Teaching Idea Tuesday

(this is a bit of a re-post, but I wanted to link up with Teach Junkie with my latest ideas for my classroom)
Ashley Hughes posted some brand new papers, called Rachel Papers. They were made especially for her, from Mrslambsclass.blogspot.com. However, I really think they were made for me!! These are the exact colors of my classroom!!! I was literally the first one to leave a comment--so I think I might have been the first one to buy it.  But anyways, I immediately got to work on my new classroom alphabet and word wall set.

Chevron Chic {Chalkboard Style}

I had bought these CTP dots back in June!! I had no idea what I was going to do with them. But then it hit me!! My Word Wall!

I printed, cut and glued my little heart out!!!

They came out awesome. Now I just need to laminate and hang them.  I can't get back in my room 'til August 5th and even then, we are not allowed to use the laminator. We have a designated person for that. So I will probably have to wait even longer to get these up--so sad :(

I also made a Chalkboard alphabet with the Chevron background. I don't have a lot of wall space, so I printed them 2 per page. (look at my dog--he was so excited that I was down on the floor working, he's not allowed anywhere my new couch! LOL!)

Ha, can you see my toes?  I had to stand on my dining room chair to get this shot!!

I also started on my next most favorite awesome project for the upcoming school year.  My co-worker this year had a "working folder" where she put all sorts of useful information into clear sleeves and then fastened them in a folder.  I took the concept and decided to cut and paste what I had onto file folders.  I made up a bunch of labels and printed them out. 
You can find them here Student Executive File-FREEBIE

My Student Executive Files

The alphabet chart is from Maria Manore at Kinder-Craze you can find the alphabet chart {HERE}-Free
The Digraphs and Blends on the right  are from Lacey at Wild About Teaching. Find it {HERE}-Free
The long deskplate with more digraphs and vowel teams is from the Clever Classroom. Find it {HERE} 
I also added a blend deskplate to the back that I forgot I bought, also from the Clever Classroom. You can find that {HERE}

The 3 Daily 5 signs down the center are from Lori from Teaching with Love and Laughter. What I did was print the 3 pages to 1 page by changing my printer settings.  I will probably also use them at their normal size so the class will have a reference for their file.  You can find her Daily 5 Goodies {Here}-Free.
I hope you can use these great items in your classroom this year!
Enjoy,

Sunday Smorgasbord-Freebie on board!!!

This is such a great way to share all my random craziness this week. I've been absent from my blog as I've been hanging with the kids and getting into some back-to-school projects for school.  I'm really excited about going back to school --even though I LOVE being home with my kids--I am looking forward to my new crop of students!!

Ashley Hughes posted some brand new papers, called Rachel Papers. They were made especially for her, from Mrslambsclass.blogspot.com. However, I really think they were made for me!! These are the exact colors of my classroom!!! I was literally the first one to leave a comment--so I think I might have been the first one to buy it.  But anyways, I immediately got to work on my new classroom alphabet and word wall set.

Chevron Chic {Chalkboard Style}

I had bought these CTP dots back in June!! I had no idea what I was going to do with them. But then it hit me!! My Word Wall!

I printed, cut and glued my little heart out!!!

They came out awesome. Now I just need to laminate and hang them.  I can't get back in my room 'til August 5th and even then, we are not allowed to use the laminator. We have a designated person for that. So I will probably have to wait even longer to get these up--so sad :(

I also made a Chalkboard alphabet with the Chevron background. I don't have a lot of wall space, so I printed them 2 per page. (look at my dog--he was so excited that I was down on the floor working, he's not allowed anywhere my new couch! LOL!)

Ha, can you see my toes?  I had to stand on my dining room chair to get this shot!!

How did I have time to do this you ask?  Well, my daughter was at Drama camp all week, it rained here in "sunny" Florida every single day and my son just didn't want to go anywhere.  He just loved being home. So in between video games, movies and some back to school shopping I got to work. Meanwhile my daughter now wants to be an actress! What am I going to do?  Ain't nobody got time for dat!  
My picture is horrible but you can see her in white--having the absolute time of her life!!!!!!

After her performance on Friday night, we took her and her brother to Friendly's for some celebration ice cream and mustaches?!

Hello Fu-man-chu! Oh, the imagination you must have, when you have left the ipods at home!!

I hit the teacher store and stocked up on some owls and pens!!

 
 I also stopped at Sam's Club and stocked up on Ink!!! We also tried out some of the furniture!  Look at that price! What a steal--but maybe next time.

I also started on my next most favorite awesome project for the upcoming school year.  My co-worker this year had a "working folder" where she put all sorts of useful information into clear sleeves and then fastened them in a folder.  I took the concept and decided to cut and paste what I had onto file folders.  I made up a bunch of labels and printed them out. 
You can find them here Student Executive File-FREEBIE

My Student Executive Files

The alphabet chart is from Maria Manore at Kinder-Craze you can find the alphabet chart {HERE}-Free
The Digraphs and Blends on the right  are from Lacey at Wild About Teaching. Find it {HERE}-Free
The long deskplate with more digraphs and vowel teams is from the Clever Classroom. Find it {HERE} 
I also added a blend deskplate to the back that I forgot I bought, also from the Clever Classroom. You can find that {HERE}

The 3 Daily 5 signs down the center are from Lori from Teaching with Love and Laughter. What I did was print the 3 pages to 1 page by changing my printer settings.  I will probably also use them at their normal size so the class will have a reference for their file.  You can find her Daily 5 Goodies {Here}-Free.
I hope you can use these great items in your classroom this year!
Enjoy,

Throwback Thursday--Classroom Design!!

