Summer is finally here and an update on the past month! :)

Wow June flew by and I was soooo crazy busy I didn't have a chance to blog.

So much has been going on I don't even know where to start. So I will do a recap since I last blogged :)


End of the year gifts for my students (briefly...since I want to talk about my summer thus far) There will be plenty of posts later in July and August about my classroom!

Thank goodness it is summer vacation..I was SUPER jealous of all you bloggers out there that were out of school in May or early June. I was at school until JUNE 27TH! Yeah that's right....the 27th as in 3 days before JULY. That was basically the week before 4th of July (hence why it is July 8th and I am finally blogging).

OK so first ---some exciting news that I can't wait to share with all you teachers out there.... I am now a 4th grade teacher!!! I will be moving classrooms and changing positions (same school and it is actually right down the hall) BUT--I will no longer be working in special education (yes I am sad to leave but excited about this new opportunity in my district)...and I will have my own 4th grade classroom. I CANNOT WAIT (I started my teaching career as a 4th grade teacher and I am happy to be going back) Can you tell how excited I am?! ha
So all you 4th grade blogging buddies out there---any advice?!?!



So right after school got out about 10 teachers drove to Ellicottville (about an hour away) for a little getaway  overnight!! It was a long year and we deserved it!!! haha or at least we thought so :) It was a wonderful weekend shopping, eating and laying by the pool! Don't forget to look at that view.

Summer concert update : I have already been to the Taste of Country and Brad Paisley. Jason Aldean is this week...can't wait :)

Some of my favorite things about summer:

a delicious breakfast: iced coffee and a bagel with cream cheese! YUMMM

Summer bonfire...can't complain :)

 This is an absolutely amazing S'More...a pie iron. I couldn't even begin to describe how delicious it is! A regular s'more taken to the next level.

 A must have for summer.. crisp and refreshing sangria :)

 My favorite flowers...hydrangeas

 I can't have enough sushi..I could eat it every day if I had to :) my favorite is spicy tuna or shrimp tempura!












I also enjoy spending time with friends and going to the beach !!

Aww..what a cute picture at the beach :)

My newest obsession is Paint Nite. I went to one in NYC for a best friend's bachelorette. I didn't think I could paint at all..but it didn't turn out so bad. So i decided I wanted to do another one with my boyfriend :)

 How amazing are these paintings...we are real Picassos! ha

While we were there...I ran into some sorority sisters from my chapter as well as another chapter (it was an event!) I was so surprised and excited! I am joining the Sigma Kappa Buffalo Chapter and can't wait to meet more girls!















Since I didn't write a July 4th post...I will add it here.

Can't have a summer party without a Sangria...Independence Day style. 

 If you know me at all...nails have to coordinate. So a last minute mani did the job.

My first trip (that I can remember..unless I went when I was 5?!) to Dairy Queen.. I had the baby and Dan had the large haha

<3

 Melissa and I ...so festive :)

Before the fireworks!!










Being MIA for awhile really puts me behind on the newest trends in the blogging world..thank goodness I came back in time to see Blog Hoppin and their BlogHoppin2014 Scavenger Hunt. What a fun fun idea for summer!! I already at 33 posts to Instagram. There are 200 items on the scavenger hunt and in order to win prizes you need to snap 105 photos and upload to instagram using the hashtag and the bloghopping2014 sign. Check out the Blog Post here to join in the fun!


Okay that is all for now..sorry for the long post! I will post regularly now that I have time :)

Look for updates on Trending Closet and Trending Classroom as I update both this summer :)

Don't forget about my weekly link up Fabulist Friday!!! I will be starting it again this Friday so don't miss out!

July 1st and my First Monday Made It--pinterest obsessed!

Monday July 1st and my FIRST Monday Made it-- a lot of firsts today :)

Since I just started my blog last week, I am linking up with my first Monday Made It with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics I love this idea and wanted to share some inspiration I had before even starting a blog. I absolutely LOVE pinterest and made many gifts from there for the end of the year. Super cute ideas some of which I have pictures from and will link back to where I got the idea so you can take a look there too!
Being a FIRST year teacher-- I wanted to make sure I thanked some people! Starting with my "pod." I worked in the 6th grade pod and these ladies were such a wonderful help throughout my first year, especially Morgan-- who was in her 3rd year of teaching and was able to answer any question that I had!! Thank you!! Marge and Mary were very experienced teachers and were able to help me out in that way-- so I go the idea from Joanne over at Head Over Heels for Teaching you should check out this fun easy gift for teachers!

