TpT Back to School Sale

I am so excited for the TpT back to school sale going on now! There is only one more day left! I know I'm filling my basket with goodies.

One thing I've got my eye on is Ashleigh's Social Studies Interactive Notebook. I will be teaching Social Studies to my class and another class while another teacher teaches Science, so I think this would be a fun way to compete with her awesome science experiments :)

If you are looking for something to spice up your teaching, let me suggest my Bucket Filling Activity Packet. Bucket filling is my absolute favorite thing about my classroom and it brings such positive things to even the most difficult classes!

I've been working in my class the last few days, and thanks to my wonderful hubby, I have a lot done so far! I snapped a couple of quick pictures to show you!

So this is my voice volume poster, my expectations poster and my visual schedule.

I'm super proud of this part, and I think it looks so cute! I used my polka dot duct tape on the board to separate out a place for my learning targets. My hubby put down painters tape so I wouldn't ruin the board, then he put down the duct tape on top. I love how it looks!!

Finally, I jazzed up my clock with some helpers for telling time. My hope is that they will be able to count by 5's from these numbers and be able to see easily that the 6 means 30 minutes. I can always add the rest of the times later if they still need a little support!

All the signage you see is available in my Classroom Organization~ Teal Chevron Classroom Decor! It's on sale now! Haha, I sound like an informercial, just ignore that last part!

Back to School Room Tour!

I'm finally got my head above water 4 days into school and I've finally uploaded my classroom pics for the room tour linky!

The view from my desk. You can see my large divider covered in sheets, buckets on the tables and the listening center!

Painted bulletin boards (awesome idea and looks so nice, thank you teacher friend!) and my centers charts, a schedule that is falling off that I later taped and my birthday banner.

Pretty curtains, standards on cookie sheets and my desk area.

I need to take close ups of things, but that works for a tour for now!!

Thank you for taking a peek at my classroom!

Bucket filling

I got my class list today. I am so excited to start the year. So far it looks like 12 girls and 8 boys. I'm sorry to those of you with 30 students. I bow down to your amaziness!!

I worked on more details for my classroom today. I wanted it to look presentable because parents come next week for assessment days. One of the things I did was put my buckets together. I am a BIG believer in the power of bucket filling.

So I attached tags to the buckets with wrapping ribbon.  I wrote the students name on both sides with permanent marker.

Here's what they look like hung up!

You can see in this pic the books I start off the year with. I especially love "Say Something " and "Have You Filled a Bucket Today? " of course!


To hang my buckets I use clear plastic hooks like these.



I put mine up last year and they are still going strong! I also hung up the posters you can barely see in the pic.

My students will begin filling bucket right away! I have bucket filling forms on their desks for them to fill out about each other. I read them aloud to encourage other students to be bucket fillers. This program has really given my classroom a positive and nurturing classroom environment. 

The tags, posters, and activities are all available on my Bucket Filling Classroom Activity Packet at my TpT store.

Do you use bucket filling in your classroom? What do you like about it? Anyone work at a bucket filling school? I would love to know what that is like!

Monday er.. Tuesday! Made It!

Ok, so I'm a little late to the party, but this week so far has been crazy! I worked like a mad woman in my classroom yesterday and I had jury duty all day today! No fun!

The first thing to share, I did not actually make, my mother in law did! How awesome is that?

She painted them turquoise and added black polka dots. I love how they jazz up my library area.

The second project I worked on this week was labels for my literacy centers. The square ones are for the pocket chart and round are for the tables and buckets that the centers are at.

If only I could find a teal blue pocket chart, I would be happy! Why are they only in primary colors?

I'm off to laminate so I have some more stuff to cut out during jury duty.

Summer Shopping Linky

 Ladybug's Teacher Files is hosting the Summer Shopping Linky.

I've been looking forward to this linky since I saw the post in June and started my blog in July! I really love looking at everyone's finds. My pocket book doesn't like it too much though! :)

Oh, shopping! I've bought quite a few things this summer, but my most recent purchases were:

The number line and paper kit are from a teacher store and the curtains are from Target. The paper kit is pretty neat, it has graph paper, a giant piece of ruled paper, and a normal size of ruled paper. They are all dry erase and I will use them for showing my class how to organize their paper. 

I'm very excited about the curtains. I have a gorgeous view, but the light from the window leaves a major glare on my SMART board, not to mention it gets HOT over there! 

See those glaring windows?

My desk is near the window so I thought curtains would work. They match my teal theme too! This picture is my "before" class photo. Hopefully, I will have a more finished look soon!

Monday Made It

I'm excited to see another round of Monday Made It. Thank you to Tara @ Fourth Grade Frolics for hosting! For this weeks project I was inspired by Julie at 4th Grade Haps and Hacks and her project last week.

 
So I pretty much took her project and made it with what I had on hand. I, of course, made it polka dot and teal.

I used some letters I all ready had and I think they are a little small. I am waiting to laminate when I get home. You can't really tell in the pic, but the teal alternates between a flowery print and polka dot print.  I think it will look so cute hanging outside my door!!

I also made a dry erase frame that was inspired by the many pinterest pins of the same nature! If it was your idea, you rock!

This is silver glittery paper, with scraps for the corners. The clear sayings are clear stamps I took apart to keep the stickers. They say Believe to remind me of God's promise and "You are my sunshine" to remind me of my hubby.

I think it's a little something to make me smile on my desk! Plus, my desk becomes such a mess of papers by the end of the day that I usually can't find my to-do list! Problem solved!

Target Dollar Spot

Today the hubby and I had an amazing breakfast at Big Biscuit in Kansas City. We sampled their cinnamon roll pancakes, they were good but so sweet! They were much bigger than my head, and I have a big head! After breakfast we went to buy a few groceries and of course I dragged my husband to the Target Dollar Spot! I took some pictures of the Dollar Spot for your viewing pleasure! I only bought a few things but I took pics for those of you unable to check it out quiet yet! First for what I bought: I got the globe stress balls for students needing a little extra movement, and the bin to put them in. I also got the adorable mini lockers. I'm thinking paperclips and binder clips would be perfect! Now for the pics of the Dollar Spot, I hope you find them useful, because this girl was looking at me so strange for taking pictures! Anyone else have this experience as a blogger? Color coded: red, blue, green, yellow Lots of bins! Cardboard letters- think of the possibilities! Desk organizers!  Dollar Spot had some very cute stuff, buy not as much teal as I would like! :) Happy shopping!

Fabulous Finds!

I'm linking up with Elizabeth over at Fun in Room 4B for her linky! When I saw this linky I knew I had to share one of my latest purchases that I just adore.

I agonized over finding a new cursive alphabet and I was *this close* to making my own but I found something amazing.

Black Polka Dots Chart

I love it so much! It says it is "mini" but I don't see anything really mini about it. I'm posting pics from the website because my goodies are at home and I'm 1,000 miles away!
Since I found that, I had to buy the matching name plates and charts!

Polka dot Name Plate

Polka dot Name Tags

Black Polka Dots Chart

I found some other great stuff like a {calendar}and{incentive chart}! There is also {lime green}{red}and {blue}polka dot items!

I hope those of you who are polka dot crazy like me will enjoy these!