First Week Craziness

My classroom is pretty much ready, but I keep forgetting to take pictures of the full room! I promise to be back later this week to share those!

However, I do want to share some things I've been up to this past week!

Our school is doing a camping theme this year and so I made little build your own s'more treats! 

You can download your copy by clicking the image below!

I also did a teacher wishlist with magnets on the white board. I was so excited that almost all of them were taken!

I do this at the beginning of every year and I seriously love the instant, easy feedback! No shuffling through 20 different student surveys! It's all on one nice sheet! I like to leave them hanging up for the first couple of weeks.

This is an adapation of my About Me snapshots that I did last year...

which you can read about HERE. I'll be back to share how I adapted it with pictures of the final product later this week! =)

If you guys haven't purchased Lindsey's Be a Reading Expert, you should! My kids loved it and it was such a great way to introduce reading to my third graders! 

I must say this week was utterly exhausting! I felt like I had no clue what was going on the first day because I was new to the school! The rest of the week went great. I have a fabulous morning class, but my afternoon class needs a lot more structure and work on following expectations. I have no doubt that they will get it together within a couple of weeks! I am excited for the changes this year brings! 

I'll be back soon....hopefully....with my FULL classroom reveal!!

Happy Sunday!

First Day Visual Plans

So....let me just tell you that this past week has been CUH-RAZY! I've been frantically trying to get my new room all set up and ready for the new year. I am still not ready for my full room reveal, and students come tomorrow! YIKES! Don't worry...the room looks presentable, but I just have some little things I still want to get in order first! Call me OCD.

Did you guys know that TPT is hosting another Back to School Sale? That's right! But for ONE day only! Just check out the button below!

I do want to share with you my first ever set of visual plans with you! I only planned one day, but I think they turned out cute! Not everything in the plans is something you can purchase, but I did include links to things such as blog posts and such to further explain.

Click HERE to download my PDF with embedded links!

You won't find a link to the Meet the Teacher flipchart as I just created that about me personally! The Math About Me Snapshot is a twist on the About Me Snapshots I did a couple of years ago. Since I am teaching Math and Reading this year, I thought I would adapt it for a Math About Me Activity. Unfortunately, I can't share that file because I used someone elses template to create the math about me for my own personal needs. I will share more about the Math About Me snapshots in a later post!

My first day is tomorrow and I am super anxious. I feel more unprepared than I ever have for the first day and I know it will be a whirlwind day! Hopefully not chaotic. I anticipate I won't get much sleep tonight! Being 7 months pregnant and having to pee every other hour doesn't help either! 

I will try to report back and update you on my first week with pictures! 

Don't forget about the BOOST sale on Wednesday! 

Owl Themed Giveaway!

My sweet friend Amanda Madden from Teaching Maddenness is having an AWESOME owl inspired giveaway on her blog and today is the last day to enter! 

Here is just a little sneak peek of just one of the MANY things you can enter to win!

How adorbs is that!?

Head on over to her blog  by clicking her buttong below to check out the rest of the amazing prizes!

2014 Classroom Sneak Peek

I've been steadily working in my room every day this week and I feel like it's slowly coming together. I'm not ready for the full reveal yet, but I do want to show you some "snapshots" of things I've been working on. 

As you may know, I've doing a Bold and Bright theme in my room this year. Think of the Crayola Bold Markers...that's kinda what I'm going for. =)

 My new room isn't as big as my old room, but I like the space. There is tons more storage space so I can keep the clutter contained to the cabinets! {This could be a bad thing for my inner hoarder...}

I'm going to have to do something about that horribly chipped paint. I just didn't think I would have time to repaint the whole thing this year. It's pretty big.

You can snag yourself a copy of those adorable iRead Labels from The Brown Bag Teacher HERE!

My room didn't have a teacher desk, but honestly...I prefer having a table. I have found there is more space on top for my "things." I just use plastic drawers underneath for my personal supplies. I also used the cabinets behind me for all of my teacher books since there wasn't a spare bookshelf for them.

