Pulse Check.

Wow.  It has been OVER a month since I've had the time & energy to blog.  There have been about 20 different occasions when I've wanted to, but to be honest, I just couldn't muster up enough energy to sit down and get one going.

Things have been going great good in my neck of the woods.  Friday we wrapped up our first 9 weeks, which means, the year is 1/4 of the way over.  Are you kidding me?!

I have seriously been treading water for the past month.... and by saying treading water, that is truly a stretch.  I finally took some time last weekend to spend some time with my best friend, Lindsey, and her husband.  B and I haven't seen them since JUNE!

 We had a blast all weekend, but I think B especially loved our trip to Sharkosa!  She got to see all kinds of animals, kangaroos, camels, zonkeys, zebras, zorses, lemurs, and monkies or eww- eees as B calls them!

Oh & did I mention that this little priss got "pretties" in her ears?!?! Yes, we got her ears pierced! :)  She is obsessed!

Needless to say we had a blast and it was nice to get away for a weekend!

Today, I wanted to share two things with you all.... One that I have been wanting to share for eh, a month now.... but just getting around to it...

I have several students who really struggle keeping organized, finding the right materials when we are transitioning, etc, etc..... After losing sleep over this and the amount of time we spent trying to find things... I came up with this...

Basically each magazine/book box houses one subject journal.  Each student has a specific type of ribbon attached to their journal or folder so they can quickly identify which one is theirs.  Let me just tell you, this has been a time & sanity saver!  When need it, they just quickly go grab it out of the correct box and then when we are done they put it back in place!  L.O.V.E.

This past week was PIRATE week.  If you know me well, you know that I love PIRATE week, this is the week we study R-Controlled Vowels.  Lets just say the kids L.O.V.E.D it! :)

 My kiddos arrived on Monday morning to our classroom door looking like this! :)

My team & I dressed up as pirates on Monday as well to kick off the week.  We started learning all about the R-Controlled vowels on Monday.  We kicked it off with the "ar" since after all it makes the sound of "argghhhh!" :)  We had a ship for each sound, learning about the rebelous pirates that say "errrr" and the confused pirates that say "orrrr."

Anytime I can bring fun into learning, let me tell you... I DO!  So with this week, my kids earned "Gold" coins and collected them as a table.  The winner each day got to turn over a card from the treasure map, which of course some how I managed not to snap a picture of.  I still have it up, so maybe I will snap one before I take it down tomorrow.  Kids earned their coins individually and as a whole table based on behavior, participation, following basic directions, etc.

You can check out my post from last year to see how I did it last year and for a few pirate freebies! :) 

Click here for last years post! 

Oh & of course to extend and show our learning, students made pirate ships.  I didn't manage to snap a picture of completed ships, but I will make sure to as I hang them in the hall this week.  Each sail had a different sound for "arr," "or," and "er." 

 & Seriously, I couldn't resist buying eye patches for the kids in the Halloween section to make them feel like true pirates as they were working! :)

 I thank you all for reading & being understanding of the single full time working mom & teacher craziness that has been going on.  If this week goes well, just maybe I will be back to share some more fun things this week!! :)  Fingers crossed.

Come on in & take a peek!

Hello, Hello!  I hope your week is off to a good start!! Let me tell you, today has been quite a productive for this girl!  I went back into my classroom for the ehhh fourth time I think now!  While we have been able to get in for about 2 weeks, it wasn't until today that we were able to get our keys back!! YAYYYY!!!  I think I am pretty stinking close to being done with set up of my room & I couldn't be happier!! This means that I can focus on the meat of what I need to get done for the next 2-3 weeks, before the kids arrive bright eyed and bushy tailed!!

So since my room is finally in a decent condition to share photos, I'm linking up with Ashely from Flying High in First today for her Classroom Tour Linky!  I took LOTS of pictures... I will try to keep my words short & sweet so that this doesn't end up being a mile long! ;)

The picture above is the view from the door!  

 Here is a little better look at the back wall.  As you can see most of my bulletin board spaces are bare... I don't like to have too much up at the begging of school other than my word wall, character traits, and pocket charts.  WHY?!?! Well, it's simple.  We make so many anchor charts as we come back to school that I will NEED to have room to hang up!!

