A Teacher's Summer To-Do List

Now that school is out.... what is on your to-do list?  Here are a list of my favourite summer time to-dos!

1. House Cleaning

I know what you are thinking.... the first thing on the list is house cleaning (ugh)!!  Most of this list is not in any specific order BUT... this is actually the first thing I do every summer.  I don't know if you are anything like me, but other than the basics, my housework is pretty much neglected during the school year.  I'm usually in the groove after cleaning out my classroom and keep on going when I get home.  Doing it right away suits me well because it really takes me awhile to be able to relax after the busyness of the school year anyway.  I would just get jittery if I tried to jump right into relaxing.... Plus I like to get it out of the way and be able to enjoy my home for the summer!

2. Pamper Yourself
This means something different to everyone...massage, haircut, spa day etc.  After all that housecleaning I am usually ready for (and need) a mani/pedi.  Even with the best of intentions it can be hard to fit "yourself" into your busy schedule during the school year.

3. Exercise
Keeping up with a regular exercise routine during the school year can be a real challenge. Summer is a great time to take long walks, check out a new class or go bike riding with your kids.  I like to establish a bit of a routine that I will hopefully be able to carry over to the school year.

4. Cook
I have to admit..... I don't really like to cook that much.  But I also like to eat healthy and am usually feeling a little malnourished from eating cereal and take-out during the last weeks of school!  Plus cooking is more fun during the summer when you have time to plan and try new things.  I usually try to find a few new school night recipes that I can add to my repertoire for the fall.

5. Go For Lunch
Hey, you can't cook EVERY meal all summer and there is something liberating for teachers about going out for lunch!  I guess it depends on your teaching assignment and grade level but I eat lunch (or attempt to anyway) in my classroom, with my students, most of the year.   I have to admit this is my least favourite perk?! of the job.  I prefer to eat sitting down, perhaps at an actual adult sized table and even better if someone else is cooking.  In the summer I like to go for lunch with my husband, girlfriends (the ones that have jobs where they can go for lunch all year long), kids (my own kids NOT the kiddos I lunched with all year) or teacher friends.

6. Read
I am one those people that has a slight panic attack if I don't have a book on the go. However, my school year reading routine goes pretty much like this: Read for about 5 mins....fall asleep.  It seriously takes me months to finish a book.  During the summer I can stay up late to finish those last few chapters or spend the day at the beach with a trashy novel.  I try to fit in some professional reading too but I always start with the fun stuff!

7. Netflix
This one is pretty much a no-brainer..... catch up on your shows!! 

8. Spend Time with Friends & Family
This is a little embarrassing...... but my husband says I'm nicer during the summer.  When I take off my teacher hat and have more time just to relax and spend quality time with my family and friends I am truly a happier person.  The struggle of balancing it all is tough and in the summer I don't balance, I just have a chance to focus on being a wife, a mom and a friend.  And apparently be nicer..... 

9. Nap
Remember at the start when I said I have a hard time relaxing at the beginning of the summer.  Well, somewhere at about week 2 or 3 I get REALLY good at it.  I mean, "having a nap every afternoon" good at it!  I can count on one hand the amount of naps I have during the school year but come summer... ZZZzzzz you can hardly keep me awake after lunch.  

10. To Plan, or Not To Plan?!
This is one that I have struggled with through the years.   Some summers I spend a lot of time prepping for the upcoming year and other summers... not so much.   Some summers I have had a rough year and I need the break... the whole break.  Some years I have spent the entire summer prepping just to find out I am changing grades or classrooms. Some years my teacher partner & I have met regularly throughout the summer to plan our program. Some summers I am really into it and others I am not. Sometimes my exact position is pretty much guaranteed for the upcoming year, other times there is the possibility of last minute changes. Some years I can get into my classroom throughout the summer and other years, only a few days before school starts (why do they always clean my carpets last!!).  So I guess planning NEEDS to be on the list but I will keep it down here at number 10..... to be tackled sometime at the end of August!


Enjoy your summer!  Read lots of books, take lots of naps & go out for lunch while you still can.....

Five for Friday (Oct. 23)

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Here's a peek at my week.....

While most people are still enjoying fall it is already winter up in my neck of the woods!  Where I live up in Northern Canada winter starts early..... and this year it has come even earlier than normal:(   We can always expect some snow by Halloween but this year we have had snow off and on all October.  The little pond behind my house is already frozen over!

Even though it is winter outside I am still embracing the fall season inside!  The girls and I went and bought pumpkins this week.  Obviously, there is no pumpkin patch around but my girls had fun at the grocery store picking out the perfect pumpkins.  And who could pass up on a bunch of fall flowers? Not me.... I just won't look out the window!

