Hanging Table Signs

I have been crafting up a storm. I went back to work today. Lots of meetings as well as a talent show! The students don't start until next Monday, but I want to be ready. Especially since some are going to show up this Thursday for Meet the Teacher night. The first thing I made was a cover for my shelves. It was looking a little "blah" so I added a colorful banner.

The main project I was working on were my hanging table signs.

Classroom Video Tour

Take a tour of my classroom. Pictures in a later post.

Skippyjon Jones at Kohls

Have you heard that Skippyjon Jones is at Kohls? I'm just most of you already knew that. I received an email a while ago and forgot about it. Then while shooping in my local Kohls I saw him. Well I didn't see him, which made me sad. After I wasn't able to find little Skippy, I went online. I was able to find Skippy and all of his friends!

Talk about being excited! They also had a backpack for only $5. Yes, I forgot to mention that all of the toys, hardcover books, and backpack are only $5.

I bought all of the plush toys, but I bought 2 Skippy's. One for my classroom and one for this backpack. When I was in kindergarten, my teacher had a backpack with a teddy bear and a notebook inside. One lucky student got to take it home every weekend. Inside the notebook they would write what they did with the bear. I want to do the same thing in my classroom, only with Skippy. I'm also thinking of adding a disposable camera in the backpack as well to have them take a picture with them and Skippy. I can't wait for my order to come in!!

I Have Self Control and a FREEBIE!!

I was browsing through Pinterest, as I normally do, about 1000 times a day and I came across this video.



First of all, let me say that this guy is amazing. I've only watched this one video and after I upload this post, I'm going back and watching all of his videos. How awesome would it be to have him as a teacher? Back to the point of this post though.

I was watching this video and I realized that this would be so helpful in teaching self control, just like he says. It's very concrete and easy to understand. You can use this for classroom management reminders, cafeteria behavior, recess, etc. All you have to do is remind them of self control and the bubbles. This is also a great idea for students that tend to get very angry easily. You could always pull them aside and do the bubble activity with them individually. You may even let them blow the bubbles slowly to help them with their breathing and calm down.

I am going to try this activity on the first day of school and I will let you know how it turns out. It could go wonderfully, or there could be a few students who take it to far. I will experiment and report back.

Now I don't want to do this activity all the time because then I think it looses it's affect. I went ahead and made a poster that I can post in my room and whenever there is a student who is about to loose it, I will point to it and remind them about their self control. Of course I had to share it will all of you wonderful blog readers. You can get this poster for FREE, all you have to do is click the image and it will take you to my TPT store.

My First Award(s)

I received my first award today from Katherine, over at Blessed to Teach. Thank you Katherine, that was so sweet of you!

This award is named for the german word "Liebster", which translates to  "beloved" or "favorite" and is given to a "new, up and coming blogger".

Here are the rules:
1. Link back to person who gave it to you
2. Post the award to your blog.
3.Give the award to at least 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers.
4.Leave a comment on the five blogs to let them know that they have been offered the award.

Not only did I receive one award, I received TWO! So here is the next award. I received this from Amy at Adventures in Teaching, by the way I love that blog name, so cute!

This award has a little more work to it than the first one.

Versatile Blogger Award:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you.

2. Include a link to their site.

3. Include the award image in your post.

4. Give 7 random facts about yourself. 

• I am in love with The Beatles. It's true, I have a collection of Beatles memorabilia and I keep adding to it. My favorite Beatles is George Harrison.
•   I love to be crafty. I have three Cricuts!! I love making cards, scrapbook layouts, and things for my classroom.
• I am obsessed with owls. Anything that has an owl on it, you know I will be buying! I went to Pottery Barn kids just to buy my new lunch box this year and yes it does have owls all over it.
• I am secretly still a kid at heart, but aren't we all? I love watching Disney movies, coloring, and singing children's songs. It's a good thing I went into teaching. Now I have an excuse, hehe!
• I can't go without painting my toe nails. Even in the winter when my toes never make an appearance, I have to have them painted. When I have time and I'm not too lazy, I like to match my pedicure with my manicure. I will change them every week depending on my mood. Once I did zebra print when we took a field trip to the zoo. We had a vote in my class to see if I would do zebra or cheetah, zebra won. ;-)
• My car has to be spotless. I cannot stand driving in a car that has trash all over it. It doesn't bother me if it's not my car, but I'm a very organized person and I tend to loose things easily. Hence the reason why I have to be organized. So keeping my car clean is just one less worry. Now if only I could keep my classroom as clean...
• I've actually been blogging since 2009, but I never felt confident enough to share it with anyone. Now I figured, why not it's fun! 