As you walk in to the right is the front of my room.  Still a little bare... I have yet to add my pledge posters & National Anthem!  Yes, we say both the US & Texas Pledge every morning in addition to the National Anthem.  I also plan to put a pocket chart on the right side of the Texas flag to store my daily objectives!

If you're up front, this is your view of the back!  The back wall will occupy my math anchor charts on the right (grey) side & pocket charts with important vocabulary on the left. I also have my three classroom computers, mailboxes, and math manipulatives shelf on the back wall!

And... the last wall..... The TV is where our morning announcements, put on by
the 5th graders on our campus, play.  I also have my calendar & birthday board below the clock.  In years past, my desk horse shoe table has been in the left corner of this photo.  This year, I needed a change of scenery!

Now for some close(r) ups! 

This is my new "teacher" area!  I'm so in love with it...mostly because I'm right next to the window!!! All those cubbies, shoved full of junk teaching materials & the book shelf will soon be covered with a teal curtain.  Now I just need to get the sewing machine out!!

Immediately when you walk in the door, you will pass this area.  The drawers on the left house some of our materials (rulers, index cards, stickers, etc.), but the bottom three drawers will also be where students will store their extra supplies!  I put a name on a gallon sized bag for each kid & then the put it in the drawer with their name!  Makes searching for supplies, super easy when they run out!  The multi color pocket organizer is where the attendance & lunch count supplies lives.  Perfectly placed because the blue pocket chart will be how my students make their lunch choice this year!! Now I just need to add vinyl numbers to each of the slots!  & Obviously their mailboxes are right above!  This will allow me to keep a better eye on when my kids have emptied out their mailboxes or not!

Here is one of my favorite places.  Mostly because this is when we (all the kids & I) are gathered up having discussions, learning, & sharing!

Behind my easel is my teacher book shelf...  All of my books that I want to read aloud to the kids BEFORE they get a chance to read them!  They are then placed in a special box for the kids to read!  Some of the boxes are labeled according to their subject (life cycles, famous Americans, holidays, etc) for easier findings!  This shelf too will be covered with a curtain!

These are the pictures from the classroom library!  I am still in the process of getting all of the book reorganized & the boxes re-labeled!

These are the shelves from the outside of the library, facing our meeting area!  The greenish shelf will be where all of the literacy centers will be.  The top shelf is soley for writing.  At the bottom I have some multi colored containers, these are how I manage & organize my centers that are differentiated.  The green & red are the same center, but differentiated.  The black and pink are the same as well, just differentiated.
The white shelf with the red boxes is full of community supplies (markers, crayons, & highlighters).

This shelf, on the back wall, is where all of our math manipulatives and math centers are stored!  I like to keep all the math in one place to make it easy for everyone!


& I hope you're not bored....... But before I'm done... I want to share some of the little things that make me love the setup this year so much!

First, my centers pocket chart!  I got this gem right towards the end of the school year and put it to use immediately!  It's a magnetic pocket chart!!  This has by far been the easiest way for me to manage my centers.  I rotate out my centers about every 2 weeks (sometimes a week and half, depends on what I have in the centers).  I do a mix of Daily 5 and other centers that I make.  Why?!?  Well I will save that post for another day, SOON I promise! 

My new table signs!  I'm in L-O-V-E! I bought the cheap 99 cent double sided frames from Ikea.  I used fishing line to hang them upside down (I had to tape the bottoms so the pictures wouldn't fall out), and added a little bow... & Voila!

Each table will have a community box this year too.  In this box will be their personal glue bottles, scissors (that have been flagged as classroom scissors), and the red cup for when students need their pencils sharpened!  It will be one students job to get pencils sharpened each day!

I promise, only one more after this! ;)  & These two are not actually new this year!  These little rings are placed on the side of each of my computers.  It gives students the options of what they can do on the computer rings, along with how to access the sites (complete with passwords).

The trays on the right are how students turn in their work.  I give them a specified tray (1-3 or A-C) to turn in assignments so that they are all turned into the same place!  The labels need a makeover, but this will be my fourth year to use this system & I love it!!  The paper sorter on the left is for pre-cut sheets of construction paper... you can tell it needs to be refilled!

So that's it.... for now at least!! Thanks for stopping by & reading!  Oh & don't forget... My 100 Followers Giveaway is going on through Thursday!! You don't want to miss out on some of these awesome prizes!!!! You can also share it daily to get additional entries!! :)

Too Much Fun!

