Putting it all together...

Where has the summer gone?

I mean it just seemed like yesterday that I said goodbye to my group of

third graders for a LONG summer and now .... it's OVER.

I've been busy like the rest of you getting ready for a new school

year and getting my "craft"on.  

Here are the things I've been working on this week:

1. Boggle board

I wanted one of these BUT had no wall or bulletin board space for one so.... Voila!  I created a magnetic board.  It was so easy.  I purchased an oil pan from the local automotive store.  It was around $10.00.  Then I bought some cute tape to place around the edges.  I then downloaded and printed out some already made Boggle pieces from Mrs. Petite's Teaching Passion store that I found on TPT.  Click here to access this freebie. Finally I had to laminate and add magnets to the back of each letter.   I LOVE this Boggle board.  It can easily be moved around the classroom.

2.  Those FABULOUS seat crates. LOVE!

This has been on my teacher wish list all summer long.  I now have 5 of these fabulous seats for sitting and storage.  I enlisted the help of my Dad.  He does carpentry in his free time, and he just so happened to have some extra board that I could use.  So.... he quickly cut the size of the pieces I needed ( and even did the measuring for me).  I already had leftover fabric from my curtains and  red crates I was not using in my classroom.  The only thing I had to purchase was some bedding foam from Wal-mart.  It cost about $10.00.  I doubled the foam to make the seats a bit softer and still had enough foam to do 5 crates.  Woop!  Woop!  Ginger Snaps has a great tutorial for making these.  Click here if you are interested.

3. Confetti Poem for Back To School Night

I found this adorable poem floating around on Pinterest.  I copied it and have it placed on top of each of my student desks.  This will be perfect for our Back To School Night on August 13th.  I didn't purchase the cutesy confetti but purchased 5 bags of different colored filler at the Dollar Tree which serves as confetti.  I tried going with the theme of red, white, and blue for the Olympics.  Click here to download this poem.


4.  Dice containers

I wanted a way to keep the dice from rolling everywhere when my students were playing different games.  I found these small plastic containers at the Dollar Tree to keep the dice in.  My students can shake them up and then take a peek to see what numbers they have rolled.  I think there were 10 containers in each package at the Dollar Tree.  This project was too easy.  I just added the dice to each container.

5. Math baskets for manipulatives at each table.

I wanted a place to put math manipulatives or other material I might need for different subjects in a basket for each table.  I thought this would be great for organization.  I would have the baskets loaded with the supplies needed the night before, and simply have the table leader pick them up.  I purchased the baskets at the Dollar Tree and added the number labels from the Clutter Free Classroom.  I then used Mod Podge on the numbers.

Don't forget to link up with Tara for another Made It Monday!  I can't wait to check out more fabulous ideas!

Ready to Write..... and did I hear Giveaway??

So are you ready yet?  Have you heard that question a lot lately?

I think I have heard that wherever I go.  I am ALMOST ready.  The summer

always seems to go by so fast.

I wanted to share with you my writing center. It needs a few more finishing touches. I am so excited to FINALLY

have ONE area of my classroom designated as a writing center.  Last year I had writing binders in one area, writing posters in another, and supplies in even another.  CONFUSING for 3rd graders for sure...

So here it is.... New and improved

Please ignore those mismatched chairs....  This little corner of my room is the writing center.

I purchased a white organizer to place envelopes, lined paper, plain paper, post it notes, and writing forms.  It's hard to see but in the corner is a bubble gum machine that serves as an eraser dispenser.  ( My son  bought it at a yard sale a few years ago and no longer uses it. SO after paying him $5, this fabulous find is now mine.)  On top of the white organizer is a clear acrylic straw dispenser that now holds many sharpened pencils.  The galvanized bucket was decorated to hold our dry erase markers.  My kiddos writing binders are located on the right.

I LOVE this bulletin board for my writing center.  Isn't it so cute?!  I found it from Miss Nelson's TPT store.  It's FREE.  You can download this fabulous packet by clicking HERE.  If you download this PLEASE let her know how much you like it. Don't forget to visit her blog, Run Miss Nelson's Got the Camera for more fabulous ideas... She loves to decorate with polka dots also.

