Happy Sunday, readers! I am joining Farley in one of my favorite linkies, but the sad news is that is the LAST Currently link-up! Let me start by saying, thank you Farley for offering this linky for so long. I started blogging 2 years ago and it helped me connect with other bloggers, make friends, and gave me the opportunity to sponsor one of your Currently posts.
This made me think so much about my year and how many changes are headed my way. And they are good changes! Sometimes we all need a change and to move on to something new. I'll be moving onto motherhood and taking time off of work. My blog will be gaining some attention as well as my TpT store and I just can't wait to get started.
That being said, here's the last Currently post from Daisy Designs!
The best part about today is that we got the crib built and the dresser all ready to be used! Now we just need to get literally EVERYTHING else and then the baby can come. Yeah... he can take his time. We are so not ready yet. <3
Tell me, what big changes are you facing this year? Comment below!
Today there is an awesome one day only TpT sale going on today in which sellers are marking down great products to only $1! All you need to do is type #onedaydollardeal into the TpT search bar and have fun! I already snagged some resources that I'll be using for test review this week and some things to get my sub started at the beginning of next year. So excited!
You know I had to join in! Let's do a Daisy Dollar Day for this fun event. <3 Snag my Dino-Mite Math Centers for only $1 today only! We are decorating our baby boy's nursery in dinosaurs, so I have dinos on the mind. Let's do this sale for baby Isaac, already 23 weeks in the belly!
WOAH, what a day! There's a full moon, which I know I don't need to remind teachers of. If your day was anything like mine, you could tell! It's not only been a crazy day, but such a roller coaster of a month. I feel like a terrible blogger with all the time I've let pass by. My blogging schedule has been updated and here I go! Starting with one of my favorite linkies ever... Five for Friday! Thank you Doodle Bugs Teaching!!
Let's start with my BRAND NEW OFFICE!!! I am so excited and in total love with my new work space! Here's the deal: my sister-in-law was our roommate for about a year. In our current home, the space was not an issue. I needed a little workspace though, as I prefer to work on a desktop computer. My room was combined with the guest room. It wasn't bad. My desk fit in there fine with the queen size bed, but having guests over was never easy when I wanted to get on my computer. Anyway, my sister-in-law decided to move which left an extra room for the guest room. We moved out the guest stuff and updated my new office. <3 My husband and I are expecting a baby and I'll have the summer all uncomfortable and pregnant to work on my blog and TpT store (yippee!). He decided to completely spoil me and helped me redo my office!!
View from the door. LOVE my rug and curtains!!!
My new desk! I've had the three monitors for a while which he also spoiled me with. The top one is my Netflix screen. ;)
Disregard the ugly chair. We are working on getting it covered. It is too comfy to give up!!! I'm going to cover it in black and get some cute colorful pillows.
And the best was the giant Ikea shelf that I could stare at all day.
Now that we are approaching the end of the year (only 25 more days to go for me!), I've been reflecting on this school year. It was my first year teaching Second Grade, as I taught Kindergarten in the past. The curriculum was all new to me, the age group, even the room I was teaching in... all brand new to me. First of all, let me tell you now... I ADORE Second Grade!!! Second of all, over the next few weeks, I will be blogging about some of the things I did this year, things I would change, and things I feel like were a total success. Be sure to check them out. The first one will be on my favorite thing EVER.....
Keep your eyes peeled for a post on what worked and what didn't work for my class's Science notebooks this year.
As you may know, my husband and I are expecting our first baby in August! I would like to say we've been working super hard on getting the house ready... but I'm not gonna lie... I've just been trying to survive the end of the school year before I get crackin' on this place. The nursery was previously kind of a junk room. We worked pretty hard on it over Spring Break, so I shouldn't feel too bad. There's not much left to do in there, but I feel like I'm dragging my feet. At least I'll have the summer home to nest, right? With testing season coming up next month, I'm gonna focus on that for now.
However... we DID buy a crib and dresser!!! It is so beautiful! I can't wait till it gets here and we get it all set up. <3
These are the pictures from the Babies R Us store in Orlando (my town doesn't have one...). I love it!
I also wanted to fill you in, if you missed it, about a Freebie loop that was on Instagram last weekend. One of my freebies was included in it and in case you missed it, you may want to snag it up before Mother's Day! It's a Kindergarten Mother's Day Sentence Builder set and it is a forever freebie. I loved using these last year and although I love my Second Grader's... I do miss some things about good ole Kindergarten. Click the picture below to download it!
And if you don't already follow me on Instagram, you gotta click below! It's my favorite form of social media and a group of us do freebies and giveaways on a pretty consistent basis! You definitely don't want to miss out!
A photo posted by Amanda Smith - Daisy Designs (@daisydesignstpt) on
I've got some new projects I'm working on for my TpT store that I am falling in love with already! I just posted a great subtraction review pack that is great for First Grade. Click the picture below to check it out!
