End of July - Say What?!!!

I think the title of this post speaks for itself... I'm starting to panic. Not as much as some of my teacher friends who don't have jobs yet, but still.. I'm freaking out. My to do/to buy/ to ask list is growing by the second. 

To catch you up here's what has gone on. I've debated back and forth for MONTHS on buying an Erin Condren Teacher planner. Finally my mom convinced me that it was worth it. So, I bought one!! (Well, my mom paid for half..) Half of an $80 planner is a fabulous donation! It won't be in until about a week before school starts so I've been kind of procrastinating on planning. Instead I've been going Pinterest crazy. Again, I'm so thankful for my mom who is crafty. Any project I can think of she's helped me complete. I guess while I'm throwing out shout outs I owe my little sister one. She's a professional teacher's shopper helper. She second guesses everything I buy so I don't go broke... She also spent hours helping me level books. 

I found out today that my classroom is ready to start working in! There are 20 weekdays left until school starts so this was great news. I'm sure my boyfriend will be thrilled to have the apartment back. It's been filled with supplies since May. Not to mention my parent's house which is currently storing everything that doesn't fit in my apartment. Mom, Dad, & Tom if you're reading this.. IT WILL BE GONE SOON!!!

 I'm not exactly sure how I want to arrange the furniture, or what kind of furniture I'll have! My sister (thanks again!) will be coming tomorrow to help me figure things out. I also get to meet some of the teachers in my hallway tomorrow! EEEKKK so nervous!

I'll keep you updated :) 

Where'd the time go?

Hi there! It's been a while... sorry about that! I feel like last time I looked it was the 4th of July. Now, it's the end of July. I can't say that I've been relaxing the past few weeks because I haven't! I figured today was a good day to get caught up on blogging. I got in a car accident this morning and am way more sore than I anticipated I'd be. If my car, Zippy, could talk I'm sure she'd say shes sore too! So as I sit here eating candy corn (yes, Stop & Shop had candy corn out already and yes, I just hadddd to buy some) I'm trying to remember everything I've been up too!

Well the good news is I've just about finished my sight word rings. So expect a post about how I'm going to use them and other things sight words pretty soon. I've tried to start diving into my curriculum materials. However, until I find the ultimate teacher planner I've tried to hold off. The search for a planner is one of the most difficult things I've done!! I'm VERY picky and want things an exact way. I purchased a planner at a teaching store in Myrtle Beach back in April. However after further review.. I don't think it'll work... Every planner I've found after that I've also found something wrong with. The other half of the problem is I don't want to drop $50 on a planner...

Besides the planner debacle I've been working on leveling all of my books! The teacher that I took over for left me tons of books so before I start on those I want to finish the massive piles I have at home! Not only am I leveling them according to DRA level I'm making a spreadsheet. This way, I know every title, level, author and how many copies I have of every book in my library. Yes, it is super time consuming. But, I'm sure it'll pay off in the end.

 I have a ton of books that don't show up on The Scholastic Bookwizard . Either the book itself or the DRA level. Any suggestions?? 

I'm going to try to keep up with blogging but I can't make any promises! School starts in a little over a month & I need to make sure I'm ready for all my kiddos! 

Fantastic Friday

Happy Friday!

Today has been a whirlwind. I was able to get my curriculum materials from my principal today! I have tons of beach reading now! Thankfully my school uses Envisions and I've been lucky enough to be exposed during student teaching. At least there is one thing I'll be comfortable with! 

I was also able to see my room for the first time! This was a surprise, I didn't think I'd be able to see it for another few weeks. It's not cleaned yet, but I LOVE IT!! I'm at the beginning of the hallway and have another new teacher next to me!!  The teacher I took over for left TONS of stuff for me including, books,  paper, supplies and much more. It was great to see what she had left because that's one more thing I don't need to buy! 

When I got home I realized I should really kick it into gear so that once my room is clean I can start bringing things in! I'm still working on those sight word rings.. Yes, I said still. It was a huge undertaking but I know I'll be so happy when I'm done! 

In addition to the sight word rings I've been cutting & laminating my schedule cards from The First Grade Parade. They're so cute and have pretty much every task I could need! 

In between laminating, cutting & printing I HAD to make a trip to Target's dollar spot. I kept seeing all my teacher friends posting about their fabulous finds. Well I can say from personal experience, it was AWESOME!! Here's a picture of what I got. They had tons more including personal pocket charts but I just couldn't figure out what I'd use those for.. if you have any ideas please let me know! I'd love to find a use! 

Cheap Supplies/Contests!

I hope everyone had a fabulous 4th of July! Although the weather wasn't stellar hopefully you were able to celebrate on the 5th! 

Just thought I'd give you a quick update on what's been going on. 
I'll be getting my curriculum materials later this week so I'm trying to catch up on as much prep work as possible!

