Beautiful Organization

The dust has settled in our room and so has the clutter. I've been trying to find a good place for all of my teacher's editions and other binders I need quick access to, but no where seemed to make sense. They are so big and bulky but my desk is small and doesn't have any storage- when I say desk I mean table. I have my guided reading kidney table but spend more time at the front of my room during the day and during planning.

A temporary solution to my lack of space was to place everything on the floor.

The cords, baskets, books and other items drove me crazy!! 

So I did some thinking about the perfect mini shelf that may fit and organize my items-- on the floor-- but within reach. Floor... reach... small... SHOE SHELF! 

It hit me like a brick! As soon as I had a spare moment, on the weekend, while rested enough to visit the store I hate, Walmart, I bought a 12.99 Closet Maid Shoe Shelf! 

And it has been beautifully organized ever since! 

Next step- Cute and colorful table skirt!

I also entertained our Plant Engineer with my knowledge of power tools when asking for a drill :) 

First Year Lessons

This blog post is brought to you by a first year teacher that finally has a spare moment (on a Saturday) to write about my first year experiences. Twenty-nine days into school and I'm finally feeling like I'm in a tumble weed instead of a tornado.

Let's start from the beginning, the first day of the first year in first grade. I honestly can't tell you one thing I said to those 18 sets of eyes staring up at me. But I can tell you I remember one student telling me that I repeated "its okay to be nervous" a few too many times. Looking back now I get a giggle out of it. But at that moment I was the most terrified, nervous one in the room.

The first week is a blur. All I know is that I made it out-- alive. I'm not trying to suggest that my sweet first graders tried to kill me, but I will admit that I put more pressure on me than anyone of them. When you're sitting in a room alone with kids you do things much differently than you had imagined.

Finding what is important to you will help guide you in your first weeks. I realized, early on, that I wanted my students to love each other and care for one another. I rewarded them when they helped another student, I praised them when they were kind to one another and I still talk about how important it is to be honest, kind, and respectful. In that area, I feel I have somewhat succeeded. They no longer look up at me, eyes wide and mouth watering for a treat, after being kind to another student. They know that it's more important to do it when no one is looking.

Lets talk about failures. Just kidding. But seriously, at some things, you will fail. After week one I couldn't figure out why I was running out of things to do by the end of everyday. Then an administrator observed me. Yes, I was nervous, but I'm so glad she did. In her observation she wrote "you're a natural, but slow down, enjoy teaching." Those words were crucial for me to hear. Then I slowed it WAYYY down and got a lot more out of my students. It got too slow for about a week and now we're back up to just about right. Somedays we finish early, like yesterday.

Yesterday, I had my very first moment of bliss while teaching. It was the simplest thing turned awesome. My mentor told me she was going to do a picture writing prompt that week. The idea excited me so I jumped on the google and found this hilarious picture (below). I modeled writing for about 5 minutes and turned it over to the kids. We were all rolling in the floor laughing. They came up with some of the most creative reasons and things that this squirrel could be saying. One of my lower students brought tears to my eyes, he wrote "Give me back my nuts before I come down there and bite your tire." Yes, a bit weird for a six year old to say, but this child does NOT like reading or writing. Only five shared in the author share chair but the others begged all day to share their writing with the class. When we finished a few minutes early at the end of the day the others got to share. Even my painfully shy student climbed up into the chair and read aloud what she wrote.

I will leave you with that story. I'm hoping for many more to come. But for now, I'll keep on sailing with trail and error. Some times I will fail and others I will succeed. Thats the way we learn.

14-15 Babies

I have officially made it through the first week of school! We had four full days packed with procedures, introductions and chaos. There were laughs, cheers, tears, hugs, high fives and smiles. Getting back to school is a roller coaster for everyone involved. Every day we ended with more students on the positive side of our clip chart than the negative. Its amazing what a little positive reinforcement can do ; )

Our classmates:
18 of the most caring, curious and cute first graders bravely made their way into my room on Tuesday of last week. I have nine boys and nine girls with diverse cultural backgrounds!

They are seriously some of the most well behaved kiddos I've worked with!

There wasn't much in the making this week besides some reward coupons! You can purchase them on my TPT store! :)

Happy to return to school tomorrow and do it all over again :)

Ikea Classroom

Ever since my interview and hiring at my school I've been planning an IKEA trip! Luckily, it worked out in my crazy crazy schedule that I got to go a few weeks ago!


I.was.so.excited!!

AND I figured out that one of my coworkers who is starting as a first year teacher lives right around the corner from me- so we carpooled!

I had a shopping list going:
TROFAST Frame 39.99

TROFAST Storage Box 3.00 * 6 = 18

Small door mats (6)

Magazine File 1.49 for 5 need 3 packs

Magnetic Containers or board

Lamp

Book Shelf 

Small Stools- 3

Stand up Frames

tall storage unit for behind kidney table

And I promised myself that I would not go overboard.

