Back in Action!

Whew! Three 14 hour days in a row must mean school is right around the corner. One more day and school is officially back in for me. Meetings start Monday and kids come on Wednesday. I'm excited to meet them, and will be glad to get back in a routine. I'm not excited about the early mornings though! :)

I told you in the last post about being a trainer for my school. We are training on Writing and Math. I am so excited to show my team both subjects! I think they will love it. My partner and I worked SOOOO hard on this and spent ALL summer getting things ready, so they better love it! :) :) :)

Seriously though, yesterday we spent the entire day copying, laminating, cutting,, and putting everything together for the training days. We made each member of our team (there are 8 of us), 12 Math centers to get them started for the year. They hit so many standards and skills and will be able to be used at any time of the year.

There were  of us putting all of these things together.My partner and I, plus my Educational Assistant and her 2 daughters worked from 10:00 to 7:00. It was a ton of work, but I know they will be so happy to have everything handed to them and ready to go.

I put the Math Centers on TpT just for you! They work with 1st grade, 2nd, and even Kindergarten. Here are some pages for you to get an idea of the packet.

Everything you need to get your Math centers up and running for the year. Enjoy!

Be fun and fabulous!

Mrs. Sweeney

Beginning of the Year Sub

Yuck! I hate having a sub any time, but I especially hate it at the start of the year! I am NEVER out. I don't think I missed one day last year. In the past, I've only taken days when I go on field trips with my own children. I really hate it. My very first Interim position, I was supposed to start on a Wednesday, and I ended up getting the FLU the day before! So yeah, I was out that week. It drove me insane. I felt so terrible that I was feeling too terrible to come to school and meet my kiddos. Pretty much, I haven't missed for being sick since then. Thank goodness. Even when I know the sub, and know it will be fine, I still hate it.

Well, guess what. I have to be out TWO days next week. Two days in the 3rd week of school! I am NOT happy about it, but I have a two day training I am required to go to, so I have no choice. I would rather stay after school, than miss a day. Yes, I know I'm weird. I'm like that with everything though. I don't miss ANYTHING unless there is no way around it. When I say I am going to do something, I do it! :)

Anyway, I have been stressing about it, and planning for it for 3 weeks now. It's not getting any better. I still worry. Thankfully, my sub is a friend of a friend, who is a certified teacher, but I still don't like it. How about you? Does it bother you to get a sub or are you fine with it? I am sure it is my control freak nature that makes me hate it so much. I just want everything to go exactly as I plan it, exactly how I want to do it. I'm trying to become a recovering control freak, but I doubt some things ever change. :)

Anyway, I have my sub notebook all done and ready. I even have 3 days of emergency plans in there, just in case. But I never, ever want to use them.

I also hate planning for my week, and then having to do sub plans on top of that. I'm efficient, and that's not efficient.

Wow, this is a whiny post, sorry! Let's be positive! :) While planning for the sub, I made a Write the Room freebie that I thought I'd share. It's all about names. Since it is the beginning of the year, I thought that would be the perfect thing to practice, and easy for the sub, since we already know how to "write the room". It's just the student recording sheet, so nothing big, but I bet you can use it, too. I just typed out their names in a kid-friendly large font, and plan to tape them around the room. Then they will go around and write their classmates names as they fine them. Our names are also several other places in the room, as I am sure yours are, so you don't even have to type out the names if you don't want to. I just wanted to make it as easy as possible for the sub. Click the picture below to get your freebie now.

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Tomorrow's the Big Day!

Yippee! Tomorrow I get to meet my new kiddos. I've kept pretty much the same list of kids this whole month. We got the final list today and it is still the same, so I am hoping my class won't change too much. I'm ready to go. I think. :)

This week has been great, but busy. Meeting after meeting after meeting. Then we had our big Back to School picnic last night. It was a great turn out, and everyone loved it. Yea for the Celebration Committee! My team was awesome and we worked well together. It was a great start to the year.

