Monday Made It

I still can't believe that I'm starting my 4th week of summer vacation.  Summer seems to be flying by... this past week was a doozy.  On Monday we bought a new old car.  It's a 2010 Honda Accord V6  EX... basically a car that has lots of gadgets that make my husband happy.  On Tuesday we went to Monterey to celebrate my husband's birthday, and then the rest of the week we have been busy around the house...

The other night I couldn't sleep, so I stayed up way too late (2 am) to work on my new planner (Yes, it's from Erin Condren).  Started with filling in the dates on the monthly part, then moved on to adding the different weeks to the lesson part... and then realized that I had 2 week pages left after all 38 weeks were filled in.  

I used the left side to write a "menu" of sorts for my Math Workshop.  Like you can see, I didn't add a Teacher Time on the chart because that all changes by the lesson.  Something I did near the end of last year was doing a full class lesson, and then after the lesson we had our rotations.  During rotations I would go and check in with kids doing different activities, or pulled kids that needed intervention.  On the board I write the activity for each station, and I switch them out every day.  

  

On the right side of that week I made a menu with some of the different choices I give the kids for our Daily 5 centers.  We do Read to Self at the same time (right after lunch and our Read Aloud time), but the other ones are during the rest of the day.  These are more a real menu type - I put up 2 or 3 choices for each activity (on the board), and those choices are switched out 2 days later, giving time for students to finish them up.  I'm sure I forgot something on both lists...      

Like I mentioned, I filled in my dates and the staff calendar stuff that I know going into the year...  I added the different week countdown to every Monday #1-38.  After the monthly calendar there are 3 pages of notes (which I LOVE)... I decided to take one of the note pages and add A Modern Teacher's free Curriculum template to the page - I just glued it in (had to trim a little to make it fit).  Even though this is the most expensive planner I have ever bought, it was important for me to use it to the greatest capacity... even if that meant changing out certain things. 

Then I started going through each week, writing the date, week #, subjects,  adding all the Mentor Sentence books, etc.  I didn't get super far because by then I couldn't see straight.  :)

On the note page facing the monthly curriculum map, I started writing down what TPT units I have/bought that go in a specific month.  I still have a lot more to organize, but at least it's started.  I am also going to have specific Pinterest activities for each month too.  That will leave me one more blank note page per month to add whatever to.  

Outside of the all the planner stuff, I also had the boys make up new PJ shirts.  I grabbed a package of  undershirts and they used fabric markers to make up their own designs.  They got creative and pulled out the stencils...  Kept them busy for 1/2 hour...

Last little thing - with my husband driving the new car, I felt the need to spruce up our van (now my main mode of transportation).  I absolutely despise trying to carry in the change from the cup holders, so I brainstormed (without the use of Pinterest) putting clear plastic cups in them to make it easy to lift out and keep things organized.  We've had plastic bags in the car, but I finally hung one up between the front 2 seats for an easy trash bag (instead of throwing things in the door).  

Then I even went so far as organizing all the stuff we keep in the car - our trunk/back of the van has the picnic blanket, a fuzzy blanket (one per kid), a frisbee, and a football. 

In my driver door I now have a bunch of my reusable bogs, plastic grocery bags for trash, sunscreen, baby wipes, and hand santizer.  With boys I always need those things handy! 

 

Looking forward to a fun week!  

Can't wait to see what else everyone has linked up with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics.  :)