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!