Ok... I feel like I've been slacking & lagging this week!  I've been planning to post for 3 days now, but at the end of these busy days I just have been too exhausted to muster up the energy to post!! I'm sorry!

So why have the days been so busy?!?!  Well I think I hit ugh... Panic Mode about getting my room set up & ready to go!! I have spent... ehhhhh all together about a week in my room already!  Plus all the time I've spent this summer getting centers ready, transferring & organizing my files to binders, buying classroom STUFF & making cutesy tootsie stuff put together for the room!  Here are some pictures of what I've been up to!

 Monday I braved taking my munchkin with me to my classroom!! She "helped" by making some fun messes... you know dumping out my trays of coins, stacking the jenga blocks, and by doing some coloring or "codor" as she would say!!  To give my room a little break, I let let her watch Finding Nemo! PTL for technology & classroom projectors!!! She had my bench cushion for her pillow and all the stuffed animals she could get on the desk with her at one time!  After being such a trooper, I took her for a sweet treat to get a summer favorite!! :)

 Later that evening B helped me make the yummiest Banana Crumb Cake!!! Can you tell how much she enjoyed eating all the raw ingredients and "helping" mom!?!?!?  Click Here to get the recipe, thank you pinterest!

 I spent Monday evening doing some laminating... I swear I don't know what I would do without my little Scotch Laminator!! This thing & I are BFF!  I think it has successfully laminated about 500 pages .... since Christmas.... Addict, I know.

 Tuesday I had some quiet time in my room since I had a training in the afternoon.  I cleaned out my math center tubs since I didn't at the end of the year..... & filled them with my DRAGon Me Back to School Math Centers!!

 I had a chance to "decorate" my little corner of the room!! Last year I had the blue-greenish tree that I painted at Painting with Twist just learning on a shelf in my room.  The other colorful tree painting was given to me by one of my sweet babies last year as a gift during teacher appreciation week!  So sweet!!  The Chevron Frame is magnetic & I just HAD to have it from good ole' Hob-Lob!  Thank you 3-M, you are my friend & have made this corner possible!! We aren't allowed to put holes of any sort in our walls (no stapes or tacks) so 3-M & I have a great relationship!  I seriously should own stock.

After one of my team mates took home ALL of her files this summer and organized & put them into binders.... I LOVED the idea & had to be a copy-cat!  See how atrocious this filing cabinet looks & how much SPACE these files take up... Well I have consolidated & am in love! 

 I have only finished one subject, but grabbed another one today to start on this evening, hopefully!  Each unit is separated by a little tabby sheet that I made!  I took a sheet of cardstock and used {these} amazing tabs that I wrote on and then laminated them using my beloved laminator! ;)  Behind each tab, I put a clear plastic protector to put examples of different activities we do with that unit!   I kid you not, the number of repeat pages I threw away was ridiculous... not to mention all of the things I had in there that ugh.... I didn't ever use once. 

 Yesterday,  I received this little gem in the mail!! :)  I can't wait to share more about it with you, tomorrow!!!

 Today, one of my best friends, who also happens to be a co-worker, Diana and I went to IKEA!!  Yeesh, that store always gets me in trouble!  We had a blast thinking & sharing different ideas out loud with each other as we found some awesome finds!  While I didn't get these 99 cent rugs (they were on sale), because I wasn't wild about the colors, I HAD to share the idea that Diana thought up!  She had the idea to have students use them as a "partner rug" when students do work in pairs!  This means students can ONLY sit where their rug can fit & will require a little spacing between those groups that sometimes like to try and form a quad!  I am going to go check out the Dollar Tree and see if they by chance carry bath mats in another color so that I can do this in my room! 

So just what did I buy??  Well I bought these cute teal stools for my computer centers!! I have three computers & they are along my back wall where the kids line up!! In the past I put a regular chair at the computers, but it takes up so much of the asile, so I NEEDED these stools!  I also snagged 6 sets of their $1.99  - 5 pk magazine boxes (for student book boxes) and the two sided frames that swivel... which I will show you later what plan I have for those!!

