Dollar Tree Goodies!

I went on a shopping spree to Dollar Tree this afternoon.  :)

Here are my finds:

{Number One: Super cute stickers!}

{Number Two: Mini bull horns!}

Two for the price of one.  I may need these when the kids suddenly forget how to clean up quietly. ;)   I plan on thinking of something cute to print off to cover up the "Congrats Grad"!  Any ideas? (They also had these in green and red.)

{Number Three: Addition activity sheets!}

And it actually has more than just addition!  There are pages for counting sets, connect the dots, ordering numbers, hundred chart activities, skip counting, and word problems.

{Number Four: LOTS of sticky notes and little clipboard cutouts}

I'm thinking about using the little clipboards to write commentary on to hang by student work in the classroom and hallway.  I'll laminate so I can use them over again.

{Number Five: MAGNETS!!!}

Sight Words, Alphabet, Colors and Shapes, Long and Short Vowels, and Compound Words.

I can't wait to use these at stations with cookie sheets!

I hope everyone has had a fantastic weekend!  

Wishing a you a wonderful week with students!

:)

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Click HERE to link up with Jamie at This Kind of Love!

{ONE}

I'm loving my awesome hub.  I miss him since school has started back.  Now I feel super busy all.the.time.

{TWO}

I'm loving these precious pups!

{THREE}

I'm loving that my sweet little first graders are a LOT sweeter than the ones I had last year. ;)  The school year is off to a great start and I'm praying it just keeps getting better.

{FOUR}

I'm loving my Smartboard.  Seriously, it is awesome.  This is my first year to have one.  I love it.  The kids love it.  Did I mention we love it? :)

{FIVE}

I'm loving Wilfred.  :D  The show can be a bit, ya know, crude.  But it's oh so funny.

  

~Happy Wednesday!~

First Two Days & Writing/Supply Station

I have survived the first two days of school!  :)

So far, so good.  I think I am going to have a *much* better class this year.

(I don't wanna jinx it though.)

I have a lot of sweet, quiet girls.

And a few rowdy boys. *Sigh*  Who doesn't, right?

Anyway, we're still working hard to follow directions and rules.  They're learning the routines and procedures.  Of course some of my little friends think they can just come up to me at any time and start talking.  Or just start shouting to me from wherever they are. 

So, on to the goods.  I found this organizer at a thrift store for $12.

I've decided to use it as a sort of writing/supply station.  The small bins across the stop are going to house a stapler, paper clips, pencil top erasers, and band-aids.  (The band-aids are kind of random, but I get tired of having to stop what I'm doing to get someone a band-aid.  So , I figure if I train them right they will be able to handle getting and applying their own band-aids.)  I took the medium sized blue and purple bins out.  (I'm using them to hold headphones and "mice" at the computer station.)  I put my "extra crayons" box in their place.  You can read about that HERE.    The medium sized orange bin will hold dry erase markers and erasers.  The large green and red bins will hold glue sticks and scissors.  Here are the labels in case you can use them!

Click HERE to download!

Tomorrow is already Wednesday! Woohoo! :)

New Blogger!

Hey guys!  I just wanted to give a shout out to Amy at The Resource(ful) Room.  She is trying to gain more followers so hop on over and visit.  She has some great ideas and LOTS of pictures! :)

Worst.News.Ever. & Where are we?

Well, not really, but it stinks for sure.  Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, has been wiped off my school laptop.  I backed it up in May before we had a district-wide "thingy" where they upgraded something.  Anyway, I've been saving all my amazing blog finds all summer (without backing up) and now I've returned to work and have to log in a different way.  So, I can't login the way I logged in YESTERDAY and can't get my stuff.  Boo. Hoo.  :(  Now, I'm off to search blogs for some of the things I had in my "To Print" folder.  Blah....................................................................................................................and then!  I figured it out!!!! And I found ALL my stuff!  Yay me!  It was all under the other user name which I somehow managed to find.  


So, here's a "Where are we?" chart that I will post outside the classroom.  I had one of those circle shaped ones with the spinner...but it was so big!  Lately I've been all about making things smaller.  Maybe it's because I'm going to have close to 30 kids this year. Gulp.  (Sorry for the rambling.  Back to the topic.)  Someone (I can't remember who!) posted a super cute version of their "Where are we?" chart and I used that for my inspiration.  I plan to attach the three sheets & add some of my awesome zebra duct tape around the edges.  Then I'll use a clothespin or huge paperclip to mark where we are throughout the day.  This will be a job for the line leader.

Click HERE to download!

Happy Thursday! :)


*Edit: I decided to go ahead and make my poster.  Here is a pick of the finished product.

Back to Work & Book Nooks

Well, it has happened.  My summer has ended.  I go back to work tomorrow at 7:30 a.m!  Ugh.  How in the world am I going to get out of bed at 6:00 a.m.???  We have pre-planning this week and then the kiddos will arrive on Monday.  I already have 25 little ones on my class list!  We'll see what happens at registration on Thursday...

Now, on to Book Nooks.

I got this idea from Beth Newingham, too. (I posted about another one of her great ideas...HERE).  If you haven't already, you can visit her site by clicking HERE!

I just finished a making a new book nook chart.  My previous one had words and pictures.  This year I chose to just use pictures...primarily to make the chart smaller.  So, basically it is just pictures of all the items (pillows, rugs, crates, stools, chairs, etc.) available for student use during independent reading time.  I use clothespins labeled with students' numbers to clip around the chart so the kids know which book nook they get for the day.  I move all the clothespins over one space at the end of each day.  

I will attach the first sheet to the top of the second sheet.  Then the clothespins will rotate down, over, and back up.

Hope everyone is having a great week! :)

Finally in First Giveaway!

Jenn at Finally in First is having an awesome giveaway!! :)

She has teamed up with Mixed Bag Designs to give away FOUR sets of super cute bags!  Plus each winner will get a free laptop case! 

Click her button below to head over to her blog and check it out!  I sure do hope I win!! :)

Grocery List & Menu Planner

With the school year quickly approaching, I'm not only preparing for my classroom, but also preparing for ways to keep things simple at home.  Over the summer, the hubs and I just kind of did whatever for dinner...eat out, grab some leftovers, order a pizza, etc.  However, once I go back to work (this Wednesday!) and we both come home from an exhausting day, we need to have dinner under control. :)

So, I played with some Excel templates today and made a grocery list and monthly dinner menu. 

The font doesn't look right in Google Docs, but once you download it will be fine. :)

Click HERE to download!

Click HERE to download!

 I wanted to make the menu planner like a calendar, but it wouldn't all fit on a regular sized sheet of paper like that...I had to shrink it and didn't like that, so I kept it this way.  I'm going to work on filling these out tonight and then head to the store tomorrow to stock up.  

I hope someone else can use these, too!