I go back.... To watchin summer fade to fall. (Kenny Chesney)

My new hundreds chart is about 3 times larger than my old one.  A long time ago I had lost a whole role of numbers 41-50 and made my own.  While looking for replacement numbers I learned that you have to buy a new chart :(.  So I held off for as long as I could.  During some of my 100th day activities I've lost a few more numbers.  So I finally replaced it.  I'm excited too because the 5's are in blue and the 10's are in red.  LOVE the pattern.  I take each set of numbers (for example 1-10) and mix the up along the bottom row and then the helping had of the day has to find which one they need for the chart.  This is just set up for orientation so before the first day I will be putting out the numbers.  Almost to the first day!

 

"I drew a line, I drew a line for you, what a thing to do, it was all yellow." (Coldplay)

I've been busy, I swear I feel like I've been working 2 jobs lately.  I was getting my room for our orientation and then at night I was working on my new monster desk for room.  My last post was about how poorly I was doing hanging my colors bulletin board.  I finally got that straightened out.

You know your doing it right when you staple so much you break your stapler!

 

 

When you come crash into me baby, please come crash into me (Dave Matthews)

While working in my classroom today I was doing what I normally do and climbing onto tables and chairs to reach up and work on bulletin boards.  So being oh so graceful and light on my feet, I nearly fell off the chair a few times.  I wondered what would happen if I went crashing to the ground, who would hear?  I blast Pandora while I'm working and the custodians only come down to the end of the day around 4pm.  I just need to be more careful I guess. 

I was hugely frustrated with one of the bulletin boards I had tried out.  I've moved my colors to the front of my room and there are 11 to organize and I cannot get the spacing down.  Plus I can't hang anything straight to save my life.  I walked away from it today and I swear the whole time it was mocking me.  I'm getting the big ladder tomorrow, and hopefully my friend Jen will be around to help me get things straight. 

 

This is my Dr. Seuss Bulletin board for numbers.  I tried to do a scrunchie boarder and it turned out awful.  So I just stuck with what already knew how to do and that's a straight up boarder.  My walls are growing more colorful by the minute. 

 

Hey, Good Looking, whatcha got cooking? (Hank Williams)

I've always had an issue with my old alphabet chart.  It's cute but it just doesn't cut it.  So I went and created my own.  Here is my old one.  It's not bad it's just blah!

 

 

Here's my new one and it's awesome!  I do worry that it's not big enough but I also am creating something for my kiddos at the table.  It looks great and I even hung it straight which is a slight miracle. 

 

It's been such a long time I think I should be goin', yeah (Boston)

I started a project last summer.  I just finished it today, well sort of.  Last year at the end of school our technology room was being renovated an we found all of these chairs just tossed in the hallway.  There were perfectly fine except ugly and uncomfortable.  So I snagged 4, 2 for home and 2 for school. However I was told I would NOT be allowed to bring them back to the building.  I then asked what if they look better? 

So I tore them apart and bought some new fabric and spray painted them.  I added new upholstery too and learned a very important lesson.  DON'T cheap out on the cushion.  I did.  My butt regrets it. 

Here is the one I just finished for my aid who loves tie-dye and peace signs (which you can't see from this picture).  If you compare the below picture to the above you can tell that there is a thicker cushion on the bottom chair.  I got a real deal on high density foam at Joan Fabrics.  Now I'm going to bring mine home and add more cushion as well!

 

 

A change, a change will do you good (Sheryl Crow)

Sometimes you just inherit furniture.  This colorful container holder was passed down to me.  At first I just wanted to toss it.  It's missing some of its buckets but overall it is pretty handy in my room. My room is full of color but the teal just looked odd in my room.  So I tore it apart and sprayed it purple and white, our school colors. It's lightweight and at a great height for kids to use in my room when they needs a new glue stick or pencil or crayon.  I had extra baskets that fit in it too.     

In case you haven't figured it out yet I try to use a song title for all my blog entries.  I figured I should start giving you the artist too!  Been working on monster desk, named for its size, not because I'm turning it into a monster. It will be 10 feet in length when done and covered in a layer of silver glitter over a black base.  More to come! 

