NE Ohio Blogger Meet Up!

I am so excited to let y'all know about an amazing blogger meet up we are having here in NE Ohio!! I organized it via Instagram and we have about 16 girls coming so far!! We hope you'll join us! It will be Saturday, March 22 at 1:30pm at The Cheesecake Factory in Legacy Village in Beachwood, Ohio!

Here are some of the Insta/Teacher/Bloggers who are meeting! Take a look at their blogs :)

Ashley - Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd

 

Kristina - OWLways Learning in Ohio

 

Britney - Tailor-Made Teaching

 

Jessica - The Teacher Talk

 

Christina - Second Grade Sugar & Spice

 

Amelia - The Wild Things Learn

 

Amanda - One Extra Degree

 

plus several other IGers and teachers from the area!! I can't wait to meet all these fantastic ladies and get to know them even better in person! It's gonna be a fabulous time!!

 

Have a blessed night :)

Tami

 

 

 

My 7 Grading Paper Must-Haves!

Preparing report cards this week got me thinking a lot about my must-have items for when I grade papers. I have some things I really need to have on hand in order for grading to go smoothly and to work efficiently (for me, anyway) ....so I thought I'd share them! I mean, grading stacks of papers at night isn't always fun, right!? We gotta do what we gotta do to make it {a tad bit} more enjoyable!

1. Grading Sheets

My first and ULTIMATE grading necessity is this handy little piece of paper. I swear, if I don't have one or two of these on me at all times, I feel completely lost and unorganized!
It is a table I create within Microsoft Word that lists my students names, with as many blank columns as I can fit. I also have the four blank rows at the top for the subject, assignment description, total points, and date of assignment. Then, I list the grades as I go. When I go to the computer later to enter them, it is SO much easier! Everything is already in order as I keep in my Excel spreadsheet.. I just go straight down the line entering the numbers!

I can fit about 8 columns per table and 2 tables per page. About 30 copies of them at the beginning of the year is usually enough to last me all year. I use them for more than just grading too. They work for keeping track of just about anything and I seriously don't think I could function without them!

Wanna give them a try?!  >>>CLICK HERE! to download them for free. Beware, it is a WORD document.. I know, I'm sorry! ... just type your students' names into the boxes on the left. There is room for up to 20 students. If you don't need that many, just delete rows from the bottom. You'll need the fonts KG Eyes Wide Open & CartonSix so it looks right. But, of course, you can change them to whatever you want! :)

{disclaimer: old photo!}

2. EZ Grader

I think every teacher would agree than an EZ Grader is a MUST HAVE! My newest one was given to me by a friend who was retiring {it was brand new!} and is a Breast Cancer Awareness one. I love it, because my mom is a survivor, and so was her mom. It's a cause near & dear to my heart. Whenever I see it, I thank God she is healed!

Do I really need to add any further explanation of why it's a must-have for grading, though?!?! [if you feel I do, please leave and a comment and I'd be happy to!! :)] I will say this - whoever invented it is a genius!

3. a good set of pens

I absolutely LOVE this felt pens! They have a super fine point and come in a large rainbow of beautiful colors! My cousin was a graphic design major at U of Cincy and had some a few summers ago. I was drooling over them for this exact purpose and she told me she found them on Amazon. So, of course, I ordered them! I have since found a smaller ten pack at Staples. I have several packs now ... they don't last me too long ;)

of course, these Papermate Flair pens will always suffice if you don't have the Staedtler Fineliners.

I love them too... I especially love how they look on my desk in this Target alphabet toothbrush holder :)

4. STICKERS!

For a not-so-fun activity... you definitely need to fancy up them papers with fun stickers! Students love them, teachers love them.... well, who DOESN'T love them!?! :) Creative Teaching Press makes lots of fun ones!

5. a Repertoire of Encouraging Comments

I have gotten really positive feedback from parents over the last couple of years about the comments I leave on students' papers. I know it's not possible to do all the time, but I find on certain papers, especially tests, meaningful writing, or pages where they really excel, it is not overlooked. My students inspect every page they get in their mailbox every day. I think they like to see what I have to say about their work, so I make sure that what I say counts... because it does to them!

This is my favorite comment to write :) I have a parent write it occasionally when she looks over her daughter's Spelling Notebook before she hands in her homework - so sweet!



I love responding to their sentences! What they come up with sometimes is just tooo much!

