My Classroom

School started four days ago and my classroom is still not 100% ready. I didn't get the time I needed when we returned last week. I am grade level chair this year and that has been taking a lot of time. I'm also not able to leave as early anymore so by the time I get to work and get going, I have very little time left. I am just thankful that the twitching in my right eye stopped.  Stress can do that to you. I do have pictures of my classroom as it is right now.

Below is my front door. This year I have a "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" theme. It is all about sweets.

My writing bulletin board. They told us at the last minute that it was all about anchor charts and that is what they want up in our rooms. I wasn't about to give this board up though. I made writing process posters which are towards the stop. Then I got really cute punctuation posters - can't remember but I did get them of TPT.

My husband built the writing station you see below. We painted it green to match my new pencil sharpener. This is going to be my writing and word study area during Daily 5. The crates are for the Word Study activities.

My class jobs - there are popsicle sticks which each student's name on them in the pockets now. I just have to assign a salary to each job.

The start of my Daily 5 and Cafe board. I will be adding anchor charts and strategies as we go. I want to create the anchor charts with my students.

 This is going to be my vocabulary wall. When we learn about synonyms, antonyms, nouns, verbs, and adjectives, the anchor charts will go up here. I just need to buy letters.

 On my students' desks when they came in Monday morning.

I am hoping this keeps me organized. I have a folder for each day of the week. This is where I am going to place copies.

My desk and filing cabinet. The filing cabinet sits to the left of my desk. I saw this idea on Pinterest. My husband made me this organizer. I placed all the books that I use frequently in there so I don't have to go digging for them when I need them. You can also see my teacher's toolbox which I made last summer. If you keep looking, you will see a lot of things I got from TPT and Pinterest.

I read up on Whole Brain Teaching this summer. I created my own posters for the rules. The rest I got from TPT.

This is going to be my math centers area. The stool to the left was made by my husband. It is for students to step up to reach the Smartboard. It matches my dots on turquoise theme.

I am hoping to finish up my classroom this weekend. It is functional right now but not complete. Have a great Thursday!!

Day Late Dollar Short

When summer started the days were escaping me - is today Monday? I lost track of what day it was. Now that I go back to work in one week (eeekkk), I know exactly what day it is. However I am two days late on joining Blog Hoppin' for:

1. This will be my fourteenth year teaching. Most of my career I have taught second grade. For a few years I was yo-yoing back and forth between second and third grade but I have been in third for several years now. I wanted to teach third grade ever since I started my student teaching.

2. I love to play in Paint Shop Pro and tag. I am on two tagging lists where I create tags and add people's names to them. It is a hobby and a stress reliever! You can find an example of one of my tags below.

3. I have become a fitness freak! After my second daughter I packed on weight which I am still trying to get off. I have joined the world of Beachbody, became a coach, and have about 15 pounds to go!

4. I am married to a wonderful man, who is also a teacher. He teaches seventh grade history. I am glad we have similar hours now. He used to be a chef and worked way too much!

5. My husband had four children of his own coming into our marriage. Three out of four are older and live on their own. The youngest of the 4 lives with us. She is 11. We also have two daughters, ages 8 and 2 1/2. My poor husband is surrounded by girls.

6. I now live in Nevada, but was born and raised in New York. Although I wouldn't want to move back, I am not a big fan of my current place of residence. I would love to move back East somewhere that has four seasons.

7. I am a huge Lucille Ball fan. If you could see my dining area, it is covered in Lucy pictures. I have Lucy collectible dolls, lunch boxes, and a calendar. There is not an episode of I Love Lucy that I have not seen at least 20 times (probably more). One year I was Lucy for Halloween. Yes I am addicted!

8. Speaking of addicted - I am addicted to the world of vampires and werewolves! I am a Twilight fan (Team Jacob) and I also love the reading series Vampire Academy. I'm also a Vampire Diaries fan. 

9. I love country music!! Anyone that knows me knows my love of Mr. Tim McGraw!! When I moved here to Vegas, I had never listened to country music. I don't know what it is about this place, but I got turned on to it and never looked back.

10. I'm into sports!! As I said earlier I am from New York so most of my favorites are NY teams ~ the New York Yankees and the New York Islanders. Odd thing though, I am a Washington Redskins fan. Don't ask me why - it is a long, silly story! I can't wait for football to start!!

Now I need to get my daughter down for a nap. Once I go back to school, I hope these late naps will become earlier naps. Have a super day!!

I Can't Believe It's August & Currently!!

Is it August 1st, really? I can't believe that we will all be back to school in less than a month. My husband goes back on the 14th, I go back on the 21st, and the girls go back on the 26th. Say it isn't so!! 

It is time to link up with Farley for August Currently! 

We have three girls, ages 11, 8, and 2 1/2. My little one loves to play with her big sisters. I can hear her giggling away as they are playing. Another thing I love is that I got my workout done. I am dreading when I am going to have to get up at 4:30 am to get them done once I go back to work. I do two workouts a day, except on Sunday. 

School starts in 25 days! August always flies by so fast. How can I slow it down? I can't tell you how many trips I have made to Target already. There is a fast growing pile of teacher stuff everywhere. The couch in our family room is covered. I have notebooks on the floor next to the couch. On top of our shoe bench I have posters and more notebooks. Then there is a box of folders and sheet protectors next to the shoe bench on the floor. This leads me to what I am needing to do - clean my house! You can see I am a procrastinator as I sit here and blog. :)

I stood in one aisle at Target for a good ten minutes yesterday deciding if I wanted to buy another box of scented markers. I justified it by thinking that my box at school has 3 missing and that I have posters to create. So I bought them and have no regrets! I need to organize my teacher binder and add some new sections. This year I vow to be organized! Finally I need to gather those first week read alouds. As soon as I sit down to plan out my first week I am going to hit the library.

Now that I look at my post I can't help but think of all of the things I have to get done today. I'm going to have some lunch and then get to work. Have a great day!!