Classroom Tour

Can you believe it's been 10 DAYS since I've posted? I can considering pre-planning started on Monday and I spent at least 10 hours a day in my classroom unpacking boxes, getting things ready, laminating, copying, decorating bulletin boards....you name it, I probably did it! I guess that's the joy of moving grades and classrooms! :)

Here for you now, I have some before and after pictures of my classroom. I updated a few things when I went in yesterday, so I'll have to add those later!

BEFORE! AHHHH!!!

Classroom Tour:

Front Door

Front of room during Sneak-A-Peek! Love those Jungle Cursive Letters from TpT! :)

CAFE letters I made to go along with mini-lessons.

Bulletin boards that still need some pizazz! :)

My Desk

Part of my desk area. ( I HAVE TO FINISH LABELING THOSE BINS) :)

You can NEVER have too many bins to organize. :)

Daily 5 Choice Board. I have velcro with student names where they will place their name next to their choice.

Library area (I HAVE GOT TO ORGANIZE THOSE BOOKS)

Well, there we go. I've still got some more work to do and I have to spruce up my bulletin boards! :) I think it's looking pretty good so far. I can't believe I go back to school TOMORROW!!! I'm very excited about part of my new classroom economy system.....Monkey Money!!! This will go along with my clip chart behavior system! :) Click HERE to go see it!

 I start school tomorrow, start my graduate program next Monday, and I still somehow can't stop making things for my room! Hopefully I'll be better about posting. For all of you going back to school tomorrow....HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!!

And the Winner Is......

Drum roll, please.........the winner of the $25 TpT Gift Certificate is....

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations to Rachel over at:
  I will be emailing you your gift certificate today!  

Thank you so much to everyone who entered, commented, followed my blog, my TpT store, and shared my giveaway! I look forward to more giveaways in my future!

 

It's getting down to crunch time for me. We go back to school on Monday and we have Sneak-A-Peek with the kids on Thursday. I haven't been able to get in my room AT ALL. But, I keep telling myself that I didn't get in my room until the Saturday before the kids arrived on Monday morning last year, and I survived.....barely. :)

Back to School Prep

I've been workin' hard getting things in order to head back to school next week. I don't even start pre-planning until Monday! Since I got married this summer, I've loved having the extra time after the wedding to get my life in order!

First, I made a transportation management system that I've been seeing all over blogs and pinterest! If this was originally your idea, let me know so I can give you credit! You can find these FREEBIE transportation circles HERE at my TpT store. I'm going to have the students clip their clothespin on there to show how they're going home. I had students last year who went home a different way everyday. Sometimes the office would buzz me and ask how they went home......umm....that's not a good feeling!!!

Next, I made a matching "Jungle Jobs" chart to go with my jungle jobs cards. You can find those HERE! These also match my behavior chart which can also be found on TpT! 

Then, I went ahead and got my student binders together. I use a SAFARI binder, which stands for "Students and Families Are Ready & Informed." Here is what the cover looks like: (I will put their name on the black line)

On the inside of this binder I put stickers for Take Home and Bring Back. Students put papers that need to go home to parents in the "Take Home" side. Anything that comes back to me goes in the "Bring Back" pocket.

 I also have a pouch inside for their homework packet. I used regular page protectors last year, and since I use a homework packet they keep for the whole week, the page protectors just wouldn't cut it. I found these cool pockets at Office Max and they were buy 3 get 1 free! :) I think they are going to hold up really well! Here's what the cover looks like:

Finally, don't forget that my 100 Follower Giveaway ends tonight at midnight!! Thanks to all of you who have entered. Click HERE to go enter! I will announce the winner TOMORROW! :) Good luck to everyone, and I can't wait to see who wins!



Monday Made It

Today's Monday Made It is for my classroom. I cheated and posted a "Saturday Made It" just because I was SO excited about my teacher toolbox. I want to make another one because I'm obsessed. But, following the trend of "Thanks for popping in" that's all over Pinterest, I made my own to go with my jungle theme. I couldn't find someone to link this back to, so if this was your idea, please let me know so I can give you credit!! Luckily, Scrappin Doodles had monkey popcorn clipart! How perfect! I was thrilled. Here's the picture of how they turned out. I think they look super cute. I couldn't decide on which font to use, thanks to Kevin & Amanda for having SO many cute fonts.  

If you have a jungle theme and want to use this in your room, head on over to TpT to grab this cute freebie! I, of course, took off Mrs. Perkins so that you can fill in your own name when you print it out! :)

I also created some jungle themed job cards that match my behavior clip chart! You can find those HERE! :)

Finally, if you haven't already entered my giveaway, make sure TO CLICK HERE! It ends Wednesday night and the winner gets a $25 TpT gift certificate! Woo! :)

100 FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY!!!

Here it is...the day I've been waiting for. I've reached 100 followers! I'm so excited and honored that all of you want to follow my bright little blog! :) Just in time for back to school comes my 100 follower giveaway. What am I going to giveaway you might ask? Well, it's something pretty spectacular. It's something ALLLLL of us teachers could use.....

