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Giveaway Winner!


Congratulations to Rae!  She has won the $25 gift certificate and 2 items from my store!  Thanks to everyone who entered!  {Rae you should be receiving a couple of emails shortly.}


a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Monday Made It - Planning Binder & Snap Game




I am linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for another fun Monday Made It!  I have two items to share with you today.  The first one is my planning binder that I finally finished.  The second is a fun game.

Planning Binder

I bought my binder that I am using at Target.  I love that it has an extra extension for extra info! 


Here is what my new binder looks like!  I did not end up using any of the binder covers that I made a few weeks ago.  I made a new one that I like so much better.


I put my school district's one page calendar in the left pocket so that I could find important dates quickly.  On the right side, I have my planning sections.  I made a section for each trimester's common core standards, a section for planning pages, and a calendar pages.  My district has a website where we actually write out our lesson plans.  From there, we are able to print off standards by trimester.  This will help my bestie and me plan our long range plans, as well as our bi-weekly planning.


When the binder is fully opened, the far left pocket holds an email that I received that explains how our report cards are going to work for 2013-2014.  I wanted to have that handy in case there were any questions as the year goes on.  I also have a pencil pouch that I will keep filled with post it notes, pens, and pencils.


Here is a better view of my divider pages.  I made them by cutting out cardstock circles from scrapbooking paper and gluing them to cardstock of the same color.  I then made labels with my new toy - my labelmaker.  {I made a quick trip to Office Depot today and found one for $10 regularly priced at $35.}


Snap Game

Last week, Kathleen at Growing Kinders shared a super cute game to play at the beginning of the year.  I loved the idea and just happened to have most everything needed in order to make it.  


Kathleen originally found the game at Making Learning Fun, but she fancied up the cards.  I decided to go with Kathleen's version.   You can find her cards here.  


Thanks for letting me share my projects with you!  Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a $25 gift certificate for Teachers Pay Teachers and two products from my store.  The giveaway ends Tuesday night at 9 pm PST. 



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My Classroom Tables


What a wonderful, lazy Sunday.  I have to say that I really needed this.  No - I'm not working yet, but to have a relaxing day at home was just what the doctor ordered.  It was nice to sleep in and lounge around the couch all day.  Then, I realized that I really wanted to get this post out.  This was a post that I took pictures for way back when, but it never materialized.  Well, today is the day.

I have 5 tables in my classroom where each students has an assigned spot.  We do not sit in these spots all day.  They are also used as tables for my centers, and the students can use any table during free choice time.  At the end of each table is a desk that holds essentials for that table.

The first picture I am sharing with you is what is on the tables for the first and second trimesters.  I have two small black containers that I bought at Target last year.  One hold two sets of multicultural crayons and the other holds pink erasers and glue sticks.  There is also a colored caddy that holds all of the pencils, scissors, and bottled glue for the table.  I purchased these at Lakeshore.  Each table has a different colored caddy to represent the table name.  The last item that sits on the table is the crayon caddy from Lakeshore.  These hold the large crayons that we use during the first and second trimesters.  {This picture was taken at the end of the second trimester so the crayons are looking a little sad.  haha}


The next picture shows what the table looks like during the third trimester.  The only difference is that I traded out the crayon caddy from Lakeshore with a basket from Wal-Mart.  The basket hold a baggie of smaller crayons for each student. 


The third picture I am sharing with you is what the desk at the end of the table holds.  On the left side is our poetry journals.  We add a new poem or nursery rhyme each week.  On the bottom right side is our writing journals.  I plan on changing these up a little this coming year.  On top of the writing journals are the students' take home folders.  Our school purchases these folders for each student.  I absolutely love these folders!


The top of the desk holds two buckets.  The first bucket holds baggies with whiteboards, markers, and erasers.  It also holds our containers of yellow and red counters.  The small bucket inside is where the students keep their name tags that they wear to specials or when there is a substitute.  I bought these buckets at Target two years ago.  However, I am going to have to change these up a bit this coming year.  Many have accidentally fallen on the floor and broken.  I hope that my plan for this year works just as well.


The second bucket holds decodable books that students can get if they finish their work.


I hope that you have enjoyed looking at how I have my classroom tables set up!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a $25 gift certificate for Teachers Pay Teachers and 2 items from my store!


