Classroom Makeover

Usually this time of year is when you are packing up your classroom....not re-doing it!  Me on the other hand, I get super motivated at the end of the year to switch things up; so I can feel less pressured at the end of the summer.  I have been super inspired by all of Mealnie's fabulous ideas at School Girl Style.  Her classroom decorating blog and business are fabulous!  If I could ever do it, I would totally start my own classroom decorating business!  Not just give advice and ideas but actually put together classrooms for other teachers.  It is my DREAM!  Anyway here are some of my classroom changes for the 2013-2014 school year so far.  My sweet kids this year have been really enjoying the changes too since they have a few weeks left.  One of my sweet little girls came in one morning and said "how come you keep changing everything??"  Below  are a few pictures of my classroom with tips I have taken and adapted from Melanie and School Girl Style. 

Tip # 1:  Decide on a color scheme and stick with it- Mine is primary colors- red, blue, and yellow.

Tip # 2:  Choose one border and stick with it!  Use double borders to make your boards pop, using coordinating colors.  All of my bulletin boards have red or yellow paper backgrounds with a double border. Every bulletin board has Dancing Dots on black border on the edge with a bordette double border (yellow, red, or blue).  Half of my borders have the new 3-D ruffle border trend using bulletin board paper, but it takes a long time and after multiple days of this my sister and I said four boards of ruffle boarder were enough! 

Tip #3:  Get rid of excess furniture that takes up space.  "Centers" mini pocket charts from a local school supply store.  (I will do a separate post about how I manage my centers)

Tip #4:  Accessorize and organize with coordinating baskets and labels.  Leveled library baskets from Really Good Stuff.  Primary polka dot labels from School Girl Style

Tip #5:  Add stuffed animals and matching books to make your classroom feel more early childhood friendly, cute, and welcoming.  This is my own personal tip because I teach first grade and after I started re-doing my room, simplifying, and organizing I felt my classroom was missing a child friendly, cozy feeling.  So I added some of my cute Khol's Cares for Kids $5 dollar stuffed animals and matching books to display.  The don't take up floor space and they are simple enough to add around the room or remove quickly when cleaning.  They don't give off the "cluttered" feel. 

Writing station with Cara Carroll's Writer's Eye bulletin board idea adapted with bright colors to match my classroom.  Click here to get this writer's eye freebie. 

-Rate your writing display from Hooty's Homeroom

-What do Writer's Write poster originally from Cara Carroll but remade by The Teacher Wife

-What Can I Write About? anchor chart (traced on poster board using my promethean board) from The Inspired Apple

-Kid Drawn calendar, birthdays, numbers, and healthy habits posters from Carson Dellosa.  Y'all I am seriously crazy about these kid drawn posters.  They have been around since I first started teaching five years ago,

 but I think they are precious, kid-friendly, and timeless.  I'm guessing they are about to be discontinued because they are on clearance and I've contemplated buying a second set of everything as a backup for when my sets I have no get too faded.  I have almost everything on the link above!  Pretty obsessed....obviously.  

End of the Year Party

I know a lot of schools are out for the year and you've already celebrated your end of the year party or end of the year parent presenation.  We decided to combine them as one this year and I created an invitation for our first grade team to use.  You can click on the thumbnail below to download your own FREE copy for next year.  There are a few options to choose from.  Enjoy!



Five For Friday (Linky party May 31)

Today was field day!!!  It was a blast!  We came in fourth of 5 teams which was actually last place becasue two first grade teams tied for first.  Woomp woomp....It's ok though! 

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We went out in the courtyard right out my classroom's back door and signed each other's beach balls with Sharpies.  It was a super cute idea and I will definitely include it in their gifts next year!  Don't mind the ugly gift topper.  I got lazy! 

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I've been re-decorating and doing a huge makeover in my classroom.  A post on that later!....

But I've been following School Girl Style's tips.  Double borders and mathing/coordinating bulletin board paper.  Here's a sneak peak....

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I joined pinterest with a teacher/blog account.  I have my personal account but now I have a "firstgradeheart" account! Check me out here:  http://statigr.am/firstgradeheart

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My sweet baby enjoyed a Cookie Monster cupcake for breakfast.  It was a gift from one of my students.You only live once and I love to see this sweet face! 

