August Currently

Yay!

All right, back to school must-haves...

1. Storage - I mentioned in my last post that I traded in my desk for a desk that's more table-y. No drawers, just a flat surface with legs. So I need to find some plastic drawers to fill up with my stuff! I think I also need to just buckle down and make the teacher toolbox that everyone has made this summer...
2. My cousins - Kelley and Lisa came to help me last year with my bulletin boards and I really do not know what I would do without them! Kelley and I picked out borders last week and I am looking forward to seeing my whole room come together with their help!!!!!
3. Lesson plan book - Obviously I need a new lesson plan book. Although the Erin Condren planners are incredibly tempting... I am moving out in 2 weeks so I am trying to save as much money as I can! Last year we were given lesson plan books by my school. I didn't like them at all so I bought a different one but this time I think I am going to just suck it up and use it... because it's free.

I went back in to school today! I made a to-do list so I wouldn't forget anything. Do you think it is long enough?

I did cross one thing off - labeling all of our consumable workbooks!

Do you use a lot of workbooks? After labeling all of them it appears that pretty much all I have is workbooks!!

My principal told me today that he is ordering two interactive whiteboards and one will be for me! I can't even tell you how ridiculously amazing this is, as I do not even have an overhead projector in my classroom! I am not holding my breath until I see it installed and plugged in, but the word on the street is that we are getting Starboards.

Does anyone out there have a Starboard?

The Before

Today was the first day we were officially allowed back in the classroom! And, ay yi yi, what a mess!

Here's what I'm working with in my roomio...

Here is a view of my wall o' bulletin boards. Also in the corner you can see that I am trading my MASSIVE GIGANTIC teacher's desk for a little desk on wheels! Can you see it? It has the apple on it!

Here is my big whiteboard that is not magnetic. I feel like I need to say that every time I talk about this whiteboard because it would be an AMAZING thing if it was magnetic...... anyway! On the sides are bulletin boards even though they are green. I promise there is cork under there.

Here is my back wall, opposite of the whiteboard wall. Huge windows, great natural light! I have two cabinet/shelving unit things that I want to get rid of somehow.... although I really desperately need storage, they take up way too much space!

And here is the last wall. A chalkboard surrounded by bulletin boards, and on each side you can see my coatroom doors. Also you can see that I actually haven't traded in my MASSIVE GIGANTIC teacher's desk. It is way too heavy for people such as myself to be moving.

Here is something I am super pumped about.... I got a big rug!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our Kindergarten teacher retired and she had 3 big rugs in her room. Our new Kindergarten teacher is my buddy and said she didn't need all 3! Yay! This will be where we meet for whole group instruction and read alouds.

Here is my dilemma.... behind my rocking chair and easel you can see that there is part of the wall o' bulletin boards. What can I put up behind my easel that we won't need to look at all day long?? Decisions, decisions...

So there you have it! The before pictures! Hopefully the next pictures you see will be muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch better-looking. :)

Monday Made It: Bead Slides

It's Monday! Two more days until I can get back into school to start setting up and I am SO PUMPED! Also I'm excited because it is Monday Made It day again!

This Monday, I made bead slides to use for phonemic awareness activities!

I read about bead slides from Katie at Two Can Do It who originally read about it from Julie at Make, Take & Teach!

You use bead slides to help students learn how to segment phonemes. As you may know, phonemic awareness is important because children's level of phonemic awareness is highly correlated with their success in beginning reading! (I feel like I should put an in-text citation here, haha.) Anyway, when you're asking a student to segment phonemes, you would give them a word like "book." If they are comfortable with this skill, they would be able to tell you that the sounds in book are: b-oo-k. 3 sounds - 3 phonemes!

Bead slides just give students extra kinesthetic support so they can build this SUPER IMPORTANT skill!  They move a bead with each sound that they say.

Anyway, let me tell you how to make them. :)

You'll need...

• regular flat shoelaces. I bought 54" shoelaces from Target. They were about $2 a pack, and I was able to make 12 bead slides using one pack of shoelaces (6 on each lace).
• beads. I got mine at Hobby Lobby for about $2.50. You could actually use pony beads if you want, you just want to make sure that the holes aren't too big so there is some resistance when you move the  beads up and down the shoelace.

Then you're ready to start!

You'll want to put groups of 6 beads onto the shoelaces and tie off about 5-6" inch sections for each bead slide. Here's a picture to show you what I mean.

After you have put on your beads and tied off each section, cut in between the knots and you will have your bead slides!

If you use Michael Heggerty's phonemic awareness book, you could absolutely use these for the segmenting and blending portions of the daily routines!

Julie at Make, Take & Teach has a video about bead slides as well as extra resources to use these! :)

Bead slides are fun to play with, too, so if you don't teach phoneme segmentation, you could easily use these as fidgets in your classroom!

Tell Me More!

Super late to this party! I'm linking up with Mrs. Lemons today to tell you all about ME!

I like dogs, but I am scared of big dogs.

I have a cat who I love very much. Her name is Natalia but I call her The Keekster. She sleeps with me every night! PS: This is not my bed... although it sort of looks like it in this picture. It is a makeshift bed because my bff Nicole spent the weekend with me!!

I really like flowers. They make me super happy. Yesterday I went to a farmer's market and there was a little stand where you could make your own bouquet for $5! It was sooooooo hard to move on to the next stand.... I might find myself back there sometime soon. :)

I don't like eating meat but I love steak. I especially don't like eating chicken although I love boneless chicken wings. And on that note, I detest eating meat off of bones! It really really grosses me out.

