Hodge Podge of Items

All year long I've taken pictures and told myself, this is definitely "blog" worthy.  However, my intentions are good, but the follow through hasn't been.  I updated our classroom blog a LOT more than this one!  In fact, there are PLENTY of fun ideas over there that I promise will make their way to this blog! :)

Anyways, for now accept my apologies and this hodge podge of ideas for you!

This is just a picture of my SHOUT OUTS I did before I left on a Friday afternoon.  When students arrived on Monday morning they were excited to see their names on the board for EXCELLENT conduct grades!  I'm always amazed at how far little things like this will go!

I always get the best ideas from other teachers!  Upon entering Mrs. Harman's room last year I thought WOW, why didn't I think of that?  This is just a LARGE clothes pin that is by my door.  It catches papers that need to be passed out or needs to go to the office.  It is the go to place if I'm looking for an important piece of paper!  I bought this at Target from the Dollar Spot!

So I blogged before about my classroom management system.  The pictures were old and I've definitely updated the look since then.  You can find the blog here.  In a nut shell, the three classes are competing for links.  When their links touch the ground they receive a prize and the game starts BACK over.  Originally I kept it going and each class wasn't really competing with each other.  However, this is CHEAPER, plus the kids are excited to earn their links!  Unfortunately, this year my homeroom hasn't won the classroom competition yet!  Mrs. Walters class has won the most! We voted on the 5 classroom objectives at the beginning of the year.

Close up, laminated so that I can erase the expectations each year and write new ones if needed.

Paper clip, 2 index cards, and hot glue hold it all together.

My students LOVE when they walk in my classroom and see this spinner on the board!  You can turn ANYTHING into a review!  For this particular review students spun the spinner and then had to point to the cell parts on a larger diagram of plant and animal cells.  If they landed on the free, they could point and name any part they wanted.  Here is where you can purchase this spinner, plus two additional ones.  

Lastly,  my timeline is something that I'm proud of in my classroom.  More about the timeline can be found here.  With each unit we've added the important events to the timeline.  This kept up in check all year long!  The only thing that I would do differently next year is to make the cards smaller, not the words, but just trim off the extra color on the back.  It got a bit crowded on the timeline!  I also might be moving this up front!  

LOVING my classroom!

Well, I went back to the school today.  I'm not complete done, but I'm ready for pre-planning and I can finish up the rest sometime during those three days.  I told my hubby tonight that this is the first time that I feel, "Hey this is my classroom."  Every year I've moved!  I've moved schools and classrooms.  I got to stay in the same room, same grade, and same subjects this year.  Anywho, here are the last minute items I made and hung up today. ;)  

 I absolutely love my SWAG banner. I hope the students like it, too.  The original idea came from http://blog.mdigitalmarketing.com/  However, I changed the got to has because I'm proper like that! LoL.

 Yay, for my timeline.  The hubby helped me with this.  All we did was cut poster board in half, draw a line in the middle and then put cute name stickers every five inches apart. ;)  The students will be adding facts and dates to the timeline throughout the year.

 I gave myself some extra "time" on my timeline by going to 2020! LoL

 Technically, our standards cover 1860 to present, but we talk about briefly about how "America happened" (referring to the McDonald's Commercial!)

UPDATE on my timeline, click here.

 We got the desk moved and I put a table up near the board to place the computer for the promethean board.  Ignore the mess, that is one of my to do's still.

Here is the desk in the corner. :) 

Got this awesome poster at Target. I will write reminders and notes from the office like "Johnny rides the bus today."  It will also be where I write homework. :) 

The green and purple bins will hold the Twitter items for the Twitter board. 

Right outside my door for parents to scan, even visitors.  It takes them to my blog and gives them my email address. 

View of the rest of the items around my door.  The green paper beside my QR poster is how I tell students what books they need to bring to class.  I'm not a big book user and books can get heavy, so sometimes we only need one, or even just paper and pencils. 

Still have a table, that is now in the middle of this picture, that needs to be moved out.  

The front of my room. :) 

I got the frames hung without the ribbons. :) I hope they stay!  These are my EQ frames.

How is your room looking??

Peep Show

Well, I didn't make it to the classroom today.  However, I ran MANY errands and spent money that I shouldn't have! ;)

Then I came home and took a few pictures and worked on a few items!

Here is your peep show...