Since this is my first year teaching there are tons of things I'd like for my classroom that probably won't happen right away. However, I was able to grab some cheap cheap cheap supplies this weekend! Office Max is having their penny sale until July 12th. You need to spend 5$ then you are eligable to get the following:

• 3 packs of 100 index cards
• 10 pocket folders
• 2 packs of eraser caps

ALL FOR A PENNY!! What a deal! It's only one per customer so I called all the troops in and asked for help!

Here's what I have so far. In order to spend my $5 I got that stapler pack (stapler, remover & staples!!) I couldn't resist the cute owl notebook for PD and of course, my favorite, binder clips for $1! 

In addition to these cool supplies, I also found some awesome blog giveaways! 

On this blog, Sweet Sounds of Kindergarten you can enter to win an Erin Condren planner. How amazing would that be? 

I found some other ones too, I just can't find the links again. Keep your eyes peeled for some excellent product giveaways as teachers start updating their TPT store! 

Sight Words

Since my car is in the shop today I can't go to the beach. It's beautiful out, about 88 degrees. I decided I'd use this time to work on my sight word assessments and word rings.

Here's my plan - 

I've made three different color coded folders. Blue for grade 1 sight words, yellow for primer and green for pre-primer. Each folder has a sight word assessment for each kiddo. Then, I've made word rings with the corresponding colors. 

These will be given after the assessments. Each student will get words according to their level. The blue words (grade 1) won't be given out unless a student is struggling with the words that we're working on whole class. The green and yellow words will be changed weekly, or as often as the student feels comfortable. I'll start out sending 3 - 5 words home a week and asking parents to review them daily. On Friday I'll review the words with the kids during reading!

It's been taking a lot longer than I was thinking it would. Between running out of colored paper, black ink and laminating pouches I'm thinking it will be another two weeks before I finish. 

This is a sneak preview and I'll post a final picture when everything is done!

Online Yard Sales

As a first year teacher my very first thought was "I HAVE NO BOOKS!!!" Now of course this was a little bit of an exaggeration, but not by much! When I started graduate school I decided I'd pick up a few books here and there. I had probably accumulated maybe 10... I had also been planning on stealing my childhood books from my parents. I had to look at every book I took because there are always those special books (Love You Forever, Make Way For Ducklings and other favorites) that I want to save for my kids someday. 

After scavenging all the books I had probably about 70 and then this is where my obsession began. Savers is THE BEST place to buy books. My local Savers has a deal - buy four get one free. I've made about 3 trips and purchased about 100 books each time. 

After telling my mom how I thought I needed more books she suggested the online yard sales. You know, the ones on Facebook? Well these are GOLD MINES!!!!! People post all sorts of things: books, shelves and containers. You have to be quick when you want something! Also, make sure you mention that you are a teacher (it helps even more if you let them know you are a first year teacher!) people tend to either lower the price, or decide to just give you the items for free!

So far from the Yard Sales I've been able to get two shelving units (they need paint but that's easy!) and 5 boxes of donated books! I keep an eye on the Facebook in hopes to find some more storage items! 

End of June

Oh my gosh! It's been SO busy around here. I don't even know where to begin.

Let's start here...

I got to meet with my first grade team (minus one teacher) for next year! I went in and shadow all of the teachers for a day. It was fun. I saw some things that I thought were AWESOME ideas and can't wait to get started! I got to see both of the classrooms that I may be in. My principal isn't sure yet but as soon as I saw the rooms my mind started spinning! So many great ideas. 

After that I got an email asking if I'd like to mail a welcome letter out to my new kiddos as well as a supply list. This was both exciting and scary. I worked on my letter for hours. I wanted to sound excited, but not immature, confident but not pushy and finding a balance was tough. I Googled tons of samples and took different aspects from each letter. In the end, I think they'll love the letter! As far as supplies go - this was the hardest thing. I'm sure I forgot something, but hey! what can you do? I also rememberd supply shopping with my parents. I can hear my dad saying "REALLY?? How much for a notebook??" and I tried to keep that in mind...Here's everything I included on my list. I tried to cover all possible bases but of course I'm hoping some families will continue to donate supplies the whole year! 

-2 boxes of #2 pencils

- 2 highlighters (1 must be yellow)

- 4 pack of expo markers

-2 boxes of tissues

-2 containers of disinfecting wipes 

- 1 box of baby wipes

- 5 pocket folders

- 2 boxes of crayons

-a colored pen (not blue or black)

- 1 inch binder

- pocket dividers

- document sleeves

-pencil top erasers

-2 primary composition notebooks

- scissors

- headphones

- 5 glue sticks

- sandwich bags

- hands wipes

- crayola washable markers  

What else have I been doing? Today I made some CVC card games. The kids will take a word and read it. If they can they get to keep it, if they can't they put it back. If a student pulls a "SPLAT!" card they have to put all of their words back. 

Other than that I've continued to make poems for each month. I'm trying to take a break from school stuff and enjoy the sun! If anything super fun happens I'll be sure to let you know! :)