Apache, jam on it....jam on it...jam on it....

We had a CRAZY warm-up this spring in Michigan. I'm talking mid 80's!! So, the berries budded early and many farms worked all night when freezes came in mid May. Lucky for me, the strawberry farm we visited last year (Huhn Strawberry Farm in Eagle) had some late blooming! It's my first REAL week of vacation (no training, classroom is packed up!) so I grabbed my daughter and two of her friends and headed to pick berries! It was INSANELY hot this week (upper 80's to mid 90's) so we headed out at 9am. Last year the berries were NOT really sweet, but great for freezer jam. This year was completely different! The strawberries were gorgeous! Not only that, but they were delicious!! My helpers ate quite a FEW berries while picking:)

I made cherry freezer jam a few years back and was amazed at how EASY it was . Really, the hardest part is cutting all the cherries and getting out the pits! Last year I did strawberry jam and with my frugalness, had jam until April!! YUM!

So, I had big plans! Got some young ladies cutting and mashing!! Sent home a jar with each of the girls and still had 9 left!

The best part about freezer jam is it's EASY PEASY!! :)  Cut the berries, mash them (I leave them with big chunks). 2 cups berries, 4 cups sugar. Mix. Let sit for 10 minutes. Mix 3/4 c water and a packet of sure gel pectin in a pot, heat to boil, boil 1 minute stirring constantly. Add to strawberry mixture. Mix together. Then I put the jam in my glass measuring cup and pour into the jars. Let sit on the counter for 24 hrs, then it's off to the freezer for up to a year!! OR , you can put it right in the fridge to enjoy after the 24 hrs.

Hope you've got some fun summer plans up your sleeve!

School's out now that I've PURGED!

That's right!! It's Summer time !! I had SIOP training (for our new population of ELL students next year) all this week. On top of that, I went BACK to school to close down my room.
Since the fall of 2009, I've moved 5 times. It was time to go through items and do some PURGING. It's really hard as a K teacher , not to mention a teacher who's been bumped around to many grades, to PURGE. It's REALLY hard! I spent about 10 hours in total this week going through every nook and cranny of my classroom. The EXCITING news is I don't have to MOVE and I get to stay in K next year! AWESOME SAUCE!
So, I went through all the extra papers, toys, manipulatives, etc. The hardest thing is deciding whether to keep or pitch worksheets.
Not only do you end up with the extra few sheets (yes, my littles do NOT have great attendance!) , but you also have the sets of sheets that you didn't get to use, but think you MIGHT. I learned about 7 years ago from a great coteacher that you should put all your originals in binders with plastic sleeves. I have them organized this way:
Months, Addition/Subtraction, Math, Social studies, Science, Writing, Hand Writing, Sight words, Word sorts, touch math and more!.

I also have a great set of drawers like the one here that I keep all my ready made copies in. During the year I had moved things gradually from my old classroom (which was empty) and added to my bottom two drawers. My most recently used papers were on top, and the fall things were on the bottom. SOOOO, I took on the task of emptying every drawer! (Mine actually has 4 !) Sorted and got rid of (gave to a first grade teacher) the sheets that were too high level for my littles and organized the rest by time of year used! WHEW! Big project done. I did end up with a REALLY thick folder of extra papers that I still needed to sort into my binders but I was DONE DONE DONE!! I put them in my Wednesday bin (I have red bins for each day of the week to hold my items for that day) to work on in the fall!!:)

I do need to swing by next week to grab my fridge, I think I'll take some photos to show a bit more of my organization!:)
Happy summer to you!

End of year wrap up ....................

The end of school is here!!
I had a great end of the year with my students!!

I gave all my littles the "crazy cool" gifts and they LOVED them!

I also had the fortune of having my daughter (who just finished 4th grade) come to school with me on the last day (a half day). My son (just finished 1st) came too, but spent most of his time behind my desk, he's not a big social person with new people:)

Emmie reading Pete and his Four buttons!

Emmie read a book to kids and wrote the morning message. They LOVED having her there and she is a natural born boss, I mean teacher!

All week I've let the helper of the day pick their favorite book of the year to reread. Today we read ALL the Pete the Cat books, they can't get ENOUGH of them!

When it was a few minutes before the end of the day, we listened to "School's Out!" Then we left through this sign I made (sorry for the crummy picture!)

Hope everyone is having a super vacation, if you've made it there! I'm actually still working even though the kids are gone! I'll post on that tomorrow!