickly! My photobook will be similiar to this one:

6) Learn more about my new Nikon d5100 DSLR camera - I want to learn to take better photographs using my fabulous camera my husband bought me for Christmas! I need to better understand all the photography lingo and how it works too. I plan to keep this camera in my hands over the summer since so many fun activities will be happening!

7) Some day/weekend trips to Lake Moultrie - My husband's work company has a place on the lake with a beach, dock, boat landing, and campsites right on the water. I can't wait to go for a visit. My nieces and nephew love to go too!

The sunset on the lake!

8) Organize my classroom library - I really want to get my books organized by themes and then catalog them all on my computer so I won't buy books more than once. I hate to spend money on books that I already have when I could spend them on different books. This pin from Pinterest is my inspiration: 

http://pinterest.com/pin/39688040436248553/

So needless to say I have a lot of things on my Summer Bucket List! I sure hope to get them accomplished!