Five for Friday: July 8th!

What's this?! Am I doing a Five for Friday?? I absolutely love this linky hosted by Doodle Bugs Teaching, but every time a Friday rolls around I lose my mind and forget to post! Not this time, Friday! I got this!

Still pregnant. And melting. I live in Florida, by the way. Check out this weather forecast...

Yep.

But also look at this adorable Daisy shirt I got! Perfect for being pregnant. It's so soft and thin. And any time I see anything related to daisies, I have to have it!

Woah. #pregnant #34weekspregnant #babyboy #babybrutall

A photo posted by Amanda Smith - Daisy Designs (@daisydesignstpt) on Jun 30, 2016 at 1:14pm PDT

If you click the image above, you'll head to my Instagram page (my favorite social media site EVER!). Lots of images and updates on products, but also just real life stuff. :)

I have been having loads of fun with my best friend's 3 year old, Liam, this summer. He is spending some time with me while his mom finishes up her internship for her Master's program. If you haven't checked out the two posts I have up called "Learning with Liam," click any of the pictures below to go check them out! The activities we are doing are super fun and easy (I'm a giant pregnant whale. It's gotta be easy...)

I've been working on some products for my store and am pleased to announce the newest addition to the Reading Wonders series! SECOND GRADE! Unit 1 is available now and the growing bundle is really inexpensive at the moment and will increase in price as more units are added.

Click to go there now.

Click to go there now.

Are you getting ready for next year? I'm not returning to work this year to be a stay at home mom (just one year! I'll be back!), but I have to say when packing up my classroom, this storage solution was great and easy to move. I have a blog post all about it, so click the image below to see more photos. There's also a FREEBIE available for getting you started.

Click to download!

One of my favorite times of the year is back to school and I won't be there to experience it this year. :( It is CERTAINLY for a good reason. Baby boy is due August 13th and the first day of school in my district is August 10th. I've made the tough decision to stay home for one year and go back in August of 2017. I adore my job, but I know this is the best decision for us.

My favorite thing to do is set up a classroom, though! I like to change things up every year as it makes things more exciting and fun for me and the kiddos. It also makes each year feel fresh and new and gives me great specific memories of students that I won't have with other groups. If you're looking for some classroom setup ideas, take a look at the pictures below! You can also click the My Classroom tab at the top of the page to see more.

All these pictures are from last year. The year before I was in a portable and I had a pirate theme! All the old images are in the My Classroom tab at the top of the page. Enjoy! And enjoy setting up your classrooms, teachers. I'll be enjoying my new bundle of joy in about 5 weeks! EEK!

Learning with Liam: Let's COUNT!

If you are just joining in Learning with Liam, Liam is my best friend's 3-year-old and I'm doing some babysitting this summer while she finishes up her internship for her Master's degree. It has been a blast so far! Check out last week's post HERE.

Little Liam proved this time that he likes to count! I had noticed before while playing together on the computer that he was very good at recognizing numbers, so I printed out some centers from a product in my TpT store. It's geared towards PreK and Kindergarten and while Liam isn't ready for the skip counting center, he did the counting games with ease! I was impressed! Take a look.

We were playing "Counting Sheep" and he wanted to line them all up nicely on their hill, he said. We weren't counting any specific number here. I let him explore them and play a bit to get used to the little pieces before we dove right in. 

This time, we grabbed a counting card. It said to count 2 sheep! And he did great!

Then we played with the numbered sheep and he put them in order. He could do it without assistance through number 5. After that, prompting was needed to help him find the next number. I was amazed at how well he did here considering he is only 3 years old!

This is one of the number puzzles I have. Since he had just proved to me that he could put his numbers in order with the numbered sheep, I printed this one out, too. He really liked seeing the picture completed at the end.

So proud of himself! Way to go little buddy!

We painted a bit like last week as well, but I forgot to take pictures! Bad blogger! We painted another mask that I grabbed for 75 cents at Joanne's. This time it was a crab mask! 

If you are looking for some counting games for your little nugget or your class of little nuggets, this pack is called "Counting Sheep." You can check out more of its contents by clicking on the image below!

Keep checking back for more Learning with Liam posts! Or follow me on Facebook to get updates on each new post. It is always awesome to spend these summer days learning and having fun. I think next time we'll go to the library!

Learning With Liam: Outside Fun and Painting!

This summer has so far been a blast, although it is completely flying by! I am babysitting my best friend's little guy once or twice a week this summer and it has added such a fun element to my summer. Liam is three years old and I've been trying to come up with some different activities we can do together. His little three year old mind blows me away with what he retains and he seems to really love learning games, especially those involving numbers (more on that in a future post).

