Starter Kit Update and My Workout for the Day

I have updated my Daily 5 Literacy Centers Starter Kit. (I changed the title so that I don't go to jail for copyright infringement) It's not free anymore but it is still a steal for $2! It has everything you may need to start up some new literacy centers OR the Daily 5. Spread the word to all those newbies to Daily5, I promise it will be super helpful to anyone interested.

So, I finally broke my "stay out of the classroom you crazy person" pact today. My plan was to go to school today and tomorrow for the finishing touches on the summer school curriculum/set up. I arrived to school around 12 with all smiles and when I walked in Jessica, an office staff member, let me know that kindergarten received some packages. her exact words were, "I have a bone to pick with you!" Our new reading curriculum arrived!! Yay!! That reminds me, does anyone use Rowland's Reading SuperKids? We need some help getting started. Anyway, she had a bone to pick with me because of this beauty... 

Look at all those boxes! Those boxes need a home. So I told her I would find a place for them and I would come back. I stayed in the office for some chit chat and then headed over to my classroom. I was ready to bust out the last of my summer school work.  Summer school starts on Monday. I have almost everything set up, almost all of my copies made and I already created my BUILD choice board. Well, HAD almost everything set up. I unlock my door, walk in and almost cried. This is what I saw when I walked into my classroom...

Furniture pile

Partially complete BUILD board. Notice the missing pieces?

My co-teacher's desk

I almost exploded when I saw this

Under those chairs? Oh, my computer center.

Leaning tower of cube chairs

So, you may know that I am an organized, neat freak, with borderline OCD. Walking into this today nearly gave me a panic attack. They did this to clean up the classroom and wax the floors. That's nice right? WELL, THEY DIDN'T EVEN CLEAN! Ugh. I hope someone out there is feelin' my frustration. So what did I do? I marched my little feet up to the office to speak to our plant manager and ask her when she will be done, that way I can come back later in the week. Well, our plant manager isn't at school until next week! NEXT WEEK! What am I supposed to do? The only thing I could do, use my muscles and move everything back, duh. I spent an hour moving back all the furniture and at least 12 hours untangling, tangling and untangling the computer cords. Not really 12 hours but it felt like it. Needless to say, I got my workout for the day and no summer school work done.

Come back tomorrow for the pictures of the completed classroom, with no furniture pile and less exclamation points. =D

It's Tuesday,  Taco Tuesday? I think so!

Have a great day!

I'm back and look what I got!

A LOVELY BLOG AWARD! WOW! That is a perfect way to come back from a mini vacation! I am so excited about this! Thank you so much Laura! So here are the rules with earning a One Lovely Blog Award:

1. Follow the person that gave you the award
2. Link back to the person that gave you the award
3. Pass the award on to 15  bloggers
I'm passing the award on to the following blogs...

  Mrs.Shelton's Kinder
I am so excited! I hope that I do this right...

My hubs and I went on a weekend camping trip... to the beach! It was wonderful! We visited Jalama Beach where there is no cell phone service, at all! It was great to get away! Here's a glimpse...

The view from my tent. The truck was supposed to block the wind, didn't work.

So beautiful.

Think about it Thursday & Freebie

What I'm thinking about...
Preparing all my cute signs and posters, bulletins and classwork means nothing to me unless I am thinking about my students first. I mean, preparing and organizing is the most fun for me, seriously. However, I also think about the liberty I have to make my classroom my own and make it work for all of my students. I am proud of my school and all that we do, but I know that not everyone feels this way about their school or their position. At the same time, all of those people are probably not blogging, reading this blog or thinking about school at all. I LOVE my job, really. I get inspired by these resilient little humans everyday. I created this freebie for anyone who wants it. The first I have hung in my room before but I changed the colors to match my new color theme. The second is something I came across a few weeks ago. I do not know who wrote it but if you know, please tell me, I'd like to cite them. I love the message. I will  be posting this near my door or by my desk, I haven't decided. I will be printing them on photo paper and putting them in frames. Feel free to copy the image or if you'd like a digital copy, let me know, I am happy to share.

Does anyone have anything that inspires them? Do you have it in your classroom?

Lastly, how the heck did I get 55 followers????  That makes me so excited!!!! Really, it does!! New followers, enjoy the freebie. Also, have you downloaded my Daily 5 Starter Kit? I can't believe over 1600 people have downloaded it!!! Isn't that amazing? It is FREE right now, but won't be next week so grab yours soon.
I am off to enjoy some summer vacation by camping with my husband and our friends. I can't wait to see what my inbox will look like on Monday! Have a great weekend!

The first day of Summer!

Happy First Day of Summer Everyone!
On the first day of Summer I went straight to the beach! Here's how my day looked...

Our drive down the coast

Yup I live (near) here

I'm here but can you imagine what those people on the boat are thinking?

We were on his turf.