6. Grading Folder & paper clips

I HAVE to be organized. It's a MUST. So, to keep everything in order, I paper clip each set of papers together with little paper clips. I also keep a folder in my Erin Condren Teacher Planner that is ONLY for papers I need to grade or check over. I keep them in there whenever I take them out of the turn-in station and take them home in the folder with some grading sheets & stickers {though usually my entire plan book goes home with me nightly!} Once a group of papers is graded, it goes back in the folder. If anything is turned in incomplete, those papers stay on the top of the pile in the folder. The next morning, when I go back in, I take the incomplete papers off of the top and set them aside for students to complete, and the rest go on top of the turn-in station to go home as mail!

I got a set of personalized file folders from Erin Condren and made one a "Papers to Grade" folder. SO cute :)

Every morning I check my students' Take Home Binders for their homework and check off if it was completed or not so they can stay in the Homework Club. I made this checklist real quick to keep track. You can get that for free >>>HERE! too :)  {it is editable in Power Point.. just type into the text boxes and choose a font! I use KG Eyes Wide Open here, too}

7. Turn-in Station

I'll say it again, I HAVE to be organized. In order for me to be organized, my students have to be as well. When they begin to work on an assignment independently, especially something like a quiz or a test or will for sure be assigned a "grade" or set of points, I have them turn it in. When I worked with a teacher friend of mine, she used a system like this and it was genius. So, I took it and began using it too!

I have a station on top of my student mailbox organizers [it's really a ClosetMaid Shoe Organizer!] I have a stack of 4 metal letter trays on top. The three on the bottom each have a paper folder: one red, one yellow, and one green. Those are the colors my friend used, but you could whatever you want! Whenever I give the directions, right before I let my students begin working I tell them where they will turn it in. I used to write on the board a big R or Y {R for red & Y for yellow} so they knew where to put it, but it wasn't enough, someone always asked where to put it when they finished! Especially if there were other thing written on the board already, it seemed to get a little lost. So, instead I made these visual prompt cards that are on the board. I just check next to which folder it goes in. Sometimes I even add a page number or abbreviation/description such as "Lang. 27" or "Math Test" if they have multiple things to turn in. Then, when they finish they just walk over to the station and slip into the correct colored folder. They don't have to take the folder and put it in the pocket or anything, just slide it in to the folder, like a file folder. So, of course, colored or even plain file folders would work too!

The top letter tray is empty and that is where I put papers I have finished grading or other items that need to go home. When there are papers there, my classroom mail people work on putting them into the mailboxes in their free time. So, like I was describing above, when I come in the next morning, any papers that are completely graded go right there and I'm done!

As you can see in the picture, the station also has a basket of highlighters and a sign. I added the sign last year to help combat the No-Name Paper Epidemic. A teacher across the hall printed it from TpT and decided not to use it, so I did! I laminated it and have it taped over the turn-in folders, so they HAVE to lift it in order to turn in their work. This way, they are guaranteed to see that sign and be prompted to check if their name is on their paper or not. I rarely have no-name papers now :) it's a lovely thing! I scoured TpT for the creator of the one I have {to give credit where credit is due!} but failed in finding it. But, there are a bunch for free to download on TpT.. just search "highlight your name." I'm sure you'll find one you like!

If you like the visual prompt cards, you can pick them up here in my TpT store!

Well, those are my go to items for grading papers! Do you have any more, or others? I especially love seeing good pens/office supplies that other teachers have discovered! I'm pretty sure school supplies my Love Language! ;)

Exciting News, Riveting Robots & MORE Chevron!

Hey there!

I am excited to announce that I will be pairing up with Creative Teaching Press to receive and review their products here on my blog! What's more exciting is.... I will be able to do GIVEAWAYS so you can have a chance at trying out their products too! YAY!

So, to kick it off, I am going to show you how I have been using some of their newer [and cuter] lines in my classroom this year!

The first is their Riveting Robots! Each year I have had a theme in my classroom. The first year I used stars everywhere and had a star calendar and star job chart. Last year I used owls. I love owls and have an overall general chevron theme going, but I wanted a new calendar, job chart, and additional theme since I have had the same students the past couple of years. I was shopping at Lakeshore one day [teacher heaven!] and saw these cute gears and robots borders. I did some digging on the CTP website and was hooked! I decided that the owls had been more of a girly theme [as most are, being that they are décor items] so I figured the boys would appreciate this theme a bit more :)

Here's a look at how I used them:

I decided to make my hallway bulletin more permanent this year to display student work, and change the covering on my door periodically instead [see below for my doors so far this year!] On the right is the permanent work display with their Dots on Turquoise Border, and on the left I used the Nuts & Bolts poster from the Riveting Robots Bulletin Board Set.  I love mixing patterns, so the Target wrapping papers and polka dot borders were fun to mix and match!

