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Friday, June 6, 2014

End of Year Gift

     As the end of the school year approaches I always ponder over what to give my students as an end of 3rd grade gift. I like to give them something fun, but also educational and useful. Books are my usual go to gift for my students. I decided to have each of them chose a book (from the $1.00 section) from the Scholastic Reading Club. I heart Scholastic Reading Club!


     They were super excited to pick out their own book. Many of my students do not have many personal books at home, let alone get to chose whatever they want from the book order. They keep asking me when they will get their book and even though I have told them multiple times they will get them on the last day of school, they keep asking. That makes me happy.

     Books are fantastic and I am thrilled that my students are so excited to be getting one from me but I really wanted to do something that was very personal and meaningful for my class. I decided to use Tagxedo to create a word cloud! Tagxedo is kind of like Wordle but I like it better because it lets you list your words then chose a shape or image for your word cloud rather than just a jumble of words. I used meaningful words to our class and each of our names. Check it out!
I am SO happy with how this turned out. I printed them full size on 8.5 by 11 inch paper and am going to laminate them with my handy Scotch Laminator (that I am in LOVE with) to make them nice and sturdy.  I can;t wait to see what my students think of their very own apple. 

Sunday, June 1, 2014

June Currently


Oh my goodness, it is already time for the June Currently. I CAN NOT believe it. Now, don't get me wrong, I am totally ready for June to get its lil hiney into gear, I just amazed at how it is all the sudden here. So, anyway, I am linking up once again with the fabulous Farley over at Oh Boy, 4th Grade to share in the Currently fun.
Listening: So my hubs is born and raised in the South but he is a die hard Chicago Cubs fan. The game on in the background is soothing while I type away. Weird? Maybe...but I love it. 

Loving: 11 days my friends! This will be my FIRST EVER "teacher summer" and I just over the moon excited to not be working. WAHOO! 

Thinking: The end of the year rush is in full swing and I have lots of lose ends to tie up in pretty little bows in the next 11 days. 

Wanting: We start on End of Grade assessments tomorrow morning. My darlings are as ready as they can be and I just want them to be cool, calm, and collected. They rock and it sucks that they have to spend 6 plus hours testing over the next 2 days. They are 8 & 9 years old of gosh sakes! Oy. 

Needing: There are a lot of changes coming our way as teachers in North Carolina and at my school. I need to remind myself to focus on what I have control over and stay positive about my career. 

Summer Bucket List: As mentioned earlier, I am not working at all this summer, WAHOO! I am looking forward to relaxing, enjoying my time off, and reading all of the books I have been collecting over the school year. 

Congrats to those who are already on break! For those (like me) who are counting down the days, stay sane, strong, and fabulous! We got this!