Chores, chores, chores.....   My girls were supposed to be doing them but it was turning into a fight lately and nobody could remember who did what and they were still getting their allowance (bad mom) and not really doing anything for it.  Ok, you get the idea!  I finally (after threatening for ages) made a chore chart.  We may still be in the honeymoon phase but man this thing is working like a charm!  The deal is they can do their chores whenever they want but they must do everything on their chart by the end of the week in order to get their allowance.  This morning they were fighting over who got to empty the dishwasher!  Last night my oldest daughter offered to take the garbage out and did it without rolling her eyes (tweens!!!).  So far so good!

This week I updated the very first paid product I made for TPT!  It is a Halloween Pattern Pack so it was able to hide in my store for a long time without much attention.  With Halloween coming up I needed to make a decision whether to just delete it (it no longer represented the quality of the products I have in my store) or give it a face lift.  I was tempted to just let it go.... Halloween only comes once a year and on top of that it was specific to patterns.  As I looked back at the file I remembered it was this product that really got me hooked on being a TPT seller.  I had only signed up as a seller on a whim and really had no expectations that anyone would ever really buy anything I created.  I was working on patterns with my class. It was Halloween. And so my first product came to life!  And...this was the part that was amazing... it sold (and more than once!).  The success of this product gave me the confidence to continue creating and sharing my resources.  Just thinking about it makes me sentimental. The Halloween Pattern Pack had to live on! 

Link >>>>>> Halloween Pattern Pack

I updated something old and made something new!  I had so much fun making these simple puzzle and printing activities.  Kids get to cut, paste, print and colour....great fine motor control practice and learn some seasonal vocabulary.  Watch out for some more versions.... coming soon.

Link>>>>> Halloween:Puzzle & Print

Link>>>>> Thanksgiving: Puzzle & Print

Have great weekend!!!

Five for Friday

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. 
This is my first time to participate in this awesome linky. Here it goes…

This week Fall officially started!  Up where I live in Northern Canada it has been around for awhile...  Seriously the trees start to turn color here at the end of August!  I do love fall though and just wish it hung around a little longer.

Hello Winter?!?  We had our first frost of the year on Monday. It only happened the one day so hopefully it was just a weather glitch. Luckily I am an experienced Northern (lazy) girl and just leave my scraper in my car all year long.  This weekend we will have to clear the bikes out of the garage so I can park inside again.  I am NOT ready for winter yet!! 

This week I was busy doing Apple updates.  It took me all week but my Apple, Apple, ABC (Alphabet Activities) and Apple, Apple, 123 (Numbers 1-10) are new and improved.  

Link >>> Apple, Apple, ABC

Link >>> Apple, Apple 123

 

With apples on my mind all week I picked up this Fall Apples candle.  It smells wonderful and I love the cozy feeling of lighting candles in the fall. 

This book has been keeping me up too late all week! It has these short chapters that keep me hooked. I keep telling myself just one more….Ok one more….  I hope to get to finish it up on the weekend.

Have a great weekend!!

My "Must Have" Supplies for Back To School: Everything Else

We all make sure our classrooms are stocked up with the basics like crayons and glue but there are some extra "must have" supplies that I can't do with out.  Two of my favourites are BINDER CLIPS and SENTENCE STRIPS.  Click to read more about how I use them in my classroom. Here is a list of everything  else…..

HIGHLIGHTERS    

A class set of highlighters is definitely a staple in my class.  Kids love to use them and they totally make learning fun! Here are a few ways I use them in my class.

Highlighting sight words: the

Phonics skills in context. Poems are my favourite for finding sight words, beginning sounds, rhyming words, digraphs….whatever you may be working on.

Tracing letters and words. Instead of dotted lines use a highlighter to help a student correctly form a letter or correct a reversal.  If I do provide a student with a word in their writing, I always print it with highlighter and then the student can trace over it.

   

Highlight it! Worksheets.  My kiddos loved using highlighters so much I created these worksheets so they could highlight away... identifying letters, numbers and sight words.  It is harder to come up with authentic highlighting experiences for little ones so these worksheets do the trick.  

Numbers 1-20 Highlight it!

Sight Words Highlight it!

Alphabet Highlight it!   

INDEX CARDS

Index cards are great for quick name tags and flash cards. I especially love the bright neon ones!




                                          

       BRIGHT PAPER

Using bright paper is such a simple way to… well, brighten up everything from notes to parents to classroom displays.

Use your bright paper for important notes home so they get noticed.

   Save on ink and print on bright paper instead!

These are from my Apple Ten Frame Fun! set.  I have both color and black & white ten frames included. I love how the black & white version looks on the bright red and green paper.
 

Backing these simple black & white number cards on bright paper makes them really stand out.  This is a really quick way to make a display that is easy on the ink and budget!