That's right, you guessed it, I'm giving away $25 gift card to Teachers Pay Teachers.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The giveaway closes Wednesday, August 1 at midnight. I will announce the winner on August 2! I can't wait to see who wins! Good luck! :)

Swimming into Second Giveaway & Saturday Made It!! :)

So everyone needs to go over to Swimming Into Second and enter Courtney's giveaway! Today is the last day and she has AWESOME prizes! I hope I win!!! :)

Now, I couldn't wait until Monday to share the beauty I made yesterday. I know I'm extremely behind on this trend, but I couldn't decide whether I wanted to make one since the pens, pencils, etc. don't fit in straight. Can we say OCD? But, I gave in and I LOVE IT!!!!! Seriously, it's probably going to be like my favorite classroom item and will keep me from throwing everything in my desk drawer! Yay! With all of that being said, here is my version of the ever-so-popular Teacher Toolbox. Thank you Blog Land and Pinterest! :)

I think it turned out adorable! :) There's a special appearance by Bentley in the back. Those of you who've been following me from the beginning know that he had surgery 12 weeks ago for a torn ACL and meniscus. He got cleared yesterday to play ball and be his "old self," even though he's only 2. Ball playing here we come! :)

P.S. I foresee a giveaway in my near future!!

Tell Me More, Tell Me More...and Tell Me about Jungle Behavior Clip Chart! :)

Okay, so I'm linking up with probably my FAVORITE blogger. I LOVE Amy Lemons, in a non-creepy way of course! ha. I am such a huge fan of everything she posts, especially her TpT store. With that being said, I'm super excited to join her linky! :)

1. I LOVE food. Seriously, I've been blessed with a high metabolism...which I hope doesn't change as I age! I ate an entire box of Annie's Mac & Cheese today for lunch. Usually I have to make myself stop eating. My favorite is Mexican food. I could eat Mexican food everyday and luckily I've got many Mexican favorites in ATL! :)

2. I can remember wearing my hair down in high school maybe 10 times. I always wore it in a ponytail or a messy bun. Not until I went off to college and joined a sorority, Alpha Delta Pi, did I actually become super "girly." I now own more dresses than any girl ever should! ha.



3. I LOVE college football. I grew up in a Georgia Tech household, went to Georgia Southern, and by marriage I've become a Tennessee volunteer. My husband was born in Knoxville and his parents and grandparents went to UT. He didn't go due to out of state tuition, but believe me that didn't hinder his LOVE OBSESSION! In this picture, he was channeling his inner Dooley. :)



4. I absolutely LOVE scary/suspenseful movies. The scarier and the more I jump, the better! I haven't seen anything really good lately and would love any recommendations.

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On another note, I finally finished my Jungle Behavior Clip Chart. It's not too detailed, I was just holding out on posting it until I actually put it together myself. I LOVE it! :) Here's a picture of it..the pic isn't such great quality, but I think it still looks awesome!

To purchase this adorable clip chart, go visit my TpT store and find it HERE!! First person to comment and tell me where I went on my honeymoon, I'll send it to you for free! :)



Monday Made It!

Finally, here is my Monday Made It post....since I missed it last week! My parent's anniversary was July 15 and my sister and I wanted to do something different this year. She saw on Pinterest the framed Scrabble tiles spelling out names and off we went from there. Here was our original inspiration:

My sister found scrabble tiles on Etsy for cheap, so she bought a whole package.

I'm the super somewhat creative one in the family, so I had the design task. Here are a few of my materials. :)

1. Scrapbook Page Frame (SOOO much easier than trying to get it framed)

2. Cardstock Letters (I ended up using other letters in addition to these in the end)

3. Stampin' Dimensionals from Stampin' Up. I LOVE THESE THINGS!!!!

4. Final finished product...with some pizazz! :)



Designing this was really fun, even though I'm fully aware it's a little crooked! ha. Everyone is included....even the 3 dogs! Here's your super challenge. Can anyone figure out which letter tile we ran out of? :) I had to draw one of the tiles on a blank tile she sent us. Who can figure out which one it is??? :) 

P.S. I'm loving all the comments and love I've been receiving lately. Thanks for all the comments! They make my day! :)

Newbie Blog Hop

Janice over at Grade Three is the Place for Me is having the best idea for a blog hop! I'm fairly new to blogging (a few months) and think this is such a great idea to get to know other "newbies!" :)

1. What state you are in? I was born and raised in the fantastic state of Georgia! I love it here, and wouldn't go anywhere else!
2. Your current teaching position. I am currently teaching 3rd grade in a suburb outside Atlanta
3. Your teaching experience. This will be my second year teaching. I taught 2nd grade last year. I student taught, and did all of my other field experience, in South Georgia right outside Savannah.
4. When you started blogging? I started my blog I think around April! I didn't post anything for a long time. Being a first year teacher and planning a wedding kept me quite busy. I'm happy to be back!
5. Share a blogging tip / blogging resource. Don't be afraid to share and be critiqued. I shared so many of my first resources I posted on TpT for free with my first few followers. I emailed them all to them to look through and keep! I got some great feedback and even had some typos I had overlooked!

I'm almost done with my newest TpT product, Jungle Clip Chart Behavior System. I know there are already a few of these out there, but I didn't find any that suited my needs perfectly. As soon as I put it together and take a few pictures of what it looks like in "real life," I will post a preview here!

I'm still waiting on 100 followers so I can do an awesome giveaway! :)