Well, school is out- or was out!  I had an entire three day weekend before heading back to my classroom.  Summer school started this week and I am enjoying it so much more than I thought that I would!  Of course, it is somewhat discouraging that I have 4+ hours to work with kids during summer school and my schedule feels just about perfect.  How am I ever going to get used to doing it in <3 hours again this fall ;)

Of course, being in my own classroom also allows me to work for a little bit after school each day-organizing and preparing for next year.  It is pretty nice being able to just put in 30 minutes or so here and there instead of taking time away from the pool in oder to go into school for an entire afternoon.

So what I am so eager to work on over the summer that I am not rushing home after summer school in order to hang out at the pool with my kids?  Well, I am excited about starting Daily 5 next year.  I already rearranged my classroom- with Daily 5 I figured I wouldn't need my writing or library or ABC centers anymore- they will now be part of the Daily 5 routines.  That means that I can spread out my other social centers more evenly around the room (in other words- opposite side of room from my reading table!)  I plan on keeping dramatic play, puzzles/games, art, math buckets, and blocks.  I'll let the kinders find quiet spots in the room to do their Daily 5 work- which should leave my corner of the room quiet enough for guided reading and MTSS groups.

I love the way my classroom is arranged now!  It feels much more open and simplified.  Sometime this summer I will have to consider how to change my center schedule in order to reflect Daily 5, and start working on my anchor charts.  I am excited to get it started this fall with my new kiddos.

My other task is also about room arrangement.  I've been lucky the last few years with my class sizes- between 13 and 20.  But next year we are going to be big- as off right now I will have full classes of 23 and 23 (unless we go over enough to add another half-day section.)  That means that I might need to find room for another table, clear out my cubbies to make room for a possible 46 slots, buy more buckets for my table supplies, maybe tie-dye more canvas bags to hang on the back of the chairs.  There is a good chance that I won't need to do all this, that we will add another section.  But I don't want to bank on that- I'd rather have extra space than not enough in case I do have 2 extra full classes :)

I also started working on my long range plans for next year.  Really I should wait until I can get with my team to plan out our social studies and science themes- but I don't know if they are quite ready to get back into kindergarten yet.  It has been just a week since we said good-bye to our last crop of kindergartners- maybe I should wait a few weeks before calling them up and seeing if they are ready to start planning.  But then again, I am lucky enough to work with some pretty dedicated teachers.  They are probably searching the blogs for new ideas, too, just like me :)