4 On the Fourth !

These are the 4 things I will be using for the first time this year. I decided to add 3 school things and 1 personal. (I hope you don't mind)

# 1 ~ I will be using The Daily Five for the first time. I heard about The Daily Five last year and begin reading the book. Life got in the way and I never finished, but this summer I finished reading it. I am looking forward to the fall to start this with my first graders.

# 2 ~ We will be going to Common Core Standards this year. I have been blog stalking and adding to my wish list the Common Core Standards units that catch my eye. 

# 3 ~ The teacher binder, which I think will keep me super organized! I had 3 different binders last year and am looking forward to having only 1 this year. I am tweaking the contents of the binder, but have gotten tons of good ideas from Rowdy in room 300 . 

# 4 ~ My daughter will be starting Kindergarten in August. So I am starting a new routine for homework and reading time each night. We have started going over sight words and reading each night this summer, so hopefully the new routine in the fall won't be too much for her to handle. Keep your fingers crossed : )

That's It Folks! 

Enjoy your 4th of July!

My First Currently !

This is the first time I'm linking up to Currently...

I read the book Ish to my class each year. I love the message and the kids really enjoy it! So if you haven't heard of it take a look and read all about it.

I use the Teaching Reading Sourcebook all the time. I have used it with second, third, and first grade to get ideas for reading.

So go on over to link up                                                                  
 for July's Currently !

Made it Monday # 4

I was out of town last Monday and missed Make It Monday. This week I made a something for the classroom and my home. The first thing is the painting idea I got from Oh' Boy Fourth Grade's blog. She made these paintings with her class and I thought they were so cute! So I decided to add this to my list to do this summer. My 4 year old daughter and I completed this project together. We followed the directions on Oh' Boy 4th grade blog and I think it came out fabulous!!!!

My daughter painting the sky.

The finished project : )

I made journals for my kids for the beginning of the year thanks to a fantastic blogger. I bought the pack Journals Through the Year from Rachelle Smith @ whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com and then took them to school to bind. I was so excited by the way they came out.

My finished journals

Thanks for stopping by : )

The Hunt Was On

The Hunt was on....                          
 I was looking for new baskets, bins, and other organizing tools for my new color scheme in my class next year. I went to Target, Dollar Tree, and Walmart. I saw a couple of things, but wasn't in love with any of them. So on a trip out of town I spotted a store and decided to go check it out.  I went into a store named Five Below to just look ; )  Everything in the store is $5.00 and under, the perfect price for a teacher. Oh, how I love cheap inexpensive things for the classroom. I found some bins with glitter, party tubs, and mini trash cans. All were in the colors of my classroom for next year.  I posted a picture below of my haul and am quite proud of it. 

This basket has a little bling, it's all glittery!

I made a return trip to Dollar Tree once I saw everyones libraries so neatly organized. I went back and got some of the baskets in green and blue for books. I also got the mini laundry baskets for on the go centers. I got some border, tissue paper, and ribbon to go along with my color scheme.

So until my next shopping trip, Later...

Monday Made It # 2

This the first time I'm linking up to a linky party, Monday Made it.















I made a teacher toolbox that I pinned from Pinterest. I purchased the toolbox, hot pink spray paint , and white primer from Lowes. I took out all the drawers from the organizer and then primed it. Next, I  sprayed it with the hot pink spray paint. I sprayed it once, then let it dry and sprayed it again. It has a couple of streaks and some other oopsies, but I think it came out good for my first time spray painting. I then downloaded a free frame from The 3AM teacher to use. I played with the sizes of the frames until I got the frames the correct size. I cut the frames apart and stuck them in the drawers with clear tape.


TADA!!!!! The Teacher Toolbox made over 

DIY Summer Projects

I have been so inspired from looking at other blogs and Pinterest. I have been pinning several projects for home and my classroom to complete during summer. I have finished two of the projects already and have many more to go.

I pinned many magnetic boards pictures on Pinterest and this is what I finally came up with.
This is a magnetic board for my daughter's room.

I completed the now "infamous" teacher toolbox. I have seen many pictures of this and decided I had to have one too. I saw on a couple blogs that they spray painted the organizer, so I attempted. I must say it isn't perfect, but I'm happy with the organizer's imperfections and all. I used a free frame from The 3AM teacher to make the labels. I love those frames, quite useful.

So here are a few of my DIY projects. More pictures to come......

p.s. Sorry about the picture quality I took them with my phone:(

The Beginning of a Long, Long Week!

This week the upper grades are testing. This means we are trapped in the classroom with all the kids until it's over. This will go on until Wednesday, we have been eating with the kids, and have no specials classes. I LOVE my kids, but certainly we need a break from each other. We went out for recess today, which is really rare. In my district we only get 10 min of recess time and it normally is more trouble than it's worth. Oh, but today we stayed out for about 30 minutes since we didn't have any specials classes. You would think that this would be a great treat, but my class is prone to complaining and this too ended with tattling and crying.  
Well this is the first of many tales from the Reading Rascals!