Monday Made It: Birthday Balloons!

Finally, I've made something! And this one was oh-so-easy. 

These birthday balloons were on my summer bucket list! As soon as school let out, I purchased the cute little crazy straws because I knew I had to make these for my kiddos next year. And then, I became a literacy lead. Now I just have to find some kids to give them to! So I only made fourteen. Surely I can find fourteen kids with birthdays.

Want to grab them for free? Check them out at TPT and TeachersNotebook! And while you're there, check out my 15% sale at TPT (last day today) and 15% at TN too! I know! What a day!!

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It finally looks like a room.

Just a few quick pictures of things I got done today.  Ok, so thank you for all the suggestions on what to do about the border! In the end, I cut some snippets from each corner and covered them with these flowers from a notepad. Then I stuck all the pieces together to fill the gap. 

I put white paper and border around the top skinny bulletin board. I also added up our little signs: Bee a Writer, Our Library, and Bee a Reader!

 Still need to label my library. 

 Put up the paper and border across the top of the front boards. I wish I had done yellow instead of white. I had planned on using a different border and then I ran out! So I had to change it up but I was far too lazy to take all the white down and put up yellow. I'd rather have it bother me for the next ten months. The boxes aren't mine- they are waiting for a new teacher to come look through them and take them away :)

Brought in the fridge! Yay! I may cover it with contact paper - it's an older model. As in it's been in my mother's garage for twenty years.

I have a few things to do - print out my letters for the word wall, my word wall sign, my library basket labels, and lists of books available for teachers to check out. Some of these things are from my Bee Themed Classroom Set at TPT and Teacher's Notebook.  I'd also like to cover my AV cart, because it's pretty beat up. But right now, it's still loaded up with materials for the math room. I haven't been able to get over there because the custodians have been waxing the floors. Not too much left :) super happy.

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Second Full Day: More Progress!

It's starting to look like a room now. I spent several hours making crucial choices about which books to keep in my mini-library and which to box up and put in the garage in case I'm back in the classroom someday. (I seem to think that will happen.) When that was finally done (sorted, not labeled), I put up my bulletin boards. Some of them. I still have the skinny little strips on top, because I'm indecisive. I can put construction paper on them and then border around, but I'm also getting pretty tired of standing on a stepladder. So I may just do border around and pretend that the bulletin-board center was intentional. Then it was the hunt and peck method for several hours.  1. Wander over here.  2. Pick up a paperclip.  3. Try to remember where I'm keeping paperclips now.  4.Walk over to opposite part of room.  5. Place paperclip carefully in designated container. 6. Pick up rubber band.  7. Repeat. After that, I realized I needed a better system to organize junk in my closet. So I spent a few hours dumping, sorting, and re-shoving.  When I'd re-shoved as much as I can possibly fit in a closet also holding random GT materials that I pray I'll never have to use (sorry - I'm not super crazy about building bridges made of straws), I hunted and pecked a little more and straightened up. This meant I sorted through stacks of weird papers and dumped 98% into the recycle bin. Here's some pictures, because I know that's what I want to see on your blogs! Remember, I'm a literacy lead this year (ack!) so my setup is a little different!

Guided Reading area (my favorite). I'll be able to work with small groups of RtI kids and 

model for teachers, too.

Mini classroom library. The word wall will be on the right board and I'm not sure what will

be on the left board.

Checkout for novels against the wall and professional development books across the bottom shelves.

Checkout for picture books! And a side view of the guided reading space.

From the yellow bulletin board that has missing border across the top. *waaaah*

Front of the room. Obviously, the coatrack and cart full of math materials will not be 

randomly hanging out in the middle of the space.

That's the wall opposite the door. Do you notice something about the border around the top? Well, I was humming right along, staple-staple-stapling a happy little bee border around the edges of the board (because I have no idea what is supposed to go on here) and I got down to one last chunk. I reached down for another piece of border. There was none.

I RAN OUT! 

I have about eight inches left to fill and no border! What do I do?!

Cause buying a whole pack for eight inches, with the amount I already spent on fabric, is not an option. Unfortunately.

My sink. Supplies for teacher meetings will go in the green tubs (four tubs=four tables for teachers to sit at) and on the little yellow-covered table to the right will be a printer. 

PLUS! This year I get a fridge! YEAH!! YEAH!! Yogurt for breakfast!! Diet Dr. Pepper in the afternoon! YEAH!!