 

Here's how I use the poster more specifically: since it says "The Nuts & Bolts of" and leaves it open-ended for a variety of uses, I decided to use it to display our "objectives" or broad learning concepts in each subject. Bible is changed weekly to include our unit focus and memory verse, but the others change less frequently. I laminated it and use a dry erase marker so I can change, add, and or remove things as often as I need. I like displaying it in the hallways for parents and visitors to see what we're working on! I also used the gear to show what we will be working on in the near future!

 

 

 

To make attendance a bit more visual [and to cover my not so attractive desk!] I used the Riveting Robots Designer Cut-outs with some chevron contact paper I found on Amazon. I wrote my students' names and laminated them for durability all year, and added magnets to the back. My little "robots" report each day to show if they are absent or present. It's just a fun, silly way I brought in the robots some more :)

 

 

 

I [of course] had to buy a new calendar set & job chart to match my other new robot themed items! Since I have a lack of wall space and A LOT of windows, I decided to make my window my calendar space. Since we are in 3rd grade now, I don't feel the need to have a calendar time/morning meeting everyday. Instead, the calendar is one of my classroom jobs. We use window markers from Pat Catan's in bright colors to write the regular date and digital date below the calendar itself :)  The days of the week and weather report are below the window on the wall.

 

 

 

Of course the job chart needed a fun title to it [in 1st grade they were "Star Helpers" and last year they were "Owl-fully Helpful!"] This year, they are my "Handy Helpers!" :)

 

Lastly, I used the corresponding gears border [my favorite of the whole line!] and robot cut-outs to make my door covering to kick off the new year.... we were "Gearing Up for Third Grade!"

 

 

My only regret was not ordering the matching letters they have for this line. When I was shopping at Lakeshore they had some items for the line, but not all of them. So I had to go online to buy the other pieces I needed/wanted. I had already bought the above set of letters, so I made them work. But I am thinking I am going to have to get the matching nuts and bolts style lettering for future use.

 

What do you think of the Riveting Robots line?!? Leave some comments below and let me know! I personally love, as did the boys in my class!! What is great about it, too, is there are many colors and patterns mixed into everything so it can easily go along with many of the items you already have. If you have primary colors, polka dots, grays and blacks, chevron - it matches them all! and the robots are lots of fun!:)

 

Speaking of chevron..... CTP has some FANTASTIC new borders out that are ChEvRoN!! I just had to have them when I saw them online. Many of the colors were back-ordered in August, so I had to wait on a couple of them, but I did get a few others. I am eyeing some more of them too! As I said above [and you can see in my pictures] I have a lot of chevron going on. So I had to have the borders.. I am also using their chevron nameplates on my students' desks. I took a tip from Pinterest and use Velcro to attach them to the desks - no more tape mess! I also took ANOTHER idea from Pinterest and laminated them now. Now my students practice writing their first and last name in neat cursive everyday with a dry erase marker. We just started this after returning from Christmas break and it is working well.  Here's a look at them and a link to see them all:

 

These are the Chevron Name Plates we are currently using:

 

Since our desks open upward, we keep the markers hooked on upside down and they won't fall off whenever we open our desks :) 

 

At the beginning of the year I was using these name plates I picked up at Lakeshore:

I ran out of the turquoise and orange which I had used to start the year, so I bought the newer chevron ones since they were all I could find. Now, on CTP's website I discovered they have other chevron name plates in solid colors that I'm liking better for next year!

 

 

This is their Turquoise Chevron Border around my dry erase board.. it looks more aqua blue on the website, but it is a true turquoise in person!

 Valentine's door using Chocolate Chevron Border:

 

 

Christmas door - wishing I had the Poppy Red Chevron Border instead! hopefully next year :) 

 

 

 Fall door using Orange Chevron Border and Pumpkin Designer Cut-Outs:

 

What I like most about the borders [beside the fact that they are chevron ;)] is the width. They are 3" wide, compared to border that is curvy. It gives a clean, bright edge.... especially on those pesky bulletin boards! Do you have any of their chevron borders? What colors do you have, and what do you think of them!? I currently have what you see above, along with the Slate Grey. My wish list includes the Poppy Red and Lime Green too!