Morgan and I left school at 1pm to drive the hour and a half to get to our closest Ikea store! We chatted about many things- especially our pasts and what has brought us to teaching. Mostly we shared the same giddy excitement about a lifetime dream coming true. It was so entertaining I almost missed the exit! :)

When arriving we picked up a lovely, crunchy yellow bag, a few extra tape measures (for our measurement units), a tiny pencil and wish list. We started ooing and ahhing before we made it past the first room. Our first item we picked up was this cute floor lamp and after that it was pretty much a blur. Our yellow bags turned into school buses filled with cheap but functional gifts to our classrooms. She had a list as well and was way better at staying on task than I was! At the end of our trip we were amazed- we made it through in about 2.5 hours and we hadn't completely broken the bank. I tucked my receipt deep into my purse so I could receive state money. Satisfied, we ended our trip with an ice cream cone and cinnamon bun.

You can see the trofast bench (white) with black and white bins along with the polka dot carpet that we got for $20. (She also purchased one) The stacked stools under the computer were also a must!



The trip home was a little quieter- we were tired, and more music.

Some hindsight for future trips:
1. Go earlier rather than later in the summer. We really wanted to get packs of magazine holders (5 for 1.99) but they were out
2. Make a list- and stick to it!
3. Grab a cart! You will need it!
4. Pick up some extras of cheap items that you have somewhat of a plan for:I bought one of these and used it at meet the teacher as a document holder and could've used it more!

I did end up loosing my receipt. Which was very upsetting to me because I planned on turning it in for reimbursement. But as of TODAY ikea finally emailed a copy of it to me :)

Tool Box Turned Guest Room Basket

The other day my mom handed me this old took box. I'm not sure what she had in mind for it originally but I knew I could turn it into something fun and revamped. 

Apparently David loved his little box so much he decorated it with business slogans like "be happy with my fixing" although they were cute they didn't match what I had in mind

So I sanded it down and removed most of the red paint

 And added some black chalk paint- which was actually purchased (for another project) on accident thinking it was "chalk board paint". Needless to say it works about the same as chalkboard paint.

"Guests" was hand written with a white chalk marker

Add some guest necessities- tooth brushes, soaps, reading material and my favorite part- the hand bound guestbook I made last year. 

The final product :) I can't wait for visitors to use all the goodies!

Progress is Progress

In total now I've spent about 12 hours in my room. From moving items in, to hanging things up on the wall.

Here's a few snap shots of the progress:
Before

I still have a looong way to go but it feels good to have some things on the walls :)

After:

Writer's Wall

Lunch Choice Window: Not sure if I want to keep it here! And the blue pocket is for storing things behind the board! 

For hanging student work, the word wall is up there too

I also made these paper flowers for birthdays! Complete with a pencil and homework pass :) Now I don't have to worry about missing anyones birthday!

Hot Air Balloon Lanterns

While the floors are still being cleaned at my school I've been forced to focus on the walls, and the ceiling!

I've known I wanted to have continent named desk clusters since I started with my traveling theme but wanted a cool way to hang them!

One day, while searching pinterest aimlessly I found these adorable lanterns made into hot air balloons. I was hooked! I loved the design and colors.

I ended up making my own baskets from paper (so they would be lighter) and got inspiration from these leather baskets.

Here's how the little baskets are put together: 

Materials:
Scrapbook paper (I used 12x12 sheets)
Exacto Knife
Tape
Stapler
Ruler
Cutting pad
Pencil

I started by cutting my 12x12 sheets of paper into 6x6 squares

I then measured out a 3x3 template square for the base part of the basket
To make sure the square base was in the middle, I measured 1.5 inches in on two sides and lined up the smaller base square.

After aligning the small square I scored the edges. This is for later folding as well (seen below)

Then, I used my ruler to cut from the outer square's corner to the inner and repeated 4 times:

Then, following the scored edges, opposite ends are folded upward and their points meet. At each intersection of points I taped and stapled. 

Now: Attaching the basket to the lantern

Materials: 

Twine

Scissors

Lantern

Basket (made above)

Exacto Knife

Ribbon

Make small holes in the corners of your baskets

Cut two pieces of twine that are around 50" each. Make them the same size, whatever size you choose.

Match the ends and find the middle of each piece.

Loop the middle parts onto the top metal piece in the lantern

Wrap the twine pieces evenly around the lantern, dividing each section into quarters (roughly)

Then, string one piece of twine into each corner and tie to each other inside the basket. Make the twine go from the outside to the inside so the ties are hidden.

Add a piece of ribbon or twine to tighten the strings above the basket. I stapled the ribbon to the twine so it wouldn't move about. 

And here's how it turned out! :) I also added the continent names for my table groups found for free here! 

Here's how they look in the room!