Monday Made it!!

Well after seeing the post by Miss V's Kinder Kraziness, I decided I needed these for my Write the Room Work Station.  I usually have the children write the room with a lap board I purchased at Discount School Supply.  I love these! They are so versatile and I pull them out whenever we the need arises.  However, there have been times when the children need more than just a pencil to complete an activity.  These boxes can hold a fully stocked crayon box  and more.  I will probably put some books and extra activities in each box if they finish early.

Here's How I made mine:

I bought the clear scrapbook boxes at Michaels when they were on sale for 50% off.  I used Creative Clips free cupcake clipart to decorate them.  My back to school door is going to be a cupcake shop, so I thought putting cupcakes on these would be cute.

Next, I cut out the cupcakes and ran them through my sticker machine. I love this machine; I seriously could not get by without it. I can put laminating film or sticker film in it.  

So I put the cupcakes in the machine...

 the wrong way at first.  Oops!

And then....

the right way, so I could stick them on the inside of the box. 

After I run them through the machine, they look like this:

I pull off the sticky back and take the pieces off the backing.  They are now sticky on the picture side and I can place them on the box.

I thought they needed something more, so I added some ribbon with double stick tape. I'm hoping it stays, but I am not optimistic. I like having the decorations on the inside to keep the writing surface smooth.  I also put ribbon around the bottom on the inside as well, but it still needed something...

so I added the pencil clipart too.

I love how they turned out and they fit perfectly in my Michaels clearance find!

Of course I ran out of ribbon though...back to the store I go!http://4thgradefrolics.blogspot.com/2014/07/monday-made-it-summer-week-9.html

I need to be stopped!!!

It has really gotten out of hand.  I don't know how it happens every year. I start with a list of necessities and I try like crazy to stick to it, but somehow it all goes very wrong.

You might have guessed, but I'm talking about buying supplies for my classroom.  Something about that new crayon smell and I get crazy and end up with a room full of new supplies. It has gotten much worse since my last post.  You can see 30 of the notebooks I mentioned before in this picture along with my yet to be sewn chair pockets.  I wish I remembered who I bought them from on ebay, but they have lasted for years! Also, in that bag are 59 boxes of crayons!

In this picture, I have 30 pencil cases that cost me less than ones I've purchased in the past and look more sturdy.  Here's hoping I can get 2 years of use out of them! Office Max had some cardstock on clearance for $5 and I couldn't resist it.  

The glittery baskets were another clearance find at Michaels.  I love the colors and pair that with a good deal and they end up in my cart along with new flowers for my prayer table.  The scrapbook boxes are going to be my new Write the Room boards.  I'm going to adapt this project from Miss V's Kinder Kraziness. I love the idea of having a crayon box in there with everything they need to complete the station. I probably won't add the scrapbook paper, but maybe some clip art to the inside of the box.  Depends on how creative I feel. 

Ok, I need more crayons, pencils, and another container for brag tags.  That is it! Nothing else!  I won't buy any more supplies...no matter how tempted.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can....wait my LakeShore Learning order hasn't come yet. 

Help me....

Look at me! 2 days in a row!

2 days...2 posts! I'm out of control!

I just had to post today about the craziness that is back to school shopping.  Now many teachers purchase supplies and necessities for their classrooms.  Every year I start off with a budget, but I never stick to it. I don't know if it is the thought of shiny new crayons or that most supplies are so much cheaper now than later in the year, but I can't resist it all.

With a class of 25 kindergartners heading my way, I know I will go through a lot of crayons, glue sticks, and pencils.  I have some stockpiled away, but I know I will be kicking myself next April when I have to pay regular price for something because we ran out.  So I tend to overbuy...
This is our spare room before I did some much needed organizing.

Yep there are 60 notebooks, paint, 25 folders, and 30 packs of crayons so far...there will be more crayons added to the pile before I go back.

And then there are the classroom materials that companies come out with each year- I loved these shape  builders from Learning Resources. I couldn't resist picking those up for a math station.  They are in one of the bags.

Besides purchasing items for my classroom, I am also prepping materials. The new math program I will be using next year that I mentioned yesterday has a lot of wonderful anchor charts, manipulatives, and activities that I wanted to get a jump on.  I printed all the units including the vocabulary and fluency cards.  Then I had to cut them.

I'm pleased to say I just finished cutting out the last part! I put all the vocabulary on rings along with other activities.  I thought I'd take the time to organize now rather than during the school year.  

Tomorrow there may be a Michaels run for my welcome bags and something else which I can't remember now.  Hopefully it comes back to me....

Seriously 2 posts! 2 days! I'm so impressed with me! 

Ok let's try this blogging thing again

I started this blog with the best of intentions last year.  I wanted to have a place where the parents of my students could come and see what was going on in the classroom.  I wanted to have one of those fabulous teacher blogs that I get so much information from.

Well it's almost a new school year, so I'm going to try it all again...

A few weeks ago I packed up my classroom from a year where I had a wonderful class of 13 little sweeties.  Why is it that it's only after they graduate that you really understand how much you enjoyed a class?  I think whenever I see anything relating to the Frozen movie, I will think of this group.  Anyway, I hate the end of the year - you're saying goodbye to a special class and you have to clean everything.

All the toys need to be washed and the tables and the chairs. It's all so dirty and dingy. How did it get that way? I wipe everything down and yet it still is filthy.  Anyway, I have a wonderful assistant who helps clean all the toys.  Including every little Lego...cleaning those Lego pieces may be the worst. 

Finally when it is all cleaned, I get to stack it all on the shelf to help when they wax the floors.  Anything that I can fit on the shelf gets piled on.  Then once the floor is done, I get to put it all back! Woohoo, fun!

I only had 13 kids last year and it was so quiet in the room even when we were noisy.  Next year that will all change for me as I have 25 students in my class!  The biggest class I have ever had.  I'm excited for this challenge and I know I can make it work, but I also know I have a lot of work ahead of me starting with a new classroom layout.  I couldn't seat 25 kids the way I had my classroom this year.  After a few moves and some frustration, I figured it out.  

 


I had to move my area to the front of the room and angle the tables so no one will have their back to my interactive whiteboard.  I have to change where my bulletin board displays go, but that's for another day.

Back to my preparations for this upcoming year. I've been busy cutting out materials for math since I will now be using Guiding Kinders Math by Deanna Jump and DeeDee Wills instead of our outdated series.  This should be great especially with a larger class.  I can't wait!  Also, the spare room in the house is full of paint, construction paper, and supplies that I have picked up so far.  I can't believe the back to school sales are starting already.

And I promise it won't take 6 months for me to write a new post again...