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Book Sorting and Before Classroom Pictures


 I finally finished sorting my books very late last night.  I ended up with 68 {yes 68} categories.  I was shocked to say the least.  Some of my categories are pretty pathetic though.  I only have 2 Curious George books and only 1 Earth Day book.  What in the world is up with that? At least it gave me a heads up on what books I need to buy, and which ones I have enough off.  Can we say "no more books about apples and leaves" anyone?  lol

This is what a guest room looks like with over 500 books in piles. lol 

I was also finally able to go into school and get my keys.  I took some "Before" pictures to share with you.  Be sure to notice my plethora of doors.  {Side note:  I just love the word plethora.  lol}

Door 1:  Closet
Door 2: Out to playground 
Door 3:  Out  to playground
Door 4: Closet
Door 5:  To girl's bathroom
Door 6:  To hallway
Door 7:  To hallway
Door 8:  To boy's bathroom 

I'm so excited that I get to start putting my room back together tomorrow!
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Back to School Jitters Linky Party


Happy Monday everyone!  Today has been quite the productive day for me.  I worked on my book sorting project, and I made my ABC and numbers posters. Apparently I work well under pressure!  Our first "official" day back is the 22nd, but we will be able to get into our classrooms this Friday.  I can't wait to get started!

Today I am joining Jessica at A Turn to Learn in her Back to School Jitters Linky Party.  First Day Jitters is one of my favorite back to school books!  I love how it shows students that teachers are people who get nervous too.  Click on the picture below to hop over and check out this fun linky.

Back to School Jitters Linky Party

Here is my list of back to school jitters. {Love the Lego guy icons.  I was immersed in Legos last week at Legoland.  :) }


*Every year I get so excited to see my class list.  I love to see if I have any families from the past.  Last year I had a little girl that I knew from when she was 2 and her brother was in my class.  This year I know that I have a boy whose sister was in my class a few years ago.  {I haven't actually seen my list.  They caught me at the grocery store.  haha}

*I want to be organized this year.  I say it every year, but this year I am going to be organized.  I have a plan in mind.  Let's see if I can stick with it.  :)

*I am in love with my new blue and zebra theme this year!  I love my pillows for my library area, my book bins, my alphabet line, etc.  Can't wait to put it all together!

*I became a teacher to teach children.  I think sometimes I let other "stuff" get in the way of that.  My main goal this year is to stay focused on my students and their learning.  I feel that if we step back and remember why we became teachers in the first place, we will find that the "stuff" is not so important.  {I hope that this isn't too cryptic or a downer.  I just needed to get that out. :) }

Jump over to A Turn to Learn to join the Back to School Jitters party!
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Baby Giraffe Cuteness


I mentioned in yesterday's post that our family had just returned from San Diego.  One of our stops in San Diego was the zoo.  I have very fond memories of going to the Topeka Zoo growing up.  I loved seeing the animals and learning all about them.  Well, I wanted Colton to have the same kind of memories.  Turns out, he's not into animals.  :(

We walked around the zoo for a little while.  Colton basically took about a second to look at each animal and then he wanted to move on.  We finally decided to take the bus tour so that Mommy would at least be able to see most of the animals.  Colton decided that we were going to sit on top of the double decker bus.  We got our seats and we were off.  As the bus driver/tour guide drove us around the park, we realized that we sat on the wrong side.  All but one of the animals were on the right side.  We sat on the left.  Yes, you could stand up to check out the animals, but it was difficult to see over all of the other people.  I told my husband that I was kind of disappointed and that next time we should sit on the other side.  Not more than a minute after I made that comment, we came up to the giraffes on our side.  I was so happy to be able to see them well.  Turns out we had the best seats in the house.  That morning a baby giraffe was born.  Our tour guide told us we would probably not see the baby.  A second later we saw this cute little guy {or girl - they didn't know yet} come from the building with his mother!  Your should have heard all of the excitement.   I have to say that this is probably one of the cutest things that I have ever seen!


Well, yesterday I couldn't get that cute baby giraffe out of my mind.  I remembered seeing a giraffe clip art picture at My Cute Graphics and I just knew I had to do something with it.  I came up with numeral, number word, and tens frame matching cards for numbers 0-10.  I also included two skills sheets.  One sheet has the students coloring in a tens frame to match a numeral and the other has the students cutting out number words to match to tens frames.  You can get the packet {here}.






Also, don't forget about the big Back to School Sale at Teachers Pay Teachers!  My store is 20% off today and tomorrow!  Use the code BTS12 to get an extra 10% off my sales price for a total of 28%.

Thanks again to A Turn to Learn!

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Update on Classroom Library and TpT Sale


My poor sweet little blog has been greatly neglected as of late.  School is starting up very, very soon so I'm sure my blogging mojo will be back soon as well.

I thought that I would give you an update on my classroom library project.  I finally got all my books logged into Booksource.  Now, I say finally but really it shouldn't have taken so long.  I guess I took the words "summer vacation" to heart and took my own sweet time.  All said and done, I entered over 575 books into Booksource.  I know that I did not bring home every single book in my classroom, so more will be added when I am able to get back into my classroom.  {Can I say I am super jealous of all of you who are able to get into your classroom early?  Hopefully on Monday I will be able to get my keys.}

I am beginning to sort my books now into different categories.  I have decided that I don't want to put all my books like in years past.  I feel like changing out the books monthly/seasonally will keep the library area fresh and new for the students.  I am using my scraproom {aka as the guest room} to sort my books.  {Really, this wasn't my first choice, but my husband apparently did not want the books in the dining room.  lol}



Once I have my books all sorted, I plan to use these buckets to put the books in.  I have had my old buckets for years and I wasn't a huge fan of them.  The books always fell down and it drove me nuts.  I saw on a blog {if it's yours, please let me know so I can give credit} that someone was using ice buckets as individual book boxes for students.  I loved this idea!  So I ran to Wal-Mart and bought out the ice buckets and then ran to another Wal-Mart to get more for a total of 15 buckets.  I then put this blue zebra ribbon around the top.  My theme for this year is zebra with blue, black and white as the accent colors.  This ribbon was perfect!!!  You should have seen my face when I saw it!  I am currently working on labels for my containers.  I have to wait until I am done sorting so I know what additional labels are needed.

Much to my amazement, surprise, and excitement I found this pillow at Anna's Linens!  Can you say perfect? I bought this large pillow and a smaller one for my library area.  I just love it matches my book buckets.  I can't wait to see these in my classroom!


I am excited to for the big Back to School sale on Teachers Pay Teachers.  My wishlist is quite long!!!  I probably won't be able to get everything, but I hope to put a dent in it!

Everything in my store will be on sale for 20% off.  Adding in the 10% that Teachers Pay Teachers is giving, that is a total of 28% off! {Make sure to use the code BTS12 when checking out.}

Thanks to A Turn to Learn for the cute graphic!
And if a sale wasn't good enough, how about a $25 gift certificate to Teachers Pay Teachers.  Tonya over at Tonya's Treats for Teachers is having a flash giveaway!  Run over right now to enter her drawing.  It ends tonight at midnight.


To finish up my post, I want to share a picture with you from this past week.  We went on vacation to San Diego and we took our son to the beach for the first time.  We weren't quite sure how it would go, but he loved it!  This is one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip!


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[name=Amy] [img=https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jqCbbbeQW6g/Xgz_AsQv8oI/AAAAAAAADKM/NEeARhV2sIkaPzV5Cc6u0sO3ouKsQquHgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/amy.jpg] [description=Hi! I am Amy, a primary teacher with over 20 years experience. I'm excited to share ideas, tips, and tricks to help make your teaching sweet!]

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