All day it looked like it was going to rain. My principal came to me in the morning and asked what the plan was if it rained. I said, "It is NOT going to rain." He said, "Ok, positive thinking then," and laughed. All day people kept asking him what we were going to do, and he kept telling them, "She said it wasn't going to rain." Well, guess what! It did not rain! It did sprinkle a TINY bit for a minute, but that doesn't count.  The weather was cool and nice. Perfect for a picnic. Thanks for listening, rain! :) You made me look good. Haha!
Now, it's on to our next event in September.

I also heard ALL NIGHT LONG about my awesome brochures. Apparently, one of one of my parents (a 4th grade teacher) took my registration folder and passed it around for all to see. Haha! All I kept hearing was that they couldn't believe I made all that and I must have spent so much money. I had to explain over and over that it was all free on Vistaprint. Then I got made fun of for doing all of that. Then they started talking about how my room was all ready and I had nothing to do. I told everyone they are not allowed in my room any more. It freaks them all out. Haha. I can't help it. I can't stand letting things wait. I am SOOO glad I had most everything done before now. If I didn't I would be so stressed. In fact, just seeing some of the rooms that aren't ready, stress me out. :) I am a planner and I don't know how to procrastinate. Thank goodness!

Tomorrow the kids come for just 2 hours. They fill out all the paperwork and meet me, then go home. Monday will be our first full day. This will be a tough week. Usually, we start in the middle of the week, so it's just a couple of days and then a break. It's good for all of us, but not this year. A whole week the first week of school will be HARD. Oh well, they'll really have things down by the end of the week. :)

So, I should probably go to bed sometime soon. I probably won't sleep much tonight. I will probably think of a million things I didn't do, but that's ok. School's back!

Be fun and Fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

It's Time!

Tomorrow is back to school for me! No kiddos until Thursday, but my alarm is going to go off mighty early in the morning. It's going to be lots and lots of meetings, but I know I will be drained by the end of this week. Excited to meet my new kiddos though!

Here are the special treats I made for them for Registration Day.

Woohoo for the Dollar Tree. They had the perfect monkey bags, jungle erasers, jungle pencils, etc. Then I did Ready Confetti that they will open on Sunday before their first full day of school.

Not much to post about. It really needs to be bedtime. I have to finish my teacher binder first though. Why did I wait until now to get this done? Kids come first, I guess. :)

Night night! Hope all of you that go back this week have an awesome first week!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Classroom Reveal

I'm linking up with Mrs. Sanderson at Flying High in First Grade to do our classroom tours. Fun, fun! I am as finished as I can be right now, except for my center areas. I go back on Monday, so I better be. No kids until Thursday though, but I'm sure I'll think of lots of last minute stuff between now and then. I feel good about where I am right now though. I really love my classroom. It is so cute and calm. It makes me happy and I hope it makes my little kiddos happy, too. Come join up on the linky with pictures of your room! Just grab this button and check out other classrooms as well.

Classroom revealed. :)

Are you ready?

View from the doorway

Carpet area

More carpet

Cute wish list items

Question of the day. I love this and will use it so much in Morning meeting/ speaking and listening.

What to do when finished board

Classroom

Deasks with everything ready to go. Parent registration folders and their Jungle Books.

Writing Area

Reading Center

Math Center

Front Board

There you have it. I guess I didn't really take a picture of my area, but I did in this previous post. It is mostly the same. :)

Go link up! I'd love to see your classroom! When do you go back?

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Communication Binders

Happy Sunday! I bet some of you start school tomorrow, so maybe not so happy? ;) We start next week, and while I'm excited, I know I'm going to dread not being able to sleep all night, getting up early, etc. I worked in my classroom ALL DAY LONG yesterday. I don't even know what I did. Haha! If you look at my classroom, it looks completely finished, but every time I go, I leave with a bigger list than what I came with. All those little things add up!

So I finished my Take Home Binders yesterday. I don't know why I didn't take pictures. Grr. I'll come back and add them tomorrow. I did, however, make a new Take Home Binder packet for you!

Click on the picture above to take you to the item on Tpt.