Number Word Posters Freebie!!!!

I am helping design one of my best friend's classroom and she happens to be next door to me!  I am starting now since I have a little more freetime.  I am following the same techniques I used from Melanie over at School Girl Style to re-design my classroom.  I made her these simple number word cards to replace her older number word display.  They are very simple but add a pop of color and can easily be used if she desides to chance color schemes in the next couple of years.  I am posting these bright chevron print number word posters as a FREEBIE to y'all too! 
You can also click the image below to be redirected to my TPT store in order to download the free document.



Balloon Madness!!!

We are in survival mode....well I'm in survival mode!  We have something like 9ish days left of school.  We have lots of fun things planned.  I am officially pulling out all stops to keep these sweet kids of mine busy!!  We hung a few balloons up as party decorations and as a behavior incentive idea similar to Hope King's.  In each balloon is a fun activitiy to do with the kids.  I will pop one every couple of days if the kids are staying on task. 

We also completed Abby's balloon people from her Busy Bodies packet.  We completed the gum one a few weeks ago and the kids had a blast.  They had to decorate/make their balloon person using sharpies and/or construction paper and then get with a partner and make up their own dialogue.  After coming up with a funny dialogue they were to record their conversations on the dialogue recording sheet.  Here are a few of their balloon people cuties:

End of the Year Party

All the first grade teachers at my school decided to do our end of the year parent presentation and end of the year party for the students all in one day!  I decided to do a beach theme party for the kids and I used pinspiration for a lot of my party ideas!  Love some pinterest!  The kids had a blast and the parents loved the summer poems we wrote and presented.  I got the poem idea from an old school Mailbox magazine.   Mailbox is still one of my favorite teaching resourses to use. 

I found the cute beach themed plates and napkins at the dollar tree, and the polka dotted paper straws at the AMAZING Mighty Dollar store in Greenville.  They had paper straws and matching polka dotted balloons for ONE DOLLAR!!! I bought a bunch in various colors for future parties.  :)  The yellow buckets have the student's wrapped end of the year gifts in them.  I also had a simple but cute table set up with a bright table cloth, 4 sandbuckets from the dollar bins at Target; each with a snack in them:  goldfish, graped, and 2 buckets of mini chocolate donuts. 

We also made Hope King's paper bag memory scrapbooks.  We worked on 2 pages a day until they were finished and they turned out adorable!  The kids loved putting stickers on each page. 

Christmas in July

So I'm joining everyone else and celebrating Christmas in July!!

To make this sale even more exciting I've made a North Pole Breakfast pack which is going to be LOADS of fun for you and your students at Christmas time.  If you are not familiar with the Elf on the Shelf or a North Pole breakfast you are missing out!  I did a breakfast with my sweet son who was celebrating his first Christmas this year and I did one for my students as well.  I have to say it was 2 of my favorite days during the holiday season last year. Their faces just lit up!  Yes...even my 6 month old sons' face lit up as well! ;)  Well anyway a North Pole breakfast is the kickoff of the Elf on the Shelf season.  Basically Santa visits your classroom/house and drops off a special holiday themed breakfast (with super cute decorations of course) along with your class/family Elf on the Shelf.  He leaves sweet notes for your students/family letting them know that he is watching them this holiday season and his elf will be watching and reporting back.  If you'd like to incorporate a fun North Pole breakfast in your classroom this year then this pack is for you!  Included are fun writing activities for the kids, Letters from Santa templates, holiday themed banner materials, a North Pole breakfast menu, and so much more!  Click on the picture below to be directed to my TPT.

                                 

Chevron Clip Chart Freebie

This year I plan to use the clip chart behavior system that EVERYONE AND THEIR MOTHER uses!! I know...it's not creative, but I did create a new, modern clip chart with chevron print and KPM Doodles safari  clip art that I am using in my safari themed room this year.  If you'd like to grab a copy for yourself click on the picture to be directed to my TPT store to download it for FREE!!!  Hope everyone is enjoying the end of their summer vacation.