Here's the first of a series of posts about our adventures this summer called "Learning with Liam."

Day 1: Name writing and mask painting!

Sidewalk chalk is a really fun way to have little people start writing their name! I also discovered this little guy is a lefty!

We started with uppercase letters because the straight lines in the letters of him name are easier to form than the curvy kind in the lowercase letters. 

M is tough! Loving his "A." <3 

Outside adventures are not complete without some scooter fun!

I grabbed these little wooden masks for 75 cents at Joanne's Fabric and the little pack of paint tubs for $1. He LOVED these. We painted a turtle and a lion on this day, but I went back to Joanne's and bought 3 more. 

We used Q-Tips instead of paint brushes, one because I forgot to buy brushes... and two, because these are cheap and disposable. They are also easy for little hands to hold. They are also great for fine motor because since they are short, they cannot be held in a fist, forcing him to figure out an easier way to hold it. 

Liam and I had a lot of fun painting and playing outside. Next week, come back and check out the games we played with numbers! This little guy LOVES numbers and counting!

Summer Bucket List

Ahhhh, Summer. The time of year where teachers catch up on their "me-time." Well, somewhat. If you're like me, you're making lists too long to handle and wind up not doing much of it. Either way, I have a Summer Bucket List and found a fun blog to link up with! Looks like these other teachers are going to have a great summer, too! Thanks, Mind Sparks, for hosting a fun linky!

1. I am an avid reader but during the school year, especially towards the end when it gets CRAZY busy, I just don't have the time to put into a good book for pleasure! And any time I read, I get so relaxed, I wind up falling asleep. So being a tired teacher, you can imagine I don't get much of the actual reading done! What's on your summer reading list? I've been out of school for 1 week and I've already read through 2 of the books on my list! I'm devouring them!

2. Ryan and I are going on a "baby-moon!" I just learned that term the other day! We have a trip planned next week to the Dillard House in Georgia. I have never been but it was his family's usual summer vacation spot and he has always wanted to take me there. Before travelling gets more difficult with a baby coming in August, we are going! His sisters and mom are joining us and I am getting really excited! One of his sisters is a photographer, too, and she's going to do some awesome maternity photos for us. I will make sure I post some when they're done. Can't wait! The pictures below are from the Dillard House's website. How beautiful!

3. The nursery is on its way to completion! We hired a lady to super deep clean the room since it has been a storage/junk room for the past like 3 years. Now we are starting to piece it all together! I'll post some pictures soon when it's nearing completion. Lots to do!!! But so fun!!! 

4. I have a list of some TpT products that need a makeover! Like most TpT sellers, I use the Summer as a time to make some necessary changes. It is always so nice to visit some old products and give them some attention again. My first update this Summer will be my Fairy Tale Unit, so keep your eyes peeled for some new goodies in it!

5. I am SO EXCITED to go to the TpT Conference this year!!! I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that it is in Florida this year. I was planning on going before they announced the location change and was saving up my pennies to afford a trip to Vegas. Then I found out I was pregnant... and I wouldn't be able to travel that distance at 8 months pregnant. I'm sure you can imagine my joy when they announced it would be in Orlando this year!! I live an hour's drive away from Orlando, people! I can handle an hour drive! And my doctor gave me the okay to do so. So wide load coming through! I have a lot to learn and a lot of people I want to meet!

6. We all have Netflix goals these days, right? Gotta finish Gilmore Girls.

7. There are some Summer activities that this preggo just can't handle in the heat this year. But let me tell ya, there are a LOT of good movies coming out this summer! So you know where I'll be on the weekends. I'm also babysitting my best friend's 3-year-old and the theater in town does $1 kid movies during the week. So, they'll be seeing a lot of me at the theaters this summer...

8. Speaking of my best friend's 3-year-old... Liam is his name and he's stinkin' adorable. The teacher in me has all kinds of fun ideas for us this summer and you know I'll be blogging about it. Learning With Liam will begin sometime pretty soon. I have so many ideas pinned in Pinterest!

9. Other than Liam, I want to make sure I get some hanging out time in before the baby comes in August. My mom is a teacher, too, so its always nice to get to hang out with her over the summers!

10. And last but not least, I have an idea book that is over flowing with stuff I've been meaning to create and now is the time, people! I actually just made something for the beginning of next year for my substitute to use and it's super fun! I'll share it this evening when it is all completed! I might even have a video of it! ;)



At the end of the summer, my baby boy will be greeting the world! I have tons to do to get ready for his arrival and to make sure I capitalize on every moment before he's here that way... I'll have the ability to capitalize on every moment after he's here. <3