Jungle themed, of course! It's super cute, I think. I also made those ziplock baggies reinforced with duct tape to hold my Word Club cards, but again, no pictures.

I have a thousand other things to make, so this will be short and sweet, but I wanted to give one of you the chance to get this new packet for free! Be the first one to leave a comment and like my Facebook page and the new Jungle Take Home Binder Pack is all yours! :)

This is the cover for your take home binder.

Here are the labels for the pockets. 

This is the label of the behavior system to add on to the front of the agenda, so the parents will always have what each color/code means.

There are labels for your behavior system. Labels for your word or math cards. 2 homework pages. THe front and back page for the outside of the binder, and the labels for the inside and back pocket. Pretty much everything you need to get your binders started.  Love it and hope you do to!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Parent Helpers- FREEBIE!

Coooommmmeeee and Get It! :) New freebie for you!

I must say I haven't always liked parents in the classroom. For a while it freaked me out to have someone in there "watching" me. Then I really needed the help, so I let it happen. Then I realized, that was exactly how I learned and figured out that I wanted to be a teacher. I started as a mom in the classroom helping my son's teachers. I loved what I was seeing, I got lots of ideas, and I loved being able to help someone who did so much for my child. So, I want to repay that favor that my own children's teachers gave to me. So I'm happy to let parents in my room. I've noticed that parent help isn't as utilized or wanted her at my new school, but I hope to change that. Soooo much help and good can come from allowing helpers in the classroom. Just think about all that cutting out and stapling that gets done, and it doesn't have to be by you! Score!

I hate tons of forms and I know parents do too, so I made a one stop shop for a Parent Helper Sign up. Everyone signs up on one page, rather than trying to get one back from each person. Easy peasy for me, and all they have to do is sign their name. It's a win, win.

If you like helpers and love simple and concise, then grab this freebie for yourself. Share it with your friends, and come back and see me. :) Click the picture below to download or you can get it on TpT, whichever you prefer.

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Celebrations

I was "chosen" to be on the Celebration Committee at my school. Basically, we are the party planners for everything. Fun, fun! Sort of... ;)

We have to do some kind of team building, fun activity to get everybody mingling once a month! Yowzers. We'll really get to know each other. It's all good though, because I NEVER see the teachers on the opposite side of the building. Now I will. We have about 1000 students, so there are a lot of us.

So, my question to you is, what does your school do to welcome teachers back to school? I am thinking a Family picnic at a park or something along those lines. I'm open to ideas though, so feel free to tell me what fun things you like at your school, or wish they would do. Remember, I have 10 months of activities to plan. :)

I worked in my classroom pretty much all day today. I did all the little odds and ends like putting my calendar up, getting my behavior chart and clips ready, putting the kids names on the door, etc. Nothing new to really show you, so no pictures today. We also lost our Assistant Principal today. She's leaving to be the Principal of another school in the county. Good luck to her, but she will be missed. I feel bad for both her and my principal. It's 2 weeks until school starts, they are gone the rest of this week for a conference, and then have to come back to crazy chaos with the big change. It will be interesting, that's for sure!

Time to go work on more stuff so I can pretty much finish up my classroom tomorrow. I have training the rest of the week and then a conference the week after that, so I need to be as done as I can be.

Be Fun and Fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Classroom Jobs

It's past bedtime, so this will be quick. :) I made my classroom jobs labels today, and thought I would share them with you. I'm just going to slap the label on these bad boys and be done.

Here's the freebie for you! It's just simple, but it might give you some ideas, and it's easy to just print and be done. The font I used was Hello Chalk Talk. Just click on the picture below. 

Be fun and fabulous even late at night!

~Mrs. Sweeney

I Heart Classroom Stuff!

Crazy Boy and I spent some time in my classroom today. He was not excited, but he did it without hardly any complaining. Woohoo! I got to organize a bit and get my class list! So far, I've got 18 kiddos and they are exactly split in half, 9 boys and 9 girls! That's a miracle. I've got a good idea who most of the kids are, and I'm sure I will recognize more once I see them. So exciting!

