Classroom Reveal & A Freebie

I'm exhausted. And school hasn't even started yet, well for the kids any way. They come tomorrow. But I'm tired! LOL Getting a room ready, back to school meetings, Open House, paperwork, paperwork, etc. is exhausting. But most of the time, it's fun! :)

I'll see how I feel tomorrow after my first set of babies show up. We stagger our K students the first 4 days. Then on the fifth day, we get all of our kids. (Then we are out for labor day so it all starts again after that! Crazy).

How do you guys get your K students? Do you all start the first day or do you get a few each day like me? Curious to see what everyone does.

On to my classroom reveal. I had these pictures ready to go last week but kind of slacked off on blogging. Here ya go.

 This is the board I put up for open house. Here's the idea source from Pinterest of course.

It's the first thing you see when coming down the K hallway.

 

 

Here's the wall by my door. I decided not to do some elaborate board (there's no bulletin board in the hallways---we just staple to this wall). The owls are from my Owl Open House Pack. 

 This is the view from the door. I had it all ready for Open House. It looks a lot bigger this year b/c my dad came out and did some rearranging for me. There was only one red cabinet in the back (the student's closet) but he moved another back there as well as the file cabinet. The third red cabinet is hidden by the back door near the other teacher's classroom. 

The whiteboard on the cart is where my carpet/meeting area is. The cart is located beside a whiteboard that will hold my Mimio. 

 Moved all of the math tubs under the clock. This is to the left when you walk in the front door of the room.

 This is the back bulletin board. Don't have anything up yet, but it'll be my data board. We are required to post up data through out the year to show student's growth, etc. so I plan on putting all of that here. 

 This is the back of the room. The colorful drawers are in front of the teacher's desk. I got rid of one of our desks a couple of years ago, but left this one for my TA. She mainly uses it for when she's doing their binders that go home and other paperwork. 

But it's nice b/c you can't really see it b/c of the carts.

 This is the student's work board. Once I get all of the student's names (they are coming and going right now) then I will make name tags/pictures for each clip and house their work there. The shelves underneath are puzzles and games and extra books. I keep table cloths on them b/c I can't stand to look and just see a random shelf of stuff. Although neat, it bothers me.

 This is where two of the red cabinets were to begin with. But I moved the kidney table and my randomness to this corner. LOVE IT!! It makes the room soooo much bigger now b/c the cabinets are moved to the back. The yellow shelf once held book baskets for the reading station but when I started moving stuff I decided to use it to house my notebooks, etc. The polka dotted table cloth hides extra math stuff that doesn't fit into the tubs.

 This wall is to the right of the front door. It now has my reading station on it. The green paper is covering tons of big books. I'll take that off in a week or so. Those are some numbers I created to add some color to that wall. 

You can grab them here. 

 This is my new favorite part of my room. My dad added a tile board to my wall and it just makes it POP with color. That wall is blah and now it's not!! This is my word wall. I need to fix the ribbon up top on my banner (it says Word Wall) but haven't yet. The pocket charts underneath will hold the cards for the writing station and the bins to the left will house all of the writing station stuff. 

 Just another view! Look at all of my floor space!!

 

 View from the back door and to the left. 

One supply closet and the kids closet.

 View from the back door looking straight. 

 

Computer area.

 

 To help keep my aid and I organized, I jumped on the sterlite drawer bandwagon and made this. 

 Graphics from 3rd Grade Gridiron, JW Illustrations, and Learning With Mrs. Leeby

I wanted to have something that said Home, so that she would know what needed to be sent home instead of me piling up stuff on the desk and her trying to figure it out.

Here's a freebie for you. It's in google docs, just download it and it'll open in PPT. It is editable so you can add your own words. I also included a polka dot set as well. Click on the picture to grab your freebie. Leave some love if you grabbed it!

BTS Sale and a Freebie

I hope that you all filled your shopping carts the past couple of days. I bought a few items that I had my eye on for a while. Finish up your shopping before the sale ends tonight.

 

I will have my store 20% off for an extra day as well! You won't be able to get the extra 10% tomorrow but you can still save the 20%!

I'm still working in my room, today was the first "official" day back so we had our back to school meetings and some training for Power School (we are starting that this year, anyone else already use it???)

I have to go to CPR training tomorrow (fun times....) so I won't be able to work in my room tomorrow, so I'm trying to get some stuff ready for my assistant to run for open house. 

Here's a little contact log you can grab. Just click on the picture to grab it up.

  Graphics by Creative Clips and Fonts by Learning With Mrs. Leeby

 

Teachers Pay Teachers Sale & Box Tops!

Yay! It's that time of the year when TPT holds their most awesome back to school sale. I'm linking up with Kimberly over at Live, Laugh, I LOVE Kindergarten for her Sale Linky.
If you are running at sale at your store, go over and link up with her so everyone can see. Do you have tons of stuff on your wish list? I do...as usual. 