Keep holding on 'Cause you know we'll make it through



So, I've been overwhelmed.  VERY overwhelmed.  My classroom's a mess, I have meetings the next few days and won't be able to touch a thing in my room.  There are a lot of changes that are happening in school.  I'm changing a lot of my curriculum to try out the new state modules, which means a lot of reading and prep, and I'm not thrilled with the NYS way of justifying K-2.  One of my closest friends was laid off and it's really depressing not having her in the hallway getting ready for the new year. 

I've been just plain down, emotional, teary down.  Not at all me. 

HOWEVER while today started out pretty sucky....(Hard pouring rain ALL the way to work, parking lot closed for sealant, had to walk up a hill in the rain in flip flops and was late to meeting).  The meeting ended up pretty okay.

To make my day better, I sold my first product on TPT. My only paid product so far because I've been so overwhelmed.  So whoever you are thank you.  You lifted my spirits today! This was what they bought.

D'Nealian Polka Dot Alphabet

You've gotta a friend in me

I was picking up something in Walmart and came across this polka dot metal bucket. The colors and size appealed to me so I turned it to the holder for my clothes pins.  I cut letters from my circuit to put the words on.  Then I added this fabulous glitter ribbon that is also a sticker to the top and bottom.  Finally some fantastic ribbon to the handle completes the bucket.  Hopefully the clothes pins for my kiddos fit in there! 

 

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas!

First off let me say that I am not a representative of Staples nor am I affiliated with them in anyway. In June I was proctoring a math regents (yes, I teach K but in the summer our PreK-12 school has all the teachers helping proctoring regents, it's not like I can do 9th grade trig any more anyway).  My dear friend Chris comes in to relieve me of my duties and says "You will not believe this.  Staples has a catalogue where EVERYGHING is a penny for requisition's."  I'm in total disbelief.  What's the catch.  You would have though the elementary teachers had won the lottery, it's all we talked about for 2 days!  I kept saying "You get a shredder, you get a shredder everyone gets a SHREDDER!" in my best Oprah voice (it was pretty uncanny, plus the shredders were like $900 and we got them for a penny, I ordered 3).  What's the catch?  This can't be true.   No we couldn't put our own money it to order and everything must stay at school.  So we ordered.  I got $3,361 worth of stuff for less than 10 bucks. Then we didn't hold our breath. 

 

 Last week the trucks started to arrive and yesterday the 2nd truck dropped of 8 pallets of supplies.  OH HAPPY DAY!  It's like Christmas, the boxes keep coming and they are all full of wondrous things.  I'm clapping and laughing and jumping from box to box and room to room to see what everyone else ordered.  Now our rooms look like an office supply store  but it don't care.  There were definitely some things we screwed up with.  Like most of our students we should have read more carefully.     

 

Each box of pens and markers in this box we got for a penny!  According to my order one of the boxes of pens I ordered should retail for $15! 

One of my favorite mistakes.  Each brown box of tape holds 6 boxes of Scotch tape, and in each of those boxes of Scotch Tape there are 6 rolls of tape.  So each box holds about 36 rolls of tape. One brown box cost 1 penny!

Ziplock bags?  There are 5,000 in 1 box!

Writeable CD's, cleaning supplies and clip boards, on and badges!

This is my biggest OOPS so far.  5 giant rolls of foam......what the heck am I going to do with this?  I thought it was bubble wrap. 

I can't pretend to understand the deal that Staples made, with either the state or our BOCES district but I do know that I am grateful.  I shall never have to buy staplers, post-its, highlighters, packing tape, clipboards, staples or scissors for many years. 

 

PS.  The grapevines says that we can't have our shredders in our room because the students may be putting their hands in them or getting their hair caught in them.

