Teacher Tip

Hello Again!

A teacher friend of mine asked me a question that I thought everyone already knew, but apparently not. :) So, just in case you didn't know... I'm going to give you a tip on tennis balls today.

What?! Tennis Balls on a teacher blog? No tennis instructors around here, but I do use tennis balls in my classroom! You know those annoying scrapes and marks left by metal kid chairs? Well, hear and see them no more! All you need is tennis balls. Get them donated by a tennis school, a gym coach, a park, or even parents. Cut a little slit in the side, and slide over the bottom legs of the chairs.  Viola! No more noise or yucky marks on freshly waxed floors.

See the chairs? Easy peasy!

But wait! Those things have got to get disgusting sliding back and forth on the floor all day long. Why yes, yes they do. That, my friends, is what the question of the day was. How in the world can you clean tennis balls? Do I have to get new ones every year?!

Nope, it's as easy as your laundry! In fact, a washing machine and dryer are all you need.

First, have the kids take off the tennis balls at the end of the year. They LOVE this gross job. Then make sure they wash their hands. :) Stick them in a garbage bag and bring those babies home with you over the summer.

Then promptly forget about them until the night before school starts. Or not. ;)

Throw them in an old pillowcase.

Then tie them up good and tight. Throw them in the washer like you would your towels with soap. I also use a little downy, so maybe they will repel dirt by being less static-y as long as possible. :) Throw them in the dryer when they are done. You now have super clean balls. They may be a little fuzzy, but they work great. 

By the way, if they accidentally come out of the pillowcase and spill all over your washer, it's ok. Just a little bit louder. Close the laundry room door and you're all set. 

Now you have a bag of clean tennis balls ready to take back to your classroom in the morning. You won't even mind sticking them on the chairs yourself because they are now all nice and clean. 

I'm the mentor teacher to a new teacher coming to first grade this year. We all have cute letter signs for our doors at school. Here's mine. 

Well, my new friend doesn't have a letter, so I made her one! Her classroom is all jungly, so I thought this would fit her. Hope she likes it!

School starts for me in the morning! Then kids on Wednesday. Fun, fun!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Snow Day!

We finally got a snow day with a miniscule amount of snow! Woohoo! Usually, I hate being out because all of my plans get messed up, but I wasn't really planned for this week anyway, so it worked out perfectly. They canceled early enough that I hadn't started my frantic planning. It is Dr. Seuss week though, so I am a little bummed about that. Hopefully, I can fit in all of our fun stuff. Who knows if we will be closed tomorrow, too?  Maybe some of you are out of school today, too. Check out my newest products.

Unit 5 Selection Tests for 1st Grade Wonders Reading. A comprehension test for all ten Anthology Stories. I can't believe there is only one unit left to go!

My next product is something that the lower grade teachers in my school wanted in poster form. I really liked how it turned out, and hope it is what they were looking for. I thought I'd go ahead and put it on TpT for everyone to use.

There is one in color and one in black and white. It can be blown up to poster-size, put in your Math Center or given as a student helper. My kiddos love looking at our Math Strategies and trying to pick a way that no one else does. It really helps them grasp the different ways to make numbers. This has helped our Math Tasks so much!


Enjoy your snow day!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Busy, Busy

Oops! I keep thinking about blogging. Does that count? I guess not. I have been insanely busy the last few weeks.

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I'M GOING TO HAWAII! Next week! I have a singing competition and it happens to be in Honolulu. It also happens to be during school. Why couldn't it be during Fall Break?! Sooo, I have been working my little tail off trying to get everything done and ready. I've got to do sub plans for an entire week, plan for the week after since I won't be any good to anyone, and a million other things. So it has been insane around here. I've also left my camera at school 2 weekends in a row, so I haven't had any fun pictures to upload. i do have some though. Maybe on my super long plane ride, I will be able to do some blogging. We'll see. I did want to post one cute thing though!

This week is Red Ribbon Week. We are having a door decorating contest. I so did not want to add another thing to my to do list, but now that it's done, I LOVE it. It is so cute and I wish I could keep it up all year. Look, look, look! It fits my classroom perfectly. :)

Here it is closed with the palm tree on top.

here it is open into my classroom. I like it both ways. 

I hope we win, but even if we don't, I like it, the kids like it, and that's all that matters, right? Sort of. :) Have I mentioned I'm competitive?! :) 

Anyway, I am off to bed, but I wanted to share some cuteness. Hopefully, after Hawaii, things will settle down for me and I will be back here like normal.

Be fun and Fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Last Bit of Freedom

This is my last weekend before school is in full swing. Yes, we went last week, but we only had kids for 2 hours, so it doesn't count. :)

My kiddos are sweet. I think it will be a good class. I did have 4 not show up, but I think they will all make it on Monday. I did get a new one yesterday, so I am now up to 19. I did not get to meet her, but Monday will come soon enough. I have several good parents who want to be involved so that will be nice. I can't wait to get started.

I have no plans for next week though, so that is freaking me out a bit. We still haven't really gotten a schedule, so it is hard for me to plan, when I don't really have a plan! I'm going to buckle down and figure out something after this post though. Instead of working on lesson plans like I should have, I worked on stuff for you.

Our school wants to really focus on Accountable Talk and student learning this year. Pretty much what Common Core is all about. We got to tour some of the upper grade classrooms and the buzz was about some Accountable Talk posters they had in their rooms. I liked them, but didn't think they would work quite right in my classroom. Several other teachers mentioned that they would put up the posters for THEM to use to guide student talk. That's all well and good, but I want the kiddos to be able to use them on their own. So, I decided to make my own. I changed the wording a little bit  and added pictures to help the kiddos understand them more so they can actually use them. Plus, I have a mostly ELL class and they would definitely need help. Pictures are worth a thousand words, right?! Anyway, I think they turned out great and I have already printed them out to put in my classroom.