When I went to school to drop off my new things, I finally decided what to write on my newly re-designed chalkboard!  With my love of teaching writing, I only felt this was appropriate!  I bought the chalkboard from Hobby Lobby & painted the frame yellow for my kids for part of their Mother's Day present.  I knew I wanted to use it for a fun decorative way in the classroom this year, so I just added some fun chevron ribbon (also from Hobby Lobby) and used my colorful chalk to spruce it up!! :)

 When I picked up B from my moms & we got home... she immediately wanted to paint!! This girl loves to paint!! She is going to be a little artist, I know it already!! :)

Hope you were able to keep up & I didn't bore you with my busy week!  This is what happens when I don't post immediately!! Note to self: Do a better job at keeping up with blog posts!

I have NOT forgotten about the 100 follower giveaway, to be truthful..... I am almost done getting all the things I need ready for it & it will be up & ready for entries on FRIDAY!!!!!!!  I can't wait, because let me tell you.... I have some generous ladies who are giving away some of MY favorite products!!! :)  Can't wait, can't wait!!!

I will be back tomorrow, scouts honor!! Oh & the next day too!! :)

5-4-Saturday

Whew, it has been a week, but I'm so glad that this week month is over!  3.5 schools days plus a workday left!  I can do it, I can do it, I can do it!

So I didn't get to link up yesterday for Fve for Friday, so here I am today to do it! 

One:

If you caught my posts throughout the week you know I received 3 LARGE boxes from Really Good Stuff this week!  Talk about an excited teacher!  

This is the before...YUK! 

Here is the afterish picture!  I have done even more to the bottom two shelves since this picture, but didn't get a chance to take a picture!  

Even though I was excited about the delivery.....it caused a lot of stress as I wanted to get everything done right then and there!!!

2.  In addition to my big delivery, I spent a lot of time playing with my silhouette machine and going vinyl crazy!  I bought some cute little boxes from the Target dollar spot  weeks ago and have finally transformed them for my table boxes next year!  

They started out as plain-Jane grey boxes and ended like this! 

3. 

These are the colors I've decided for my room next year...hopefully this girl can manage to go a year without changing it all over again!!!   I think my classroom has suffered from change 3 out of the last 3 years I've been in it!

My kids said, "Ms. Pepper, you should just be called zig zag because you really like that stuff!"  They are fully aware of my chevron obsession!!!

The best part is that I just found out Creative Teaching Press has come out with chevron borders....and they come in Grey!!!!!

4. I've mentioned a couple of times that one of my ah-mazing coworkers on my team, Gwen, has taken another position on campus.  Due to this I've inherited a TON OF STUFF!!  Here is one of the gems I generously took off her hands and jazzed up!

I wish I would have completely emptied it off for the before picture.... but you can see before and after with all the STUFF on it!

I'm slightly obsessed with how much better it looks!

She has also given me tons of magazines to add to my library, big books, and goodness, so much now that I can't even remember EVERYTHING!  Before we left work yesterday she came in with yet another treat! 

 

 No worries, this one isn't a hand me down!! Gwen's sweet husband bought it for me!  Let me tell you, this woman, her relationship with her husband, and the closeness of her family is something that I pray to one day have!! She is truly an inspiration all around!

5. I mentioned in my post on Thursday that I wanted to share a little about another co-worker of mine, Sam!  This girl is amazing, she is a first year teacher, with quite a wit!  I've been giving her a hard time for MONTHS now about how plain-jane her stuff is!  I mean times new roman, size 12 font, plain-jane!  After telling and telling her how EASY it is to jazz it up, I finally convinced her to try! I have shown her some of the tricks of the trade and this girl has been quite the little creator!! She has been creating WAY more than me here lately! :)  I'm SUPER proud of her though!  Check out the pictures of some of the cute things she has created so far!

This is an awesome book she made for the kids to work on covering basically EVERYTHING they've learned all year in math! I can't wait to have my kids get started next week!

 These are a few of the pages inside!

 This was the FIRST thing she made, it was a proud moment for us both!! I mean she REALLY caught on QUICK!

I'm trying to convince her to start a TPT store!!

My Friday ended great yesterday with this sweet gift from one of my sweet students!! It was jammed full of fruit, chocolates, trail mix, and a SUPER sweet card!  I sliced open that pineapple first thing this morning!! :)

I hope you all have a MARVELOUS weekend... .those of you on summer break already, I'm envious... Those of you who are with me and still have 3.5 or more days left.... We can do it!!