I have a little brother. He is 24. We have had our ups and downs as sibling-friends but now we are pretty close and I enjoy him!

I eat everything plain. I don't like sauces, syrups, salsa, or condiments. It actually took me a long time to accept the idea of buttering bread... you know, like when you get rolls with your meal at restaurants? I'm down with butter now though. :) People really get weirded out when I order plain hot dogs for some reason.

I was in a sorority in college, Alpha Delta Pi! It wasn't a HUGE part of my college experience because I had an on-campus job, too, but I was Finance VP and I had a fun time. :)

I am not a runner. I am terrible at running and it makes me feel bad to do it. However........ I applied for a Girls on the Run team for this upcoming school year and I reeeeally hope I get to have one!

I have the two best cousins that ANYONE could have! They crack me up and when I am hanging out with them I feel like I am hanging out with myself. I am a pretty big fan of myself  so that is cool with me, haha!!

My favorite kind of sandwich is tuna, unless it has onions in it!!

That's all!!

Teacher Tools @ Home

Holla!

Man, I am sleepy! Today I went to a farmer's market, checked out my future home, and went on a super long bike ride!

But I am here to today to link up with my amiga, Laura, in her first ever linky!!

I don't work a whole lot at home - I prefer to stay late at school and get everything done there. BUT I do have a few things I rely on at home. :)

First is my glue gun!

This bad boy goes back and forth with me from home to school. I legit hot glue everything. Probably even stuff I shouldn't hot glue. Whenever something breaks at school, my students ask if they should plug in the glue gun, haha! I got this super cute one at Michael's for like $5 or something. And you can buy the mini glue sticks at Dollar Tree, so that's a plus too!

Second is my laptop!

I use my laptop at home and at school too! We don't get school computers so I use mine for everything. I make my little activities on here, I blog on here, I do everything. The battery absolutely is useless so it always needs to be plugged in. Oh wells!!

And third is my circle punch!

I love punching out things with my 3" circle punch. It is a good general size for things to be punched. I bought mine at Michael's! I can't remember how much it was... but I used a coupon. It's awesome. The kids love it too!

There are many things I would like beyond these things... but one thing that I think I could really use is a little scanner. Do you know what I mean?

I have lots of worksheets and paper things that I wish I just had in PDF form on my computer. I hate having paper laying around! I would love one of these little scanners that I could just scan my papers through and then recycle them!

What kind of tools do you use at home to make your awesome smawesome things? Go link up with Laura!!

Destination: Summer Vacation!

Today I'm linking up with my buddy Krista for her very first linky party! Yay!

Sadly, I am not a well-traveled person. However, that means I just love everywhere I go! I'm not picky. :)

Here are some favorite destinations of mine...

{Lake Geneva, Wisconsin}

Lake Geneva is a lovely little town not too too far from where I live. It is bit tourist-y, so it has your normal ice cream shops and cafes and boutique type of places. But it also has a HUGE lake that you can boat on! There is also a Lake Shore Path around the entire lake that you can walk on. You go through people's huge backyards and it is just really wonderful. Every house can make the path look however they want to, and one house made a really nice paved path with a fence that is covered with inspirational quotations. Here is a picture from a trip that my boyfriend and I took up there a few weeks ago!

{Oceanside, California}

I have family in southern California and it is the most BEAUTIFUL PLACE EVER. I want to marry it. When I go there I can't stop staring at everything. So many plants and flowers. And so many hills!!! It is so incredibly flat here, and I didn't realize that until I was in California.

{Illinois Beach State Park - Zion, Illinois}

This is another semi-local place I like to visit, although I have not gone yet this summer!!!! :( I definitely do not swim at this beach because Lake Michigan is FREEZING but the beach is gigantic and a great place to picnic, read, and just chill.

So there is a theme to my favorite destinations......... water and the beach!! Here is how I feel about the beach:

Go link up with Krista! I want to know where you go. :)

Monday Made It: Crate and Drawer Storage

Hi friends! Happy Monday!

My Monday Made It is a little......... unfinished-looking today. Also my title for this project is not good... I think you'll understand what I mean though. :)

This week I made a crate and fabric drawer and shelf storage thingy for my class!

I was inspired by Stephanie at 3rd Grade Thoughts! Like her, I have an awkward space underneath my whiteboard in my room. This year it was occupied by my Even and Odd Street...

but next year I want to use the space productively. I don't have any in-classroom storage whatsoever. No built-in cabinets, no shelves, nothing. So this will give me some space to store things for Daily Five or whatevs.

The supplies were easy to get! I bought 4 crates at Target (they're on sale right now for $3!), I bought the fabric drawers at Aldi (2 for $5.99! WOW!), and I got the board at Menard's (it was around $7 or so in the lumber section of the store). The board measures... 1" by 12" by 72"... 1 inch thick, 12 inches wide, and 72 inches long. Or 6 feet, however you want to say it.

The crates are ziptied together. I haven't officially attached the board yet because I don't think I could get this contraption into my car if I did. :)

My random baskets are to show what will be there! I plan to buy legit baskets to put my little chalkboards in and my whisper phones and all that jazz.

The drawers will have my Listen to Reading materials, perhaps my Word Work materials, stuffed animals for the kids to read aloud to, and so on!

I am excited about this new storage option in my class!