Aloha everyone!! It's Wednesday with only today, tomorrow and a half day on Friday!!! Whoo hoo!
I had a fantastic class this year and lots of fun blogging about it. I have really loved all of the support from so many teachers and I hope my next group of kiddos is just as great!
After this week it will be time to wind down and start taking a bit more ME time!
So for a fun summer linky I plan on having a weekly link up called Workin' It Wednesday.
Working out is on the top of my list for summer activities, but it might get a little stale just posting our workouts. I would love for you to share how you are Workin' It this summer. It can include anything from workouts, new clothes or shoes. What your working on for school or TpT, or where you are headed for vacation. Whatever way you "Work It" I would love for you to come link up!
Even if you don't have a blog you can join on Instagram #workinitwednesday.
This week I was workin' it out in the ocean
Workin' my new bikini
And workin' on my report cards (Pandora helps).
I know many of you are not out of school for awhile, but I plan to have this linky going on all summer! So get those cameras out and start Workin' It!!
Aloha everyone! This is my first time linking up with Latoya for her fun Let's Get Aquainted Linky.
This week she is asking us to share out about two of our bloggy friends. This one was hard to do because there are so many wonderful ladies who have helped me over the course of the year in my blogging ventures.
Well first I would like to give a shout out to Miss T from Journey of a Substitute Teacher. She has always been super supportive and gave me my first shout outs when I started blogging. She has helped me make some great contacts and always has a kind word for everyone!
Did you know that she also has some mad skills when it comes to clip art? If I am in need of any particular type or theme she is my go to gal!! She has saved me hours of hunting!! If you don't already follow her then you need to stop by and say "Aloha".
She also has this great freebie in her Teacher's Notebook store that you need to check out.
Next up is my good friend Patty over at 2nd In Line. She has been a wonderful supporter of my blog since I started as well. She is a second grade teacher in Michigan and has some great ideas! She is always more than willing to share with me and she is just a super sweet lady!
I know it's supposed to be two, but I just had to mention Barb over at Grade ONEderful.
She is a blogger in Canada and I love stopping by and reading all of her posts. She is also a blog designer and has given my blog a facelift. I plan on adding a bit more this summer and Barb is my go to gal. If you don't already follow her you should hop over and check her out.
I wish I could shout out each and everyone of the ladies who have been influential in my blogging, but I would be typing all night and I still have fill out my purchase orders for next year. Stop by Latoya's blog and check out all the great links!
Aloha Friday! Well by the time you read this it will most likely be Saturday or Sunday. This week has been a crazy one at school getting ready for our May Day performance. It was pretty late this year due to our state testing.
May Day in Hawaii is a tradition at many schools and our school makes a big deal out of it. This year was no exception. Most classes have been preparing for the last month.
The focus of May Day is to celebrate the Hawaiian culture through song and dance. Our school adds more of a multicultural approach and different grade levels represent cultures all over the world.
Our class decided to do Waka Waka by Shakira this year. We decided to go with a day glow warrior look.
My colleague ordered bright shirts for each student. The boys shirts we slashed up 80's style and the girls we cut off the top, made fringe and tied it on as a skirt. We braided up all of their hair on Thursday, with the help of a few moms.
The big day and they are so excited. They are watching the first graders carry their chairs to their spots as we set up.
Our staff and parents do an amazing job setting this up every year, and it always looks beautiful!
If you read my post last year you may remember that the 6th graders are the Royal Hawaiian Court. They enter the stage first and watch all of the performances. See my post from last year.
The first performance this year was a hula from the teachers. I do not have a picture since I was dancing. It was a very pretty hula and our Kumu Hula Aunty Faith is a fellow teacher. She comes up with a hula for the staff each year. This year after our Hula she had us dance to The Twist. It was a lot of fun and always gets the kids and parents excited for the rest of the performances. My class was thrilled when I came off stage. Lots of hugs and cheers! (A parent sent me this video if you would like to see part of it) Teacher HulaThe Twist (I am in the front row left in the white and orange flowered dress)
Next up were the third grade classes. This year they did a Bollywood number that was just beautiful and delightful. They started with a Sun Salutation and a few yoga moves.
That's my daughter in the pink. She was so excited to wear the sari, the bindi and have her hands all Henna'd up!
Kindergarten was next and they did the calypso number Shake Senora. It was just adorable!!
First grade always rocks the house and they did a Maori Warrior routine.
The fifth graders did a medley of numbers from across the decades starting with the 70's. My daughter got to wear an afro and sunglasses and for the first time she was excited about May Day. She is extremely shy and has never been in the front row for a May Day performance!
They continued with Footloose, Can't Touch This, Pink-I'm Coming Out, Beyonce-All The Single Ladies.
These boys were too funny doing a rendition of Justin Bieber's Baby.
It ended with Gangnam Style and the whole school got up and danced!!
Finally our second grade classes came out. Here are my little cuties dancing...
They worked so hard and it came out so cute! The parents were thrilled and so proud to see all of their little guys performing out there.