This is a picture of my student's writing binders.  Included in these binders is the packet shown below.  Click on the picture below if you are interested in finding out more about this. It's FREE from my TPT store.

Above the binders I have my writing posters which are aligned with the Common Core and go over the writing process and the different types of essays.  This packet can be found in my TPT store.  Click on the picture below for more information.

I also have these fabulous classroom journals located in my writing center.  This will go great with the "work on writing" portion of the Daily 5.  I found this from Tara at 4th Grade Frolics.  If you haven't had a chance, you MUST go check out her posts about the Daily 5 in her classroom.  LOVE her ideas!!

Click on the picture if you would like to be find out more information about these journal covers from Tara at her TPT store.

I also have this bucket of story starters in my writing center.

These silly story starters are also from Tara at 4th Grade Frolics.  I told you I LOVED her stuff.  Click here to be taken to these story starters.  I made a little bucket to put the story starters in.  The bucket came from Target's dollar spot.  Click here to download the picture I created for the bucket from Google Docs.

If you have any more suggestions for my writing center, PLEASE share what has worked for you.  I would LOVE to gather more ideas and improve upon my writing center.  On my to do list are story stones and vocabulators.

Melissa at the Dalton Gang is having a 100 follower Giveaway.  It ends on Sunday.  Check this giveaway out!  There are so many fabulous prizes. Click on the link below to enter this Giveaway.

I JUST had to share a few pics of some fun we have been having  before school begins again in a couple of weeks.  It's been SO hot and my kids are tired of the pool so... a neighboring town has a SPLASH PAD.  It was fabulous, free ( can you believe that?), and brand spanking new.  ( It's also a perfect excuse to be able to drop by Home Depot or the Dollar Tree for school supplies).  We have neither of these stores in the town I live in.

Teacher Binder

Hi everyone!

Today I wanted to share with you my teacher binder.

Yep!!! It's finally finished AND I can't wait to use it.

I have seen these all over the place in bloggy land last spring and I knew I HAD to have one.  

I didn't have time to make one until this sumer and it's FINALLY completed.

Don't you just love the yellow and black polka dots?  There are so many fabulous binder resources out there, but this matched my classroom.  It's from Amy at the Resourseful Room. Click on the picture below to download this from her blog post.  It's FREE and look at all that it comes with...

Oh, and I just noticed this morning that Christie at Teaching in Flip Flops posted about some amazing freebies she has in her store, and these adorable binder resources are free.  Simply click on the picture below to be taken to her post.

Filling my clear binder with these fabulous printed items was easy.... then I kind of begged, borrowed, and created the other items to fill my binder.

I have a place for meeting notes at the very back of my binder.  Isn't the form above so cute?!  It was one of the freebies the Clutter Free Classroom has been posting to the TPT store lately.  I have found so many fabulous resources from them including a parent communication form.

I filled the standards area of my binder with the "I CAN" common core statements I received at a workshop I went to in January.  I like these much better ,and they are a little more in depth.

Next I created some of my own items to fill my binder with.  I used the polka dot theme.  You are welcome to download them from Google Docs by clicking on the pictures below.

This is my goal sheet for the year in each subject.  I use this to sketch out what I would like to cover in each subject area during the school year.  I created one for each subject area.

Next I created a weekly station schedule to help me sketch out my plans for the stations and any materials I might need. This year I am going to try and implement the Daily 5 and math workshop. If you would like a copy, just click on the picture above to download from Google Docs.

These are my lesson plan forms.  I typed  my schedule into my lesson plans along with a place to write the Common Core standard covered with each subject. I provided  blank forms for you to write in as you wish.  I copy these front to back so that when they are placed in my binder I can look across and see the plans for the entire day.  Just click on either picture above to download from Google docs.

