A Little Bit of Shopping...

August means Back to School, and Back to School means time to go shopping.  Every year I think I am not going to spend that much, and every year I think I buy more than the previous year!

Here are some of my recent finds:

Dollar Tree: My kindergarteners seem to go through SO many erasers!  I found these on one of my many trips to Dollar Tree. I was thrilled to see that they match my 4 table colors.  I might have picked up a few packs.

I've seen a few blog posts about these, but found these in the Target Dollar Spot.  It took 4 or 5 trips to different Target stores, but I eventually picked up a few!

Just ordered this from Educational Insights.  It is a "scrapbook" pocket chart.  I take TONS of pictures of my students and this looked like a fun way to display them.  It was on sale for $8.99 today and had free shipping with the code EIFREE.  I thought it was a great deal with 14 slots for pictures!  Click here for the link.

This is the scrapbook pocket chart without pictures in it.

Birthdays

I have seen some great ideas for celebrating birthdays in the classroom on Pinterest and on various blogs this summer.  I was inspired by the pixie stick birthday balloons over at What the Teacher Wants, but wasn't sure I wanted to order those.  So, I purchased fun straws and was going to attach some cutout cupcakes I found when cleaning out my classroom last week.

Meanwhile, I asked my middle school aged cousins (soon to be 11 and 14) to help me create a game with those cute cupcake "eggs" that I purchased at Target last Easter.  They suggested I give them to the kids for their birthdays.  An ah-ha moment...

Cupcake "egg" from Target last Easter with a fun straw attached with scotch tape to the back.

Inside each cupcake is:

A cupcake shaped eraser (Target dollar spot), 4 cotton candy scented stickers (teacher supply store: 100 in a pack) and some "Happy Birthday" confetti (Dollar Tree)

I made 24 sets (I currently have 20 on my roster) and put them all in a basket (Dollar Tree with stickers from Hobby Lobby).  Total cost was about 70 cents per child.  I hope the kids like them!

All About Me and a Freebie

I saw these cute "All About Me" posters on a blog (wish I could remember which one).  The blogger stated that she purchased them in the Target dollar spot.  Off to Target I went, of course!

After visiting 6 Targets across the state of Ohio, I was a bit frustrated that I couldn't find these posters, so I decided that certainly I could create something like that myself, right?  Wouldn't you know it, Target #7 had the posters.  There is a picture of them below in case you want to look.

If you don't want to search Target for these, you can download my little freebie instead.  It is printed on legal sized paper.  Click here to download.

I purchased the kit below at Lakeshore last year and wanted to hang my students' creations next to these posters.

Click here to go to Lakeshore's website

I'd love for you to follow my little blog and leave a comment if you download the poster!

Monday Made It (on Tuesday)

I am linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics  for my first Monday Made It.  Tara has been hosting these all summer, and I finally have something to post!  It is nothing all that exciting, but I was proud!  I've loved all the great projects I've seen this summer, so I wanted to link up.

My middle school-aged cousins helped me make this "read" sign to hang near my library center.  These were made from wood blocks and wooden letters painted with acrylic paint.  All materials were purchased from Hobby Lobby.

I am going to add ribbon and hang these from command hooks.  

My mom also threaded ribbon through the holes in my table baskets last week when she came to help set up my classroom last week.

The little blue basket is one of our new table trash cans.  We use these during art projects so everyone isn't running to the trash can at the same time.  These little baskets were $1 at Michaels!

Math Manipulatives Storage

When I was at I Teach K, I attended 2 awesome math sessions!  It inspired me to become a little more organized with my math manipulatives.  They were in various containers spread throughout the room and finding some of them was a bit difficult at times- especially those that were theme related and not really meant to be manipulatives, but that was my purpose for them.  Deanna Jump shared her organization tips, and I was on it.

While cleaning out my room (I've already purged many things!), I found some matching containers in various sizes that I purchased at WalMart a few years ago.  We were doing some new things in math and science and I was all about it (until we moved on to "bigger and better" things of course!). Well, these containers have been taking up space on a shelf, empty, for 2 years.  Brainstorm: These are my new math manipulative containers!

Everything was sorted and organized.  Labels were made, and all materials are stored together on one shelf where students and I can easily access them.  Bonus: The containers match many of the bright colored containers I purchased this year.  The purple ones on the bottom shelf I'm not sold on yet, but they were empty and held my many pattern blocks and unifex cubes so I'm sticking with it for now, unless I find something I like better.

I need a few more labels for materials that took more than one container, but I'm excited with my new-found organization!

Back to My Classroom

I made my first visit of the summer to my classroom (and second & third) this week.  I took the plunge-a plunge for me anyway- and had my desk removed from my room.  Oh my goodness, I had no idea my 27 x 27 room had so much space!  I LOVE my new set up (pictures to come in the next couple weeks once I get things put away- I ordered new library bins from Really Good Stuff and am awaiting their arrival).  There is more room to walk through the room and a less cluttered look.

I created a teacher toolbox; they seem to have taken Pinterest by storm, so I'm sure you've seen them.  I got directions from Create, Teach, Share and my labels from Kristen Doyle on TpT (they are a freebie!).

I couldn't fit everything in there (under the toolkit is a 3 drawer plastic drawer system), but it definitely will help me be more organized.  This is behind my guided reading table, which will double as student seating and my desk.  Side note on the teacher toolbox, colored pencils don't really fit in the wide drawers (which I learned after I had put the label on), so there is tape in that drawer, I just didn't make the new label yet.

More to come on my classroom set-up in the coming weeks!  Have you started working in your room yet?

My first blog award

Eileen from Second Grade Sunshine shared a Liebster Blog award with me. Thanks Eileen!  Now it is my turn to pass the award on to 5 other bloggers with 200 or less followers.  My choices are:

Strive to Sparkle: Her latest post is some great DIY crafts.  So cute!  Congrats on 100 followers!

Melissa at The Dalton Gang: She posted about some giveaways currently going on.  Check them out!

Patterson's Porch: Dani is having a giveaway for recently reading 50 followers.

Courtney at Classroom Snapshots: Courtney is having a giveaway on her blog too!

Finally, Danielle from LaSota's Little Learners: She recently posted about some beginning of the year materials she created.

Thanks again to Eileen for sharing this with me.  Looking forward to learning more from these new blogs I am following!