 

 

Well, I think that's all for today.... whew, I'm tired! :)

 

Have a blessed week, and stay warm!

Tami :)

 

 

 

O-H so organized!

I have found myself becoming more and more organized lately.. on top of the organizational skills I "thought" I had! I think I am finally fine-tuning my preferences as I settle into my classroom more and thought I'd share some of my organization strategies with you. Comment below and let me know what you think and share other strategies for keeping yourself, your students, your classroom, and your life in general [O-H so organized!] :)

One thing I use is a Take Home Binder system with my students. A fellow teacher friend of mine did something similar to this in her first grade classroom a few years ago, and I borrowed the idea and ran with it from there.

This is a cover I made for each of their binders with their names. I do purchase their binders. I like them to be a certain size and of good durability. I have found that parents don't EXACTLY follow class lists when they go shopping [which is fine!] so I pay for their binders on my own. I tried some from the Dollar Tree my first year since they were cheaper... but I paid a higher price to replace them less than halfway into the year -- it's worth the investment in the beginning!

In order to keep parents as informed as possible [I like them to know what's happening in the classroom and I have an Open Door policy for them to contact me at anytime] I have a Communication Log in each child's binder. Parents can write to me at any time and I can do the same. This works great for my classroom management system with the Parent Contact choice ;)

Students also get a clear pocket [I get them at Target at back to school time when they go on sale for $0.50 each] for money & important notes that need to go back and forth. Much safer than anywhere else I have found!

[*note* when purchasing the pockets, purchase some extra.. a few of the zippers have broken and I cannot currently find them at Target!]

During my first year of teaching I placed notebooks in this section. I realized by the end of the year that for many students/parents, most of the notebook was not used. Others needed to use quite a bit! They are also difficult to turn. I decided instead to use loose leaf paper so that more paper can be added if needed, and I can take the rest out at the end of the year!

Of course, every binder also has a Take Home Folder.

Students put their papers that need to go home in here each night.

I also have clear page protectors in their binders [not pictured]. I put in their spelling lists, Bible verses for memory, Speller's Choice menus, and any other important papers they need for studying/schoolwork. This is a great way to provide them tools they need to help them and you can differentiate it for each child! One student has difficulty with addition and subtraction, so one of her clear pages has a set of Touch Points for addition homework and a 100s chart for subtraction homework. Just this week they each chose a poem to learn for our upcoming Speech Meet, so I also put their poem in a page protector.

In the packet you see in the folder above, I included a page about our grading policy. Some students [or should I say, some parents] took that out of the packet and placed it in a page protector to have on hand. I am so glad the idea for those dawned on me one day - they are a great organizational tool!

Their binders also include two calendars, one that is a homework log I created to keep them accountable for homework each night, and another calendar that logs their behavior choices each night. These are updated monthly and they write other information on them, such as test dates. I also include student birthdays and holidays for them to see as well :)

My goal with this system is to [hopefully!] teach my students organization and independence. They have everything they need for success at school and know where they can find it because it is always in the same place. They also know exactly what is expected of them and can take responsibility for their homework each night.

To keep myself organized and to make lesson planning as simple as possible to do and understand, I use post-its! For the last two years I have been doing this, I was hand-writing them.... and though it wasn't a ton of writing, it was still a drag. I realized I could accomplish it much faster on the computer, but I still liked my post-it system best. Perusing the amazing universe which is Pinterest, I came across a post about printing onto post-its. I checked it out and it looked SO easy, that I had to try it! After setting up the template in Power Point and laying it out like I wanted...

it was time to try it.......

and SUCCESS!

It REALLY worked! Now, I just plug in my information for each subject and the other stuff [specials/lunch/snack/tutoring] all stays the same.

No more re-writing those things over and over again! I just love it! My only regret is not trying it sooner! Now I want to make a template for every post-it note I'll ever need!

Here's a a link to the post I found via Pinterest with templates so you can create your own post-it planner too! If you choose to make your own, here's what I did:

I just purchased an At-a-Glance planner with a page per day and put the post-its on that so it's reusable. I also use transparent flags at the top for the date so nothing is written into the planner itself and I don't have to buy a new one every year!
I set up my plan book by chunks of time rather throughout the day rather than by subject. It's much easier for me with how my days are set up, and it requires less post-its/space :)
I also printed the template with a very light gray text box so it doesn't appear in case the alignment isn't perfect and on the template page I put a faint note as to what color post it goes in which box so I'll never forget or need to keep checking.