I'm very excited about this. My friend recommended this book to me: Becoming a Literacy Leader and I ordered it yesterday from Amazon - only 7.50 for a used copy- and it's supposed to arrive on Monday! She said it's full of good ideas to use space in a literacy leader's classroom (when you actually have a classroom! I thought I'd have a closet, but I'm lucky). So I can't wait to get it and read what neat stuff I need to do.

Check it out at Amazon. Now I'm going to sit around and nurse my sciatic nerve. Pin It

First Full Day: Some Progress

Today was my first full day in my classroom. I had a few hours on Friday, during which I placed the furniture. Several times. I moved the Guided Reading table to the right corner and the computer table to the left. Then I moved the computer to the right corner and the Guided Reading table to the right. And then I did it again. Twice.

I am so indecisive. But I finally settled on the layout below. 

But then I had to choose fabric for my bulletin boards. I had a few pieces from before that I like enough to reuse, but for my larger boards, I decided to be stubborn. "No." I said. "New school, new position, new fabric." So I spent about six hours collectively searching for fabric with my sister-in-law. We went to Wal-Mart, JoAnn's Crafts, Hobby Lobby, Wal-Mart, and Wal-Mart. And I only found one. Today I went back and settled on another. Ridiculous.

My sink. At least this sink is beige and blue. My last sink was orange! How terrible.

Meeting area for teachers. The far bulletin boards will be covered in yellow with blue border, I think.

My guided reading table is in the far corner. You can't see much. A big box of books is resting on top.

I put up the blue fabric I had (on top of the blackboards) but I forgot my handy dandy glue gun, so I only stapled across the top. My mini classroom library is below it.

This is the front of the room. Mess.

So tomorrow I should have somewhat a room. It's the second full day: the day when things begin to look like a room. I will say that it's taken me less time in the literacy lead position to set up my room than it did as a classroom teacher. But we'll see. I don't really know. I may be working on my room all week. Except that what I'd rather do is get mine done and help teachers do theirs, if I can.

How's your room coming?

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August Currently

Currently, I'm nuts. Currently I'm obsessing (like you are) over my room. This is my currently, linking up with Oh'Boy Fourth Grade!

Back to School Necessities
1. Bee stuff. I'm ot picky. If it has bees, I want it. (Unless they're the weird bee people things. I don't like people who look like bees. I just like bees.) Today I bought this guy at Kohl's:

Isn't he funny? He's the adorable Skippyjon Jones bee!

You can still get him at Kohl's online becasue I know you want him, too.

I also bought this cute bee border from Eraser Dust.

It's here at Carson-Dellosa.

And, I bought this adorable bee fabric from Wal-Mart. Only one yard - it was muy expensive.

2. I love and need my awesome hot glue gun. I've had the same glue gun since I was a kid making mums for my brother's girlfriends. I have used and abused my old gun, and it still melts that glue better than any new one. 

3. Coffee. I'm not fancy. I don't need Starbucks (too much sugar. Which means too tasty. I've never had a regular (not sugar-free) Starbucks, and I don't think I should, because I will be hooked. And then I'll be diabetic. It runs in the family.) 

I'm happy with my tasty flavored coffee. And at school, I can deal with the boring, run-of-the-mill, occasionally tastes like ashes Folgers coffee that they make in the lounge. I rarely finish a whole cup, but I love me some coffee in the morning.

Tasty

Now you go link up with Farley and share your nuttiness! Pin It

Place Value Picnic *Freebie!

One of the first units I always do in math is place value. If kids don't have a good foundation in place value, all operations are pretty much impossible! So this year I put a lot of work into developing some fun activities, games, and stations for students to practice place value in fun ways. I was able to use my adorable KPM Doodles clipart to make it so undeniably adorable. (I love her.)

It's fifty pages of cuter than cute picnic-themed place value stuff, through the hundred thousands place. Students build, write, name, find the values, and compare numbers. Pick it up at TPT or Teacher's Notebook!
AND there's a super sale running now at my TPT store, through tomorrow! 
I'm going to run this product as a giveaway from August 8 - August 10 on Teacher's Notebook for their Back to School Bonanza! Check it out and be sure to enter on August 8th! Then check out my store until August 13 for a Back to School Sale!

And grab this two-page freebie at Teachers Pay Teachers, too! 

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