Sundays are for Linky Parties

Guys. I love a good linky party so I decided to combine these two linkys because...
1. My goal this year is to be better at blogging through the week. I'm also starting grad school so I'm not sure what kind of time I'll have to do...well, anything other than school and family BUT my super goal is to blog consistently! 
2. My Sunday letters are to myself-ish. So...without further ado 


Dear hungry-at-lunch Caitlin,
Don't do it. Don't go out to Braums or Sonic even though this week is going to be exhausting and you'll want that coke and fries. Be a good girl and eat your salad. You'll thank yourself later. 


Dear Jackson (and his immune system),
Please please sleep tonight. And please don't get sick. I know you can't help it but Mommy and Daddy can't miss the first week of school.... And please forgive Mommy for working late and then working some more at home. I promise I won't get out my computer until you go to bed every night. 

Dear football season,
Be kind. Please let me see my hubs this year...It'd be great if you could go by super fast during the week and then make Sundays extra long. Deal? Deal! 

Dear new 4th graders,
Let's do this. 


First day of school tomorrow---I'm excited for year 6! 

**And don't forget to enter the giveaway. Thousands of free resources for a whole year? It doesn't get much better! 

5 for Friday and a Giveaway

It's been a while since I've linked up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for a little old 5 for Friday action. I've missed it! 

 I have been in PD all week. Some of it was fantastic, some of it was good review and some of it was...this.

 Ok, it wasn't really THAT bad and I do love me some data BUT you know when you reach that point where you are just like "can't I go live in my classroom for a little while and just bask in all that I've accomplished while feverishly writing my to-do lists in my personalized Erin Condren planner"...that was me yesterday. Even though my room was done (reveal coming soon...I promise), I wanted to just go sit at my desk and think through some of the little things. Today we have a work day and I'm looking forward to some alone time to...work. 

One of my personal instructional goals this year is to be more purposeful with my vocabulary instruction. Luckily, that directly ties in with our school goal of increased vocabulary development/instruction with intentional use of word walls...HELLO. Love it. 
I attended a training on this book last summer and loved the strategies but kind of stuffed the book in with the thousand other "resources I'm definitely going to use...sometime" and forgot about it. Well now I'm in a book study and I'm loving this book. 44 easy-to-implement activities that you can do...right now. Thursday I helped lead a training at our school where we introduced 2 of the activities so I thought I'd share the info with you, my fabulous readers, next week. I even have a freebie handout you can have to easily implement. [[I'm just that nice!]] :) 

 This.

 Have you guys discovered S'well bottles? My teacher friends and I are in love with them. Let me be honest, I'm so not a water drinker. I'd happily live my days drinking peach tea, Dr. Pepper and almost any other caffeinated, carbonated beverage. But I know I need to drink more water. Enter the S'well bottle. You see, I only drink water if it's super cold. So it's only up to my standards for as long as the ice isn't melting normally....but my adorable hot pink S'well bottle keeps my drink cold all day. As in at least 20 hours. EVEN IN THE 100 DEGREE WEATHER. It's amazing. S'well isn't paying but (but hey S'well people, if you want to pay me to rave about your bottles, I'm totally cool with that...just sayin')
You need to get one. They are cute and work like a dream. #Christmasgiftidea

I've said it before but I absolutely love the people I work with. They are seriously the best. That being said, we lost alot of "core" team members at the end of last year for various reasons. That means we have to work even harder to stick together and have each other's back this year...I am LOVING my new team. Of course I knew all of them before but it's nice working together! Plus we are adorable. #Team Elliott #LivingTree ((that's for you Krissy) 

We are some FANatics! Our kids are college bound :)

Love my SpED team friends and glad I get to work more closely with ya'll ths year!

Just #SharingaCoke :) 

Have you checked out my giveaway that's going on now?! It's for a FREE YEAR-LONG membership to abcteach.com! Free. Thousands of resources. Free. You should definitely go check out my post and comment so you can be entered in the drawing! Winners will be announced Monday night/Tuesday morning. Do it. Or if you know a teacher that could benefit, let them know!