2 years ago after our big move!

Wow!  I'm not so good on the whole consistent blogging thing.  In the fall of 2015, we moved into a brand new school building and I have a brand new classroom that I love.  I had 27 amazing little ones in my room.  Here are a few pictures of my room from the beginning of the year.

      

      

It's Summer!

It's officially summer and I can't help but think about next year!  There are so many things I want to do and I love that I have all summer to enjoy my family!  I also love that I can brainstorm new ideas, figure out how to make things better and even more fun to learn!

Random Daily Five Thoughts

It's the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.  I have had a fun day with my family and now everyone is sleeping.  Well, my four girls are in bed, not necessarily sleeping.  I love to read about new teaching ideas at night when my kids are in bed.  When I was looking through some of my teaching books,  I came across The Daily Five and CAFE books by the Two Sisters, that I read last summer.  I just started using Daily Five for the first time in my classroom this year and I am anxious to reflect and revise many things for next year.  I read the first few pages and had to grab my highlighter.  The first ideas of Daily Five were inspired by Margaret Mooney, an amazing literacy teacher from New Zealand.  No way!  I knew I loved Daily Five.  As a former Reading Recovery teacher, I have so much appreciation for New Zealand teachers and the impact they have made on literacy all over the world.
   
Then I hopped onto the two sisters site: the2sisters.com and started searching kindergarten and getting started.  I found a cool parent letter that teaches parents the language we use in Daily Five and how to ask their children the right questions about their day.  I also discovered an article, "2 Different Word Walls," by Trish Prentice.  She wrote about having two word walls in your classroom, one wall for those "sit and get" students and a magnetic interactive word wall, where students can come up and grab a word they need, take it back to their seat, and then return it when they are done.  Ding! Ding! Ding!  That makes so much sense!  So, I have added that to my list of things to put in my new classroom this fall!

The Countdown Has Begun!

While I'm trying so hard to stay in the moment, it has occasionally crossed my mind today that we only have 22 days left!  I can't believe it.  It feels like just yesterday I started this journey at my new school.  And now I have 22 days left with my little munchkins, 22 days left to teach them everything they need to know for first grade, and 22 days left to love on them before they leave me for the summer.  And did I mention only 25 days to get my room packed up and moved out of my classroom?  You see, we are getting a brand new elementary school and our current building will begin demolition three days after the kids leave.  I haven't packed one thing.  I don't want my walls to be bare for those last 22 days!  That just wouldn't be cute!  And I am all about cute!  (I'm a little bit of a procrastinator too.)  The good news is that I moved schools last summer after 15 years of teaching and I got rid of a lot then!  So my emotions go from excited to worried to thrilled to stressed to overwhelmed to calm and then I finish it off with my motto for kindergarten inspired by the one and only Pete the Cat..."It's All Good!"

Where has this year gone?

It is the first weekend of spring break and this year has been a whirlwind.  My new position in kindergarten and in a new school district has keep me very busy, and I didn't blog like I wanted to, but I am looking forward to reflecting on the year.  It's been a fun and challenging one.  I have had a class of 29 kindergarteners, all of whom I have fallen in love with.  We all have our days, but I have made connections with these kids like no other class I've ever had.   My kids know I need morning hugs every day and they tell me often I am the best teacher ever.  And I just feel connected...to my students, to their parents, to the community, and to my teaching career.

We are in the process of building a brand new early elementary school and the excitement is growing!  We found out where our rooms will be in the building this week and now I just want to stalk Pinterest for organization ideas and start planning my new room.  Our last day of school is Friday, June 5 and we must have everything out of our rooms by Monday, June 8.  The boxes and tape have arrived at our building so that packing can begin.  It's crazy to think that we are getting so close to the end of the year.  And what is even crazier is that our target move-in date is August 28.  So I need to be super-organized and ready to bust out a classroom in a week's time!  Stay tuned for updates!  

My room!

Here is a picture of my room just before open house!  More pictures to come, but I had to share what Maria from Kindercraze and Schoolgirl Style inspired me to do.

NW Tech Rave Day!

Getting lots of cool learning tools for the year at the NW Tech Rave!!  Tomorrow is our first official day as a whole staff at Northwest.  I am missing my Michigan Center teachers, but I am getting so excited to be an official Mountie with the rest of my family.  Then tomorrow night, we have our kindergarten orientation and I will meet my little sweet kindergarteners for the first time.  I don't know who is more excited, me or them?!  I think I might be.  I have been working hard in my new classroom and I will share pictures soon.