The good, the bad and the Skunk.

Well, it's been a mixed couple of days! Yesterday was good and bad :) haha. First I did our annual kinder planning day which went great! We got a lot done and for the most part I am feeling good about this year (not everything is done yet) I even talked to my principal and got out of the beginning of the year district rally next week so I can work in my room (1/2 time employees don't get a lot of in room time during inservice week) I also got my projector to work, the tech person found out my ponytail was broken and that's why it wouldn't project my laptop anymore! Here is the final product of my beehive behavior chart, I'm so excited!!

And then comes the bad. After work last night, where I am a waitress, I found out my dog had been skunked while I was gone. Oh joy. (Did I mention at work a construction worker clipped a sprinkler head and set off the fire alarm/flooded part of the gym AND the power went out? oh ya) So this morning  I got up early and went to buy the ingredients to "help get the smell out" of the dog. It is only going to help a bit, but anything will do! I am picking up a friend from the airport in a couple of hours who is staying at our place for the first time, and then we run in the Hood To Coast Relay starting tomorrow am and ending Saturday around 4. So, hopefully I can get the skunk smell to dissapate and then get onto my large to-do list before we take off tomorrow. The lucky people sharing a van with me during the race (6 sorority sisters) will get to enjoy my lovely Eau Du Skunk :) Bahahahaha. Wish me luck!

I leave you with the aftermath of cleaning the dog :)

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Names and helper chart

Well today I stopped by my classroom for a little bit to see Mrs. Sneaker, so happy she is back! While I was there I *tried* to get some work done. Now one might think I didn't get much done because I was too busy chatting, but actually, it was my darn computer having issues! (or maybe just me)
First, I couldn't get my laptop to hook up to my projector (even though it was last year) and for the life on me I can't figure out what is wrong! I called the IT department, but because they cut media specialists this year, they are way understaffed and were not able to help me. Great. Who knows when this will get fixed. I wanted to project a honeycomb so that I could make my new "beehive" incentive chart. Think like a gumball machine, but with a beehive instead. it's going to be cute, but I need to trace the picture to make it work, and when I printed it out the hive was just too big. Grr...

Then, I decided to work on printing my new class list/labels to get my postcards out....well, our database isn't letting me get into it for some reason. Again, the IT department will help me eventually, but can't right now. Oh joy. For now, I was able to get a list of names only. The list only has 17 kiddos, so I can only imagine I'll have a bunch added in the next couple of weeks. At least I was able to write names on the postcards...now I just need addresses... Oh, and the names? I've got some crazy ones!! I even emailed the secretary in charge of enrollment to make sure a name was correct. The name ends with Jj. doesn't that seem like it would be a typo? well, she checked and NO it is not! Wow...

The couple of weeks before school starts can be so frustrating. The kids coming is so close and so whenever something does not go as planned it just feels that much more overwhelming....I'm sure it will work out, I just need help with my sanity in the meantime! Oh ya, and it doesn't help that this week is UBER packed! 2 work training's (for waitressing??), 2 shifts, a team planning day, bible study, date with a friend AND I pick up a friend from the airport thursday and then we're off to run the Hood to Coast Relay! phew!

Here is the 1 thing I completed in 2 hours, haha. 

On a happier note, Mr. Bee and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary this weekend! We relaxed at the hotel we stayed at for our wedding downtown all weekend, such a blast! We visited the saturday market, got voodoo doughnuts (famous in oregon!) and even stopped by the food carts for lunch. Oh ya, and romantic dinners and such :)







How are you handling the end of the summer rush??

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Field Trips!

Don't you all just love field trips? Or, like me, do you love them and dread them all at the same time? Last year I ran a marathon right before our big field trip, and ended up missing the day of school because of an injury. I was sad that I missed it, but was also relieved to have someone else handle it for me :) (Did I just admit that? hahahaha)

We go on 2 field trips in kindergarten. The first one is in the fall to a pumpkin patch. It's not your ordinary pumpkin patch, though! The bus ride is about 45 minutes and they have a mini petting zoo, ferry boat ride on a small lake to the other side( with fun stuff that pops out of the water), pumpkins, a haymaze, a lesson on wheat AND a train that takes you back to the front! It's so fun! We take 2 buses, 1 for am/pm teacher, Mrs. Sneaker and the other for the full day teacher and my am class. Once we get there, we each begin at a different station and rotate. It is a blast!!

learning about wheat.

train ride. 

 the kids get to pick one pumpkin to keep, the only rule is that they have to be able to carry it.  We have been fortunate to have the Container Store donate bags for the pumpkins to go home in so we write their names on them beforehand and then the bags are super sturdy. 

Riding the ferry

The other field trip that we go on is fishing is the spring!! It is so much fun!! We go out to the same area as the pumpkin patch, which means a big bus ride again! As a team we think it is a fun and special experience for the kiddos to ride the bus all the way out there, even if there might be somewhere closer. We have chosen places that make their lessons educational and kid friendly. And seeing the kids excitement is well worth it!! To read more about our fishing trip, check out Our fishing trip, a blog entry written after our trip last spring. For now, here are a few pics!

having fun

this is what kindergarten fishing looks like! so cute!

Happy Fisherman!

What field trips do you go on? Link up with Kinders On The Block and share your experiences!!

