My First Blog Award!!!!

Wendy P. at 4th & 5th Grade Happiness has given me my first blog award for a blog with less than 200 followers!  How exciting!  Thanks, Wendy!!  Check out her blog at 4th & 5th Grade Happiness.  I am finally getting some followers, and I love it! 

Here are the rules for this award:

1. Link back to the person who gave it to you.
2. Post the award to your blog.
3. Give the award to 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers.  (Very hard to find blogs without this awesome award.)
4. Let the other bloggers know they have won.

For the Liebster Blog Award, I have chosen these awesome blogs...check them out, and leave a comment to tell them how great they are!! 

• Fifth Grade Fancy
• Organized Teaching Addict
• The Ramblings of a Fifth Grade Teacher
• The Box of Crayons
• Can't Make This Stuff Up...Adventures in Teaching!!

A Bigger Mess...

I started working in my classroom...and it NEVER fails that I make a bigger mess and spend more time walking around wondering where to begin the first week I'm there.  I can't wait to get all of my new stuff in here and get it organized.  I thought this e-card was fitting hahaha!

So, what have I been up to this week, you ask??  Well, between presenting again at UNA and summer Ed.S. classes...

Eeeeek...look at this....OH MY....how cute is that???  This is a $3.99 inner tube from Target wrapped in fabric!!!  I have to get a little more patterned fabric because I ran out, and I have one other one to wrap.  I will use them for seats in my classroom.  One word...GENIUS.

Dax had to try it out!

Check this out...taking me forever, but it's one of my favorite things in my room now!  It's just fabric cut into strips and tied together with knots (hot glued to my shelving unit, of course.)  LOVE.

I've also made a few things with my Cricut...here is my No Name board for papers that don't have a name.  Cricut letters + board + paint + binder clips + Modge Podge =

Here's my cool "Books We've Read" tree....I just cut it out of black butcher paper, spray Modge-podged (is that a word??) it because I knew it would fade if I didn't, and hot-glued it to the wall...the circles are just scrapbook paper I cut out with my Cricut.  I will add the books we read together to the tree throughout the year.  I just thought it would be a good visual for my students of all the books they have read in fifth grade...also made a pretty banner to hang in front of the tree...

And this is another little reading nook....love how it turned out!  I wanted a way to separate it from my desk area.  The banner says, "The Book Nook."  Yep, that's a flat sheet from Wal-Mart...scored that bad boy for $4.97.  Needs a little wrinkle-release, I think...

Look for pics coming soon of INSIDE this little nook!  You're gonna love it!

Love my small group bulletin board too!!  That little awning took about a million hours to do, but I love it!  hehe!

Sorry for the long post, but it's been a while, and I've been busy!

**Reading Street friends....Frindle is on the way...I am in the process of correlating my resources to the new Common Core Standards so we can all enjoy!  Y'all didn't think I would leave you out, did you???  ;)

'Til then!

This Just In...

I got a Cricut, I got a Cricut, I got a CRICUT!!!  :)

I barely know how to work it, and I am a little obsessed already!!  My mind is spinning with ways to use it.  This is my first project...I ordered a toolbox from Amazon, then made the pretty labels with my Cricut.  Now all of my teacher supplies will be in one spot!  Pretty excited about this...y'all know me and organization!  ;) 

I've been Googling and YouTubing tips and ways to use my Cricut, but if you have suggestions or fun tricks, please comment on this post and let me know!  I would love to hear them!

Here are some other things I've been working on this week for my classroom:

These are my yarn letters...love how they turned out!

I told y'all I have been making some purchases, and a couple of my most recent ones are these bookshelves.  I am sooooo excited about this!  For years, I have had two large mismatched bookcases in my classroom, and they are such an eyesore!  So, I purchased four of these stacking cubes, and a bench to go in the middle of them...

Here is a picture from Pinterest...mine will look somewhat like this.  

I recovered the bench cushion that came with the bench.  You will soon find out about me (if you don't know already) that I DO NOT sew.  Never.  I don't do it.  I don't even want to learn how to do it.  So when I say I recovered the cushion, it means that I used hot glue to do it.  :)  I can do anything with a hot glue gun that you can do with a sewing machine.  You'll see.  

Check back for pics of the finished product next week!


Just a note, guys...I see you all looking at my blog, and I LOVE IT!  Please remember to follow me by email...that way, any time I post, you will be notified.  Also, leave me a comment so I can know your thoughts.  I love hearing new ideas! 

I'll be posting my resources for our first Scott Foresman Reading Street story this week as well.  I will also be posting some "before" pics of my classroom soon!  :)  

'Til then!

Rit Dye, Modge Podge, and Scratch-offs!!

Whew...my first REAL week of summer, really.  I have been consumed with presentations and workshops and haven't actually had a chance to relax and hype myself up for next year.  After much thought, I have decided to give my classroom a big makeover and change the "theme" (if you will) to blues, greens, and yellows.  I'm not much for an actual theme, so a color scheme seems to work better for me.  So everything that you see me post that I have made this summer will probably be one of those colors.  :)  We've been told that we can work in our rooms beginning on the 9th of July, and I'm excited to get in there, rearrange, and gear up for a new year.  Here's what I've been up to this week.


These are my cool clothespins that I first dyed with Rit dye, and then hot glued a thumbtack to the back of...I think I will use these for my "Proud Wall," a bulletin board where students can display work that they are proud of from my classroom.  Here is the pic I saw on Pinterest.  And I even have lots left over that I didn't glue thumbtacks to that I will just use for my clothesline in my room.

Clothespins in the Rit dye

I decided not to do the cereal boxes taped together and wrapped in scrap paper...I ordered some white cardboard magazine holders instead.  I will be using these for book boxes...you'll see later.  :)






I'm still working on my monster of a painted foam mat to go in one of my reading nooks...whew...it's gonna be cute though!!


I also made a few other things this week...


I've been looking for a way to reuse all of these formula containers...so...I just wrapped them with yarn, stuck a cute label on there, and...voila!  These will go at each table for supplies.

Thanks, Similac.  :)

These are my good behavior scratch-off tickets.  I just have to cut them apart. This is a link from ArtMind on how to make these...a word to the wise, though...if you use lots of dish detergent, the paint kind of slides to the middle...next time I do these, I will just use a tiny drop. There is a template HERE for you to edit and use!  ;)

Clipboard that I recovered with scrap paper and modge podged...I will use this with peel-off labels for anecdotal notes at small group.

Front

Back

Ya'll, I have been making some purchases...don't tell my husband though!  :)  Kidding...he knows my obsession.  I ordered a Cricut finally, and I can not wait to get it and play with it!  I also ordered this cool pencil sharpener that has rave reviews.  If you teach, you know the hassle that is the pencil sharpener...they either break halfway through the year, eat up pencils, or are so deafening that they drive you crazy...hope this one is better!!

My orders should be in soon, and I have lots of crafts up my sleeve!  


My next projects are going to be more curriculum-focused as well...I will be working on the first week of school projects and our first story, Frindle.  Check back next week, and see what I've been working on...'til then!  

5th Grade Read-Alouds

I have been looking for some new chapter books to read aloud to my students this year, because I am getting tired of the same old ones.  I found some links to favorite read-alouds that I thought I would share.

Read Aloud America

Great Schools

Read-Alouds

I also made this word cloud from Tagxedo of some of my students' favorite books.  I plan on framing it and hanging it in one of my reading nooks in my classroom.  Since this is just a thumbnail, it looks a little blurry...much clearer and bigger when you print it.  If you've never used Tagxedo or Wordle, they are both great resources...for you and your kids!!!