I also got to finish my crazy idea. Wanna see?

This is my reading area and YES, that is a crib. Last year, we were going to have a yard sale so I had plans to put the crib in there, too. After looking at it, I got the idea to turn it into a "couch". So I kept it. Then I started putting my classroom together and sort of forgot about my plan. I finally got the last load out of my hoarder  teacher room and saw the crib again. I kept going back and forth, trying to decide if it was a good idea. Finally, I just decided to go try it out, so I hauled it over to the school. I made my husband put it back together and decided I hated it. Hahaha! I thought it looked a little weird. My husband kept insisting it didn't, but what do husbands know. :) I looked at it from all angles, still didn't like it. Then I turned away and did some other work. When I looked back later, it had grown on me. Plus, I knew the kids would LOVE it.  So I decided to keep it up and see if I still hated it in a couple days. Well, I came back today and added the fabric. It's a shower curtain. The back is from what used to be a bench crate seat. I just took off the crates and kept the bench seat. Added it to the back, covered it in fabric, and guess what?! I Love it! I think it looks great, fits right in, and the kids will definitely like it. I got 2 cute, fluffy pillows tonight to cover the sides, and that's it. Free classroom "couch".  I still thought I might be a little weird, but one of the K teachers walked in my room today and was amazed by it. She loved it and thought it looked great. So whew! An idea that actually worked. Yippee!

I went to Big Lots tonight, looking for those fabulous baskets I keep seeing posted all over blogs, but no such luck. I left there and went next door to Dollar Tree. I heart Dollar Tree. They had TONS of teacher stuff, and it was cute, and even better, it was CHEAP! Cheap is good, especially when it will be laminated anyway! :) Look what I got. 

I've been having trouble with my calendar area. So I am in the middle of making my own calendar stuff. Now I don't really have to, but I'll finish it anyway. Just for you. :) That is a package of 2 calendars, in my classroom colors, and it's smaller, which I wanted. They had TONS of colors and patterns and they were cute. Really! Then there are 2 sets in the package of calendar days and they even come with the special day icons, which I wanted. The clock, again, is in my colors and it's interactive. Those blue things in the left corner are magnetic organizer holders! This was my favorite item. I did not want to spend $15-20 on the counting pockets that holds the straws. Plus, I really didn't like the yellow that all the ones I can find are, so these will be perfect! I got coffee stirrers to go along with them, and voila, it's perfect for keeping track of how many days we've been in school with hundreds, tens, and ones. The middle item are tactile letters. They are glittery and feelable. :) Yes, I made that up. Remember, I told you I made up words all the time. Love them! Then of course, I had to get monkey items. The cute broom and dustpan will be perfect for little hands, the monkey gift bags will be just the thing for my back to school goodies. 

So, I've had a great day and found great stuff. What could be better. Oh, even better is that I got the stirrers, clothespins, and safety pins all for free today because I found an old gift card. Fabulous! How was your day fabulous? :)

Be fun and fabulous! 

~Mrs. Sweeney

Just Around the Riverbend

OK, so, I'm not Pocahontas, but every time someone says "just around the corner", in my head I sing, "just around the riverbend, waiting just around the riverbend." Weird, I know, but pretty much everything in my head is a song. :) Haha! Back to school time is coming up! I'm a planner and definitely NOT a procrastinator, so I've pretty much worked on school stuff every day this summer. I can't help it, it's what I do. In fact, I can't imagine waiting until the last week or two to suddenly get everything up and running. I would go insane. My husband, on the other hand, would be just like that and it would be great. I'm sure a lot of you are like that. I just can't!

What kinds of things have you been doing?  I've been organizing my digital files. Printing off stuff for the year, laminating galore, decorating my classroom, making my Jungle Books (take home binders), putting together my parent folders for the first day, etc. I have trainings and conferences these last 3 weeks before school starts, so I wanted everything as done as can be. I know I'll still be doing a ton of last minute stuff, but maybe I can keep my head above water.

