Less than 10!

 Today was day 172 out of 182 (yes, you heard me 182), which means that somehow, someway I've almost made it to the end of the year. Out of the 3 years I've taught, this one was definitely the most interesting and I'm eager to put it behind me. First, I spent all last Summer and early Fall in therapy for vocal nodules. Once I failed at making "adequate progress" (hehehe) in therapy, I went in and had surgery to remove the nodules, which = 5 days of NO talking and mic when I returned to teaching. Since then, my aide/assistant has had a surgery, my poor mom fell in a Dollar Store and has had to have 2 surgeries, and me....I'm just hanging by a thread and commuting 40 miles to school so that I can be with my moms during this difficult time. :/ I love teaching, but I can't wait for the school year to end so I can just be with and take care of my mom.  I gotta tell you, June 8th can't come fast enough! This will be my first summer in nearly 10 years not working at a camp and I'm all TOO eager for a break. Any other teachers our there work during the summer? If so, do you work with kiddies? I did for awhile and I think it contributes to "burn out." Thoughts????

With all of the above having been said, I gotta tell ya that I've been relying on my bloggy friends and Pinterest to help me get through the year. What have I been up to? What have we been doing in school? BOGGLE! Lots of boggling (is that even a word)? Click HERE to head on over to Fun In First and grab Boggle pieces for Reading and Math. My class, loves Boggle and we've been doing it a lot this week so that I can get some of my F&P assessments done. The students are so motivated to make as many words/number sentence as they can and compete (in a friendly way) with each other. Can't say I've found a more productive activity at the end of the year. Also, a couple weeks ago in Treasures, our weekly theme was Space. Of course I visited Pinterest and check out this cute, simply craftivity I found below. We made the crafts and also wrote lists titled "My Space Packing List" as a prewriting activity. Then, we wrote personal narratives about going into space titled "If I Went Into Space". Students could only pick 5 items to bring with them and let me tell ya, their choice of items was more than interesting!

Alright, time to settle down into relaxation mode and enjoy the holiday weekend. Happy Memorial Day!

Teacher Appreciation Jackpot

My dreams have come true! 150 super-awesome blog friends are giving away one free product today, valued between $3 -$8 dollars just to show their appreciation for all we do. But, this wonderful event lasts for one day only, today May 6th! So don't miss out. So far, I've found a really awesome summer writing journal and an autobiography mini-unit. CLICK HERE to hop over to the teacher appreciation jackpot. If you're a K-2 teacher, just scroll down and you find links to free items on TPT near the bottom of the post. This is one blog hop you don't want to miss!!!!!