Beach Week.....Check!

We are home from our week at the beach. 

SADNESS! 

It was nice to relax for a week, have all my girlfriends around, divvy up the chores, and sleep! :) 

Hahaa.... not much sleeping.... my two littles don't know what sleeping in is... so we were up by 7a.m. EVERY DAY. 

We had some fun early morning excursions though! :) 

One of the first days there, we found a dead shark on the beach. The kids were THRILLED...(in a gross kinda way....) I think the up close and personal with a shark took over the 'dead' part...

There was a lady fishing next to us - who caught a LIVE shark about an hour later. The kids swarmed her and like good moms - we took pictures.... :) haha! I was excited to send pictures back to my summer school teaching partners - since we had just learned about sharks in summer school.....

It was also homeschooling at it's best.... we learned all about some of the ocean animals that frequented the beach... and with our hikes at low-tide.... we were able to find many of the small creatures for an up-close and personal look! :) 

Stacy and I woke up SUPER early one day to go on a turtle walk with the Turtle Rescue people. Amazingly - there was a successful crawl and nest! YAY Mrs. Turtle! We watched as they located the original nest, counted {139 eggs},  and transferred the eggs to higher ground... Maybe next year we can actually catch a turtle crawling up to lay her eggs..... 

<<<<   This was not the morning we woke up early.... FYI.....

And last - our annual picture of the kiddos. We've been counting down for 285 days for this trip - and I think it was a great one! 

Summer School Plans

I had a wonderful week off..... and I'm back.... at summer school. 

:) 

It's really a pretty good gig. Only a half day and we are allowed to create our curriculum. 

I am working with second graders this year and I have paired with another teacher since we have such a large group of second graders. She does math and I do reading... then we switch... 

We grouped them as close to their English ability levels (according to WIDA) as we could - so that we could differentiate as much as possible in the three weeks we have with them. 

So - here are my plans, some screenshots of the amazing ELL resources from readingatoz.com, and some websites and an app I will be using this week as we learn about....

SHARKS! 

Here is a screen shot of one of the Sharks books, and the ELL resources that accompany it!
I loved that I could choose books that aligned with my children's proficiency levels and matched up to their WIDA scores! This made planning so much easier! This will definitely be a purchase I am adding for next year!
:) 

A great website : Discovery Kids - Sharks in Slow-Motion

Shark App

We made vocabulary books from the ELL teacher resources section ... the kids loved them! (of course I printed them out in color.... my EL babies need any and all help they can get!)

Super Slacker Here and The Best Thing Eva....

Hey friends....

Long time no post.

Let's just say that life got a little crazy.....

The amazing boyfriend... turned out to be not so amazing.... but definitely crazy.

And I will survive.

Today was my only post-planning day {all the others were furloughed} 

SO - 

It was my LAST DAY! 

I'm pretty pumped.

I found out today that I might be moving to a new classroom {ahem...trailer} next year - so that is nagging me now. I really dislike moving. REALLY, really... but - there isn't a thing I can do about it so I will put my head down and drive on. {and try not to obsess about where I'm going or if my room has a smart board or not...}

I will be teaching summer school again this year - but I have a few days off before that starts to get some well deserved rest. 

The BEST thing eva- 

The kids and I are heading to Fripp Island in 18 days.

That's right.... 18 days sucka! 

I. Can. Not. Wait!

We have been making this trek for the last four years with my good friend Stacy and her two kidlettes. This was the one thing I looked forward to the most while I was going through my divorce a few years ago. It pretty much kept me going... We have another bestie joining us this year with her two kids and I am beyond excited {she makes some kick-butt fruit pizza .... that I may or may not have eaten most of last year...} While I loathe the idea of getting into a bathing suit, g1 and g2 have been asking about the daily countdown as well - so they look forward to this trip as much as I do - which makes my heart happy. 

My little bubby (g2) is on the end... he was still in diapers the first time we went. 

I will soon be hearing the never-ending chant....

"I see your hiney.... so white and shiny"

I've lost my groove somewhere in the last two months - so if you see Stella - send her my way please. ;)