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Sweet Birthday Gift

My best friend, Ms. Baseball made me these adorable coasters for my birthday! Aren't they cute?? She is definitely more crafty than I am, but she is also great at sharing her ideas! Check out her blog for a how-to on making these! Diary of a Pitcher's "Wife" (her longtime boyfriend is a minor league pitcher!)

The best part? She made them in my favorite colors, Go Ducks! (especially nice considering she's a rival college Beaver :) ) Show her some love and follow her page! :)

Wouldn't these be a great gift for a teacher??

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In the room again...

I feel like I have spent every day this summer either working on stuff for next year or working on my classroom. Yet, it also seems like nothing gets checked off my to-do list. So frustrating! I know a lot is getting done, but many of these projects are big and I am only completing progress towards them, not getting them finished. Does anyone else feel that way? Part of it is my own fault, I keep finding awesome ideas on all of your blogs and implementing them in my room...LOTS of extra tasks I have created due to this :) But my kids will thank you for it!!

So today, shockingly, I was in my room again. I spent about 2 hours laminating and working on changing my bulletin boards. For the past 3 years I haven't taken down the paper I have only changed the borders and contents, so that has helped with time. This time around, I am changing the layout of my room so today I took down all of the old stuff and put up new ones. Just measuring paper takes a lot of time on its own! Here is some of the progress I made today....

Closets that I need to clean out (we put all of our stuff in there for the summer cleaning) 

All of the loot I have accumulated from Target and the Dollar Store that I get to decide where  to use. :)

New Math (yellow) and Reading (green) boards. Our new carpets will help facilitate easy rotations between the two subjects. Yay! Thanks to Mrs. Sneaker's friend at another school in our district for this idea!

My new table arrangement. Hoping this will work! It will depend on how many kiddos I get this year, because the tables are kind of close...

My new word wall! It used to be over on the other side of the room, but with the new streamlined math/reading area it works better here!

My new reading corner. I am so excited about this! It has our leveled reading books on the bookshelf and lots of fun pillows and such to cuddle with while reading. hopefully this will help the kids want to read instead of look at my picture books which are on the other carpet. I also plan on sitting on this carpet during out "flag/country of the week" time, where we will learn about a new country that corresponds with our letter of the week. I feel like it's kind of random having it in the reading corner, but will see if it works.

As you can see, there is still a lot to do and quite a bit of chaos and garbage :) It's a work in progress! But now I feel like I can wait to go back in until next week when my awesome teammate Mrs. Sneaker returns from Germany! We're planning on getting a lot done with planning and in between that I should be able to do some organizing to finish up the room!

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Help leveling books

I've leveled my classroom library but am stuck trying to figure out reading levels on a box set that I bought from Scholastic called the Dora The Explorer Phonics Set. Are any of you fabulous bloggers able to help me figure out what reading level they would be?? Any help is much appreciated!!

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Canada Recap

Hey lovely blog friends!

I am back and finally starting to feel settled in! It's amazing how a short vacation can actually make you feel MORE stressed! I came back to a house that needed to be cleaned badly, lots of work to do in my classroom, and a lot to work on for the church children's program I am working to start with a group of wonderful people! Here is a short recap:

2 of my best friends and myself drove up to washington last week to surprise my mom for her birthday. We went to rainforest cafe and it was so much fun!! She was really surprised :) Bonus- I got to see my adorable niece and nephew! Don't you just love her face? haha.

After lunch we stayed the night at my parents new house and enjoyed the lake just a 5 minute walk away. We had so much fun with them! My parents are pretty awesome :)

Then we got up early friday and drove the rest of the way to Vancouver, BC. I LOVE this city!! We went dancing friday night after a fun bbq. Here are some pics of the girls and I reunited

The next day we drove into the city and stayed the night with one of the girls. Her view is spectacular!!

Overall it was a super fun and relaxing weekend!! I love these girls so much! 

Now i'm back to reality, working on lists for what we need to buy for the new church children's ministry and such, plus working on my classroom trying to get ready! We officially start back on the 29th, but there's so much to do I keep trying to get as much as I can done so I'm prepared. We all know when Mrs. Sneaker gets back from Germany we'll spend as much time catching up on our missed chatting time as we do planning :) (Hurry and come home, missy!:) )

Are you feeling the stress of school starting? The summer goes too fast!!

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Canada or bust!

I'm road tripping with my girlfriends to canada! Yesterday we drove to seattle to surprise my mom for her birthday! we had so much fun and my mom was totally surprised! Now we are leaving their place and heading to the border! Tonight we'll stay at a friends outside of vancouver bc and then tomorrow we'll spend sat and sunday in downtown! Pics to come!!!

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Creative minds needed

I just got these super cute popouts for my new Bee themed job chart! My classroom jobs are not fitting with the theme, can you help?

They are:
Table Boss (person who passes out to the table)
Line Leader
Door Holder
Attendance Person
Inspector(makes sure room in clean, lights are off, end of line)
Substitute

Cute names needed!! :)

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Hi bloggie friends!! Sorry it's been so long since I've written on here, it seems like all I have been doing is working, celebrating my birthday, and more working! I had a wonderful birthday and got to meet my 10 day old niece! Isn't she cute??

Now I'm off to school to get more laminating done! I've been working on making new file folder games for our new ELD pull-out time, check out my teammates blog Sneaker Teacher for more info on what we will be doing! I'll update with pics soon!

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