Liebster Blog Award

Sweet Amanda over at Hoppin' into First nominated me for the Liebster blog award.  It recognizes new teacher bloggers who have under 200 followers.  Thank you so much Amanda!!  Now my job is to find 5 other new bloggers and let them know.  Here are the rules:

1.  Copy and paste this award onto your blog
2. Thank the giver and link back to them.
3. Reveal 5 other bloggers and let them know by commenting on their blog.

Here's 3 bloggers I'm nominating: (I'll have to find 2 more later when I'm not so tired! )

1. First Grade Hip Hip Horray!
2. There's no Place Like Second Grade
3. T is for Teacher

Must Have Picture Book Linky Party!

Lindsey over at The Teacher Wife is having a linky party about favorite picture books.  Just like her and many others out there, I LOVE picture books!  One of my favorite things to do during the day with my students is pull out cute books.  I often send my students on little errands to neighboring first grade teachers to ask "Can we borrow a cute book?"  I LOVE to read a cute book.  Here are a few of my favorites...but first...I found all of these for 1.75 at one of the Goodwill locations in my town. 35 books for 1.75!!!! Can y'all believe it???!!!

1. Super Completely and Totally the Messiest-  It's a SUPER cute book about two sisters who are completetly opposite.  One is super organized and "perfect" and the super messy and clumsy.

2.  Chester's Way- A classic Kevin Henkes book!

3. I Love You Mouse-  It's a super cute book by John Graham with classic illustrations by Tomie dePaola.  I mostly love it because it reminds me of my husband and son.  The little boy tells everything that's special to him how he loves them and the dad was following him the whole time and says he loves him at the end.  Super cute!!

4.  Sloppy Joe- Just plain cute!

5.  Ping Pong Pig- Just plain SUPER CUTE! haha

Back To School Safari Pack

This year I plan to do a safari theme in my classroom and incorporate my love of primary colors.  I really don't want it to be dark colors with lots of zebra and cheetah print everywhere.  I plan to keep the main vibe of the primary colors and throw in accents of giraffe print, and safari animals/pictures/posters.  For Meet the Teacher I plan to have a safari themed "Welcome Back" banner.  I also will have a safari themed bulletin board outside my classroom in the hallway that will be titled "We Are Wild About Learning"  The title will be a banner as well.  I'm super excited and can't wait to take pictures to show y'all!  If you'd like to purchase my Back to School Safari Pack. Click on the elephant below to be directed to my TPT store.  Included is:

- "Welcome Back" safari banner
-"We Are Wild About Learning" safari banner/ bulletin board title
-Safari themed name tags
-Safari themed team signs
-Safari themed classroom labels
-Safari themed subway art

PS- I wanted the subway art to not only be a decorative fun piece for my classroom, but also something that the kids could read.  I always think the subway art is a little difficult for my first graders to read so I made mine with a little chunkier font and larger spaces between the words.

Safari Book Freebie

So I am officially a bad blogger.  I knew I probably would be but at least I have lots of good ideas for this year that I hope to share with everyone!  In honor of my blog return I made a freebie for anyone who has a safari/jungle theme in their classroom.  I love the idea of the responsible communication binders/notebooks some of you use in your classroom.  I plan to do a safari theme in my room this year but I couldn't find a cute enough safari binder cover that I liked.  Since I'm obsessed with using primary colors in my classroom I designed a primary colors S.A.F.A.R.I binder cover to go with my theme.

Just in case you don't know what a Safari binder is let me briefly explain.  It's basically a binder to help your student and families stay organized.  I've never used one in my classroom.  I've always had the basic home work folder, reading log folder, and daily take home folder all separate.  I really liked the idea of having all of these folders in one place.  If you search on the internet you can find many other acronyms for various themes such as the F.R.O.G binder.  The SAFARI binder stands for Students and Families are Responsible and Informed.  I really like that this binder also has a zipper pouch for money and notes.  That way I don't have to see checks and envelopes on the floor anymore that have fallen out of folders and backpacks.

PS I DID NOT COME UP WITH THIS IDEA MY SELF.  I just made a cuter version of the binder that I wanted to use in my classroom.  I used KPM Doodles Zoofari clipart and her Primary Alpha clipart for the title.  She is fabulous!