Needless to say I am exhausted!! I came home and hit the couch for a much needed nap! I am so glad it is over and I only have 5 days of school left!!! I plan on hitting the waves this weekend and taking a much needed break. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Aloha friends! Are you in end of the year mode yet? I am frantically making my lists and checking them twice trying to get everything in order before May 24th!
My latest dilemma is what I will give to my parent volunteers, children's teachers and my second grade team!!
Well I hit my favorite go to source Pinterest. I found some pretty cute ideas. Have you seen these?
All super cute ideas!! I decided since my daughters have two teachers each I would just use the Treat one above and make my own version with Teacher instead of Volunteer. I am going to let my girls choose the candy and sign the cards.
I had two awesome parent volunteers this year and two amazing teachers on my second grade team and I know for a fact they all enjoy their coffee treats. So I decided to keep it simple and get them some gift cards from Starbucks. I found this cute idea on Pinterest.
So adorable, but I decided to tweek it just a little to make it easier on me. I jumped onto Etsy and found some cute graphics from Decorartist and made some fun little cards. I plan to just tape a gift card to the back.
If you would like a copy just click on the picture to pic them up in Google Docs. I also have an editable version if you want to add text. Click Here
For my kiddos I am just having an end of the year picnic next week and I plan to bring some yummy, homemade chocolate chip cookies.
Last year I made some Owl Miss You tags that are in my TpT store. I attached them to little treat bags for my students. I also used them for Teacher gifts and had my own daughters give these cups to their teachers (filled with Crystal Light Packs) at the end of the year.
Just click on the picture to download those.
Do you give end of the year gifts? It's always fun to hear what everyone else does:) I am linking up with Joy in the Journey for some great End of the Year Gift Ideas.
Aloha everyone! The year is winding down quickly and I am preparing for that last week to keep my class busy.
I have copied off all of my pages for my Aloha Memory Book, and now I am binding them up with my latest classroom tool.
I got this from mybinding.com and it is a great little binder to have in class or at home. It's small enough that I can take it back and forth whenever I have a project.
You can see it in comparison to the glue bottle. It is pretty simple to use and you can punch up to 5 papers at a time. It was great for my little booklets.
I also have my own stash of combs when I need them.
Yay, all done and ready to go for next week!
I also wanted to share a sweet Memory Book that my room parent put together for me for Teacher Appreciation Week.
Apparently she had sent home a note and a template for each student to fill out. The kids then returned the envelopes to her and she put it all together.
These were absolutely adorable and I cried while reading it. The kids were scared for a minute until I told them that they were tears of joy. They all gave me lots of hugs and I cried a little bit more.
I have to say I had the most fantastic room parent, and if you ask me I think she could start making her own products to sell on TpT. I couldn't help thinking "I love this template, can I get a copy?"
Are you making memory books with your class, or do you make other items? I know some of you get very crafty and I am always looking for fun new ideas.
Aloha friends! This weekend was really nice for me. On Saturday I was up at 5:00 am and in the water to surf by 6:00. One of the perks to having that internal alarm I guess. The rest of the day was spent doing another of my favorite things....shopping.
About a month ago I got an email from Scholastic about their Warehouse sale. I have never been before so I went online to register. Here is the link-Scholastic Warehouse Sale. I believe it only happens a few times a year. Our warehouse has the sale during the whole month of May.
If you have never been before I highly recommend it!! I got there fairly early and it was not crowded at all! The person at the front was super friendly and told me where everything was located. All books in the warehouse were 50-80% off!
There were some specially marked items that were only 25%, but that didn't bother me. I was like a kid in a candy store. I had given myself a limit and tried to stick to it, but I just kept adding books into my bag.
In the end I did just fine! My total came to $57! I thought it would be a lot more than that, plus I had the $10 coupon. Final total $48. Not too bad for a bargain hunter like me!
I was happy to find I Wanna New Room, which if perfect for my Opinion Writing unit! I also loved the Design Art for those early finishers during Math time. They are great for patterning.
I have tons of Non-Fiction in my classroom library already, but I couldn't resist picking these up too.
During the Teacher Appreciation sale I bought Ladybug's Teacher Files classroom library labeling kit. I have her schedule cards and these match perfectly!
I plan to reorganize and get all of my bins and books labeled this summer.
I also spent some time shopping for a new May Day dress. I hit up Goodwill, but I couldn't find a pretty Muumuu (Hawaiian dress) that didn't make me look like a tutu (grandma). So I ended up at Ross.
I found tons of dresses, but only two that had more of a tropical feel to them. I couldn't decide which one to get, so I quickly posted on Instagram!
I immediately got great feedback, lol!! Thank you everyone! It was unanimous for the orange.
I also picked up some cute shoes to go with it and a flower for my hair. I am all set!
That wasn't the end of it though. I had to make one more purchase. I needed a new bikini for the summer. If you are like me you know it's tough to find something that suits your body and style. I am a sporty type and I need all my stuff to stay in place while I am swimming and surfing!
I found two separate pieces and I love them! Now I just need to get more of a workout routine to look good in this all summer:)
It was really nice to get my shop on and find everything I needed. I don't think I will be heading out again for sometime.
Have you hit up the Scholastic Warehouse sale yet? I'd love to hear all about your latest purchases.
