Where I Work Wednesday

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' for Teacher Week...click the picture to link up too!

Here's some pictures of my classroom...It's a little different from last year, but a lot is still the same.  :)

Here's my new wordwall...saw the cute little letters and had to use them!  I moved it to a new board so it's smaller and I had to double up some of the letters.

 View of back wall...word wall, computer center, classroom mailboxes, and birthday banners...

Close-up of Birthday Banners from Poco & Pop...LOVE her stuff!!  So adorable!

Formerly my Word Wall board, but now it displays student work...much easier than doing an additional bulletin board. 

This is where I hang fabulous Center Work from students who have worked super hard and followed directions.

I was so tired of my old shapes so I made new ones...I have these for FREE in my tpt store...I added the white boxes and not sure if I've uploaded a revised version.  Cara Carroll also some some cutesy chevron classroom decor...I had these made and then saw that she had some things too.  I had to have her Number Posters...they will be hung in my room soon!

Front view of my classroom

My Promethean Board that I vinyled...so cute!

Here's 2 views of our whole group meeting area...now in front of our Promethean Board...Yay!

View of side of room, calendar board, and math tub area...behind the math tub area is our new Word Work area...

My desk...iMac computer, and cute Crazy Straw Birthday Balloons...You can find these birthday balloon printables for FREE here...thanks to Once Upon a First Grade Adventure

Classroom View from my door

View of red and green table...you can see our center baskets on the shelf in between tables

Blue and Yellow table close-up

And, our Build Your Rainbow board...still lovin' this management system!  

Hope you enjoyed the pics...check out all the other cute classrooms at Blog Hoppin'...I know I am!

My 1st day with kids and Must Have Monday

Boy, am I one tired teacher!  Today was my first day with my new bunch of kinderkids and we had an awesome day!  They are too sweet!  I'm posting a few of the things we did today and at the bottom of this post I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin's Teacher Week for 

Must Have Monday!

 My favorite book to read on the 1st day of school to teach my students about rules and being peacemakers is David Goes to School by David Shannon.  It's the perfect book to introduce how to behave appropriately at school.  Plus, it's just too cute.

We make David on our 2nd day of school (pics to come) and you can check out this little packet here.

Next, I brought out the mystery bag to talk about being a good listener.  They went bananas over this fun little activity and were so in to what was in my bag.  I let them make predictions of what was in it and had some great guesses.

Here's what was in the bag.  First, I pulled out the shoes part of Mr. Potato Head.  They figured out that these belonged to Mr. Potato himself so I showed them the potato head with nothing on it but his nose.  We talked about what else might be missing and what he needed to be a good listener.  I told them that Mr. Potato Head is the smartest toy there is b/c he uses his listening ears, puzzle hands, looking eyes, criss-cross legs, and his Thinking Cap!  

(This fun idea was adapted from my friend Deanna's Mr. Potato Head rules which you can read about here.)

We did lots of other things, but our last thing was to read First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg.  This book is adorable!  If you don't have it, it's a must for the first day of school.  So cute!

 I made this large poetry card using the poem Jitter Juice by my friend Abby.  Thought it turned out cute...can you see the fizz bubbles made with iridescent glitter?  Under the blue paper is a copy of the poem.  You can find out all about Jitter Juice in Abby's Crazy for Kindergarten packet.  I also think it's available in a couple of her other packets.

Here's our Jitter Juice jug...empty!  The kids loved it!  

 One last thing...If your kiddos are like mine, a lot of them do not know how to write their name coming into K.  The first few days/weeks can be very hectic so I always have tons of name labels on hand to put on their work.  That doesn't mean I don't ask them to try writing their name or that we don't begin working right away to learn it, but it sure saves tons of time when you don't have any.  You can see the name label at the top of this paper.  

I print out several sheets of their names in different fonts.  These are great small projects especially since K's tend to write their name huge.

Okay, Bravo if you're still reading this very long post!  Here's my Must Have Monday link-up with Blog Hoppin'.

Personal Scotch laminator from Wal-Mart...don't know what I did before I bought this last year.

ELMO document camera...use every. single. day. of the week!  

Royal Reading & Writing Center from Copernicus Education...it holds everything I need basically for whole group lessons.

 Here's an inside view...as you see it's stuffed with, well, "stuff".

Promethean Interactive White Board...I vinyled my whiteboard with lots of dots!

Vera Bradley Lanyard

I got this jewel at Lowe's a few years ago....not sure if they still make them...LOVE

Scentsy Candle Warmer!!  

Personal Paper Cutter...use every single day of the world.

Thirty One teacher bag!

And, finally, a Mt. Dew Fountain Drink...I have one every single day of the world...including Saturday and Sunday!

Thanks so much for reading this post and my blog!  Hope you find something useful!  

Back 2 School Sale!

Yep!  It's back to school time (Monday for me) and I'm having a 20% off sale along with lots of other fab bloggers!  Click the picture above to go directly to my store and don't forget to link up at Blog Hoppin' if you're jumping in on the fun!  Plus, you can check out other sales too!

Cameo Linky and Giveaway!

Okay, so I don't have a Cameo, but seeing all of the cute projects out there makes me really jealous!  I may have to have one, but wait!  You could WIN one!

Click over to Blog Hoppin' and enter the giveaway now!

And, if you have a Cameo, link up and show us what you've created!

Drumroll Please...Giveaway Winner!

And the winner of the 30th Birthday giveaway is...

Laura Hardin

Congratulations Laura!

I will be in contact with you shortly about all of your fabulous prizes!!  

In other news, my summer is ending fast...BOO!  
I'm trying to soak up these last few days of fun with my babies!  We start next Monday.

I have posted a couple of new packs to tpt so here are the links if you are interested in checking them out:

August Intervention

Spin-a-Sound ABC's

School's in Session