I am so glad that Cara from The First Grade Parade decided to do this Linky Party!! I love being able to copy and paste an old but much loved post!  This week has been great personally for me!  Umm let's see, My daughter is in a drama camp and lovin' it!!! she comes home every day glowing. With her away, my son and I get some quality mother-son time.  He's growing up too fast so I cherish the time--hence, the lack of blogging.
Anywhoo, last year I threw a linky party of my own for the first time.  So we are going back to that post, which is my most viewed!! I'm going to have a similar linky this year starting MID-august when I go back to school. I'd love if you could all join in!
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Finally, My classroom Design Pictures are ready to share! Link up your designs HERE Classroom-design-and-bulletin-board Linky Party

My Owl and Polka Dot Themed Clip Chart-You can find it Here.

Entrance to classroom: Going to Print the Pictures I took today of the kids and put them next to their owl. My Daily 5 Signs--I've also included computers as we are a very technological school. If you would like these, I can email them to you for free---I'm still trying to figure how to get them on google docs. You can get them here on TpT.

This hangs over my reading table.

My team colors are hanging with their corresponding Owl.  The bags on the desk are My First Day Survival Kit. Check out my sliding doors to the pod, we are able to open or close them as we need.

My CAFE Board--I found these signs and Letters for Free. She did not put her blog page on the document. Sorry :( Her name is Amy from The Resource Room

My Word Wall. My word wall has been "interactive" since I started teaching First grade 6 years ago.  I use ribbons and velcro dots. Students are able to go up to the word wall and take down a word as needed and replace it when finished.  This also makes it easy when playing word wall games such as "What is the missing Word?" In addition if I have to change classrooms, the ribbons can be removed and re-hung.  I won't need to re-do all the velcro dots.  This is a new set of ribbons, as I changed my "theme" this year.  My last set of ribbons lasted 5 years! Someone-Robin--Emailed me about how I do this. Robin I'm sorry I didn't reply--you are a no-reply blogger so I could not respond directly. Basically I measured and cut the ribbon to equal lengths. I stapled it to my wall. As I add words I adhere a velcro dot to the ribbon and the wordwall card. I wouldn't tell you to do it all at once, as my county word list is different, which is why I added dots as I went along. I was able to get a wheel of 75 dots at staples for about $8.00.

Close-up.  The letters and WORD WALL sign can be found here.

A view from my desk.  The bulletin board to the left, will be where I display student work.

I hope you can link up your rooms soon :)
Happy decorating,

Happy 12th Anniversary!1

Today is My 12 year wedding anniversary!! So, I hope you all don't mind my little walk down memory lane. My Wedding Album is sitting in a cabinet collecting dust, only to be looked at the 14th of July each year.  

Since, 12 years ago, camera phones were not in existence, I had to take pictures of my proofs in order to do this post.  12 years ago today, my best friend picked me and my sister up to take us to the Hair dresser. I was a nervous wreck! I went home, and my two college roommates arrived just in time to help me in my dress!! The photographer was waiting, and my mom was still at the hair dresser getting her hair done! 

The photo shoot began--it was an endless barrage of stand like this, or I invite you to do this (he had a formal way of asking you to stand in a certain position). He was a fabulous photographer and If you live on Long Island and need a photographer for your wedding then, I highly recommend Gray Studios. 

The rest was a whirlwind of vows and tears, hugs and dancing, cake and laughter!!! It was a beautiful day that I will never forget.

I'm just going to share a few of  my pics---And say, I've been married for 12 years to my best friend. He still makes me laugh after all our years, 2 kids and a dog!! I love you hun!!

To celebrate --Almost my whole TpT store is on Sale (20% off) for Today only.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

Custom Classroom Design

Over the last couple of weeks I've been very fortunate to make some Custom Classroom Designs for a some lovely ladies.
I shared a photo on Instagram of my Aqua & Gray Classroom Decor.

 Tiffany commented, that she would like to know if I had it in black and red. I asked her to email me and that is when the fun began. Tiffany had a great vision for her room.  She had a polka dots and paws theme, but was having a lot of trouble finding items to fit her decor. 

(I found some great clip art form Graphics from the Pond of paws and scrappin' doodles--of puppies.  The polka dot backgrounds are from Ashley Hughes. The colors clip art comes from Krista Wallden at Creative Clips.)

Tiffany also wanted to add a clip-chart for behavior, #'s and colors as well.

I really loved how it turned out!! She came up with some great ideas for the clip-chart wording--very clever on her part--so I cannot take credit for it.

Here is Polka dots and Paws Classroom Decor

From there, I met Kari!  She was a winner in my Giveaway at the beginning of the month.  She loved the Polka dots and paws, but had a dilemma. She had invested in a lot of lime buckets and her school was going to have a Garden theme this year.  She wanted to do Ladybugs with lime and black. I found some pretty lime with polka dots background from Dreamlike Magic, black and white from Ashley Hughes and some pretty blossoms from Jessica Weible Illustrations. The pop of red from ladybugs makes it just beautiful!! Kari also asked for calendar #'s, so this Classroom Decor unit is about 20 pages bigger than the polka dots and paws. The editable file is also larger and contains more labels.

Here is Ladybug Love

 

Last but certainly not least in my Owl Love Decor. If you came to my classroom or have seen my gifts from students you would know my theme was Owls last year and was a huge hit with my class. I really made this set with my own room in the back of my mind as far as colors are concerned. It is not a full set--as I am still working on it. However, it started out as Chalkboard theme for an elementary classroom. Again, Instagram has opened up many new doors, someone asked if it came in cursive. So I made this set in Chalkboard style and Cursive Style (the cursive font comes from bvfonts.com and is called Learning curve) 

Here is the Chalkboard Style

Here is the Cursive Style

I made the Graphics a bit smaller as cursive is usually taught in older grades.

So what do you think?  Do you have a theme in mind, but can't find what you are looking for. I'd love to work with you!!