Diggin' Into Next Year

 

I'm excited to be a part of this great group of bloggers participating in the "Diggin' Into Next Year" series! Each week this summer we will focus on one area that we can improve upon in our classrooms for next year! 

 

 

Organize my classroom! Since I homeschool my kids, our classroom is currently a corner of our dining room. I would love to have more space, but for now, it's what I have to work with!

 

Since most of the things my kids do for school aren't the same, I found it wasn't very easy to help each one transition to the next thing they needed to do when they were done because I was usually in the middle of helping one of the other children! This year I would love to implement the workbox system. If you are not familiar with it, it's basically using a storage cart with drawers like this:

So, each child has his/her own cart. You put in one subject's work inside each drawer, along with any materials needed to complete the work. So the kids start at the top and work their way down, going from one activity to the next independently! Erica from Confessions of a Homeschooler has a great video tutorial here if you are interested in seeing more how the workbox system works!

This is our little school corner. We also use the dining room table when we need more room. This space will remain our school area, but I will of course go through this summer and clean out some things we don't use and straighten it up a bit! I really am an organized person, and I love having things neat...but staying home with 4 kids and doing school....it just doesn't always happen and I've had to learn to let some things go.



Anyway, I'm very excited to see how the workbox system works for us! Be sure to check out all the other posts for great organizational ideas!

 

 

Freebie Friday - Patriotic Fun!

Let's have some patriotic fun! Enjoy these great freebies to celebrate Memorial Day, Flag Day, and 4th of July!

 

 

American Flag Mystery Picture Graphing Activity

By: Mrs. Thompson's Treasures

 

Memorial Day Mini-Book Craftivity

By: Elementary School Garden

 

Flag Math Freebie

By: Kelley Dolling

 

Patriotic Cube Game

By: Kelly and Kim's Kreations

 

Think Tac Toe - Flag Day

By: Mandy Neal

 

4th of July Roll and Cover Games

By: Jennifer Knopf

 

4th of July Headband Craft

By: Teacherscrapbook 

 

July Fun! Letter and Number Match

By: Special Teacher for Special Kids

 

 

**Disclaimer - These products were posted as free when I found them. However, sometimes authors change them to paid products at some point. I'm sorry if any are no longer available or free!

Wordless Wednesday - Almost Here

 

Summer vacation is almost here! What are you most looking forward to?

Top Ten for Summer

I'm linking up over at Deanna Jump's blog with the top ten things I want to do this summer!

 

1. First and foremost I want to potty train this little jewel! She turned 2 in January and is definitely ready, I just haven't had time to be consistent with her.

 

 

2. Clean out the house and have a garage sale. We are planning on moving overseas early next year, so now is the perfect time to start cleaning out and downsizing!

 

3. Have more dates with these two! We try to make time to go out for one on one special times with mommy or daddy, but it doesn't happen too often during the school year.

 



 

4. TpT Conference in Vegas! I'm so excited to be going to this conference! I'm looking forward to learning a lot and meeting some awesome people!

 

5. Research and order our curriculum for homeschool next year. Up until this point I haven't used much curriculum since my oldest just finished kindergarten. But going into 1st grade I feel like we need a little more structure, so I'll be researching to find out what we need and get it ordered!

 

6. Zoo, Children's Museum, and swimming!

 

 

7. Spend time with my family (parents & siblings and their families). We love being altogether, and even though it's a little crazy with my 4 kids and my sister's 3 boys (and all 7 of them are 6 and younger) we always have fun together!

 

 

8. I'd like to start exercising again. If only I could get the kids to sleep in. What age do they actually like to sleep....cause it ain't happening yet! It's all I can do to keep them in bed until 7am!

 

9. Get all the kids (and us) caught up with checkups, dentist appointments, and vaccinations.

 

10. Finally, I want to enjoy my baby girl while she is still a baby! She'll be 9 months old this week! And also I need to finish up all my baby books!! I'm a little behind :-)

 



Freebie Friday - End of the Year

Many of us are winding down the school year and are in need of some fun resources to keep the kids engaged these last few days/weeks! Check out these great free resources that can help you out!