I highly recommend using Power Point to create your plans in. I make a slide per day and just duplicate every slide for less work. I saw a lot of teachers posting about it on TpT and other blogs for creating their documents and resources and when I finally tried it [I was originally using Word] WHAT A DIFFERENCE! It is so much faster and more streamlined to make anything you want!

I'm definitely a font snob, so printing these with cute fonts as opposed to writing them in my boring, sloppy handwriting calms my type-A, OCD so much more! I seriously have a problem, but there is not enough space in cyber world to discuss that....!

I hope I helped you discover some new ways to keep yourself and your classroom "O-H so organized!" or at the very least, got the ball rolling and inspired some new ideas for you. Share them below and let me know what you think! Stay tuned for some fun stuff coming soon! 

week one.... done!

I started back to school with my students on Tuesday and what an AMAZING week we had! I moved up to 3rd grade this year, and throughout my prep time over the past few weeks with my fellow teacher [who has moved up from Kindergarten] I started to feel nervous and overwhelmed with all we were discovering we would be teaching....and grading. It may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but to me, taking grades is major. These are permanent on a report card and mean something big to both the parent and the student. I don't take assigning grades lightly.....and sometimes I'm too nice. I want to take into account their work, their effort and their love while I grade. I find it hard to just crunch the numbers and say that what they get is what they get. I don't want them to feel badly and I don't want parents to wonder how their child did or didn't do so well. I don't know... maybe I'm just paranoid. I think part of it is my type-A/OCD personality. But knowing we had to grade Bible and handwriting, plus science, social studies and health, I became overwhelmed at the thought. In first and second grade and I didn't assign many grades...mostly checks and pluses [rarely some minuses, thankfully!] So this is new for me. Especially Bible. We always do that together and there are very few unit reviews to assign grades on so I with very little actual grades for the whole year, one bad assessment could mean a low grade. How can I do that to my students?! It breaks my heart and again....overwhelms and worries me.
So, I had to take a step back. I had to PRAY [of course!] I knew I could only do this with God's strength and I could only do it by taking it one step, one day at a time. We haven't gotten to any quizzes or tests just yet, so I'll wait until they come. I'll work hard, prepare my students and pray with them before each one. I'll communicate with them about everything they are expected to know and do my best to serve them everyday. It's all I can do, and I feel a lot better about it. I still am nervous, but I know that the first report card is a several weeks away.. I need to enjoy teaching until that time. I can't be nervous all day, everyday for 9 weeks, four times a year. THAT'S INSANE!

Here I am on the first day of school! :) My shirt is chevron to match my classroom décor... that was my hubby's suggestion! haha

Okay... so back to our first week. It was wonderful, as I said. My students are adorable and were so excited to be back in school. Most of my class has been with me for the past 2 years, so introducing routine and expectations wasn't hard. It was nice having a large group who already knew what to do and when to do it, so others could follow their lead.

We did a multitude of activities and we jumped right into learning [I don't mess around! ;)]

One activity we did was cute. I of course saw it on Pinterest at some point over the last year and it was a success on the first day of school. I told my students that I expect a lot from them and they have a lot they are responsible for as students of our classroom and school. What I wanted to know is what they expect of me as their teacher. They thought that was so cool they got to tell me how I should be towards them, so I passed out Post-Its and let them to it.

Some wanted to write more than others.. so my chart paper was filled pretty quickly LoL!

 

You can see at the top that I have one that is separate. I told the students that I would hang that in the classroom all year, so that every morning I arrived it would be one of the first things I see and would remind me to be what they want and need in a teacher. One really stood out. Among the many "fun," "caring," "nice," and "lovings" was an amazing and inspiring request... "Let God lead you." WOW. An eight year wrote that. Talk about divine. She thought above and beyond and wrote something I knew I would need to read on a daily basis; something I would need to meditate on every morning to start my day.

 

Have I mentioned how incredibly blessed I am? I mean, really. To have a student write that they want a teacher who is led by the Lord is inspiring, amazing and a dream come true. Especially since I've had her for the past two years....must be doing something right, huh!? ;)

Well, the rest of the week was a breeze. I feel like I'm not teaching enough and it felt so easy, simple. It was a great first week. The students had so much fun learning and we did lots of review. I learned a lot about them and we prayed together several times. It was blessed and a great start to a great year. I can only imagine what God has planned for our classroom the remainder of the year. I'm sure it will be nothing short of awesome!