I put them on Teachers Pay Teachers for you. Just click the picture below to take you to them. I hope they work in your classrooms, too.

I really think they will help my kiddos use them more easily without me having to feed them the words. Woohoo for growing in-depth thinkers! I can just imagine all the conversations that can happen with these little gems. 

I like this one a lot because they really have to explain why they answered a certain way. They have to really think about it to explain it. Who am I kidding? I really like all of them. :)

Monday begins the start of an awesome year! I hope yours starts off great as well!

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

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

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

Art in My Own Way!

At my school, all of the 1st grade teachers and even the EAs, have a door sign with their initial on it. I think they are super cute and of course had to have one. So I went to Hobby Lobby, then Joann's, then Michael's, then back to Joann's. I had to have the perfect fabric and letter, of course!

Hobby Lobby had some cute chevron fabric, but it wasn't really in "my" colors so, although I liked it, I wasn't sold. They didn't have a cutesy letter anyway, just the boring blocky type.

So then I went to Joann's. I looked through all of their fabric, couldn't decide, so I looked at letters. I found the perfect letter that was cutesy and in white. I didn't really want to paint it, so I decided to choose fabric that matched the white. I went back to the fabric. Then I went to the bathroom. I would NOT recommend going to the bathroom, at least not at my store. It was the most disgusting bathroom I had ever been in. Um, how could a fabric store bathroom look like that?! It hadn't been cleaned in quite some time, that was obvious. I was disgusted, so I left.

Michael's was next. Wasn't really happy with anything I found there, so I went back to Joann's. I definitely did not use the bathroom this time. In fact, it was so bad I emailed their corporate office and complained. I think it made it worse that it wasn't somewhere you expected to have a gross bathroom, like a fast food restaurant or a truck stop. Haha! It really was bad, but I digress.  I found the perfect fabric, got my cutesy letter, and a 16x20 white canvas.

No letter in this pic. Oops!

I then cut the fabric so that the edges went around to the back of the frame. I then stapled it tight. I have a heavy duty wood stapler, although I have seen them stapled with a regular stapler. You just have to use a lot of staples. Try it if that's all you have. After it was all stapled tightly, I used Elmer's adhesive spray on the letter and stuck it to the fabric.  I thought I had a picture of this, but nope. 

I liked it, but thought it was a little plain. I wanted to add a ribbon to the top as the hanger, but all of my ribbon has a design and that is too much with the fabric, so I left that off. I'm thinking I will probably go back and add that later. I went ahead and hung it up at school. After I kept looking at it, I decided it definitely needed something else. On one of my many trips to Hobby Lobby (what can I say, I have to kill time while Crazy Boy is at gymnastics for 3 hours) I found the perfect thing! A small bag of little crocheted flowers in colors to match. Woohoo!  The next time I went to school, I added the little bling and VOILA!

I love it! The ribbon will finish it off, but for now it looks great! Yea for quick and easy art. It took me like 10 minutes tops to make and adds so much to the boring brown door! I'd love to see yours if you do something similar. :)

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Cuteness!

I've decided I really love fixing up my classroom. Haha! I love it so much that I have to limit myself to only going twice a week or my kiddos would kill me. They probably already want to kill me! Oh well, I can't help myself.  Plus, I really need to get this done. All of my bazillion teacher trainings start next week and I'm not going to have much time for putting together my classroom. Pretty soon school will be starting and I will have a million other things to worry about, so I don't want to worry about decorating. Sooo, do you wanna see what I've been working on?! I do! It makes me happy. The front of my classroom is getting there. I pretty much just have my calendar area left to tackle there. Here we go!

This is to the left right as you walk in the classroom. 

My fabulous teacher area. I wish I knew where my missing computer is, but my iPad will do for now. I love, love, love my birthday board and can't wait to get those pictures up there.

From the back of the room. See it looks like a classroom!

                 
                           Looking into the rest of the room. Still pretty blank, but more coming soon!

My project for today (besides all the classroom stuff) was to make my 1st grade portrait letter. One of my kiddo's fabulous teachers had a picture of her when she was in the same grade, and I thought it was so cute, so I made one too. I just need a frame, but this will hang right outside the door for my new firsties to see before they walk in to the classroom. Hopefully, it will make them feel more at ease.

Love it!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

From Blah to Fabulous!

I wanted a way to keep all of my behavior stuff easily in one place. I'd seen the tool organizers people were using to hold their award cards, etc, and I thought it was a pretty good idea so I asked my husband what he had in the garage. He always has random, extra stuff laying around. Weirdo. :) Anyway, he had this pretty cool tool organizer that he had gotten on clearance for like $2 and it was completely empty! Score!

I actually loved it and thought it was PERFECT! Not only could I fit all of my award cards in there, I could put my behavior strips in there as well. My kiddos move up or down my jungle behavior chart, and I have them glue the picture of their behavior of the day in their agenda.

 I needed an easy place to keep up with those little pictures and this was perfect.

I can also fit my special reward coupon for making it to Marvelous Monkey and my Behavior Reflection sheet that I send home when they clip down. Everything all in one spot! How perfect! 

What was not perfect was the color. BLAH! It did not match and was ugly. I tried to deal with it, but I couldn't. First, I tried wrapping it in matching paper.

I liked the paper, but it just didn't look right. I tore all of the paper off and decided spray paint was the way to go. 

PERFECT! It matches my room perfectly, holds everything I need, and looks great. I wish I could bling it up a bit, and I probably will add some wording with my Silhouette, but for the moment I really like it.

Definitely much more fabulous, that's for sure. :)

Thanks to Mel at Seusstastic.blogspot.com for her awesome reward coupons! Click the picture to take you to her blog post about these little gems. 

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney