Classroom Organization Part Uno

Happy 4th of July!  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday.  I have family coming over for a pool party in a bit.  We've had some crazy storms the last few nights.  Thank heavens Bella is not storm sensitive!

My classroom floors are finished so I went to work for a few hours yesterday.  I promised myself that I was going to do some major organization before I even started moving furniture.  One of my main problem areas is this cabinet. I'm sort of the girl scout of our first grade team (all ten of us) and of my friends in preschool.  When they need something, they send a note to me.  I usually have whatever they need in this cabinet.  The problem is that I end up on my hands and knees pulling EVERYTHING out to get whatever is needed.  It's very annoying!

I bought these organizers for 6.99 at Tar-get. I got some other GREAT stuff there too that I'll share in another post.  Haha, I need another summer shopping linky!

They are long and shallow so I can pack them higher and slide them in and out like drawers.

I put crafty supplies in two of them and paper products in another and then labeled them.

This is the end result which should work well for me and keep the knees of my pants clean!

Sparkle On Wayne!

Bonus points if you know what my title is referring to...

Look, they made one just for me!  Haha!

Did you see about eduClipper yesterday?  Apparently it's Pinterest-like but just for teachers.  Click the picture to check it out.  It's not ready yet, but the video looks interesting.

And now for something completely non-teachery...

Is this not okay?  I enjoy reading about everyone's lives, but I've seen several places now where the rule is Just the Teacher Stuff, Ma'am...  What do you think?

Today was a gorgeous day in east Tennessee!  Breezy and hot!  I was supposed to get my gastric lapband adjusted so I can start losing again, but they called and cancelled my appointment.  Grr...  So I went to see my grandma (aka Mamaw) and um...more shopping.  I have a serious Walmart/Target/Dollar Store problem.  I almost can't pass one without stopping.  

I was attempting to buy more items to do my take on the Hall/Bathroom Pass pin that everyone is doing.  But, alas..they didn't have what I needed at Walmart or DT.  Darn it, I'll just have to go to Target tomorrow!  <evil laugh>

Children of the 80's, listen UP!  I went with a group of my crazy teacher friends to see Rock of Ages yesterday.  It was a cheesy, fun riot!  The music is awesome!  We were singing along and pumping our fists.  Go see it!  

I'm off to duct tape my whisper phones!  I'll post pics of how they turn out tomorrow!

Much love,

Summer Shopping Linky

Happy Sunday, friends!  I have misssssssed you!  I have had house guests for the past 7 (SEVEN) days!  We had lots of fun swimming, shopping (more on that in a sec), and going to movies.  But the thing is that I'm used to living alone with my furbaby and don't mind that a little tiny bit.  So seven days of no solitude was rough!  I know those of you with husbands and kids just told me to shut it! Haha!

I saw Prometheus and The Avengers.  I really can't decide which cutie from the Avengers that I'd like to star in my 50 Shades fantasies.  Ha!  Thor was always my first choice because he is just so....yum.  But Captain America has those biceps and that nice tight tushie! Whew!  And the guy with the bow just makes me want to growl.  Oh, decisions, decisions!  Maybe all?  


So the awesome Miss Kristen from Ladybug's Teacher Files is having a summer shopping linky party.

Love that zebra purse!

It just so happens that I went shopping this week!  My first purchase was from Target (I hope you say Tar-jay like we do lol).  I'm shocked you didn't hear me squealing from wherever you are.  GUESS what Target had???  LOOK!

Y'all know I'm crazed about the pattern duct tape but oh my STARS!  My classroom theme is bright colors and stars so I am over the MOON!  Can you tell I'm excited?

Next I went to the teacher mecca that is the Dollar Tree!  I found several things that I don't need but had to have anyway.  Here are some school supply die cuts and a little butterfly tissue paper art project.  I bought these mostly for some inspiration.