Have a blessed day!
Tami :)

 

Remember Me? [part two]

I'm back again, and quickly this time! :) I promised I would post more often, and by the title of my last post, I HAD to post at least a part two [if not a part three here shortly].

I was back at work in my classroom again yesterday. I got a lot of detail things I had thought about doing done! Most teachers probably don't decorate their rooms to the extreme with which I do, but it's just my personality and I can't help it. I definitely type-A and extremely detailed oriented [and also a tad geeky!] the little accents and things here and there are what really get me pumped! lol

So here's a look at my classroom yesterday standing from my doorway:

What do you think? In my last post it looked pretty much the same. I just got the students' nameplates and Take Home Binders [look for a post about those coming soon!] done and added something to the front of my desk. I also changed up my Reading Corner off to the left there.

I had put my new robot calendar [that I just LOVE] on the wall above the papasan chair near the reading corner. But I just didn't like it there. Last year my calendar was on the middle window [now behind my desk] and loved it being on the window. So I changed up the Reading Corner and took the Book Bin shelves away from the window and put the calendar on it. I then put the book bin shelves against the wall where the calendar was and it looks much better! I just want a rug to put over there now! [in time...because of course the one I want and I won't settle for less is a bit pricey, so I'm waiting for my next TpT payment in September! lol]

So here's how it looks now:

 

I like it so much better.....don't you!?

Here's my Book Bin shelves I was able to finish yesterday too! I got my class list Wednesday [yayy!] so I was able to make the tags and get them finished up. Here's the complete look:

                                                          

and here's how I set them up:

                               

Everyone has their own bin. They will keep their Read to Self books, Reading Group books, bookmarks and a small pack of Kleenex in there. [This idea dawned on me last year when I had a few girls ALWAYS needing to blow their noses while they were reading. This will prevent that. You know those 3 pack of purse-size tissues are only 99 cents - and saves their "hassle" ;)]
I numbered the shelves so they keep their bin with their number. They'll always be in the same place and I won't have to re-number them year after year.

The clips are new for this year; something I am trying. Last year I had a problem with them taking TOO MANY BOOKS! No matter how many times we talked about taking only 6 or 7, they would take at least 3 times that. Well not this year. I am going to number the clips to make their numbers and they are only allowed to take as many books as they have clips. They can take a clip back when they return a book. Right now everyone has 4 clips, but that's because I didn't buy that many when I picked them up at a flea market. I didn't exactly have a plan for them at that time, so two packs seemed sufficient....wrong! So I'm planning to stop out today and pick up a few more.... I think I will give everyone 6, perhaps 8 but I'm not sure. How many do you allow your students to take? Any input would be great!

Yesterday I also put up my behavior management clip chart. I made a new one this year to match the chevron [of course!] and hung it in a new spot. It looks great, I think!

I made matching behavior calendar logs as well. They are available in my TpT store here if you decide you really like it! I posted it on there because whenever I looked for a system I liked, the behavior logs didn't exactly match the clip chart because they were always separate files by different Teacher Authors. Chevron is a huge new craze and the colors match just about any "theme" so I thought it would be about time that someone offered BOTH together to correlate easily. Let me know if you decide to get them and how they work out for you! :)
You'll notice next to it the Homework Club display. It's a round cookie sheet from the Dollar Tree that I hung. I got the Homework Club sign, numbers and idea use from the TpT store of 4th Grade Frolics here for FREE! I love it and hope it will be a great incentive for my students to do their homework! We shall see..... ;)

Well, that's all for this post... I have lots more to show and say but my Hubby wants me to bring him lunch at work :) so I'm off to pick us up some Panera [yum-o!]
I'll definitely be back with a part three [and who knows, maybe even a part four] some time soon [maybe even later tonight]....

Until then, thanks for reading and have a BLESSED day!

Tami :)

Remember Me? [part one]

REMEMBER ME!?

I know.. it's been a looooong time since my last post! It's been crazy busy around here, but I'm back and promise to post more - so please hold me accountable to that!

So, here's what's been going on.... last time I posted I had moved up to 2nd grade and looped with my students! Second grade was wonderful and I absolutely LOVED it! This year, though... I'm moving up AGAIN! I'm headed to 3rd grade! I don't think I am truly looping with my kids again, but I will have a majority of them for a third time... I just don't have my class list yet! [fingers crossed it comes today!]


