The One With The Bucket List

Summer Vacation has officially started!  Yay!  I still cannot get over how quickly this year as gone by.  I dare say it has been the best year of my 6 year teaching career.  I have truly enjoyed this group of students.  I even enjoyed teaching Math this year.  We tried something new with Science that I think worked very well.  So in a way the end of this school year is bittersweet. 

I thought I would join the summer bucket list fun now that I'm on summer break.  My list always seems to be a mile long.  My brain starts thinking about the next year in April.  I have a huge list of ideas before school ever even ends.  Pinterest has not helped.  There are so many great ideas on there.


With no further ado, in no particular order here is my summer bucket list.


1.  The biggest thing on my list is preparing for next year.  Since I'm making a change in content areas I have my work cut out for me.  I like to be prepared with a general overview of what my year will look like before school starts.  I don't always have detailed lesson plans for the whole year, but I like to have general plans for the year.


2. There will be lots of scrapbooking. I have several projects that I would like to finish. The project I want to do first though is a scrapbook for my sweet Liam Bailey. He ran away over 2 months ago. He miss him so much. I've been meaning to do a scrapbook for him and our other dog since we first got her 5 years ago. With him being gone, it just seems the perfect time to do it.

3.  I love the bunting hanging from the ceiling with the pom poms in this picture.  One of my goals is to make my own for my classroom.



4.  Reading great books is always on my summer bucket list.  This year my reading list is slightly different as I'm reading young adult and teen novels.  I cannot wait to get paid to discuss books with my students all year.  Can you say Dream Job?!?

5. I have been drooling over the Erin Condren teacher planners since discovering them.  They aren't cheap though so I am thinking about making my own planner/binder with all my important information in one place. 

6.  I want to clean and organize our home this summer.  I'm thinking a little bit at a time.  It's a big job and I do better with small chunks.  Same goes for my classroom.  I have stuff that was there when I started teaching at the school.  It's good stuff that I don't want to let go of, but I'm not using it so it needs to go.

7.  Last but not least is to label all of the books in my classroom library with their AR level and points.



The One With The Winner

Ding Ding Ding!  We have a winner!  Congratultions Amy!  You are the winner of GeoGems Polygons.  I hope you and your students enjoy this game. 

Amy, email me your information and I will get your game in the mail.

Thank you to all who entered.

It is so humbling that so many read my blog.  I never would have guessed.

The One With The Geometry Game Giveaway

I am elated to host my first teacher giveaway.  I am hosting this giveaway for a couple of reasons.  I'm celebrating.  We have one week left before summer vacation starts.  I really have mixed feelings about it.  I absolutely love this group of 7th graders.  They have been so sweet and tons of fun.  Dare I say the perfect group?  So much so that I was tempted to request teaching 8th grade next year.  I know that I don't like having the same group two years in a row though no matter how much I love them.  Something happens between 7th and 8th grade and not a good something.  As I said in a previous post, I'm making the switch from Math to English.  I am so very excited!  It's what I've always wanted to teach.

Right before I officially made the switch I ordered some math board games from zulily.com.  If you are not a member of zulily, please do yourself a favor and join.  It is for moms & children.  Lots of clothes and furniture, but they also have educational games.  Everything is at least 50% off so you can find some really good deals.  The majority of the educational games and toys are geared for younger children.

Anyway, I ordered 4 board games to use in Math class.  I'm going to keep three of them because someday I may teach math again, but I've decided to give one lucky reader the 4th game.

It is called GeoGems Polygons.  It is for grades 4 and up.  

The game comes with a game board, spinner, instructions, 6 sets of cards, answer key, 60 chips, and 4 pawns.  The game is to designed to build fluency in naming polygons and identifying their properties.  

The game helps with vocabulary such as angles, vertices, diagonals, isosceles, congruent, adjacent, and several other words.  

I really thing it would be a good tool to have for the classroom.

There are a couple of ways for you to enter this giveaway.

1 Entry - Become a follower of my blog if you aren't already.  Leave a comment letting me know you are following.

1 Entry - Go to http://www.wiebe-carlson.com/ and check out their products.  Come back here and leave a comment letting me know what other games you think would be great to have.  It can be any subject - not just math games.

2 Entries - Blog about the giveaway.  Leave a comment with a link to your blog post.

The last day to enter the giveaway will be Wednesday, May 23.  I will announce the winner on Thursday!  

Good luck!  May the odds be ever in your favor. :)

The One In May

Linking up with Farley for a little May fun tonight.