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Giveaway Reminder


I hope everyone is having a wonderful Saturday!  We are currently driving to Utah for my aunt-in-law's surprise 70th birthday party. I have never used blogger on my phone, so I thought I would try it out between playing Candy Crush and doing a logic puzzle. {I love trying to figure out logic puzzles!}

I just wanted to remind you to enter my 200 Bloglovin Followers giveaway for a $25 dollar gift certificate to Teachers Pay Teachers and 2 items from my store.

Tomorrow, I plan on sharing how I set up my classroom tables.  Happy Saturday!

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200 Bloglovin' Followers Giveaway!


Yesterday, I dropped my son off at ESY, did a little shopping, and came home to have a little treat.
 

I was so excited when I walked into Target and found these yummy powdered sugar treats!  Yes, I know there are other companies that make the "same" thing, but they are not really the same. Trust me.  I have tried many out since Hostess went away.  So glad they are back!

Anyway, on with my story.  I was enjoying my treats and thought I would jump on my computer to check out a little Bloglovin'.  I looked at the number of followers on my blog and what did I see?  My little blog crossed that 200 followers mark!  I was so excited!  So what does one do when her blog reaches 200 followers?  Have a giveaway, of course!


I am giving away a $25 gift certificate to Teachers Pay Teachers as well as 2 products from my store.  If you would like a chance to win this great prize, fill out the rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey!
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Looking Back: My First Classroom


I began my teaching career in an elementary school set in a small town in Kansas.  I loved working at this school!  The community was a wonderful community to work in.  In 2001, I meet my now husband and moved to Las Vegas in May 2002.  Wow!  I had such a culture shock.  I went from a class of 9 {yes, 9} students to team teaching 36 students.  I didn't think I was going to survive that first year here in Las Vegas, but I did.  I am so glad to be teaching here, but I sometimes miss my old classroom in Kansas.  I have been a little sentimental to all things Kansas lately, so I thought I would share some pictures of my very first classroom.  {Please excuse the fact that these are scanned pictures.  I took this back in the olden days.  haha}

Here you can see the closet doors, my desk,  and
my huge windows.  I love all tall the ceilings are
and my yellow walls.

Here is the other back corner.  You can see one of my
very large chalkboards.  Yes, I had chalkboards.

Here is a picture of my wonderful computers and door out to
the hallway.  I look at my door now, and I miss it a lot.  It was cute and there
was only one of them.  Remember the eight doors I have now?
 {I'm still protective of my kiddos even though these students are over 20 now. :)  }

Here's a picture of my front chalkboard.  My favorite chalk
was yellow chalk.  I made sure to order a few boxes
every year.  :)
My students went to Music and P.E. every day.  However, we did not have an art teacher.  I did an art project every Friday.  The next two pictures are two of the projects that I did with my students.

The students painted a tree with brown paint.  They then used a
q-tip to add brown, orange, yellow, and red leaves.  

For this picture, I used a KinderArt lesson {which amazingly is
still available 14 years later}.  The students were able to decide
if they wanted to color their flowers with cool or warm colors.
I still love looking at what a great job my students did!
{I did the two in the middle.  :) }
I hope you have enjoyed my little trip down memory lane.  Don't forget to like my Facebook page to get my Rainbow Quatrefoil papers for free under my Fan Freebies tab.


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A Little Shopping, a Little Quatrefoil, and a Little Video Fun


My brother-in-law got married this morning!  I'm am so happy for him and his new bride!  While we take a little break before the reception, I thought I would share a little shopping fun, my new set of papers, and a fun video that some friends shared on Facebook.  There is even a little thank you at the end.  ;)

A Little Shopping
Have you done any shopping yet for this next school year?  I was finally able to get a little shopping done this week.  I really wanted to buy more stuff, but couldn't find things to buy.  How sad is that?

Target

 
So far this summer I have purchased some folders for my poetry journals. small buckets that I think I am going to use at my small group table, some small blue pocket charts, alphabet stickers, and Sharpie pens.  I am sure that this Target pile will grow larger as the school year gets closer.  :)


I wish I could remember who out there in blogland recommended these Sharpie pens, but thank you.  I.am.in.love!  I bought the black pen when I needed to sign a card to mail right away.  After that, I knew I needed to expand my collection! The pink, turquoise, and purple pens soon followed.  {As you can see, I haven't actually opened these yet.}  If you haven't tried these out yet, I highly recommend that you do.  You will not be disappointed!