In the student information area, I am including a copy of the form above. This form is part of my parent communication packet I have on TN.  It's free.  Click on the picture above to be taken to my store to download this packet.  I will have the form above on a clipboard at a station at Back to School Night in which parents will need to provide their e-mail.  Our school has drastically reduced their paper budget this school year, so I'm going to send most parent communication via e-mail this year.  This will include my weekly newsletters.  The teachers of my oldest two children did this last year, and  I LOVED it.  I felt so informed.  For those parents who might not have e-mail, I will continue to send home paper copies of communication.  I also keep a copy of the student list I receive from the office which has each student's phone number, address, and any medical issues I might need to be aware of.  ( We are also required to make another copy of this list that is small enough to fit into our teacher badge that we are required to wear.  If there was ever an emergency, we would have a list of important information about our students with us.)

Other items that I have left to fill in my binder with will have to wait until the school year begins.  I will put the IEP information about some of my kiddos that I receive from the special education teacher in that area, and information about RTI and data will be placed in that "Data" area.

I now have an organized place to keep all of my important information rather than in separate folders located in a bin on my desk.  I can simply take this binder with me to meetings and 3rd grade collaboration and have all I need together in one place.

Made it Monday and... it's My Birthday!!

I couldn't wait to link up with Tara at 4th grade Frolics for another Made It Monday.  I'm going to miss this once school starts back up.  My classroom is looking so FABULOUS and organized with all of the great ideas I have received from everyone.

 Here are some of my latest projects:

I found this idea from Elizabeth at Fun in Room 4B.  I have filled it with highlighters, and it is sitting next to the assignment tray in my classroom.  I used one of those buckets from the Target dollar spot and added some pretty ribbon that matched my classroom decor.  Click on the picture above if you would like a copy of document from Google docs.

2.

I created the rules poster for my classroom onto ribbon.  I had an ugly old poster and wanted a new way to display our classroom rules that matched our classroom theme.    If you have the polka dot theme and would like a copy of these posters, you are welcome to download these posters from Google docs by clicking on either of the pictures above.  I then copied them onto card stock and laminated them for durability.  Then I found some pretty ribbon that matched and hot glued the posters onto the ribbon.

3.

 I was inspired by all the cute posts on the "No Name" chart so I had to create one that matched my classroom. I have it hanging on my magnetic whiteboard in my classroom.  I used part of a display foam board that I had at home and covered it with polka dot fabric and some card stock.  I spray painted some clothespins black and cut out yellow letters using my Cricut.  Then I attached everything including some heavy duty magnets on the back.    

4.

I also found something to do with that other Tide container.  I made a home for our Box Tops that matches our class theme and is sitting on my desk.  Our school has a  classroom contest for Box Tops.  Each class earns prizes for turning in 500, 1000, 1500, and so forth.  This contest has been well worth it as our school has finished in the top 5 for the past couple of years with the most Box Tops collected. Last year my students would bring in Ziploc baggies and envelopes filled with Box Tops that  would be placed on my desk. It was a mess at times.  This container is large enough for those envelopes and larger Ziploc bags.  Students can just place these items in this container.

Don't forget to link up with Tara.  I can't wait to read about all of the ideas this week!

Oh yeah...... today is my birthday.  I am the big 3-8 today.  My family and I are celebrating with a trip to the St. Louis Cardinal game later today.  I can't wait!!

I'm also having a birthday sale today only at my TPT and TN stores. Everything is 20% off until midnight tonight.

Tell Me More Linky party....

I have been blogging since February so I feel still like a "newbie" in the blogging world.  I have become a better teacher since I began blogging.  I am so thankful for all of the great ideas I have learned over these past few months.  .... I also enjoy reading everyone's posts about their life outside of the classroom.  We are all teachers.. but we also have beautiful families, friends, and other interests outside of the classroom.  I LOVE hearing about them from all of you.  So I couldn't wait to link up with Mrs. Lemons at Step into Second Grade for her Tell Me More Linky.  

Here are some things about me...