Who am I? Class Activity

By: Mrs. Thompson's Treasures

 

Live & Learn

By: Tracee Orman

 

End of School Year Memory Book

By: Lisa Frase

 

End of Year Class Compliments

By: Blair Turner

 

End of the Year Awards

By: SubSavvy

 

Last Day of School Writing Activity

By: Jessica Michele

 

And More Bugs!

We're continuing our study of insects in science! We did an observation of ants the other day. It was so interesting to watch! We put out 6 types of food on small circles (cut out of coffee filters) around an ant pile on our sidewalk. We put out orange slices, shredded cheese, Ritz cracker, pretzel, honey, and a carrot. We predicted that the ants would go to the honey first.

 

We were all surprised when the ants went straight for the cracker! We watched as they worked together to try and take pieces of food to their home. We watched for about 10 minutes, and then went back inside. When we checked a couple of hours later, the cracker and cheese were completely gone! Soon after the pretzel disappeared, but the honey, oranges, and carrot stayed a while. We also observed that flies loved the oranges!

 

A few weeks ago we got some ladybug larvae from Insect Lore and watched them turn into pink spotted ladybugs! 

 

We did this fun activity after learning about how some insects use camouflage to protect themselves from predators. First I printed out a page with branches and leaves on it and the kids colored it in using browns and greens. Then I printed out some pictures of insects that look like sticks and leaves. The kids colored them using the same colors, cut them out, and glued them on the paper. Then we got a few real sticks and leaves from outside to glue on, just for fun!

 



 

And finally we made some cute butterflies from toilet paper rolls! I love crafts that don't require special materials! First we painted the toilet paper rolls.

 

 

Then I cut out some wings and the kids colored them with markers.

 



We folded back a small edge on each wing to put glue on, then put them on the tp roll.

 

 

Finally we taped pipe cleaners on the head for antenna and glued on googly eyes to complete our cute little butterflies! 

 

May Giveaway Winners!

Congratulations to the 2 winners of the May Giveaway!

$25 TpT Gift Card - Michele Arvidson
$20 of your choice from my store - Kelly Brown

Thanks to all who entered! Don't forget you will have another chance in June!!

I also wanted to let you know of my newest creation! I wanted to come up with a fun way for my daughter to practice her word family words, so I created this fun Word Family Mystery Pictures Pack which includes 16 pictures covering 8 different word families! I'd love for you to check it out!

Summer is Comin'

Can you believe it's almost the end of the school year?! This year has gone by super fast for me while homeschooling the kids and having a new baby. While we will definitely slow the pace down a little this summer, I have to keep my sanity by having some sort of structure to my day with the kids. So, I've been doing some research to find great books, crafts, and other ideas to keep us learning and having fun this summer! Check out some of the things I've found!

 

Painting outside with ice cubes made of colored water!

 

 Super simple bird feeders using toilet paper or paper towel rolls, peanut butter, and bird seed!

 

Cute and healthy snack!

Not quite as healthy....but sooo cute!!

This is a really cool summer reading Bucket List!

 

Speaking of bucket lists - here is a cute freebie to make your own summer bucket list!

 

 

 I have also teamed up with Educents with some instant downloads for you! It includes printables, centers, games, science investigations, close reads, and much more!  It's a mixture of reading, math, and science to keep the kids working hard through the summer and to get them ready for first grade!

Click here to check it out!

I have 2 products included in this bundle! Your kids will love this emergent reader about ocean animals! There is a bright colorful copy, student b&w copy to color, cut, and staple together, and vocabulary cards included! 

 

These 120 chart mystery pictures are my kids' favorite! They will practice following directions and recognizing numbers all while having a blast discovering the mystery pictures!

 

For a limited time it is $14.99 from Educents which is about 70% off!  

14 instant downloads with over 400 pages of materials perfect for your recent kinder graduates (or your struggling first graders or advance preschoolers of course too!)

 

You can also take peek at some of the other products included in the bundle at any of the links below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Have fun teaching everyone!