Hobby Lobby



This is my pitiful little Hobby Lobby pile.  :(  I really, really wanted to find more here.  Maybe the next time.  I have the basic colors of these poster markers, so I knew I needed to have this companion set.  These markers are great for anchor charts.  They don't bleed through to the next page, which I love!  I also bought a couple spools of ribbon.  I'm not sure what I am going to use them for, but I'm sure I'll find something.  :)

Michaels



This is my "Amy is lazy" purchase.  {haha}  Sometimes I get tired cutting out of cards with scissors.  I am hoping that this will speed up the process a bit.  :)

Lakeshore Learning


I bought these tubs to use on the desks at the end of my tables.  I have been using the same buckets for a couple of years and they were pretty beat up by the end of this past year.  I decided to try out these new ones.  Hopefully, they will work the way I want them too.  {I will share the way I set my tables in a future post.}


I also bought some new borders, gray construction paper, and some small magnetic whiteboards.  {The cute Lakeshore Learning bag was a freebie for agreeing to receive their coupons through text messages.  Coupons to Lakeshore - yes, please.  :) }  Last year I looked everywhere for zebra border and couldn't find it so I grabbed a couple packages of them.  I also grabbed another set of the blue dots paper that I used in my classroom last year.  I needed to gray construction paper, because I never know what colors my school will have and I need it to make my raccoon craft the first week of school.  The magnetic whiteboards will be perfect for my small groups.  I can't wait for my Kinders to use them!

A Little Quatrefoil
This week I also made a new paper set.  My newest paper set is a rainbow quatrefoil set.  {I told you on Monday I was loving quatrefoil!}  I had so much fun figuring out the pattern and changing up the colors to make this set


A Little Video Fun
I have not seen Pitch Perfect, but I think this song is great!  This group does a wonderful job with it.  There is no way that I could even attempt to do this!  I am way too uncoordinated.  {haha}


A Little Something For You
If you have made it this far, I have a little gift for you.  I put my quatrefoil papers on my Facebook page for a fan freebie.  All you have to do is to like my page, click on the fan freebies tab, and download the file.  Easy, peasy.  This is will be up until I get back from dropping off my son at ESY on Monday.  {As you can see, I only have 2 little likes. I would love to have more of you visit!}

  
I'm off to take a small nap before the reception.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  
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Made Monday It - Planning Binder Covers


It's been a little over two weeks since my last blog post.  A lot of things have happened since then.  The biggest, and saddest, was that my wonderful Grandmother passed away.  I was (am) heartbroken.  She was such an important part of my growing up.  I loved going out to the farm to visit my grandparents.  I am so happy that I made a trip back to Kansas in January to see her.


Grandma made quilts for each of the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.  My quilt is in my bedroom sitting on my hope chest and has been since the day we moved into our house 10 1/2 years ago.  Colton's baby quilt is put away and his big boy quilt is on display in his room.  They had her very first and very last quilt on display.  I am so glad that everyone was able to see how talented she was!  She finished her last quilt the night before she went into the hospital.  Grandma kept telling my dad that she was upset that it wasn't perfect.  I'm sure my second cousin is thrilled to have it for her soon-to-be born son.


It has taken me a while to get back in the grove of things.  I have wanted to do a little school shopping and creating, but just haven't been in the mood.   My son was sick today and stayed home from ESY, so I decided to play around a little bit with Photoshop Elements.


I am linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for my very first Monday Made It.  I love looking at all of the wonderful projects every week!  I am probably the bazillionth {that's a real word, right?} person to link up, but I don't care.  :)

My personal goal for this next year is to be more organized in regards to planning.  One way to do this is is to make a planning binder.  In order to have a binder that I'll actually use, I need a cute cover.  That's always the most important thing, right?  Ok - the items inside the binder will be the important stuff, but I want it cute.  :)

I have been loving all of the quatrefoil patterns that I've been seeing lately.  I looked up some quatrefoil patterns online and watched a youtube video.  {The video isn't for Photoshop Elements, but it gave a good starting off point.}  I decided "Hey, I can do that."  So, I did.  I also ended up making a honeycomb pattern while I was at it.  I had so much fun changing up the colors and patterns!




I will probably use the middle one for my planning binder.  Hopefully, next week I will be able to show you the plans I have for inside the binder.  ;)

If you would like a copy of any of these binder covers, you can get them here.

I hope you have a wonderful week!  I'm hoping to do a little school shopping tomorrow.  Wish me luck!
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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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