 

Well, you're a hot mess and I'm fallin' for you

Does anyone else have a creative space that looks like this in the summer months?  So many projects and so much great weather to enjoy.  I really wanted to post about my August binder but I went to school today and spent the entire time printing off NYS ELA modules for kindergarten.  It's very overwhelming and so overwhelming that I forgot my binder at school.  I'm not heading back in until Monday so it puts a damper on what I want to accomplish over the weekend.  However the desk my dad is building has parts ready for sanding! 

Signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours!

August, the month of hot days and time to head back into the classroom.  I sent out super cute postcards to each individual student last week.  This packet of information is being sent out to my student's parents. Now I could make it super easy and copy everything onto white.  Where's the fun in that? 

 

The print out with the star border is my introduction and invitation to our orientation.  On the neon green I copied my supply list. On the hot pink it's the note for the nurse on what each kid needs for orientation.  The orange paper gets stapled to our emergency closing, medical treatment, technology survey, and free/reduced lunch forms as a reminder to bring those to orientation.

 

 The yellow copy shows the ABC's of the classroom which I LOVE!  I tried to do my own but it was about 12 pages long.  I found this one as a freebie on someone's blog.  I would love to give them credit but I can't figure out where I got it.  Every year I make a few extra copies for kids that move in the district later on in the year.  I also paperclip the paperwork and put it into my August binder.  More on the August binder soon! 

Could you, would you with a goat?

 

Last year I decorated 2  clip boards for a double bridal shower.  I picked colors for each girl and then I put their new married names on the back.  That was a year ago.  I loved them and bought all the stuff to make my own.  It took me a year.  At first I spray painted it blue and added some details.  Then I left it, because I didn't love it.  Next I tore it apart and sprayed it with glitter and added the Dr. Seuss details and modge podge the whole thing!  It's adorable and I love it. 

 

 

 

Gonna have to face it you're addicted to....

Doesn't anyone else have a storage container addiction?  As I started to clean up my room and get ready for the new school year and I started to organize all my storage containers.  Wow do I have a lot.  Let me tell you I have a hard time not buying more.  To be honest I've had some really large classes so I do have lots of extra's now, however I've cut myself off on buying any more.  I'm in the middle of a few amazing projects I can't wait to share with you in the next few days too!

You CAN always get what you want.

At least you can if you are willing to create it yourself.  Over the past few years I've been on the hunt for a large classroom sized alphabet line for my classroom.  It to be D'Nealian and I really wanted it to have the pictures with labels in D'Nelian too.  I couldn't find one anywhere.  I searched in the Albany Teacher's store and the Endicott Teacher's store too.  There were a few I was watching online at amazon.com as well.  I was inspired by another teacher's word wall because she had created her own.  It dawned on me that I could do the same.  So I downloaded some gender friendly backgrounds and got to work.  I used Jack Hartman's Letter Sounds song as the basis for the pictures and labels.  I also redesigned the vowels after much debate.  I put both the long and short vowel sounds on the picture cards.  I also wanted the vowels and consonants to be easily recognized.  I put the vowels on red backgrounds and the consonants on blue, leaving the y on a purple background.  I've printed 2 sets and trimmed and laminated them.  One is going to be on the wall for my letter line and the other is going to be used for games I play with my class.  Click the Link below to purchase!

 

D'Nealian Polka Dot Alphabet

 



Come On Get Happy!

What made me giddy beyond belief today?  Checking my TPT account and seeing that 15 random strangers downloaded my 1st freebie.  So I HAD to upload another.  This is my 2nd freebie and note for my binder.  I picked blue for the color of notes about clothes.  Sneakers are such an important part of our day.  My kinders need to wear their sneakers for both indoor and outdoor recess as well as for PE classes.  It's so unfortunate when they don't have them because they can't participate.  Years ago before I was teaching and I was working in an daycare one of the 3 year old girls in another class slipped on the playground in her dressy shoes and broke her leg.  Sneakers are of utmost importance especially since a lot of these guys are still working on their gross motor development.  Click the link to download my reminder! 

