Summer Fever!

I may have posted about spring fever in the past, but I would have to say I have Summer fever now. I am so ready for days of wearing cute sandals, laying out, and making memories with my sweet family. Don't get me wrong, my brain has been running like crazy thinking of things I want to make and do for next school year but I am also ready to relax with my sweet little ones.

This past week, our oldest one graduated Pre-K and we were pretty proud parents!!

And I hope you all had a fabulous mother's day, I definitely did!

So...now down to what we are here for...counseling! My program is really winding down and I have been working on cleaning out files, creating data spreadsheets of every student and what tier they are on as of now from SST, and gathering any referral documents needed. For the most part, I am prepping for next year so I can come in and just pick back up.

I also worked on a couple of activity packets....they are available in my lil' TPT store.....
The first one is a Summer Safety Packet that I used with my students. About 98% of our kiddos live in apartments and most have pools there. A lot of our students are unsupervised during the summer days, so I knew I wanted to do some kind of safety lesson and this went along great because not only did they have activities to reinforce what we talked about in guidance, they had a page of summer rules to keep with them.

Get It Here!

I also created a activity pack to go with My Mouth is a Volcano. I so heart this book. I love everything Julia Cook, I would say that now I am a counselor she is one of my absolute fav authors. You can also find this in my TPT store.

Check it Out!

I also have a FREEBIE because if some of you are like me...you LOVE anything free, who doesn't. I already hung this up in my office and may get a huge print made at Costco because I think this is a great reminder. I heard it awhile back so I thought I could put it into poster form.

Click here for your freebie!!!

I am looking to create more activities that are paper friendly...and more craftivities. The kids love anything that involves coloring, creating, and a dash of glitter or the use of googley eyes. While thinking ahead, I will definitely be making a to do list.....I have been pinning such cute things and I just want to have a whole day or week to make Dollar Tree runs, Target dollar bin visits, and Hobby Lobby trips. Oooh, the excitement!

Before I go, I want to share the one thing that I don't think I could live without in my office and that is my Erin Condren life planner. 

This planner is to die for and it keeps me on track with work, meetings, and my personal life. I know they are coming out with their new ones for next school year in July...so check it out! You will completely fall in love with all of her organizational stuff....it's ah-mazing.

www.erincondren.com

Well, that's it for today.....y'all have an awesome week and Memorial day!!!

Career Day!!!

Wow, this week has been fast and furious! But I will say I feel so stinkin' excited that Career Day was successful. We had it last Friday and I am so pleased with how it turned out. We had some amazing speakers and our staff and kiddos impressed me and the visitors. Here is a peek at how I organized my Career Day.

It took weeks and weeks of planning, my master schedule looked a little cray-cray at first..haha! I am the type of person that probably takes the long route to figure and plan stuff out but I have to because it makes so much more sense to me! I placed the presenters in set rooms and I had the kids go from class to class. Many have asked me why I didn't have the presenters move.....but to me I wanted the visitors to not have to figure out where to go or worry about moving anything they brought. Plus, the kids get to move and get their wiggles out between each session.

After I created my master schedule, I made a schedule for each presenter so they would know who to expect and when. It looked something like this.

I also made sure to provide all speakers with talking points in case they weren't exactly sure where to take the discussion next.

I set it all up and had snacks and refreshments ready for the big day. I also provided a copy of activities and notes for the teachers and resources they could use and activities to try in the classroom.

We even had a local news anchor come in! I wish I could post more pictures of all of the awesome career volunteers we had but I have to protect our kiddos' privacy.

It was a wonderful experience and I couldn't have wished for a better Career Day! And the sweet staff at school even game me a basket of goodies....

I also am soooo excited to have been nominated for Counselor of the Year and won for Division 2. We are in a very large urban school district which is divided into five divisions. I was so honored and confused...haha...since it was only my first year. I have been truly blessed with my experience I have gained at my school and in my district. I am pretty happy in the pic below but nothing beats getting to be a motivator and supporter for students....not even an award. It was cool to get but I also know I still have tons and tons to learn and ways to make next year even better.

I hope to be posting some freebies in the next week that I am working on and also a Summer Safety packet in my TPT store that I will be using with my guidance for this month. I am just so excited because there are so many things I want to create but with so little time....I am thinking of ideas for grief and also for next school year. I also found this book today which I thought would be fun to use also. Random subjects, I know....but I am just so excited!! (I think that's about the 11th time I have said the word "excited").
                                                         

The reason I haven't had much time is because these two have been keeping me busy but I wouldn't have it any other way. My hubby and I are enjoying every.possible.minute. with them!

Have a wonderful week and don't forget to tell those teachers you know to have a Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!! I am blessed to have a hubby, sister in law, and mother in law plus many more family members that are teachers.Y'all have a relaxing weekend!

Teacher Appreciation Week!

Can I start out by saying how hard it is to say no to your kiddos when they want a puppy? Haha! At church on Sunday, someone brought their dog and our kiddos just about fell in love. Unfortunately, our little guy has asthma so it's pretty hard to have an animal but they sure had fun pretending.

 Teacher Appreciation Week is next week!!! I remember as a teacher how much I loved this week. It wasn't just about getting fun gifts but it was nice to know that someone appreciates the hard work that teachers do. This year has been so busy but here are simple Teacher Appreciation ideas that I did at my school. You can print all of the labels for free here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Teacher-Appreciation-Printables

We have about 60 staff members so I had to make sure things were cost efficient. Here are some pictures of the finished projects.

For the "Write" one, I tied the tag along with bright colored pens and for the "Keeping it all together" I put different colored paperclips in baggies and just stapled on the tags. I am excited to pass them out next week! It didn't take me too long to put together and it wasn't too much money.


I also worked on a quick, little Summer Safety tip board in english and spanish!! I am excited that a lot of our spanish speaking parents will be able to read it!

I hope this helps you if you are stuck on ideas. I have Career Day this Friday so I am looking forward to posting about that this weekend! Have a wonderful week and know that you are amazing and do make a difference! : )