Today, I wanted to talk about the first day parent folders. Mine aren't done, and of course, I don't have any of the official school stuff yet, but have them at least started.

Here's the front. I will also have a label with my class, name, and room #, but I want to do all of my labels at the same time, so I haven't printed them yet. 

Then, on the inside, the left side will be for stuff that needs to stay with me on registration day. The right side will be for stuff they can take home. Again, I still have to print the labels. 

Here's what I have in there so far. 

My awesome brochure from Vistaprint. I LOVE Vistaprint, especially their free stuff. AWESOME! This brochure wasn't free, but I had a Groupon for $70 worth of stuff, so I went ahead and had these made. They tell all the crucial info like discipline plan, snack info, what the Jungle Book is, Homework policy, my info, etc. that they will need before we have Parent Orientation  later in the month. 

My business card and cute magnet for them to hang their work on their fridge. Again, Vistaprint rocks and these were free!

My "Meet the Teacher" Introduction letter. Cute!

Discipline Plan with class rules, rewards, and consequences. 

Supply List! Yea for school supplies! I pretty hit up every school supply aisle in every store I'm in. Love the Target Dollar Spot! 

This awesome "Successful Student" sheet. I have it downloaded to my DropBox, but there is no information sheet, so I'm not sure where it came from! Thanks to whoever made it. It's great!

Then I have my Student Information Card , which you can get from my TpT store, just click on the pic. These are the perfect cards with all the student/parent info in one place. 

That's it so far, but they will be jam packed soon! What's in your folder? Did you say that in your "What's in your wallet?" voice? I did. :)

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Crafty Classroom

I've been a busy bee this week beautifying my classroom. Yippee! :) Let's take a peek.

The first thing I did was make curtains! This was my big challenge and worry because I don't sew. At all. But I did it, all by myself and in my own way. Plus they are cute and turned out great!

So I started with cute polkadot fabric.

I picked a ribbon border to go with it. I chose brown,wide ribbon because my classroom colors are sky blue, lime green, and brown. My walls are the blue so I wanted to accent with the green. I then took good scissors, my rods, and fabric glue with me to school. 

My idea was to let the fabric do most of the work so I didn't have to.:) I did not want to mess anything up and the more I worked with it the greater the chance of mess up! I also couldn't find my tape measure, so there was even more risk for mistakes! Yikes!

So I started by making sure I liked the length of the already done fabric in the window. I thought it was great, so yea for no more cutting! I then checked my fabric against the curtain rod. Since I didn't have a way to easily measure, I just rolled out the tension rod to the right length and then "measured" with it.I had exactly enough fabric to do my 2 windows! What a miracle! 

I kept the fold that was already in the fabric. It was the perfect length. So all I had to do was "sew" the bottom. I folded my ribbon in half. I glued one half of the ribbon to one side with the fabric glue. I then turned it over and folded the other side of the ribbon on to the fabric and glued that.

What do you know?! A curtain!Without any sewing and only fabric glue. You could use iron on webbing as well, but I sometimes have bad luck with that. It eventually comes undone. Fabric glue never has, plus I didn't want to lug my iron and stuff to school with me. 

I just thread the fabric onto the rod and hung it up. A window with an actual curtain!

Not only one, but two! It only took like 15 minutes max, too!

 I also found the greatest stuff! Glitter tape! I got mine at Michael's but I saw that Wal-Mart had somein their scrapbook section. My Wal-Mart was out though. :( I thought it would be perfect for my hanging work wall to show off their awesome work. So I bought some glitter tape and clothespins and  I was ready to go. 

Easy peasy! It did take longer than I thought it would. The darn back wouldn't come off very easily. I finally figured out that if you bend the corner back and forth a couple times then it comes off much easier. All you do is peel and stick! How great is that?! Boring to bling in a flash! It took less than a 3 yard roll to do 22 clothespins. :) 

And now for my fabulous work wall! I love it!

Woohoo for fast and easy fabulousness!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney