My Must-Haves

Hey y'all!

First off, thanks SOOOOOO much for all of your super sweet comments on my last post!  I will not lie...I am totally worried about functioning when school starts back because I am straight up exhausted.  I'm officially in the second trimester so I'm hoping to get my energy back soon!  Just an FYI:  I slept between 10.5 and 11 hours Friday night and proceeded to take not one, but two naps on Saturday.  Geesh...I can't imagine what I'll be like after a full workweek with kids!

Anyways, I'm linking up over at Blog Hoppin for my must haves!

So, here are my absolute must haves in no particular order.

My laminator.  This is the one I have, although it is in black.  We basically had a nonexistent laminator at work this past year and when we did finally get one it was shoddy at best.  This is a HUGE lifesaver.  Click the picture for the link!  I also use these laminating sheets.  I'm sure there are some cheaper ones out there, but I just love these.  

My pencil sharpener.  Again, I am in LOVE.  I know most of you have the super quiet one, but I have yet to invest in that one.  This sharpener has great reviews and works really well.  However, I am a total control freak and do not allow kids within a 5 step radius.  Okay, kidding, but seriously, they are not to sharpen pencils in this.  No way...not happening.

My hot glue gun.  I put everything up in my room with hot glue.  It peels off easily {usually} and allows lamination to stick.  This is the exact same one I have and I bought it at Wal-Mart.  Seriously, if you do not have one, you must get one.  Everyone at work knows me as the hot glue gun girl!  Ha!

Colorful pens and markers.  Oh dear, I have quite the obsession.  Here are some of my favorites...

And of course, ArtSkills Poster Board Markers!

Post-Its, Tabs, Paperclips, & Binderclips.  I need to mark where I am in a book and where to find certain things.  A binder clip is great at marking your place!  I love all of these to be colorful, of course!

Coke Zero or Diet Dr. Pepper.  I always have one with my lunch, but since I'm preggers, I won't be having any this school year.  Kill me now!

Snacks.  Preferably chocolate, but I'll eat granola bars, fruit snacks, etc.  My lunch time is 30 minutes later this year so I'll definitely be inhaling this probably 4/5 days of the week:

Seriously, the best ever.  I may also be known as popcorn girl at faculty meetings ;)

So those are my must haves.  I'm sure as soon as I check out everyone else's I'll be hitting myself in the head in a 'doh!' moment because I forgot to include that.  Oh well.  Hubby wants to eat, so off to make dinner I go.  I hope you link up!  

BIG News!

Hey y'all!

Hope everyone is doing well :)  Thanks SO much for all of the wonderful feedback y'all gave me on my classroom library.  My room is still in shambles, but luckily I have time to work on it before Open House on Friday.

Remember my Currently and how I said I couldn't wait until August 14.

Well, we're finally here and I can share my big news with you!

Did you notice I was more MIA than usual during the summer?

Well, the reason is...

Yup!  I'm having a baby :)

We found out on June 10 and I immediately scheduled my first doctors appointment.  I'm pretty sure it was the only time {and still is} I looked forward going to the OBGYN!

So I figured I should have been about 6 weeks then.  However, we did not see much at our ultrasound:

I told the hubby when we got home that I just wasn't sure if the pregnancy was viable.  To begin with, our due date was 8 days later than I thought it should be and the ultrasound showed hardly anything.

So, we decided to not tell anyone until after our next appointment.  So, we went back on July 17 and were absolutely amazed at what we saw!

It was unreal the difference!  The video is from the same appointment.

So, we told our parents the following Friday using this announcement:

So that's why I've been MIA more so than usual.  I had NO energy whatsoever.  I took many naps on the couch...during the summer!  I've never napped during the summer.

Hope you all are doing well...I'm prepping to head back to work tomorrow.

Setting Up The Classroom: Library

Hey y'all!

Boy, I am pooped.  I have been super busy in my classroom.  I spent some of Tuesday, most of Wednesday, and all of Thursday and today working on my classroom library.  This is a picture heavy post so be warned!

Here's a picture from last year so you can see how it was organized.

Not terrible.  It was organized by genre.  I used stickers to distinguish between the different genres.

However, I was never super pleased with my library.

Well, I finally decided this year, I would tackle it.

So, the first thing I did was use child labor have my sweet adorable niece unpack ALL of my books.  It looked like this when she was done:

Sorry, that's the only picture I have of the before.  This was after I requested she even out the books.  

Then, on Tuesday, I sorted through every single basket of books and sorted them into categories.  I didn't take any pictures of this, but I'm sure you can mentally picture just piles and piles of books on the floor and on desks.  

Then, I came home and made my labels.  I bought a pack of labels at Wal-Mart and started typing away.  My original idea was to use a large label that would wrap around the spine of the book (partially onto the back).  Kind of like this:

{source}

Then on Wednesday, I had the great idea to just use a smaller label and put it on the front of the book.  DUH!  Plus, it would be much cheaper since Costco sells the smaller labels.  

