Tried it Tuesday...I'm WILD About Animal Print Decor!

Our new theme for next year is PAWS-itively WILD About Learning (super-cute, Teri, and so versatile!), so I've been pinning away all the adorable classrooms I've seen with jungle, zoo, circus, animal, and other WILD decor.  I absolutely L-O-V-E-D (!) my classroom this past year, with its bright polka dots, chevron, and stripes all mixed together with owls, so I decided I just could not start completely over with all new.  I went right out to Wal-Mart to look at fabric in animal prints that would blend with what I already have.  I found the cutest baby-pink zebra flannel, magenta cheetah cotton, and bubble-gum-pink snakeskin print cotton!  They are perfect with my other fabrics, and they even had giraffe ribbon, zebra ribbon, and cheetah ribbon to bring in my lime, yellow, red, and orange.  All-in-all, I think my new WILD decor will go  perfectly...I just have to decide what exactly to make out of the new fabrics!

For my link-up with Fourth Grade Flipper's Tried it Tuesday, I started working on some cute-ness to TRY to get organized for next year.  Click on the icons below to pick up your copies of all I've made so far, including new word wall alphabet headers, leveled library letters, numbers for baskets, tables, supplies, cubbies, or whatever, a welcome banner, blank banner flags, and even labels for THE teacher toolbox everybody's pinned lately.

 Having a WILD Summer,

Mighty Dollar Keeps Me Mighty Organized!

I feel like the luckiest girl ever!  A Mighty Dollar store just opened in our city.  This is no ordinary dollar store.  It's no Dollar Tree, Dollar General, or Just $1.  This store may change my life...it's 20,000 square feet of merchandise at the amazing $1 price point.  No, they're not paying me to write this.  I walked in last week, and my chin hit the floor.  I know I looked like an idiot gawking at all they sold.  I asked three different people if everything was a dollar!  Honestly, I wondered if they'd knocked over a truck to get some of the stuff they have in there!  There's even an entire row of teacher supplies.

I'm linking up with

to tell you how the Mighty Dollar is all about optimum organization!

I spent $40.  Then I went back a few days later and spent another $40, but I have EIGHTY amazing things!

I bought one for every desk in my room.  Now everyone can have a "drawer" to keep his or her pencil box, journal, and Early Birds workbook in, like in K.Mo's Flamingo Fabulous in Second Grade room...only these aren't paper.  They're plastic, and sturdy, and...wait for it...silver!

Really???  This book was marked $14.99!  It rocks, but it rocks hard for a dollar!  Now I know just what to have each and every volunteer do, whether at home, or at school, and that's pretty organized!

Every scrap booking sticker ever made (I think) is there, too, all just a buck a pack...forget the hubby's label-maker...I'm organizing cute this year!

One dollar per basket - I can set up my supplies like Teach Junkie's...click the picture to read more about her organization - she's amazing!

And, of course, I've run right out and bought one of the teacher toolboxes from Lowe's, and already made my labels.  It's already set up, in fact, with some help from my girls.  So, even though summer's only three days old for me, I'm already organizing my plan for next year!

Getting Mighty Organized,

Mentor Text Memo: The Doorbell Rang

I'm so excited to have found a new link-up!  I'm now following collaboration cuties, and I'm linking up with their Must Read Mentor Texts.

This week's texts are to be about math, so I'm suggesting The Doorbell Rang, by Pat Hutchins.  Maybe you all know about this book, maybe not.  It's the first one I learned about when I took Marilyn Burns' Math Solutions class oh so long ago, and it has so many possibilities for lessons!

The Math Solutions lesson is about fractions, and you can download a PDF of the lesson here.  There are so many versions of this lesson, that I've attached several.  Click here and here for more.

I actually use this book in second grade to introduce division, not fractions.  As you probably know, the story is about a family who has just baked fresh chocolate chip cookies and is about to sit down to enjoy a few when the doorbell rings, and company is invited to join the family in eating the cookies.  This continues to happen throughout the story - my kiddos just love the repetition, which makes for a great tie-in to the common core rhyme and repetition standard, too!

After reading, I distribute dessert-sized paper plates and paper cookie manipulatives to groups.  I then talk about how to share the cookies equally among the members of the groups.  In some cases, we actually do get to sharing fractional parts, but that is definitely an extension lesson in second grade, not the first day for most students!  After posing several problems, using different numbers of cookies and people in groups, I announce that we've just been doing division.  My class never fails to oooh and aaah that they are doing such "grown up" math!  Click the picture below to get a copy of my Sharing Cookies lesson.

Happy Summer!

Five for Friday on Saturday, AGAIN!

O-Va!  Naturally, I'm late for Five for Friday, but today I have a good excuse.  I had to work.  On Saturday.  In June.  Officially.  For a teacher workday.

Honestly, I'd have been there anyway, because I'm changing rooms, to the little one next door.  Back it up, though, and let's go with my five:

We had our last day with students on Thursday, ending with this photo of my grown up babies...SO cute!!!

After school, one of my sweeties hosted a pool party for the class.  Another had given me the cutest bowl of goodies, including this coconut cup and lei - perfect for the party!

After the kiddos left, my room looked like this.  I knew I had to get everything packed up and moved next door, and was WAY overwhelmed!  Our Super-Fab PTO had just given out checks to our teachers, equal to 10% of our Boosterthon collections I wrote about here, so I decided to use mine to hire a professional organizer to help me get it together!

Kelly Griffith, teacher, organizer

On Friday, it was just us teachers, and on the way to work, I thought, "Those are some coffee-lovin' women I teach with, but I have no idea what kind they like," so I went through the Dunkin' Donuts drive through and bought them each a gift card.  With this being a last-minute idea, I had no wrapping, so I asked for coffee cups to go with the cards, ran in my room and found some orange and pink tissue, and made a little card, sans computer, as you can see.  Still, I thought they turned out pretty cute.  Now I have a cutesy card in case you need a last minute gift, too. Just click on the picture for the free tag!

 

Even with Miss Kelly's help, I still left Friday with a room like this...YIKES!  But, I have a plan, and she's coming back, and my sweet daughters and wonderful husband came today and helped me finish moving, packing, and putting every. single. thing. away.  So, stay tuned for my newest theme...I'm still thinkin', but our school theme is "We're PAWS-itively WILD about Learning".  Circus?  Jungle?  Forest?  Maybe some weird combination of all three?  This creative, party-plannin', decoratin' teacher WILL come up with something fabulous!

Now, I'm off to SUM-MAH!!!

Currently...Blabbermice

Four days left, my friends.  Really, three, because two of the four are half-days.  My sweet kiddos are super-excited for school to end...let's face it...who wasn't at their age?  Their excitement has turned them into little "blabbermice", so during this last week of school, we'll be reading, Blabber Mouse by True Kelley.  It's one of my favorites, and perfect for this time of year.  It's a fun book, with just enough challenge (2.8 reading level) to keep my kiddos busy.  Blabber Mouse just can't keep quiet about anything.  The bigger problem is, he tells everyone's secrets to everyone else!  I've created a literacy unit to keep us on track for the next few days of learning.  You can pick up a copy by clicking on the picture:

I'm also linking up with the Fabulous Farley for June's Currently

Love and Kisses,