My Room Is Done!

Finally!  Tomorrow morning is our Meet and Greet when all the kiddos can come and meet their teacher and drop off school supplies.  It's always nice to see the kids before school officially starts!

Still waiting for my new calendar to come in...yikes!

This is where kids turn in their daily folder.  The whole school uses the same folder,  but each teacher can customize their own insert for the front.

Right outside my classroom door...

WHEW!!!!  These last few weeks were busy!  Glad to be done and I'm ready for kids now!!!  Let the fun begin!

Fabulous Find!

As I was going through my Google Reader and catching up on posts I have not read yet...I came across a post with the most amazing news!  Michelle from Fabulous in First shared a link to an Etsy store belonging to an artist who supports teachers 100%!  Go check out kpmdoodles and shop till you drop with her sale!  She is offering a free set when you buy two, and two free sets when you buy four!  But wait...it gets even better!  Enter TEACHER in the coupon code section when you check out to get 10% off your order!  And...the good news doesn't stop there...she allows freebies on your blog using her art (secured in a pdf) as well as your stuff on TPT for sale!  : )  LOVE!

PS  Don't forget my TPT 20% off sale...it lasts till Tuesday!

Celebrating Back To School!

Since us northerners don't go back to school until after Labor Day, I am throwing a Back-to-School sale of my own.  : )  I wasn't quite in school mode when TPT was having their back to school sale at the beginning of August.  : )  So for those of you who have a few days left of summer vacation and even those of you who have been with your new kiddos already, enjoy 20% off everything in my TPT store HERE.

Freebie and a File Conversion Tip

I have just LOVED this poster I have been seeing across blog land!  I decided to type up my own version, "fancied" it up and printed it at a local photo lab for $2.49.  I put it in a clear 8x10 frame and I am good to go!  I think it turned out quite cute!

Click on the picture above to get a copy of the PDF from Google Docs.

Ignore the awful glare from the plexiglass frame...

First, I made the poster in Word.  Next, I changed it into a PDF.  From there, I uploaded it to Zamzar, a free file conversion site.  Zamzar allows you to upload a file and convert it to just about anything you want and it will email it to you with in minutes.  FOR FREE!  How cool is that?  Then...(I know...50,000 steps just for a cute poster...teachers will go to the edge of the world for something cool, right?) I uploaded the png file to Picnik to "fancy" it up.  Picnik allows you to upload a picture (jpg or png) and add text and stickers, use cool photo editing tools, etc.  FOR FREE!  I got the white picture to turn to black by using the color inversion tool.  I resized the original picture to be 1600x2000 so it would turn out to be a true 8x10.  Then...(I'm almost done) I uploaded that picture to my local photo lab for printing.  Whew...done.   Clear as mud? 

Room Pics Day #2 {Massive Library}

Another full day and a whole lot done!  I'm taking tomorrow off...I've had enough of my hot room for a few days!  Here are a few pictures of accomplishments from today!  They are mostly of my desk area and massive library.  : ) 

P.S.  If you click on the picture, you can get a better look.  : )

This is my little corner behind my desk (computer table). 
I gave up my honkin' teacher desk 3 years ago and LOVE it being gone!



Desk area to the left, meeting area to the right.  Blue tubs are filled with my leveled library.




This is my leveled library.  It "hugs" the meeting area. 
I love that it surrounds the kids when we meet at the carpet.



Just added new cute leveled labels today.  Thanks for the labels, Deanna Jump!

This is my "Look Book" shelf.  Mostly themed, non-fiction books that the kids can choose from to add to their book bags.

These colored tubs on top of my cabinets are also themed books.  They start with the first day of school type books and go in order by science and social studies units all the way to the end of the year.



The train of books keeps going and going and going.  LOVE!!!





I still have to unload the kids' lockers in the hallways to fill these tubs.  They are all specific author tubs.  The more popular authors in my room (think Mo Willems) have more than one tub.



 The custodians gave me permisson not to box up all the books in my room for summer cleaning this year because they didn't want to have to move all those heavy boxes. LOL I didn't want them falling off the shelves during the move for cleaning, so I stacked them in order in the lockers outside in the hallway. The tubs on the cabinets were just covered with garbage bags and the leveled library got to stay on the shelves because those shelves have wheels. : )

Our reading coach got a grant to purchase a bazzilion blue book tubs for us as well as lots of brand new leveled books last year! Our principal knew how much we needed them and purchased even more tubs and books! I have the best administrators who are in it for the kids all the way!!! It is so great to have that kind of support!

I have a poster in the back of my room with an illustration from David Shannon that says "Never Enough Books!" I hold that saying close to my heart!!! I would love to count them someday...wonder how long that would take?