5. Nominate 5-10 other bloggers, include their link, and let them know. 



I am nominating the following blogs for both of these awards:

Blessed to Teach
Teach-On
Mrs. A's Room
Adventures in Teaching
Teaching Little Apples

Supplies

I have been having a difficult time with supplies over the past few years that I have been teaching. I have tables in my room and even though some people may love tables, me not so much. I love the fact that you save space with tables, but when the students don't have a place for their things, it becomes a problem, especially in 2nd grade. I have tried many things. My first year I tried a single bucket of supplies and by the end of the year it was a total mess. Then I switched to individual boxes. That got expensive for me, even when they were on sale. Then I had the students start to buy them. The only problem was that when a student ran out of a certain material, they wouldn't buy a new one and the other students were hesitant to share. This year I wanted to have a sense of community and that we take care of our things and share. I am going to try out the community supplies again. I will have the students buy their supplies at the beginning of the year, but as time goes on I will replenish them, that way all students are prepared and ready to learn.

I found these labels over a year ago on another teacher's blog and I fell in love with them. I wanted to make my own, but I happily stumbled upon them when I was reading Ladybug's Teacher Files blog. So I just want to say thank you for the amazing file. If you guys want it, you can get it here and the best part is that it's FREE!!

My Supply Project

I love these little labels. They make me think of a chalk board and chalk. At first, when I saw them I thought that's what it was. She has this whole thing called Flipped signs. It's where she has a black background with white lettering and it's supposed to make it stand out more. I actually bought her alphabet sets and I'm going to use the white ones and then "flip" the vowels. I did a little tweaking when it came to the original file. Usually each circle is 6 inches, but I went into Photoshop and shrunk them down to 2 inches. Then I took a few of my crafty punches and punched them out. So much easier than cutting 30 circles out!! It's nice to know that my crafting supplies are getting more than one use out of them!!
 
The really nice thing is that I already had these cups and all of the supplies at home. The only thing I have to figure out now is how to store them. I don't want to place them all on the tables, because I know that they will be knocked over by little hands. At first I was thinking of going to Hobby Lobby to buy some of those chargers (fancy plates) since they are normally $1-$2. But I would still have the problem of students knocking them down. That's when I decided to go with a clear box. I had one at home already so I set it all up and I think it looks really good. Hopefully now my students will be more willing to share. Now we just have to deal with keeping it clean! So after it's all said and done, I will only have to spend money on getting six clear boxes. It's a little mixture of my old way of storing materials, but with an organizational feature inside!!!
While I was on Ladybug's Teacher Files website I saw her post a project she has been working on and she uploaded it to a blog called 4th Grade Frolics. I was so excited to see that so many teachers post things they have been working on. I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I also have a crafting blog where I do the same thing. You have no idea how excited I was!!! So I am linking it up over at... Monday Made It.

Newbie Blog Hop

So I stumbled across Grade Three is the Place for Me. First of all, I love her blog. Second of all, she is having a great blog hop for newbie bloggers so I decided to join in on the fun!!!

1. What state you are in?
I live in Arizona. I was born and raised here, which is actually quite surprising since most people move here. Who are the crazier people, the ones that were born in the heat or the ones that voluntarily move into it? hehe ^_^
2. Your current teaching position...
Currently I am teaching a 2nd grade ELD class. I have been lucky enough to stay in the same grade and same room my whole teaching career. This will be my 5th year!!
3. Your teaching experience...
I started volunteering as a reading tutor when I was 18. Then all through college I was an after school teacher. I am so grateful for that job because that's where I learned the most about kids and how to deal with behavior. I graduate with a BA in Elementary Education in 2008 and I have been teaching 2nd grade ELD ever since. I am currently working on my Masters in Administration. Not sure if and when I will leave the classroom, but for now I couldn't image myself being anywhere else!
4. When you started blogging...
I actually started blogging July 2009, 3 years ago. I spent my first year on teacher blogs and I learned a lot from them. I got a lot of my ideas from online and after I had one year under my belt, I felt like it was time I contributed. Once the school year started though I lost track of blogging and eventually forgot about it. It wasn't until last week that I decided to start back up again. I was filming a classroom set up video and in the process, realized that there was more that I wanted to share. So that's when I logged back on and started blogging again.
5. Share a blogging tip / blogging resource...
I would definitely have to say, keep up with pinterest. You can find so many great ideas there. As far as blogging goes, just be yourself. Don't try to compete with other bloggers and live up to their names. Just be who you are and start blogging for the right reasons, whatever they may be for you. Lastly, HAVE FUN!!!

Now it's you turn to participate!!!