You can purchase Amy Lemons numbers HERE. Hers are more customizable for your own classroom since they come in chevron and in black and white outline so you can print on whatever color paper you want. 

My numbers are already set in the bright and bold colors.

If you like the look of these word wall labels and numbers and think to yourself you need them for own classroom, you can download them for FREE from my TPT shop by clicking the image below!

I have also been working on a black and white classroom decor set which I hope to be sharing with you sometime this weekend! 

Happy Wednesday!

Here is What I Bought!

I'm one of those people who has to wait til the last day of the sale so I can see what everyone else buys! I can't miss the goodies! And friends, I spent A LOT. Not as much as last year, but I still almost broke the bank!

So, now that I've done my shopping, I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' to share all the fun stuff I got during the big sale!

Links to each product are listed below!

iExcel Bulletin Board Display from The Brown Bag Teacher

Back to School Night Teacher Must Haves from Gina Peluso

ipad Essentials: Book Reviews from Reagan Tunstall

Interactive Reading Literature Notebooks from Lovin Lit

Editable Substitute Handbook from Amy Groesbeck

Guided Reading for the Upper Grades from Valerie Steinhardt

Editable Daily Schedule Cards from Amy Groesbeck

Guided Reading Leveled Lesson Plans A-M from Angeline Stewart

For your InFORMation: Back to School Forms + More from Kelley Dolling

Library Checkout Binder Kit from Amy Groesbeck

Guided Reading Planning & Recording Forms from The Hazel Owl

The Hamburger Paragraph from Hope King

Be a Reading Expert from A Year of Many Firsts

I think it's safe to say I'm set for this year guys...

I would love to see what you all bought as well because I'm sure I missed lots of great things! 

Just click on the button below to go link up your own purchases!

I'll be back tomorrow to share some progress in my new classroom and a freebie! =)

The verdict is in...No Prep Center Ideas Freebie

Well, my interview went great. I pretty much knew I had it in the bag when the principal took one look at my my test scores and his eyes got all big and said, "I think that's all we need to see." HAHA

The positions were orginally for a 0.6 third grade teaching only reading and a full time fourth grade teaching reading and writing. I was scared about that part time thing, not gonna lie. I told him I just didn't think that was an option with a baby on the way, but that I felt more comfortable teaching third because that's where I've been for the last four years. 

So, he walked me out and said, "I didn't tell any other candidate this, but I could probably make that part time position 0.8." That made me feel confident.

I went home and within hours my principal called me and said that she just spoke with the principal that I had interviewed with and said that he was trying to make me a full time third grade position! She told me that if they offered it to me, I should take it. 

So, the next morning the principal called me and offered me a third grade full time position teaching only Math and Reading! My heart skipped a beat! He even moved a teacher out of the grade level just to accomodate my new position.

I am seriously still in shock that he went through all that just to hire me. I have to say it felt so good and reassuring to hear how they couldn't believe I hadn't already been snagged up by some other school! I'm on cloud nine right now. 

My position doesn't become official with the new district until the 11th, but in the meantime I'm able to begin moving into my new room Monday and I couldn't be more ecstatic for this exciting new change. 

Yes, it kind of sucks that I have to move classrooms for the second time in a year and I probably won't have access the amount of technology that I'm used to being in Title I, but I think I will love this new school. 

I am considering writing a Donor's Choose grant to purchase some tablets for my classroom. Does anyone recommend ones that work great and run around 100 dollars?

With all of that being said, I feel like there will be so many changes in the way I organize and do things in my classroom since I'll have two classes that switch. 

If anyone departmentalizes and has any words of wisdom or suggestions for organizing supplies and materials, I would love to hear them! =)

In other news, I have been working on a little something when I thought I was going to be teaching 2nd grade. They do centers during their guided reading time and so I came up with a little document compiling some ideas for little to no prep center ideas in each subject area. Just click the picture below to head on over to my TPT shop to download it for FREE! 

I am sure these are all ideas that everyone has thought of or used before, but sometimes my brain doesn't work right and I just need a list to choose from! So I hope this is helpful!

And, don't forget that TPT will be having their big back to school sale and you don't want to miss out!