Monday, July 30, 2012

Nothing is finer than to teach in South Carolina:)

For the past couple of weeks, I've gone to school for a couple of hours here and there to work.  Thank goodness for my precious momma who retired after 36 years of teaching because without her...my room would still be a mess.  I sometimes wonder why am I at school on a beautiful summer day when I should be at the pool but...if I didn't have my room ready before the day we HAVE to go back, I would go crazy.  I like for everything to have a place and I do not like to be stressed that first week back.  There is enough to do with meetings, chit-chatting with friends, and planning lessons for my students. 
Here is where we stand right now.  I have a little more to do but now I can breath and enjoy my last  
2 1/2  weeks of vacation.  

The front of my desk...students will make lunch choices by moving their magnetic flower under the choice for the day.  I am planning on having choices written on sentence strips. We're doing a garden theme this year, hence the flowers.
My cute READ pillows that I made last year.  
Individual book baskets...planning on letting my kiddos "shop" for books this year once a week so that their quiet reading time is spent reading, not searching for that one particular book.  
The door to our classroom...I'll put up individual names closer to time but aren't my little gardening tools fun?
Thanks to my sweet friend Brooke...this is where I post our GIDDY-UP of the week information. 
Name tags and table numbers
Our author of the month bulletin board...I try to change it out once a month and correlate it with our genre units in reading.  Some of the authors that we study are:  Patricia Pollaco, Robert Munsch, Gail Gibbons, Eric Carle, Tomie DePaola, Bill Peet, and more!
Probably my most favorite purchase of the summer...my colored stools for my reading table!  TJ MAXX, I love you!
Writing posters
The YEEHAW letters that I painted earlier this summer!
The front of my classroom

Word Wall
Cozy little reading corner...love my circle rugs.  (Shhhhhh...they are bath mats from Target)
My "Share Chair" and "All About Me" board!
Homework board
Essential question white boards!
I'm going to make a promise to not go back until August 16th...I doubt I can do it but I'm going to try.  
Nothing is finer than to teach in Carolina and I can't wait to meet my Giddy-Ups:)

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Cricut craziness!!!

I know that this fine piece of machinery has been out for several years and I don't know why I am just now getting on the bandwagon but...let me tell you that I. LOVE. THIS. THING!!!!  
Who knew that you could make so many cute things in a matter of seconds.  I'm planning on taking this to my classroom because I'm sure that I'll be using it all the time making stuff for my precious kiddos.

The first project that I worked on was making subject titles for my new essential question white boards.  I've covered the white boards in my classroom this year with fadeless bulletin board paper and put these up to update each day with what we'll be studying.  It turned out so cute.  I'll post TONS of pics tommorow of my almost finished classroom.  
I made these a little more cutesy by adding ribbon around the border using a hot glue gun. Aren't they fun?

I've made lots of things here and there, like bulletin board letters, shapes, etc.   Here are some flowers that I cut out for something super cute I'm working on.  I'll post that as well a little later.
The last project that I completed was a brand for a friend of J's.   He needed this for a bucking horse dummy and I whipped it out for him...wow!  He was quite impressed.   I'll be working on J's brand soon, I'm sure!  



Stop by tomorrow for my post on my classroom.  I'm super excited about some of the new things that I've done this year. Happy Sunday!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Week of fun #2

Here are a few pics of our 2nd week with little missy... She was able to help J in therapy, go to my school, help babysit sweet E, pretend being Annie Oakley, ride her bike, visit our local five and dime store, and more. Being a little girl sure is fun. She's getting so big! I sure wish she lived closer:).

Saturday makeover

Once again I found a cute idea on Pinterest, using scrapbook paper to spice up those ugly Sterilite drawer organizers. Here is the project that seriously took 30 minutes to do both!!! All I had to do was measure the paper, cut, and use LOTS of Scotch tape!!!! Aren't they cute????

Monday, July 9, 2012

Let me hear you roar!!!!

One of our Christmas presents from my precious mother-in-law was tickets to see THE LION KING here in Greenville this summer.  It was amazing.  The music was so good and the costumes were beautiful!!!  We would so go see it again, for sure.  I've been to several Broadway performances and I do believe this was my fav.  Jersey Boys in NYC was priceless and we've seen CATS, MAMMA MIA, and WICKED at the Peace Center.  
My niece sure loved it too!  
My sweet mother-in-law and niece
The backdrop before the show!  
The girls got t-shirts to remember the show!


And no trip to the Peace Center is complete without a trip to KRISPY KREME!!!  Oh yeah...my summer diet was BLOWN when I got ahold of these!!

The playbill included the upcoming shows for next year and SISTER ACT, MARY POPPINS, and JERSEY BOYS will be just a few that will be coming.  I'm hoping we can do one or maybe two, if we're lucky.  
I'm so glad that Greenville has a theater that can bring Broadway shows to the south!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Target fun finds!!!

Ahhhh....I typed this whole post and it didn't save!  RATS:(  Oh well!  Here we go again.  I went to Target today for my once a day summer  trip and found some fun finds!  I LOVE to buy new things for my classroom and tried to wait until July 1st so that I could use my receipts for our state "spending" money. 

Here are a few things that I found! Sorry that some of my pics are upside down...can't figure out how to rotate since I'm in blog mode!
A cute tablecloth and clips to keep it in place...My kiddos love to lean/pull/tear my tablecloths so hopefully these bad boys will help.  I am always straightening them throughout the day. 


Um how fun are these magnets?  I had to have them in every single color!  I'm covering my whiteboards this year with fadeless paper and using them as bulletin boards so these will be so useful holding things up.

A new desk calendar...LOVE, LOVE, LOVE a new clean one each year!

15 cents a piece...I know that Office Depot sells them cheaper closer to school start time but I wanted to get a jump start on my AR folders.  I also got another set to have on hand.

My favorite find of the day...how cute are these going to look under a cabinet near my listening center??? 
I'm pumped about getting these unwrapped and turned on!

Thought about trying these this year along with my favorite Sharpie flipchart markers.  Loved these when I was a kid so hopefully they'll bring more color and life to some charts!

Couldn't resist these...thought these might look cute with my gardening/farm bulletin board to go along wiht our schoolwide gardening theme for the year. 

There are still a lot of things that I need to purchase and I'm stalking Target until they put their colorful reading bins in the dollar section.  Last year they had them for $2.50, which is a lot cheaper than buying them from Really Good Stuff. 
 I'm hoping to get into my classroom next week and start arranging furniture and organizing things. 
 I do love setting up my classroom and getting it ready for sweet little kiddos!

More pics to come soon!

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Pull up a seat and stay a little while...

So when I picked the chair up from school on Monday I really debated on whether or not I wanted to tackle this project.  It was a super nice stool just the way it was and I didn't want to mess up but...I took the plunge!  
Step one...painting it chocolate brown!  


Next was to start adding some color...my nerves were shot on this stage!  Many, many coats had to be applied to reach the exact color that I wanted due to the dark brown.


Then the polka dots were traced on the seat, horseshoes were drawn, and colored dots were added. Thank you Amanda for that brilliant idea!  I had to actually paint the paper polka dots to match because the red wasn't exactly the same color and there were no turquoise!
Cow print was added to the legs and seat...(excuse that laundry)
The last and worst part was added the glossy coat of clear since you can't really see where you've painted and where you haven't.  



All in all...I'm pleased with it! My little Giddy-Ups sure will be excited about jumping up on this stool, throwing on a cowboy hat, and sharing the masterpieces that they have written for the day!  YEEHAW:)
Next up...5 gallon bucket seats for my reading table!  Off to Lowe's now...