So, while I was running errands, I picked up the labels from Costco and Wednesday evening I spent the entire night making all of my labels & printing them.  It took forever!

Thursday I spent the entire day putting labels on all of my books.  I got about 1/3 of the way through and I realized the labels peel off rather easily.  Obviously I should have known that, but I was trying to save some time.  So, I went back and put a layer of packing tape on every single book.

Hard to tell, but here is the label with the tape on top.  The pictures on the labels match the pictures on the bin.

I also took this time to make sure each book was labeled with my name.  A lot of books had my maiden name in them.  However, no one knows that name since I was married before I came to my current school.  Dare I show you the books that needed to be labeled with my name?  This is what it all looked like when I left for the weekend on Thursday.

Yup...every single one of these books either has no name or my maiden name.

These are my books that are actually labeled with my name...those are some sorry bins.

I forgot to make the History labels :/

.

I ran out of labels for all of these books.

Shelf eagerly awaiting to be filled.

So that brings me to today.  I finished labeling all of the remaining books and that took me until about lunchtime.  When I came back, I stamped all of my books that needed it using my awesome stamp that I won from Miss Nelson!

Isn't it puuurrrty?

So, I stamped all of the books, put them in their appropriate bin and arranged all of the bins how I wanted them.  I grouped like bins together (Science related, History related, etc.).  Here's how it looked with old labels.

These would always fall off...

Bye-Bye 4 year old labels!  Siyonara :)

Here we are with our brand new library labels courtesy of Teaching in Flip Flops.  I did add color to them and I am in love!

S

Labels falling off?  Problem solved!  I love Velcro :)

I am SO happy with how it all turned out.  I honestly feel so good about my library now.  How do you organize your library?  

Setting Up the Classroom Day 2

Hey y'all!

I just realized I'm pretty sure about 99% of my posts start that way.  Oh well...that's totally how I would address you in person.

So, I worked today in my room and as promised, I have some pictures of what I accomplished yesterday.  You know this will be a picture heavy post!  Be ready for the explosion that is my classroom...

 Phew!  I have been working since I got home on new library labels.  This is a short but sweet post...I'm pooped!

The Best Part of the Olympics...

I am so glad other people agreed with me about the Olympics coverage.  I just hate finding things out before they happen, especially when they could show it live.  They just don't want to because of primetime ratings.

Anyways, I'm sure you all have seen this, but OMG, I am in ♥ with this video.  I cannot get enough and probably watch it at least once a day.

Seriously, obsessed.  Have you seen this?  Do you love it as much as I do?  I also really like to read the comments and find out who's who.  I recognized so many more swimmers this year because of this video (ahem, Nathan Adrian, Brendan Hansen, Rebecca Soni...)

In school related new, I got into my classroom today....Hallelujah!  My mom came and helped and we got a lot done.  BUT, I forgot my camera.  I'll take some pics when I get in tomorrow to show the bomb that has exploded progress in Room 313.  When I started, it looked like this.

Well, I'm off to bed, but I'll be sure to update tomorrow with a hopefully neater classroom :)

ABC Behavior Log

Hey y'all!

While I am loving the Olympics, I have to say I am kind of peeved at NBC.  They wait and show things during Primetime, but the results are all over the web.  It is currently 9:45 and they have yet to show any gymnastics.  I feel like since it's a Sunday, they should show the events live.  Please tell me I'm not the only one that feels this way?  I know some events happen at the same time, but it's just frustrating.  Oh, and don't even get me started on the long James Bond segment they showed!

Okay, vent over.

I finally kicked my butt into gear and cleaned our bedroom.  Gross doesn't even begin to describe it.  I found an entire bag full of things from school.  Because clearly my bedroom is where they belong...

Anyways, I found a crumpled up well taken care of ABC Checklist.  Do you use these?  For those of you that don't, here's what it means:

A:  Antecedent:  What was happening before the student misbehaved
B:  Behavior:  What did the student do?
C:  Consequence:  What was the consequence?

I brought it home so I could retyped it and cutesify it (DUH!).  Okay, it's not that cute, but it has much better fonts.

ABC Chart

I had to keep these on one of my special friends last year and am sure it will come in handy this year.  I'll also be working on my time out sheet for when I send kiddos to other teachers.  Hopefully someone can use this.

I'm off to begrudgingly watch NBC...

August Currently

Hey y'all!  Hope you're doing well!

I'm linking up with Farley for her August Currently...SO hard to believe August is here already!

Here's what I've been up to!

I am heading down to Savannah with my dad this afternoon to pick up my mom and grandmother from the airport.  My mom hates flying, so I hope she has a safe trip!