I've been quite inspired by Pinterest over the summer [aren't we all?!] and my newest craze is ChEvRoN! So, I thought I'd give y'all a peek into my classroom! It's not quite done all the way, still waiting on some chevron border I bought from Creative Teaching Press ....it's been back-ordered since July! I'm hoping it comes in soon. We don't start back until after Labor Day [lucky, I know!] so I still have time... I'm just impatient!

So to start with chevron craziness, I made my own curtains for my classroom this year! Last year, I really wanted to find white cotton valances [harder than it sounds!] for cheap and tye dye them. Well, I never found them. The ones I did find would have been $20 per panel, and I would have needed about 5-6 of them... a little too much for my wallet at the time. I'm glad I didn't end up finding them. As fun as they would have looked, I LOVE the ones I ended up with this summer!
So, I bought some gray and white chevron fabric from Hobby Lobby with my nifty 40% off coupon and got 8 yards for about $35. I also bought this fabric "tape" instead of ribbon to give it a fun accent. I bought 5 different colors for each panel. Then, I just used a heat bond adhesive to put it all together. I don't own a sewing machine, and if I did I don't know how to use it..... so this was the easy option!

Here's what the process looked like:

I just used my iron and my eyes to make the creases straight. The zig zags of the chevron pattern help make it straighter but also help camouflage any mistakes too!
After I made one using the curtain rod I had at home [I knew it was the same as what I had at school] I took it to my classroom to see how it looked. It fit perfectly but it didn't look full, so I decided that I need 2 per panel. I have a large window at the back of my room with two windows side-by-side, and I knew that one would need 3 panels.... so I had a lot of work to do!
The thing about the fabric I bought that I didn't realize until I got it, was that the chevron pattern didn't run continuous over the whole 8 yards, it ran the opposite way. It ended up working out, as the 44" width it came was the way my pattern ran, and all my panels ended up the same width. I just had to cut them to be the same length. Once I made the first one to the length I liked, I just measured it all and got the rough length to cut the rest of the panels.

So here's a close up of all the panels done with their colors!

I have 3 windows that are a standard size... those are the green, pink and orange. The teal panels are my large back window. Then, the yellow is the extra fabric I had left and I made it to cover part of a tall shelf I have for Word Work activities. Since it's so tall, I can cover the top half of items I use mainly as storage and the bottom is open for the kids. I just hung that one with a tension rod [that of course didn't fit!] and two hooks.

Here's a look at them hanging in my classroom:

What do you think? I just LOVE them! They feel so homey and will match just about anything I do down the road!

You can see a bit from here I have a lot of chevron going on...

I made and hung rainbow colors/chevron patterned pennants from my ceiling randomly. I love hanging things from the ceiling! :)

Over where the book bins are, I used gray and white chevron contact paper to line the shelves. I'll be making a chevron mini pennant banner that says "book bins" to hang over the window [check for a part 2 or 3 of this blog in the coming days!]

The new décor I bought this year is probably some of my favorite.... along with the library... and the curtains...... who am I kidding - I love it ALL so far! haha

But here's what I'm talking about:

I found a lot of these on Pinterest and printed them off. I just love how they look on the wall! They serve as great reminders and inspirations for myself and my students.

This is my absolute favorite of all! I just loved this metal sign when I saw it at Hobby Lobby. I went back for it and got it half off a few weeks later and it looks awesome! It's one of the first things you see when you look/walk into the room and will be a great reminder each morning :)

I made a reading corner this year that is not a part of the class library so the kids have another place to relax and read! This is a small stand I had leftover from my days at home living in a cramped bedroom with my little sister [LoL!]. Again, I used the contact paper and put the flowers I had left from a bridal shower for [one of] the wedding I was in over the summer. Above this awesome sign I [again] found on Pinterest, I have a ribbon board. I am going to ask my students to bring in pictures of themselves with their families to keep in the classroom over the year. Just another idea I found on Pinterest and adapted to my room!

Okay....here's the last picture I'll post for today...

My class library! I just LOVE it!

I got the bench/storage seat at Target for more places to relax and added book storage. I also brought in the white cube storage shelf I got on sale at Target [LOVE that store, obviously] for more book storage. I accumulated a ton more books this year. Between donations, garage sales and good deals at the store I stocked up on a bunch more for my kiddos [especially since I'll have a good chunk of them for the 3rd year in a row!]