I'll have everything in my store 20% starting the day of the sale (Sunday) through the 20th (Tuesday). Only Sunday and Monday though can you get the extra 10% from TPT. But don't forget to leave feedback for  your purchases and earn points. Then redeem those points for more stuff on your wish list! :)

I've done that quite a bit and ended up with even more goodies than what I had planned on getting. 

I've been swamped in my room all week and helping a couple of new ladies on our grade level. I haven't taken any pictures of the room but I will this week. I'm loving it because it's so different than what I've done before. It's amazing how just moving something from here to there can make a huge difference. Or even adding new stuff to the wall.

I have been getting some of my mess stuff at home organized to take back to work on Monday. I have chair pockets from Really Good Stuff that were bought for our classrooms about 5? years ago. They look like these below.

 

I had plenty until our class sizes exploded about 4 years ago. So I had a friend make me a few more for my room. I bring them home every year and wash them (they wash sooo well in the washing machine and dry well too---no shrinkage, no plastic liners melting or anything).  

But oh my word, I think it's about time for some new ones. Mine look sooo bad LOL b/c they have been used for so long. Again, they hold up very well but I forgot how long I've had them and now it's beginning to show.

Oh well, until I can afford new ones mine will have to do. But I do love having chair pockets, it takes away from the ugly look of the chairs in the room (especially if you have completely different chairs through out your room!) 

So one task down---laundry for school! LOL 

I did make this today too.

 (I love oatmeal---but not plain..yuck. But add plain oatmeal to a smoothie...delicious!)

 

I've been saying every year that I need to make something to hold my box tops...well I've finally made it. I save my box tops for our PE department, they order equipment and what not so the school helps them out. 

I just used the 'ole modge podge and some left over scrapbook paper from this Monday Made It project. Then just attached it on and made a label! Easy enough, right?!

Off to finish up a few more little things and with the rainy, cool day we are having, I foresee a nap! 

Build a Bundle

Quick post because honestly, I foresee a nap in my future. 
I went to school today and my awesome dad helped me do a few things. I'll be having a full room reveal up by the weekend *fingers crossed* I'll have the majority of it finished by Friday. We shall see. But I'm already beat. Ugh.


Teacher's Notebook is having a HUGE sale if you aren't aware. They have a Build-A-Bundle promotion going on right now. Over 3400 items are listed at 50% off when you purchase at least $20 worth of items. That would be $40 at regular price. You can search by grade level, subject, etc. Then you get to build your own bundle.


It's pretty sweet, especially if you are looking for some awesome goodies for back to school.

Here are a few of my items listed.

Not only are these choices for the bundle, I'm also having a 50% off sale until tomorrow. So go build your bundles! :) 

 

Back to School Blogger Exchange

I participated in the Back to School Blogger Exchange hosted by Covered in Glitter & Glue and Adventures of Ms. Smith. How fun being partnered up with another teacher and filling a box of goodies and then mailing it off!?! I love this and I love getting mail in the mail box! 

My partner was Melanie over at Teaching is a Hoot. Here are the items she sent me!

 

Gum!! Love gum. It's a problem. I chew it for like 5 minutes then I'm done. But I have to have it! :)

Pencils. And these are the best writing pencils ever. Sometimes you just can't find a good pencil that erases well too!

Scotch expressions tape in hot pink. Can't wait to find some sort of project to use this on.

Magnets. I use them quite a bit on my Kindergarten cart and sometimes can't find what I need so these are great!

Twistable crayons. Love using these with small groups! 

And Birthday award  badges. 

Thanks Melanie for all of the goodies!!! I had fun with this! :)

Check out the linky to see all of the other goodies that were exchanged.

 

It's My Birthday and I'll Post If I Want To....

This post is Soooo Late Today! I totally meant to do this earlier today but it's happening now. So here I go. With randomness...as usual. When school starts back I'm pretty sure I'll have a lot more to say than now. Maybe. Let's Hope.

So on Facebook I'm having a little giveaway. You pick what you would like to win and leave a comment on FB and I'll pick a winner tomorrow and you will win it. That's it. Easy Peesy.

Become a follower too while you are there. Not too far from 200 on FB so maybe I'll hit that soon. That'd be great! For no reason really, just 'cuz! :)


Now that we are past all that little stuff....lemme tell ya about my birthday today! :) 

              Graphics from the Pond

Ashley Hughes

Hard to believe I'm already 32. Crazy number. Anyway so started started off ok. Hubs was busy this morning (he sings with the outreach band for church) so he had to do that. (I sing by myself in the car with no one looking or listening b/c I'm that good----*note the sarcasm*).