But also at the Dollar Tree I found these Crayola big books.  I <3 them!  I put my hand in the shot so you'd get the idea of how big they are.  Inside each book, there are gorgeous color photographs of all sort of items of that color.  We do a color word study at the beginning of the year so these will be PERFECT!

Here is a shot showing you the inside of the books..too cute!

So that's my first shopping spree!  What have YOU purchased?  Go link up with Kristen.

Much love,

Don't call Hoarders!

Don't call Hoarders on me please!  I have been trying to clean out my house and get some organization at last.  There are some things I've come across that have made me shake my head in wonder.  I didn't know I was that big of a pack rat!

I found these in a cabinet and almost tossed them.  Ever since I got my iPod I don't have much use for these even when I do burn my own cds.  I had quite a collection!

I thought about making picture frames for kid work next year.  But then I got some polka dot duct tape!  Yahoo!  I ended up making number tiles for my kids to practice skip counting next year.  

I put 2's on one side and 5's on the other side.  I think they turned out super cute!  That tape is so fun!  I got zebra print, paint splattered, and silver.  

I spent the day lounging by the pool reading the latest Sookie Stackhouse book.  Anyone read those?  I have a thing for paranormal romance.  Don't think less of me, haha!  

Tomorrow I'm taking my sweet mama shopping....pray for me.  She HATES to shop, but she's lost so much weight that new clothes are a must.  I LIVE to shop!  I don't know where I got the shopping gene!  

Do you ever start to blog and lose all sense of where to put commas?  Or am I the only one who worries about such things?  **sigh**

Much love,

Fun with Bottle Caps!

Good evening!  I hope all of you are having a fabulous week so far.  I'm officially sick of rain.  I have a beautiful crystal clear swimming pool in my backyard, but it won't stop raining!  I'm becoming cranky and grumpy.  Hopefully I'll be able to soak up some rays tomorrow and get back to some trashy romance novels.  I have my priorities, right?  Ha!

I'm babysitting for my friend who is Florida this week. Her doggy, Fletcher, is PRECIOUS and is Bella's boyfriend.  They wake me nightly chasing each other around the kitchen table.  This was my view as I ate dinner tonight.

They look like they are STARVING, don't they?  Haha!

About a month before school let out, I noticed my kiddos were throwing lots of water bottle lids away.  I let them have water bottles at their seats because our classroom is honestly about a football field away from the restroom/water fountain.  I saw a pin using bottle caps and had the kiddies (and their parents) start saving for me.  Unfortunately I didn't apparently pin that pin so my brain flat-lined on what to with them.  Oh, bless me...

This was my water bottlecap booty before.

My first project I decided to do with the caps was a making words activity.  I cleaned the caps and then applied 3 sets of alphabet stickers.  I wanted to be sure we had plenty of letters.  Then I Modge Podged the stickers on so my little darlings won't be able to peel off the stickers.

This is how they turned out!

This is how the sheet will be used.

Here is the sheet if you'd like to use it! I know it's not lined up perfectly.  My first graders won't care!  Mostly I'm very particular, but not tonight it seems.  C'est la vie! Click the pic to download (if Google Docs is cooperating).

I had plenty of caps left over so I decided to use them to help my firsties practice their numbers.  Several had much trouble this year identifying numbers after 50 and especially after 100.  I just wrote the numbers on with a sharpie and then Modge Podged over the number to prevent rubbing off.  The idea is that they should be able to put the caps on this chart in order and then write them on another chart.  

I'm very frustrated with this chart.  It needs to be a bit bigger for the caps to fit perfectly, but I absolutely could NOT get the boxes any bigger. I took the margins away.  I tried it in Word and in PowerPoint.  Grr!! I'm sorry!  I will take this to school and slightly blow it up before I laminate these.  Give me some tips if you know how I could have made them bigger.  I hope you can use it anyhow!  Click the pic for the Google Doc.  I hope it works..Google Docs has not been nice to me tonight!

All in all, I had a very productive day!  I didn't even nap today!  Haha!

Are you working on any projects?  

Much love,