Click on the picture to be directed to my TPT store where you can download the cover for free! :)

3rd Post in One Night!

Ha!  Whatev....I need to thank sweet Katie at First is a Fairytale for nominating me for the One Lovely Blog Award.  I'm loving the new blogging world and I'm so lucky to be able to find fabulous ideas on the fly when I need something different and quick for my ever energetic class this year.  I don't know what I'd do without you ladies!  You've all been a blessing and you probably didn't even know it :)  Thanks Katie and thanks to all my new followers.  I'm supposed to pick 15 people to pass the award on to but I'm not sure I even know 15 bloggers.  They probably already have the award too so I'm sorry to say that 4's all I got!

 1. Glitter and Glue- Kristen

2.  Kindergarten is A Hoot!- Sara

3.  Crisscross Applesauce in First Grade- Holly

4. Mrs. Plant's Press-Vickie

Thing 1

Isn't this Thing 1 just precious!!!!??? He stirred up a lot of excitement a few weeks ago for Dr. Seuss' Birthday when he made an appearance at my school :) 

You've Been Egged!

So I decided to make the cute idea that's all over Pinterest called "You've Been Egged!" into a fun activity for my students, but in an educational way of course!  If you're not familiar with this activity just search for it on Pinterest.  Basically, it's like being booed at Halloween.  You hid a bunch of eggs in someone's yard in your neighborhood and leave a cute note saying you've been egged.  They get to have a mini egg hunt and you pass the basket of eggs on to another neighbor!  Cute huh?  Well I'm going to do the same.  The Easter Bunny himself is going to egg my students ;o!  He's going to leave a note that explains what he did and how he has a special project for the kids.  They have to solve some addition problems for him and make a poster with a partner showing their work.  When he returns the next day to check their work he will leave a surprise!  I'm going to leave a word problem in each egg though that the students have to solve with a partner.  I've turned this fun activity into a mini pack that I'm selling on TPT.  I included some writing activities into it as well, and some crafts.  I'm super excited for the Bunny to come and egg my students.  I'm really lucky because my classroom leads right outside to our courtyard so I'm going to hide the eggs in there. :)   

Book Report/Book review Freebie!

I am so excited about doing a book study next week.  We will be reading Dr. Seuss books as a way to extend all of the Dr. Seuss fun from last week.  I am turning these recording sheets into a book for each student.  You can use the book report templates with any book you choose.  I also made Dr. Seuss themed posters as teaching aids.  All of this is FREE! at my TPT store.  Check it out!  It's a pretty good freebie if I say so myself. :) Click on the picture below to be directed to the freebie and my store.

Seusstastic Week!

 So last week in our reading series was the story If You Give a Pig a Pancake so we started a two week Laura Numeroff author study.  The kids are loving it and we're writing book reviews this week on our favorite book.  I can't wait!  Well since Friday is Dr. Seuss Birthday/RAD at our school I won't be able to do Dr. Seuss themed things all week.  We are definitely going to have a Seusstastic blast this Friday though.  My son is going to make an appearance as thing 1 and my husband is going to read a story.  So I had so much fun with our Laura Numeroff author study that I decided to do the same thing with Dr. Seuss next week.   So we will be completing my mini Dr. Seuss book report pack.  Here's a preview.  I'm super excited because the recording sheets I made can be used with any book at any time during the year.

Dr. Seuss Giveaway Winner!

I did the random number thing and number 1 won!  

Dr. Seuss Freebie

I created a class recording sheet for my students to fill out after we taste test green eggs and ham and graph the results on a large class graph.  Click on the picture to grab your free copy!

Dr. Seuss Day Giveaway!

Ok Ladies I'm going to do a Dr. Seuss giveaway!!! Get excited!!! I'm going to give one lucky winner my Dr. Seuss Birthday Party Planning and Activity pack away this Wednesday!  All you need to do is post a comment with a cute idea that you're doing for Dr. Seuss Day to share with everyone else.  You can enter as many times as you want.  The winner will be announced Wednesday!