 

 

Missing Sneakers

Just posted my first freebie on TeachersPayTeachers.  Over the years teaching I have grown so weary of writing and writing the same notes from the cafeteria, the library, reminding parents about sneakers and winter clothes.  Finally I realized there was an easier way and typed up all the notes and print them out a bunch at a time and keep them in a binder next to my classroom mailboxes.  I color code them by my own system so that I can easily grab what I need. So here is my first set. I'm going to be adding the rest as needed.  Enjoy! 

 

Lunch Note

I wanna put on my boogie shoes...

The pride and joy of my classroom.  My shoe chair.  It's actually the 2nd one I've owned. It was pure coincidence that I got one in my school colors.  It's a conversation starter for sure.  I used to be worried that it wouldn't appeal to the boys in my class.  Then I taught 4th grade academic intervention services and I happened to have a class of all boys. They fought over who would sit in it so much that I had to have a schedule with who got to sit in it.  It's an ice breaker for shy students and the parents love it too.  My previous one was red  and the heel broke and I'd like to get it fixed but who do you know that can fix a shoe chair? Maybe there are some elves that will fix it in the night. What is the thing in your classroom you are the most proud of?

Everybody's coming to the coconut tree!

Starting the first day I teach my class all about the specific procedures of my classroom.  In the mornings my kindergarteners are expected to hang up their backpacks on their hooks, take out their folders and put it in the classroom folder bin.  The next step before breakfast to for them to do attendance using my Smartboard. I've created tons of theme related ones over the past 2 years and I think I may post a few on my Teachers Pay Teachers account once I get them organized so that everyone could use these.  Special thanks to Glitter Meets Glue Designs for the great glitter letters.  I LOVE using them and they look great on my documents!

You and me baby we're stuck like glue!

I found this great pin from Pinterest about how vowels are the glue that holds are words together.  Not once had I thought about this!  What a great concept for my kindergarteners.  So hopped over to this blog for her free glue bottle download The Teacher Wife Glue Bottle Vowels you'll need to scroll to the bottom for them.  I loved them and it helped my class understand that words need vowels.  This summer I took her concept and with the help of my Cricut amped it up with some glitter.  Here is the result! The Y is on purple glitter paper and then I laminated them. I'm planning on posting them above my word wall after I cover the vowel sounds.  Enjoy!

Good, Good, Good, Good ideas!

Recently I was at a conference, where it was I don't recall and for what I don't remember.  I did take one really smart idea with me.  That was purchasing (with my own money of course because that's what we do as teachers) a wireless mouse for my classroom.  The Smartboard in my room is fantastic but sometimes limiting in how it's used especially with kindergarteners.  Early in the year they are still learning to manipulate the pens and icons. Additionally my class likes to say that my Smartboard isn't always very smart. It doesn't always work as smoothly for them as I'd like and I don't like them to become frustrated with it, even though I do at times.  In the past I would have kiddos hop up to my desk and use my mouse.  When I was teaching with my Smartboard I was either tethered to my desk or to the front of my room so that I can turn the pages or manipulate the math lessons. 

Enter a SIMPLE piece of technology that is easy to install and great to use, the wireless mouse.  I can take my mouse with me to any where in the classroom to use it.  Sometimes I sit in a seat that's empty at my tables with my kindergarteners, or wander the room.  I can pass it off to any of my students at their tables for them to use too. 

Now for the hardest part, keeping track of it when I'm done with my lessons. I'm not always good at putting things away when I'm done.  I've put it on top of my kitchen center, in a basket of pom-pons (the cheerleading type not the crafting ones), and on my easel.  Luckily my students and my classroom aid are really good at finding things for me.  Mine is not pink, it's basic black because I got it for a steal on Black Friday.  Shop around, I've used a couple of different manufactures and they've all worked great and the battery is still good in the one I bought for my personal computer a 2 years ago. 

Everyday I'm filing....

My favorite way to brighten up my classroom is spray paint.  It's cheap, easy to use, a little goes a long way and fool proof.  There are a lot of projects in my classroom I use it on.   My poor principal didn't quite know what to say when I asked him if I could spray paint my filing cabinet.  His first question was why on earth would I want to do this. Well Pinterest of course was my answer but then I would have to explain it to my boss so I just said because they will look so much better.

