Photo-A-Day: Day 14

Day 14: Apple...or rather Apples!

I have so many apple things around my room that students, friends, and family have given me! I think I love the 3D apple puzzle the most! It was so fun to put together!

Photo-A-Day: Day 13

Day 13: After the kids leave...

I am SO PROUD of my students! They have had a fantastic week and have earned 7 marbles on our classroom Bingo chart! When they earn a full card Bingo we are going to celebrate with a fun activity! My kids are still thinking and planning what our classroom reward will be!

Photo-A-Day: Day 12

Day 12: My Desk!

Surprisingly not a mess! Must be the beginning of the day!

Photo-A-Day: Day 11

Day 11: Patriotic!

I Pledge Allegiance...

Photo-A-Day: Day 10

Day 10: Read Aloud!

Right now we are reading about the 7 habits!

Photo-A-Day: Day 9

Day 9: Breakfast!

Something simple yet filling.

Photo-A-Day: Day 8

Day 8: Sunday Morning. 

Finishing up my sub binder, emergency sub plans and starting my action research project for class...what fun. Good thing it's gloomy.

Photo-A-Day: Day 7

Day 7: Saturday Afternoon!

Spending this my Saturday afternoon at the lake celebrating my nieces 7th birthday! We have both gone through kindergarten, first grade and now second grade together...me a teacher...her a student! 

Photo-A-Day: Day 6

Day 6: Bus!

I don't usually make it out to our buses because I am walking students out the front door. My students and I love this picture on our schedule because it means we worked hard all day and now it's time to go home!

Photo-A-Day Day 5

Day 5: Paper!

Love my organized rainbow drawer of paper! It's a little low on some colors from the beginning of the year! Need to restock! #CFCSeptember

Photo-A-Day: Day 4 Alarm Clock...Too Early

Sent from my iPhone

Photo-A-Day!

Day 1: September
Getting ready to head back to school. Bring out the bags!

Day 2: Labor Day
Last day on the Boat!

Day 3: Back to School
Bring on second grade!

Photo-A Day Teacher Snapshots!

Check out this awesome challenge from Clutter-Free Classroom!
Full details of the challenge are listed on their site!
There may even be prizes involved! :)

I am so excited to participate in this fun teacher challenge for September! Join me whether or not you have a blog! You can post your pictures on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or any social platform you like! 

It as simple as snapping a photo with your cell phone that relates to the daily prompt! There is no right or wrong way to do this because there are really no rules! You can post a photo a day or you can post a weekly recap of photos. You can post for all 31 prompts or pick a few that interest you! 

Just be sure to include the #CFCSeptember hashtag whenever and wherever you post!

Please follow Classroom Brainstorm and comment below to share your username or a link to the social media platforms you will use for this challenge! I would love for us to follow each other so that we can compare our pictures, get some new ideas and see how we interpret the prompts!

LET'S GET CREATIVE! PLEASE JOIN IN ON THE FUN!

Teacher Must Have: Keysocks!

You may have seen posts for these awesome socks on Pinterest! 

I love ballet flats so I knew I had to try some! 

Check out the Keysock website: www.keysocks.com

I decided to try a bundle pack for $38. You get to choose what for styles you want. I went with their original 2 nude and 2 black! I also decided to try a black pair of their light style described on their website as: 32% Coffee Charcoal, 48% Rayon, 18% Nylon, 2% Spandex and Cool Smart Moisturizer.This fabric undergoes a revolutionary, patented process never before done in the United States that converts coff ee residue into an eco-friendly, sumptuously soft fi ber. It cools the body temperature in warm weather and warms the body in the cold. This sock is thinner than the Original Women's Keysocks. Perfect for Spring/Summer.

They all have adorable keys on the back on the heel in blue or silver shimmer!

 

They also threw in a free striped pair that are super cute!

While they look silly with my pants rolled up for you to see the detail, they are honestly the most comfortable socks for ballet flats! Once I pulled my skinny leggings down you can't even see them! 

My favorite part is that they are knee socks and don't fall down into my shoes. If you are like me and LOVE/LIVE in ballet flats, these are well worth the investment!

Thank you Shelby for bringing this awesome idea to life! I love them!

Bulletin Board Letter Storage

If Pinterest isn't inspiration for all of us teacher to become better organized, I don't know what is! For the longest time I have been going back and forth with how to organize bulletin board letters. I usually end up popping out the letters I need and leave all the others attached to a mess of scraps. I would try to gather them up as neat as possible and put them in a gallon Ziplock bag and call that organization! Try organized chaos! I knew their had to be a better way so I took to Pinterest to check my options.

Who would have thought that the solution to my problem was as easy as a CD case! I jumped into my car and drove to Target. There weren't many options as most download music now, but I did find this one!

You could always find one pretty cheap on Amazon as well!

