Before i go to sleep

So before I go to sleep I wanted to share a few projects I have been working on into the wee hours of the night. My first project is reupholstering my crate seating for the small group instruction table. I reused the wood and "foam" from last year's seats. The foam i originally used was actually from an old pillow (love reusing items).

So this year i chose to use yellow and grey chevron duck cloth.  I bought a yard of each and cut it into fours.  I also ironed it since it was folded into a funky rectangle.  And of course used my staple gun like there was no more tomorrow!!

I also thought my crate seats lacked stability last year.  This year I decided to go down to ACE Hardware and asked them to help me figure out a way.  So we decided on washers and screws.  And bada bing bada boom i managed to do it myself.

So here's the final product!! All i need are some cute cubby boxes to go in them for storage.

 My dog Sam decided to make an appearance.  And as you can see my coffee table is a disaster area.

I have also been working on banners for my room.  Part of my summer obsession that I used for my friends baby shower.

I found the one at the bottom on TPT.  Se has one for every grade level!!  Mr. Sox decided he needed to make a cameo too.

If you need extra info on how to do any of these projects i will be more than happy to explain.  I figured there are tons of instructions on Pinterest, but i don't mind.

Well good night and good luck this year!

Circles

One of my favorite finds this summer has been the circle cutter.  It began with my adamant goal to make a circle streamer for a friends baby shower.  I loved the look of the almost impossible shape. I looked in single cutters but because i wanted different sized circles i need a tool that had various options.  

I had pictures of the more elaborate streamer but this is the only one i could find.

So i hunted and found a circle cutter.  The particular one i decided on was EK Tools, a simple to use circle maker.  The circle sizes range from 1-6 inches and it comes with 3 replacement blades.

With it I was not only able to make the streamer but i found these amazing letters for my word walls next year!! I am so excited I cant wait until I find more projects to do with this tool.

So there it is my new favorite tool.

Donors Choose

I work in an elementary school that has a high poverty level and is predominantly hispanic.  Due to their economic status the parents are sometimes unable to buy schools supplies.  So when I stumbled upon the many Pinterest posts that showcased ways of setting up a class supplies wish list for meet the parents night; I realized that I would feel guilty to do this at my school.  I began to research a couple of sites other teachers recommended to request items for schools.  I decided to settle on donorschoose.org, a non-profit that lets teachers post a wish list and open it up to the public. The site calls all the requests projects.  There is a questionnaire you must fill out in order to inform the donors of the intent of the project, and basically to state your case about why they should donate to you.  So far I have posted my project on Facebook, Pinterest, and emailed it to friends and family.   I still have not gotten my request fulfilled so I will be updating on my progress.  In the meantime here is what my donorschoose.org page looks like.  So if you feel like you have a great project you need to get funded this may be a great site for you.  If you feel inclined to donate to a project please feel free to click on my link at the bottom of this post. ;)

http://www.donorschoose.org/abrandon 

Last Year

I have now taught for 4 years at the same school and each and every year I have moved classrooms. Always in Kinder but always a different room.  I could say that it is the worst thing to happen to a teacher because most of the time it's great to have an established classroom that you can just add on to or improve.  I however think it has been a great opportunity for me to be able to improve and start with a blank slate every year. It also gives me a great opportunity to spring clean.  These are a few things i did last year.

I had a great reading nook with a jungle theme.  Books were properly labeled and organized into book baskets.  Of course plenty of reading buddies, teddy bears and such, were provided.

I also used the same type of jungle theme for my math area.  

As part of my endless strive for perfect organization and love of coordinates I found matching desk organizers for my student's supplies and journals.  I also properly labeled these with their table number in case the color did not give it away.  

I believe that the most important component to having a successful class is the way you manage your students behavior.  The sets of rules, consequence chart, anchor charts and many other tools allow a teacher to demonstrate and achieve the desired behavior in the classroom.  This past year I adopted a new technique called brain breaks.  Brain breaks are quick 1-3 minute activities that are meant to get students to release either release their energy, become energized and refocus on the lesson being given.  I found these extremely helpful with my five year olds whose attention span is very limited. This particular suggestion was found on Pinterest.  I also changed my boring green yellow, red, behavior chart to a fun "How am i doing" monkey tree.   Through the years one of my goals has been to create a more independent student environment in which I am only there to assist not to control the class, this is not only true for activities such as literature workstations and math centers but also for tasks such as classroom organization and management.  I found this great way to keep track of how students went home each day on Pinterest, the only difference is that I made the student responsible for moving his clip when there were any changes.  It also helped when there was a substitute because she/he could easily get the student where they needed to be.

 Because of the time constraint and the fact i didn't want to spend too much money on getting my name done in wood I just wrapped a poster board with some cute wrapping paper and bought some cute letters from Lakeshore (that came with the bling). Final price for each person on my team, less than five dollars!  

 I reused banners, pom poms and paper rosettes from my friends summer bridal shower.  Sometimes

My favorite find this past year was the crate seat.  These cozy and practical seats have a dual purpose, they are not only soft on the bum but have storage for all the supplies need for small group instruction (math and language arts). 

A New Beginning

It is the last few weeks before I go back to work (I am a teacher) and I have decided to try something new.  Blogging has never really appealed to me but as I explore Pinterest, Instagram and other sites I see that it's a great way to share great ideas used in our classrooms.  As we always say in my classroom "Sharing is Caring" and why not lead by example.