1. I rarely go to the movies...... I can not sit still that long.  I would rather watch a movie in the comfort of my own home so that I can get up, move around, and work on something while I am watching the movie.  Sad, I know.  It frustrates my kids and husband.  ( We did see the new Spiderman movie as a family, and my youngest did a much better job at sitting still in the movie theater that I did.)

2. I am a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to the subject of curly hair.  My daughter has beautiful curly hair.  She Hates it.  Actually she even wishes for a different hair color.    I often remind her how beautiful she is.  BUT then what do I do?   I color my hair ( to cover my gray) and straighten my curly hair with a flat iron.  I have even gone as far as to have a keratin treatment done on my hair to tame the curls.  ( I wasn't born with curls... I inherited them after the birth of my youngest child.)

3. I LOVE to run.  I am a SLOW runner ( 9 minute mile) and run between 3-4 miles a day, but I LOVE it.  I used to HATE it, and even went as far as to tell my husband who is an avid runner that ( God didn't create me to run.)   It helps alleviate stress, and helps me sleep better at night.  :)

4.  I often reread my blog posts and second guess myself several times before ever actually publishing a post.  My biggest worry ( Will this post be helpful to anyone?)...

5.  I scare very easily.  I do not like horror movies.  I even have a hard time watching " Ghost Stories" with my husband.  I think this is one of his favorite shows.    I am also terrified of storms.  I have been through a few tornadoes, and the sound of hail or  wind has me shaking in my shoes.

6.  I LOVE to see my kiddos smile.  It brings me such great joy.  There's nothing like a smile that spreads from ear to ear.

7. I get so emotional over inspiring stories.  My family is used to me shedding a tear or two after hearing an emotional story.  

8. I LOVE to watch sports.  My favorite team is the St. Louis Cardinals and any team that my kiddos play for.

9. My idea of relaxing is heading to the pool to soak up some sunshine or curling up with a good book.  I LOVE to read!

10. The first time I ever met my husband was at church.

Don't forget to link up with Mrs. Lemons at Step Into Second Grade.  I can't wait to read more about everyone.

Some of my favorite back to school picture books... and more SUPPLIES

I LOVE reading all the posts lately about back to school ideas, classroom makeovers for the new school year, and deals on school supplies.  Thanks for sharing!!  I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite picture books to read during those first few days of a new school year.

The "David" books by David Shannon

 I realize these are below the reading level of my third graders, but they enjoy hearing these books and the mischief David gets into.  ( David reminds me a bit of my boys also. He he he!) I use these books when going over school rules with the students.  I had found a great idea through ProTeacher a few years ago to create a "Yes, David" book about the rules David should follow in school.  After reading the David books, we brainstorm together the different parts of the school day and the rules we should all follow to keep us safe and others safe during this time.  Then I divide up those times and give each student a situation such as the cafeteria, restroom break, hallways, classroom and etc and each student is to draw a picture of a student following a rule and write " Yes, David" at the bottom of the page.  For example, a student might draw David raising his hand in the classroom and at the bottom write " Yes, David".  Another student might draw kids walking in the hallway and then write " Yes, David".  I then put all of these pages together and create a book.

Another favorite of mine to read during the first few days of a new school year is:

This book is such a fun read aloud.  It's all about the adventures this teacher has during her EXHAUSTING first day of school.  I LOVE to read this book at the end of the first day, and we often discuss whether our first day was anything like the one in this book.  It's a great way to end that first day of school.  The kids are usually exhausted ,and I DEFINITELY am.

This last book I'm going to share with you is also one of my all time favorite picture books.  I like to read it during the first few days of school.

 There are so many fabulous things I can discuss with my students after reading this book.  AND I can never finish this book without shedding  a few tears. 

AND I have spent way too much already on new school supplies!  Yikes!  Today my kids and  I stopped at a Dollar Tree on the way to visit my Dad.  I purchased too many of these darling things for my library.