Isn't he cute?  My nephew...

Ok so nothing interesting for the education world but a sneak peek into my summer vacation! BTW I have a huge red sunburn on my back!

I hope you did something fun on this first day of Summer! 

=D

It's Tuesday?

Does anyone else lose track of time when they are on vacation? I don't have to read and repeat the date everyday, so why know it at all? lol. I am forcing myself, yes forcing myself, to stay away from my classroom for the next week and a half. I have summer school stuff to prepare and organizing to do BUT I have all summer, right? For the next week and a half, I am pinning and kicking my feet up!
I came across this picture today and I wanted to share with everyone. As I was reading it, I was like "YES!"

Anyone have something that they say to respond to ridiculous statements like these? How do you respond? I either give a blank stare OR just give a smile and nod. Sandra says I have to practice my "I don't TOTALLY hate you face" in the mirror, that especially comes out in situations like these. hehehehe.

What do YOU do?

Friday Photo Dump

Hi Friends!
It's Friday and I'm trying something new... a photo dump! I don't know about you, but I often scroll through blogs to check out all the pictures before I start reading all of the entries. I just love to look at other classrooms and when I see pictures, I look at every detail in the background. I should keep this in mind when I post pictures too, right? With that said, my classroom is lacking it's usual color and pizzazz, it is summer and we are supposed to take EVERYTHING down and off the shelves for cleaning. BUT since I'll be teaching summer school, I have just the essentials for summer school. Everything else is locked up in a shed making a home for some spiders.
Here are my pictures! When you're all done looking, let me know what you think. I have some questions throughout the pictures. Should I make this a weekly thing? 

Cutting up laminate for my BUILD math centers

The start of my BUILD board

Students choose 2 a day and place them under their name

More laminate... YAY!

Another teacher brought some goodies for me and my co-teacher

BUILD boxes, New library with labels and Free Choice Boxes with labels (those puzzles are driving me crazy)

Close up of new library with the labels. Much better, right?

Close up of free choice boxes. I put the labels on with packing tape but I don't think it will stay very long. Any suggestions?

BUILD board with all 60 students' names. Summer school is lots of work! You can also see my TV and desk.

Close up of BUILD board and the choices. One black and one green choice per day.

Another dollar tree steal! These blue baskets match my library boxes. I zip tied them together so they stay in place. The middle one is for whiteboard erasers which are really cut up squares of fabric. I'll have to make a label soon. 

I had to fix the puzzles. My OCD at it's best.

I put this together with zip ties too. Not sure what to do yet with the empty space. For now there are clipboards on the bottom and whiteboards on the top.

What I have to look forward to sorting through. And look what I got from the office, 8 matching red binders. I wonder what I'll do with them...

Enjoy your Friday!
If you are here, follow me! =)

Classroom Re-Vamp Part 1

Hello all!
I am 3 days into my summer vacation and I cannot get away from work! My brain is always turning about classroom organization, summer school, Daily 5 and the new reading curriculum coming our way. I am finding some time for relaxation, don't worry about that! =) Still, work is never done for this teacher...

So, I went to the Target to change up my classroom library. Anyone been to Target on a Monday morning? It is so peaceful! I got 8 very cute, blue and green containers from there and it cost me $20. Not too much, right? Well, I took those babies back, went to Dollar Tree and snagged 12 baskets for $12! Now that's a steal! I am kicking myself for not taking more "before" pictures especially because I just got this awesome new phone that links my photos to Picasa, no more emailing them to myself, but I have to remember to whip it out and show off my stuff!
Here are some of the work in progress photos...

before

before

 I am mad that you didn't get to see what a disaster area this bookshelf was before those cute, green fabric boxes. Here you can see the books just piled up in those clear bins. No labels anywhere, no order, no finding anything interesting.  Hot mess. 






The boxes often look like this hot mess.










Now, I have Dollar Tree on my side...

After

After (Do you see the other desk in the top corner? My co-teacher moved in! More to come)

Sigh a big sigh of organizational bliss. I can now bring out some books from my closet to add to that empty basket. I am also working on labels for the green fabric boxes (my free choice supplies), and all of the library. Ahhh. Now back to work on summer school!

Wait, before I left I just had to do this...

After

Those handles sticking out were driving me crazy! Now a label can fit nicely on the front of these baskets.I also like that I can see the spines of the books now. I am hoping that will make it easier for the kiddos to find what they are looking for OR come across something new. I don't know how it works in your class, but in my experience, there is a favorite book each year and that's the one that everyone wants to read. This year was a book called Color. Maybe next year it will be different?

What do you think? What's your favorite part of your classroom library? What am I missing here?

Thanks for visiting! Leave a comment, there's no more robot checking your vision anymore! =) Thanks to Mrs. Stanford's Class for pointing that out during her linky. I had no idea those annoying things were haunting my own blog.