I also have some things I'm working on that I can't wait to finish and share with you! As you probably already could tell just by reading this post, my favorite thing EVER is teaching Science! I could teach Science all day long! I am working on some Second Grade Science units this year. My first one was The Human Body Unit (pictured below) and now I'm working on Rocks and Soil! Stay tuned!
Click the picture to head there now!
A work in progress! So excited!!!
Thanks for stopping by my little blog! Have a wonderful weekend, teachers!
I can't believe it! I'm going to be a mommy to a sweet baby BOY!
We already had a name picked out for a boy and a girl, but I'm not gonna lie... I always liked the boy name we had picked out more than the girl name... Good thing, huh?!
We had our ultrasound on Wednesday and my mom came with us! Our ultrasound tech told us when we needed to close our eyes and we were both good... we definitely didn't peek! My mom and mother-in-law threw us a gender reveal party on Saturday and I gotta tell ya, that three day wait was KILLING ME! It was so amazing though to see the little nugget move! I can't feel him yet, so it was a very strange to see him move around so much! The ultrasound tech said I have a "mover" and wished me luck... Yikes!
The grandmas did such an incredible job setting things up. Sorry in advance for the picture overload...
Beard or bows, who knows?
He or she, come in to see!
My brother was super Team Girl! Haha. Love him!
The grandmas before the party!
My mom couldn't find any good napkins so she stamped some colored ones. She's the coolest.
This was how she did it! It was a book themed party (people gave us baby books!) She got this box that looks like a book and the title is "Always believe that something wonderful is about the happen." Perfect, right??
We were so anxious!!
Can you tell we're excited? Inside was a little boy doll with a baseball cap and a mustache onesie. We are also doing a dinosaur theme in the baby's room so my mom put in a little toy dinosaur. <3
We ripped the pink streamer off the tree so the neighborhood would know IT'S A BOY!!!
We felt so much love yesterday. I couldn't believe how many people were there and just as excited as us to know if the little nugget was a boy or a girl.
To help celebrate the big news, let's do a giveaway!!! Check it out!
I'm giving away a $50 shopping spree to my store Daisy Designs to not one, not two, but THREE winners!!!!!
Thank the heavens that I am feeling more like myself today. I was out for an entire week last week! I originally went to the ER and was told I had the flu! I went because I'm also pregnant, you see, and having a high fever that Tylenol doesn't help... insert panic stricken face here. After my trip to the ER, I wasn't feeling better at ALL, so I followed my gut and went back to my regular doctor who graciously squeezed me in. Turns out... I did NOT have the flu, but a really bad upper respiratory infection that was on the fast track to pneumonia! Yikes. I miss my students terribly and hate that an entire week was wasted on sub plans. :(
Either way... I am feeling much better! And with feeling better comes inspiration to blog and create, which is how I have spent my Sunday so far!
I have felt so much better that I FINALLY was able to finish up a work in progress! This summer I'll be watching my best friend's little guy and he is obsessed with trains! So I created this little set up for him to play with this summer. I am so excited to share it! It is also HALF OFF for the next 48 hours so check it out or pin it for later! Click the pictures below to head there now!
Am I doing a Currently? Why, yes I am! I am currently sick on a Sunday and am definitely not going in to work tomorrow. I just finished the dreaded sub plans for tomorrow. I hate being out but I've had a fever since Friday night and spend Saturday in the ER. When you are pregnant with a fever and can't keep food down, you get scared. Well, turns out I have the flu! I've never had the flu in my life! Great timing...
Thanks for the fun linky, Farley! One of my favorites.
Have a great week, everyone. I'm gonna try to get some rest. Booooo.
We started a new unit this week! Hooray! We started our Science Unit on rocks and soil so I went video hunting and found some real gems! Take a look below. I wrote a brief statement about each and how/why I will use them with my students. Enjoy!
If you have a Brain Pop subscription, the video on soil is AWESOME. It really allows the kiddos to understand the concept of living and non-living things that are important within soil and introduces tons of vocabulary words! You can't play the video without a subscription, but if you want to check out the site, click the image above.
If you are looking for a longer video, here's a Sid the Science Kid video "The Dirt on Dirt." I love how the little guy goes around and interviews his classmates on what they think dirt is made of. It shows students that everyone may have misconceptions.
My students love these little song videos I dig up on YouTube. Here's one on the types of rocks. Short and catchy!
Very interesting, good length of only 7 minutes, and has lots of REAL photos and videos. Also includes the goofy host, so... win/win.
My students had a hard time with the vocabulary word humus, so I found this amazing time lapse video of fruits and vegetables decomposing after 74 days. It sparked tons of great discussions like "why did the strawberries decompose first?" and "why were there new plants sprouting at the end?" My class begged to watch it three times today, so I'm pretty certain they'll know what humus is now. ;)
There are a ton of resources out there for this fun Science Unit and I'm working on a integration unit to put in my TpT store as we speak! In the mean time, enjoy these few videos I've found with your students! Do you have a great video to share as well? Post the link in the comments!