I keep rethinking  my classroom library set up.  Currently, I have my books organized into baskets according to their A.R. level... BUT then this doesn't help  when  students choose genres that they enjoy reading.  SO... after already entering most of my books into Library Thing and noticing the different genre categories for each book, I think I'm going to change how my books are organized in the library. I am going to categorize them by their genre rather than Accelerated Reader Range.  Each level has a color coded sticker on it so my students will know what reading level the book is, but I think I'm going to then put them into baskets based on its category or genre. What do you think?  How do you organize your books in your classroom library?   By the way if you haven't checked out Library Thing definitely take a look at this.

I also picked up a few of these to use with a few games I am working on.

Then at Wal-mart this evening, I had to pick up a few of these.  They smell fabulous, and these will be at my stellar student desk. ( I pick students who display our V.I.P. principals throughout the day to sit at this fancy desk with new school supplies.)

What are some of your favorite picture books to read to your students during the first few days of a new school year? 

Numbers..............

Okay..... I was so anxious to get into my classroom yesterday.

I had so many things on my "to do" list to get accomplished while my little darlings were at day care.

But .... it was 103 , and my school which is all brick does not have the air on in the summer.

SO.... I opened a window, drank lots of water, and got to work.

Whew!! I spent 4 hours there and lost 5 pounds ( of water anyway).

I spent a lot of time updating some of my things to the number system for organization.  I have used numbers with my students for years.  I think it began when I was student teaching.  I'm sure many of you use numbers in your classroom.  It is such a time saver and makes organization a little easier.  Here's how my little system works for me:  I assign a number to each student.  I basically go in alphabetical order down my list of students.  I also record this number next to the student's name in my gradebook. If any new students are added throughout the year, they are given a number that has not been assigned.  These numbers are then also written on each student's desk tag so that they can easily remember their number.

I use these numbers for everything:

1. ( Papers) At the beginning of the year, I get students into the habit of writing their number next to their name when completing work.  This helps me easily put the papers in alphabetical order to record in my online gradebook, and helps me identify easily whose paper I might be missing.

2.  (Lockers)  Our school building used to be the high school.  There are floor to ceiling lockers located in all of our hallways.  This is where students keep their backpacks, coats, lunchboxes, and etc.  We used to place locker tags with each student's name on their locker outside of the classroom, but just last year my grade level decided to put #'s that go with each student rather than their names on these lockers.  It worked wonderfully.  We don't have to replace the labels each year, and it reduced the number of items that were taken out of lockers last year.  Without the name tags, students didn't know as easily the locker of a particular student.  I updated my locker numbers with these cute labels from Clutter Free Classroom.  Click on the picture below to be taken to their TPT store.

3. (Supply boxes)  I purchased large plastic shoe boxes several years ago in which to keep each student's supplies such as crayons, markers, scissors, and etc.  These are kept on a large shelf in the classroom.  These also have numbered labels on them so that they may be used year after year.  These boxes are placed on each students desk on our "Back To School Night".  This night is always held the evening before the first day of school.  Students are able to visit the new classroom and bring their  school supplies on this night.  It helps with the first day jitters , and with the help of each parent we are able to put away a lot of the school supplies.

4. (Book boxes)   I placed numbered labels on the book boxes to use with the Daily 5. 

5. (Writing Binders)  I also label the writing binders with numbers so that these can be used year after year.

If you are interested you can check out these polka dot labels by clicking HERE.  They are part of my Ladybug and Dot Classroom decor.

6.  ( Pick Me Sticks)  I have always placed numbers on popsicle sticks that are in a jar.  I use these when choosing volunteers, picking students to answer a question, and even pairing up students at times.  BUT  I found this adorable way to "jazz" up this idea from  Teri at A Cupcake for the Teacher.  It's called the "Pick Me Pot".  You can download this adorable idea and printables for free by clicking HERE.  Don't forget to leave Teri some fabulous feedback for this great idea. Here's my modified version below.  I didn't use a flower pot but some buckets I had purchased from Target for $1. 

Do you use numbers for organization in your classroom?  What do you use them for?  I would LOVE to hear more ideas and suggestions.