I of course loved it because it's PINK! I thought it would be easier to find in my room or buried in my desk! Once you have your case it's as simple as popping out all  the letters you have collected and organizing them into each pocket! Easy yes...but definitely boring and time consuming. I suggest popping out letters while mindless watching TV to wind down from the day! I love this idea because once the time consuming part is done you end up saving time using them in your classroom. 

It's a Brainstorm...Classroom Tour 2013!

Welcome to my room! This year is the first year that I haven't had to completely move rooms! Woo hoo! Despite not moving rooms, I still worked all week to bring my room back to life and add some awesome additions inspired by one of Krissy Venosdale's rooms! If you haven't checked her out you definitely need to see her Evolution of a Classroom because you will fall in love with her ideas and her love for recycling items within her rooms.

Now onto the tour starting in my hall!

My classroom leader board in the hall. 

We are starting Leader in Me this year! 

Taking Second by Storm this year above student backpack area. Once I have my official class list I will be adding student names to the lightning bolts! The beautiful poster is from Krissy Venosdale! Check out her Flickr for free poster downloads!

This poster is hanging above my classroom door! I made it using Photoshop and I am pretty impressed with my first Photoshop project! Turned out pretty good!

NOW THE FUN PART! Welcome to my Classroom!

This is what I see when I first walk into my room.

This is from the other side of my room!

Right when my kids walk into the room they make their lunch choices. I will add names to the colored tickets. This station is where I store my students ID cards and Ziplock bags for their lunch money. They take their card from the station and put it in the red pocket of their choice. I have picture cards of the lunch choices that clip onto the pockets so that my kids can see what they are choosing.

On the other side of the door I have a stand where important notes get placed and where my students can find hats and gloves in the cold Michigan winters. Next is our mailboxes! The red cabinet is from Ikea and my wonderful dad made the mailboxes! Check out my light out brain! I love adding lights to my classroom because I have NO windows :(

Next is the sink area. Tip if you have a bulletin board by a sink: Buy cheap vinyl table clothes to cover the board! They wipe up from any water damage! I usually find them at Meijer or Bed Bath and Beyond in the clearance from the summer! This is were my classroom leader jobs will be posted. Under the counter I store cleaning supplies, paper plates, plastic ware, cups, tissue, and paper towel. 

In front of my sink I have a table that I use for science along with many other things throughout the day! The wood door is a built in cabinet with lots of storage packed with lots of stuff!

Our classroom meeting area! I am still working on the calendar setup to make it more math based. The cabinet behind the red chair is filled with games for indoor recess. It also holds our behavior chart!

This is our classroom schedule! 

My kids really rely on this visual schedule of our day and it helps keep me on track!

My whiteboard/Smart Board area!  Under the Smart Board I have a old white toy chest that I put extra teacher binders that I don't use on an everyday basis. The headphone are for the four  iPod touches I received through Donors Choose!

My desk area! I don't use my desk to much because my kids use my computer along with the other student computers throughout the day. I do have lots of storage here that it definitely utilized!

Common Core posters for I can statements. 

You can find these on Teacher Pay Teacher for every grade level!

Birthday bags are a new addition to my room this year! The area above my desk was lacking so I tacked up gift bags for each month and filled them with crazy straw balloons for each student! I got the bags and straws from Dollar Tree and the birthday balloon toppers from Teacher Pay Teacher!

My guided reading table! 

I got the Pebble ball chairs from a Donors Choose project.

The green dry erase dots are  from Bed Bath and Beyond! 

My teacher shelf! The books on the top two shelves are picture books that I use most often separated by pieces of file folders by month and then by topic. 

New project for this year was to consolidate all my files into binders! I have taught kindergarten, first and now second so I needed to downsize! The two inch binders are from Costco. The chevron spines and coves from Teacher Pay Teacher! I will post more in depth about this project later!

Math manipulative cart!

This shelf contains books students can listen to on our classroom iPods! 

I change them out every few weeks.

 Classroom library! The brilliant brains board will get covered in student work. The books are separated by topic and by fiction and nonfiction. I am still working on the best way to organize and label books!

Library complete with Chicka, Chicka, Boom Boom Tree and color changing star lights from Ikea!

Student computer area!

The whole back wall in my room is metal! I use magnets on everything! I hung blue chevron fabric to break up the white wall and make a word wall/writing board.

Close up on my word wall! Letters were found on Teachers Pay Teachers!

Writing Center! I will be adding more to the board at the year goes on. On the table my students will find all the supplies they need for writing!

Check out my awesome light up tornado for my Brain"Storm" idea! Next to it are topic cards for writing that I found on Pinterest.

  

 I love my pencil dispenser and can't wait for the kids to use it! The red bins are filled with crayons by color for student to easily find a color they need! I also created classroom journals with various topic for my students to share their thoughts in. They can create their own entry and read their friends writing also! 

 

These are a couple posters I made from ideas I found on Pinterest!

Thanks for taking a glimpse into my classroom! If you have any questions about things you see here please feel free to leave a comment or contact me! I would love to share my ideas with you!