Room Pictures Day #1

Whew!  I'm tuckered out...and my room looks like a disaster even though I got a TON (plus some) done.  It always seems to get messy before it gets better!  Here are some pictures for you to see...I'm going back tomorrow bright and early and hope to get it looking even better!  Ya, know...after 9 classroom set-ups, you would think the 10th one would be easy, right?  Wrong...all of the amazing blogs out there gave me so many good ideas, I feel like I am starting from scratch!  But...it's a good thing!

Walking-in-the-door view.  Here we go...

Back corner looking towards the door.

Other back corner.  I LOVE my tables for the kiddos!

Front corner looking from my desk.  See all the bags on top of the back cupboards?  They are covering just a fraction of my classroom library.  I have a serious book addiction that I will show you at a later date.

That little, tiny, skinny bulletin board took forever and a year to get paper and border on!

Close-up of the trim.  It is from Carson Dellosa and it is their Pop-up Trim .  Cute, but a pain in the rear to assemble!!!

Math shelf.  Tubs above will be my math tubs.

These drawers seem like a good idea, but the tracks break all.the.time.  And, to top that off, the company no longer makes replacement parts.  I am in the middle of an extreme label makeover.  Thanks to Deanna Jump and another blogger (couldn't find her name...yikes), I now have cute, new labels for my stuff!

See what I mean?  It gets worse before it gets better!

Whipped these labels up today for my math tubs.  LOVE!

The custodians wanted to leave for the day, so this is as far as I got on my calendar board before I got escorted out of the building.  The beehives don't have the magnetic bees on them yet for my behavior system.  More to come...

You can see my day #2 and my library HERE.

Back To School Student Gift

Are you looking for a cute back-to-school treat for your students?  You can download the tags for free at my TPT store HERE.  If you download them, I would LoVe for you to leave positive feedback at TPT in return.  : )  The tags come in 10 different colors and are sure to make your students feel lucky, too!  I was thinking of making a sheet of all green labels to use for a St. Patricks' Day treat...what do you think?  Enjoy!

Lucky Charms, clear treat bags, curling ribbon and the tags are all you need to make a special treat!

Bees, Bees and More Bees

I happily decided to go into school this past Monday to start working in my classroom only to find out that summer school was held in my room and the custodians were not finished cleaning.  I can't get in until this following Monday...that leaves me one week until PD meetings start!  I always panic, but it will get done...

So, since I couldn't get work done IN my room, I decided to do some crafting FOR my room.  I have a bee theme, so it's all about the bees!

Here is the ceiling tile art I made for myself.  The body is a little bit too big, but it will have to do.  Check out my post from yesterday to see the tiles I made for my friends.  : )

I decided to try out some bee handprints with my own two kids as a trial for my first graders.  I am going to have my mom (retired teacher) come in on the first day to make these with the kids for my skinny bulletin board that goes along the top of my very long white board.  It should be cute when it is finished!

After you attach the head to the large piece of white paper, trim around the whole body of the bee.
Add the wings to the backside of the bee.

I used waxed paper cut into a heart shape for the wings.

Add pipe cleaners with tape on the back of the head.

And for the Grand Finale.  My absolute favorite!  I used wooden letters, scrapbook paper and Mod Podge (that stuff is amazing!).  If you are interested in purchasing these letters or for making a custom request, please visit my Etsy store HERE.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my projects as much as I enjoyed making them!

Ribbon and Paint and Mod Podge...Oh My!

First, you have to know that I don't really have a crafty bone in my body.  I am not afraid to attempt crafty type stuff, but I have really never cared for the world of crafts...until now.  : )  I saw Abby's ceiling tile art HERE and thought to myself...I could try that AND I need one!!!  I made these two for my teaching partners for their birthdays.  I still need to attach a ribbon for the hanger.    

   

I am in the middle of making two more.  One for myself (complete with a bee theme) and another for one more teacher friend who has a summer birthday.  I will post them when they are done.  My local big box hardware store donated the tiles (and I didn't even have to bat my eyelashes, Abby...lol), I used tempra paint and hot glued the ribbon around the edges.

Don't laugh when you hear this...I just bought my first bottle of mod podge yesterday!  I have grand plans for it and will also post my creation soon.  I think I have found my place in the craft world.

Apple Glyphs and Giveaway Winners!

Fall is just around the corner...as much as I love fall, I'm just not in the mood quite yet.  However, I did post a fun and adorable apple glyph activity on TPT.  It is one of my favorite glyphs I do duirng the year.  Come check it out HERE!
Today will be my first day in my classroom to start setting up.  Stay tuned  because I will have lots of pictures to post along the way...I have until September 6th to have everything in it's place.
 

A big thanks for everyone who participated in  my giveaway this past weekend!!

And the winners are...Keys4Education and melanie322! Congratulations! Please leave a comment with your email and 2 choices from my TPT store. I will get your home/school address from you through email so I can send your magnets in snail mail.