Here is the history of my filing cabinets.  My first one came with the room.  I'm pretty sure the person that was in my room would have taken it with them when they moved to their new room.  So I was pretty lucky to have one.  It's pretty awful and a blah blue color and the drawers don't really close all the way.  For about 2 years I was in desperate need of another one.  I finally "inherited" one from a teacher who got a better one.  This "new" one was electric banged up blue with lots of dents and dings and again drawers that don't close.  But it's a place to store files, folders and stay organized.  Making things cohesive makes me feel accomplished and very pleased with myself. 

Now on to spruce them up.  So our school colors are purple and white so I went with purple as a base.    I also recommend the spray attachment for the tops of the spray paint cans.  It really saves on the fingers if your going to be doing a ton of spray painting. 

 

 

So I don't have any pictures of the before but I do have the after.  Initially I was going to do some polka-dots or stars to jazz them up but instead I stuck with the school color things and went with paw prints since we are the wildcats.  My good friend Melissa actually inspired the whole paw print addition. Including the misty looking sprays and splotches throughout them was her idea too.  I adore them.  They are a great touch to the personality of my room.  It took the about one very sunny warm morning to do this.  They were put of my room by 9am and back in my 2pm.  My fantastic custodians helped with the move.  I removed the handles and sprayed them black and wiped the cabinets down while they were moving things.  This inspiration also started a spray paint revolution with 5 other teachers painting their cabinets too.  One did a white cabinet with florescent splatter paint, a couple did polka dots.  One of my co-workers even turned his into monsters! My superintendent likes to say that I'm personally responsible for the hole in the ozone over our school.   

 

 

Another tip for you is that you really should label your cabinet drawers. When I went to put the drawers back in it was a MESS!  Since they all matched and looked so cute I couldn't tell which ones went to which cabinet or which cabinet was which anyway.  IT took a lot of shuffling, for almost 2 days because I gave up on the first day for a while.    The drawers don't work any better but they sure look a lot better in my room!

One last tip: 

spray paint drifts.....all over, my face, legs, arms, hair, and obviously my feet were covered.  It can be difficult to get off your skin. Good thing Old Navy flip flops are 2 for $5!

 

Vacation all I ever wanted.....

So how many of us teachers spend our entire summer vacation just vacationing?  While I enjoy spending time on the lake, picking raspberries, and sleeping in I also spend a fair amount of time on school related work. Don't get me wrong I enjoy catching up on my Pinterest ideas that I didn't get to during the school year however I do create more work for myself by taking other people's ideas and putting my own twist on to them.  Sometimes they are awesome....sometimes they are an epic fail. 

This week I created my own letter line.  Why you ask?  Well because my school uses a handwriting that is as ancient as time.  *sigh* I'm almost embarrassed to say which one because I don't want to admit we still are in the dark ages of handwriting.  After 2 years ( I kid you not) of searching for a letter line in this style with pictures that are labeled I didn't find any that I liked.  So what did I do? Created my own.   Insane, I know but in the end it came out wicked cute. I put the both the short and long vowel sounds on red polka dotted backgrounds, consonants on blue backgrounds and the letter y got a purple background. Here's a sample.  I can't wait to hang it in my classroom.  This year I may put up each letter as we cover it instead of putting the whole thing up right away.  In the past I've marked each letter we were on with a giant glittery (of course!) arrow to show the class where we were in learning each letter.  I used the pictures that correspond with Letter Sounds Song by Jack Hartmann.  I like them so much that I will probably be printing out at least one more set for the kids to read in the classroom and that I can use to play games with. 

 

Special thanks to Lita Lita at Learning in Spain for her Polka-Dots Background. I'm sure I'm going to be using it in about a million other places, in an around my classroom. 

 

PS This was my first blog post. I'm slightly proud.  It only took me about 6 months to get it together.  Let's see if I can master this thing. 

Have a nice day and learn a lot!