I can't tell you what is happening on the 14th yet, but it is big!  I am super excited :)  I will tell you as soon as I can.

I am hoping that I can get in my room on Monday!  It's taking forever!

My back to school must haves were kind of hard, although caffeine is definitely a necessity.  When you go from waking up at 7 {at the absolute earliest} to 5, you're in for a rude awakening!

Ha, the beginning of school is also about the only time I feel totally organized  so that's always nice :)

I, like Farley, also LOVE my laminator.  We don't have a reliable one at work, so my baby is necessary :)

Hope you link up!  Can't wait to see what you have to say :)

July Goodies

I can honestly say I have been busy lately.  After busting out my new Communication Log for this year, I created my standards for this year.  Last year, I hand wrote next to the subject (on the board) the objective in dry erase marker.  I don't have any clear pictures, but this was my schedule (to give you an idea)

This was like the first or second day of school.  No worries, I added a Lunch/Recess circle and also made the days of the week.  

So anyways, once I found out SC was moving to Common Core, I bought this.  I printed it off before the summer and had plans to get it all set up.  Then, I found out we're only following Common Core Writing next year.  So, I set off to create my own SC standards for the poster.  This is what I've been working on...

Math (Reading has been cut out)

My stack to cut out (the rest of Math and all of Science and S.S.).

So that's what I've been up to.  I went up to the school today to print these out and help a friend get her room set up.  They were waxing the halls my room is on so I couldn't go in.  Darn.  Hopefully next week though.

I've also been busy shopping!  I didn't think I got that much stuff until I lugged it all in from the garage to take pictures of.  These bags have gone on many joy rides in my car with me in the hopes of getting in my classroom!  I'm linking up here:

So, let's start with good ol' Target.

Okay, I'll be honest.  With the exception of the white and blue holder, I have no clue what I'll use these for.  You can never have enough containers though, right?!  I'll put the white and blue holder on my desk for my many colorful pens and markers :)  Oh yeah, all are from the Dollar Spot, of course!

More Dollar Spot purchases.  I got the cute round tubs to use as my recycling holders.  I saw this on not one, but TWO blogs and cannot for the life of me remember where.  I'll pull these out when we're cutting and the kiddos can put all of their scrap paper in here instead of making fifty-million trips to the recycling bin.  If this is your idea or you know whose it is, puh-lease tell me so I can give credit where credit is due.  If I remember correctly, the original poster had blue bins?  I got the felt holder to hold some dry erase markers up high on my board.  I'll hot glue a magnet to the back.  Oh, and I couldn't pass up a $1 beach ball...duh!

I got 20 composition books for $.50.  I thought they were $.40 and am still hoping to find them a little cheaper.  I'll use these for my communication logs this year.  I got the blue containers for trash cans at the student desk (I think?!).  I honestly don't even remember.  Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's for nasty tissues and whatnot.  Who knows!

Oh Crayola markers...how I love thee.  I really don't need these, but they're so pretty!

And this was another Dollar Spot purchase.  I will probably make my own cleaner with natural ingredients, like vinegar, baking soda, etc. to clean our desks :)

Now, on to Wally World

I don't know about you, but my kiddos go through erasers like they're going out of style.  I eventually get fed up sometime in September March and refuse to buy anymore erasers.  These were I think $.84.  I got 2 packs of paper, even though I didn't really need it...

I also bought 10 (or 20?) glue sticks for $.10 each.

How about Staples?

I don't know why this won't rotate, but whatev (please tell me you used to shorten whatever to whatev...because clearly saying-er is hard work!).  I got all of this during Staples first back to school sale (the week after the 4th).  I got 2 packs of copy paper for $.01!  Say what?!  I also got a new flash drive (mine is busting at the seams...), a pen holder for my notepad I take to meetings, and such pretty pens!  I couldn't pass them up (I need more pens like I need a hole in my head...).  I also stocked up on their deals.  The glue and crayons were a penny each.  I believe the glue sticks, scissors, and erasers were either a quarter or 50 cents.  Those cute little boxes were only a quarter a piece!  Amazing!

I went back this past Saturday with my friend for Staples Teacher Appreciation Day!  I got a pretty holder for my new Flair Pens (mainly for my Erin Condren Life Planner).  Oh, and whatdoyaknow, MORE COLORFUL PENS!  I love those Tabs and could not pass up the super cute paper clips and binder clips.  Looks like 3B will be good on glue sticks for a while.  I got the duct tape to line the edges of our notebooks.  I think we may try interactive notebooking, so this will help students easily find their Science and S.S. journals.  Finally, I got a pack of 12 dry erase markers.  We also go through those like they're running out of style...

This was all in my bag from Staples...for free!  LOVE it!

And last but not least...Big Lots

I got this super cute lamp at Big Lots!  I love it!

Can't wait to see all of your great finds....make sure to link up!