Then he had to go to work. Major bummer. But mom and I went and did a little birthday shopping!!! I bought my first pair of Dansko's for 50% off (b/c honestly they are just too expensive for me to buy otherwise). I've heard a lot about them so I figured well it's birthday money and they are 50% off why not!

 

These are the ones I bought. This image is from Google (the link is on the picture) but I bought mine from a local boutique store nearby.

Can't wait to wear them!!

And check out this awesome little flag I bought!

Cute huh!?

Bought a couple more things today but no pics for ya now. Oh did find an AWESOME chevron infinity scarf for like $10 today. So of course had to get that. Love birthday shopping!

Then since the hubs had to work tonight a couple of friends took me to Olive Garden to eat. Yummy!! And of course they told them it was my birthday so I got a little candle in my dessert and everyone sang. How embarrassing but fun!

What a blast! Then how about this. Today was Teacher Appreciation day at our local Staples. So I went and put my name in a drawing (had NO idea what the prizes were but it's just fun to put your name on a ticket right?!) Well as we were leaving the restaurant, they called and I won something! 

Drove there and was told b/c my name was the first one drawn, I had my pick of 3 choices. So here's what I chose.

A bookcase. How cool! Not sure if I'll use it in my classroom (need to find room for it) or my hubs can use it in his shop. See what he thinks.

It's been a pretty good birthday. I need to link up with the Blogger exchange with pics but I'll do that tomorrow!! 

Oh and Teacher's Notebook is having a HUMONGOUS (that word looks weird all capitalized) back 2 school sale happening!!! Check it out. TONS of savings. Get the word out.

And of course all my items at my TN shop are 50% off for the next few days as well!
 

Quick Post

It's my birthday weekend. Tomorrow is my birthday....fun times! Nothing much planned. Hubs has to work ALL day. Bummer but the girls are taking me to dinner tomorrow so I'm excited about that!

In honor of my birthday, I'll be having a giveaway over at my Facebook page starting tomorrow to run through Sunday. And my entire Teacher Notebook store will be 50% off for a few days beginning tomorrow to go along with their HUGE back to school sale!!!

Again none of those goes live until Saturday, August 10th!! My birthday!

 

My bloggy friend Sara over at Polka Dot Kinders is having a HUGE giveaway in honor of reaching 400 followers on BlogLovin'! She has so many awesome bloggers that have offered up goodies that she had to split it into 3 winner packets!! Make sure you head over there and check it out!

A Couple More Pics & Birthday Bash Day 3

Off to school today to finish what I couldn't yesterday due to feeling ugh. Still can't move furniture so maybe next week I'll have better pictures. Right now it's kind of ho hum but it's a definite work in progress.

 Are these not the biggest scissors ever? I forgot I had these. Sheesh. Hide them please! :)

 

Above the sink. This is part of where they said they would paint but hasn't happened yet. Probably won't. So I said ya know what I'm hiding this. It's kind of an eye sore. I do use the counter for storage but that looks neater now that I've updated my tubs. See this post here.

 

 

 Better right?? The bins on the left will move back to the right. And I would love to get a light back there (probably just a touch one that sticks to the wall b/c of the water and fire marshall) but it definitely looks sooo much brighter. It says Fun in K in case you can't see b/c it's shiny!

 

Added the banner Shapes above the shapes I put up on Tuesday. Have no idea why it looks crooked (like the whole picture) I guess I can't take photos very well. I need to do something with the ribbon that's hanging but my arm was tired trying to push pin the panel wall. I'll make some nice bows or something.

Ok so I've had these math tubs for a few years now. Saw them on Jessica Meacham's site before I knew what blogging and blog stalking following was. She has a ridiculous amount of AWESOME stuff on her site. If you have never been there, you have no idea what you are missing. You can get lost.

So a few years back I organized all the math goodness into tubs to make my life easier. And it has. But I realized the other day how horrible the labels looked after years and years. So I made new ones. Of course I used Irene's Love Carbs font b/c it's my favorite.  

 

 Still have a couple to relabel. I would love to also put colored paper on the inside of the bins to "hide" the math stuff but my kiddos need to be independent so oh well. It still looks SOOO much better. I have two more of these storage units to the left of the polka dotted shelf that I redid the labels as well. 

That's pretty much it today. Next week I hope to be able to move some furniture and do a couple of other things so that I can finish up the room. Still a LOT left to do.

Ok now to birthday bash day 3. It's still going to be a Pin it or Share it to Win it.

Yesterday you could've won my new Chalkboard classroom set, today's winnings are up to you!

 

 

Pin or share (fb or blog) anything from my TPT store or TN store.

Please comment below with the url to your pin or share along with your email!

You could win whatever you pinned or shared today if you're number is picked!! :) 

Also a Flash Freebie of one of my most wishlisted items on TPT will be going up on FB around 4 pm EST. So if you aren't a follower....become one so you don't miss any more freebies!!