What a week!

School starts on Monday and I am so excited! We had open house on Thursday night and it was so great to see all of my kids from last year who are my students now. We had a great turn out.  It is going to be such a great year.  I found out on Wednesday that I am now teaching only 5th grade, so I was kind of relieved.  I was starting to stress a little about teaching a combo class and getting married, my fiance asked me if he would ever see me during the school year? :(

I have been so busy and I haven't taken many photos of my room, so I will try and do that next week and post them. I am so excited with the way everything turned out.  My kids also seemed to love it at open house.

This will be my first year teaching all subjects.  I was a little overwhelmed on Friday, but I sat down today and looked at the standards for 5th grade and units that have been made by our district and I am feeling much better. 

I know that most of you don't go back to school for a while, but if there is anyone else out there going back on Monday I hope you have a great school year!  : )

Getting Started

I was finally able to go into school yesterday! I was able to get the layout of my room set up for the most part, but haven't gotten any of my bulletin boards up yet. 

I had made curtains for my window and storage area. This is how they turned out. I didn't sew any of it. I simply cut it and used Velcro to keep them up. 

Before 

After

Before 

After

I love the way they look. I also got my new reading nook set up. 

My handy dandy dad made the large bookcase for me last year and I love it. I have my chapter books organized by lexile levels in the plastic bins. The smaller bookcase is organized by genre. The back of the small bookcase was falling apart, so I threw some paper and border on it. Looks like new!  I think I am going to let that be our Books We Love poster. 

Our workdays are all next week, so I will post more pics as things get finished! 

Summer Piles

I have accumulated quite a bit to take into school when the time comes.  I will actually be getting to go in this week and then our workdays start the following week.  I have tried to keep it as tidy as possible and have managed to keep most of it in boxes.  I am excited to see all of this cute stuff in my room!

A family friend donated all of these books last year and I never got around to leveling the books, so they just sat in the boxes.  I finally got them all leveled.  My kids will be so exited, as you can see there are several Diary of a Wimpy Kids books, those are like gold to the kids :)

New School Year

Next week is our last week off from school.  We have a full week of workdays, then our sweet kiddos come back!  (we are a year round school) I am excited and kinda freaking out!  So much to do! I am also excited to say I will be teaching a 4th/5th combo class.  I am so glad to be keeping several of my 4th graders from last year :)  I am also looking forward to meeting my new 4th graders!

Please feel free to share any helpful tips on teaching a combo class!  I can use all the help I can get!

Also, I got a package from ikea yesterday! We had a $50 gift card that we have had for like 2 years and I saw this rug and magazine file folders online at ikea.

The rug was just $19! I am going to put it in my classroom library area.  My kids love to read around the room, so this will be one more comfy area for them.  The rug goes perfect with my new color theme.  

The magazine files are 1.99 for a pack of 5. The magazine files will be used as my kids read to self book organizers.  We will keep their journals and several books on their levels in there.  We will keep the magazine files in their cubbies.  Can't wait to try this new system.  With this gift card, I only spent 8 cents! Wooohoo!

Monday Made It 07/01/13

I didn't make anything for school (yet) this week, but I did make somethings for the house and the wedding.

First, I made a new deco mesh wreath. I had the other one up for a while so it was time for a new one.  I got all my supplies at Hobby Lobby and most of them were 50% or more off this week!

I bought a wire wreath and attached the deco mesh to the wire with pipe cleaners. I cute the pipe cleaners in half because otherwise they are two long.

I started off with a burlap looking mesh and covered the wire wreath. 

Next, I added a layer of teal mesh and lime chevron wire ribbon. I also attached these with pipe cleaners. 

Between each section of the wreath I added some teal polka dot ribbon.

And this is my finished wreath on the front door! 

I also have a wedding coming up soon. I had picked up a birdcage to hold cards on the gift table. I wanted to make a little sign that said "cards" and this is what I came up with. 

I used some scrapbook paper, some card stock, letter stickers, and some really cute gray and white twisted string. 2 months and 19 days to go! Can't believe it will be here so soon!! :) 

Stool Makeover

I had a plain wooden stool that I used in my classroom and decided it need a makeover.

I stuck with my color scheme, so I painted the top white and then taped off a chevron pattern using frog tape.

I then painted my grey paint over the white. I let the paint dry over night and then peeled the tape off. It looked pretty good, but I had to do a few touch ups.

I thought it might be idea to put some kind of sealer, so I got out the handy dandy Mod Podge. 

After the Mod Podge dried, it was spray paint time. I used a black gloss spray paint to spray the stool legs. I taped off the top part of the stool so I wouldn't have any black paint on the seat of the stool. 

I didn't have quite enough spray paint, so I thought I could add some more color to the spoke part. I had some scrap paper and decided to Mod Podge it on! 

I am so excited about the way it turned out! 

New class theme!

I have been so excited about my new theme for this coming year. I bought some fabric at Hobby Lobby to make curtains and it has been my inspiration for the rest of my classroom. 

The circle design will be the curtain for my window and the green will fabric will be used as a curtain for some storage areas. 

I went to Michaels today and was so excited to see they had their school decor set out! I was wanting lime and black polka dot border and they had it! The lime colored border was on clearance or $1.99! So excited!

I was wanting to make some colored clothes pins for various things and was going to just spray paint them, but as I was checking out I spotted these in the $1.50 baskets. Too cute to pass up!

I am still obsessed with my READ letters I made last week! 

I also picked up some paint today to give my stool a makeover and match the color scheme. Stay posted, I will post a pic when it is finished! 

Ron Clark

 

A few months back several teachers at my school were chosen to visit Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. I was so lucky to attend and it was a life changing experience. 

Ron Clark is such an inspiration and his school is amazing. Everything at their school is so engaging. The lessons were unbelievable and who wouldn't want a slide IN their school? 

They also make the school very personable for the children. There are pictures of them hanging everywhere. I loved it! Since we visited, we have started hanging pictures of our kids around the school and they LOVE it!

The kids at Ron Clark were so thrilled to be there and truly appreciate their education. I hope that everyone who is a teacher gets the opportunity to visit the academy someday. You won't be the same! 

Monday Made It!

So I have my first Monday Made it!  I got this idea on Pinterest.  I am changing up my classroom colors this year to black, gray, and lime green.  I bought some really cute fabric last week at Hobby Lobby to make some curtains and I thought the paper I used for these letters would look great with the fabric.  I bought the scrapbook paper, the wooden letters, and some Mod Podge at Michaels yesterday.  I placed the wooden letters on top of the paper to trace the letters and then cut out the designs.  I then applied Mod Podge to the wooden letters to adhere the paper.  Once I had the entire front of the letters covered I applied Mod Podge on top of the paper (this will help it stay nice and sturdy).  I think they turned out great and I can't wait to hang them on the side of my bookcase!  I think I will add some ribbon to hang them by.  Happy Crafting!