This picture frame post it holder was such a cute idea-- I couldn't pass it up! I went to get 3 small plastic picture frames (you can get them at the Dollar Tree). Colorful Post It Notes, some glue, sharpie and colorful scrapbooking paper! I just wanted to do something simple, but with a pop of color! I loved the pinks/oranges together in this scrapbook paper so that was my inspiration! I secured the post-it notes with a little glue to the photo frame. I cut the paper to fit inside of the frame and just wrote the teacher's names on the front with a sharpie marker!


The next gift I made were for the two secretaries in our main office. Izzy (main office) and Kathy (special education department) were incredible this year and answered any questions that I might have had.I got this idea again from PINTEREST---Erin over at Making Memories with your Kids gave me the idea for this awesome printable! I loved the idea of a water bottle for summer and of course the delicious Starbursts inside!

For the two teacher assistants in my room, I found this AMAZING idea over at What the Teacher Wants I first LOVED the printable to go along with the pitchers and that inspired me to find colorful pitchers to go with it! I purchased these at Wal Mart. Inside the pitchers I put a Country Time Lemonade Mix and 2 lemons for an extra touch. Both Cherry and Cathy loved them and thought they were sooo cute! (I would have to agree!)

Last but not least I made these gifts for my principal and cse chairperson. It was my first attempt and creating and although I think I could have done a better job--it was a good try and they both really appreciated them :) I can't find the link to where I got the Pinspiration--but here is a picture and as soon as I find it I will link it back here. I know it was a combination of a couple of blogs! so thank you!! This is a picture of Mel's (a little blurry-I am sorry!)

Now my favorite gifts were obviously the ones I made for my 6 WONDERFUL students. I wanted to give my students something to enjoy over the summer and really remember what a terrific year we had together and of course how hard they worked. These six students don't come from a lot at home and don't have as many opportunities as some others. They are the 6 greatest kids you will ever ever meet!! Some of them I will have again next year, however, 3 will be moving on to the middle school and I will miss them soooo much!

Teri over at A Cupcake for a Teacher  inspired this next gift. I first saw it on Pinterest and was absolutely in love with the design and the idea! I went to the dollar store that day and found 6 krazy straw water bottles, grabbed 6 kool aid packs at Wegmans and printed off the printable from HERE. This is how they turned out-- pretty cute right? My students loved them and filled the water bottles up with at the water fountain right away!

I also found this on--you guessed it---pinterest. The printable came from Me and My Insanity blog. I didn't want to get whole packs of marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate so I divided up into 6 little ziplock bags and stapled the printable to the bag! Easy and simple and a delicious summer treat :)

 

Here are both the gifts together! 

I also made my students Bookmarks-- for summer reading! Reading was a very important aspect of my classroom community this year (as I am sure it is with all of yours)-- It was a struggle at the beginning of the year, students who are not motivated to read and are 3-4 grade levels behind, do not even want to pick up a book! So-- to get my students to enjoy reading I used the DAILY 5 and CAFE (which I will be blogging about at a later post) to pick good-fi t books and build up my students reading stamina. By the end of the year my students loved to pick up books-- from the classroom library--which I am obsessed with! (Again at a later post)-- But I didn't want the reading to stop on June 19th when they walked out of the door for the summer...so here was my idea. 

**By the way-- I love that when I write one post-- I already have ideas flowing for future posts! LOVE IT!**

Summer Reading is Cool Bookmark-- that looks like a Popsicle!  I found the idea from Pinterest and it linked to this blog Tip Junkie and summer crafts and activities! I LOVED this idea so I went to Barnes and Noble and picked up 6 books with summer as the main focus around my students independent reading level. I printed and colored the bookmarks to look like the Bombpops--one of my summer favorites as a kid!

Judy Moody and the Not So Bummer Summer and Magic Tree House Summer Sea Serpent were the two best picks!

Last gift of the year was inspired again by Pinterest and The Very Busy Kindergartner Since I was a self-contained classroom of 4th 5th and 6th graders-- I needed something to give them that showed they were still going on to the next grade level (even though I would still have the 3 students going into 5th and 6th grade) the other 3 students will be going to the middle school in 7th grade. I went to the grocery store and bought 6 $1 individual containers of goldfish and printed the printable from HERE -- I loved this one specifically because I was able to do all 3 grade levels without a problem, so thank you!! But there are so many variations of this gift that they are all so wonderful!

All of these gift ideas were found on pinterest and now with my blog, I am glad I get to share them and give credit to the blogs I found them from!