 My Target purchases. :) Boxes to hold my markers, erasers for prizes, the ABCD erasers for small group, fan that plugs in USB to keep me cool, NEON Sharpies because I'm awesome, coupon holders to hold username and password cards for each class, magnetic clothes pin for the board, and ping pong balls for my hubby! ;)

 Snack containers from the Dollar Tree were 2 for a $1 and are the PERFECT size for playing cards!!!  Hubby helped me sort the cards and get them in their own container.

Super excited about this, but not mentioning it yet! I hope it works out tomorrow! ;)

Lookie what I made!

Another Monday Made it in the house! Whoop Whoop! :) This craft was inspired by these glitter clothes pins that have been floating around the blogger world and Pinterest.

 (Click on picture for actual pin, these are not mine.)

So yes, I was inspired.  However, as much as I love glitter I didn't want to use it in the classroom because the clothes pins will be used a lot and out in the hallway.  I already have three long pieces of string outside my door that I use to hang work up with clothes pins.  (I apologize for no picture, but as soon as I return to the school I will take a picture.)

Anywho :), I went to Hobby Lobby and decided to try scrap book paper instead.  So I cut the paper into tiny clothes pin sizes...

I added some water to my Elmer's glue, thanks Lisa!  :)  

And I created almost 60 beautiful clothes pins that will add just a cute detail in my classroom. :)

Thank you for stopping by! :) Don't forget to check out the other Monday Made it's at Fourth Grade Frolics! :)

***ALSO, I HAVE A GIVEAWAY GOING ON! DON'T FORGET TO ENTER TO WIN A KIDKNOWS OUTDOOR THERMOMETER!!  

Classroom Decor Linky Party

I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with Pinterest!  As far as my classroom goes, I LOVE ALL THE FUN IDEAS!!  However, I hate that everyone appears to have ALL this space!  Geeze, I can barely fit my students and myself in my room!! :)

I'm teaming up with Just Reed for this super fun Linky Party!!

1.

I LOOOOVEEE these, but I would totally put "BEE" because that seems to be my theme because of my last name!!  I also like the POSITIVE rules instead, "Don't forget your stuff! Don't be rude to others!"

2.

How cute is this? If I get bored this summer I may just have to do this! Lol!

3.

This is GORGEOUS!! I totally cannot sew though, so if ANYONE wants to make this for me let me know!!

4.

My 5th Graders would LOVE this!  I'm totally going to attempt to cut some letters! ;)

5.

I'm totally doing this! I teach 3 classes, so this will help me to remind all students about the SAME things!

6.

My mind is already going on how and WHERE to make a LARGE timeline over SS facts in the classroom.

7.

I know it doesn't match any of the colors I want to have in my classroom, but WOZ is my favorite movie! :) 

8.

I love polka dots, so this just caught my eye!  Plus, using wall space to help me organize is a PLUS because I have a lot of that! 

9.

I'm totally doing a Twitter wall, but it won't be to this extreme!  I'm going to place it outside of our door for others to see what we learned that day!!  I think at the beginning I'm going to select a few students from each class to participate!  **Will update when I have it all together!! 

10.

This concept it great, but I don't want that many! Plus I'm going to Mod Podge them with scrapbook paper. Can you tell me where to get clipboards on the low low?

I hope that you enjoyed looking at my "WOW, I WISH I WERE THIS DANG CRAFTY" post.  If you want to see other cute classroom ideas then follow this linky party! 

Organization

I would consider myself to be OCD about organization, but you wouldn't be able to tell this if you came to my house. However, in my classroom I try to have a place for everything. These past few days I have spent my time doing just that with some AWESOME labels from an AWESOME blogger, more on that in a minute!

However, before I became a teacher I still went to yard sales and bought ANYTHING and EVERYTHING I could for my future classroom. This gray thing below is one of my finds and I paid $5. The outside is made from wood while the inside a cardboard. My plans were to give each student a mailbox to store papers in. It didn't work that way because I teach 70 (well now 67) fourth graders. So I found other uses for it.
On the top left side is labels for each homeroom. Papers that we are currently working on are stored there. To the right are our red folders that go home every Tuesday sorted by class. In the middle are papers ready for those red folders and then paper storage. This has came in very handy even if I didn't use it as the way I intended. Thank goodness for yard sales!

Back to those labels. I follow a blog by Anna Brantley who created these VERY cute labels and they were FREE!! I asked her for the information so I could make more and she gave me the type of font, but said she would make them! And she did!! So I am totally sending all my friends to Crazy For First Grade for these labels and other awesome ideas!

Two Valentine's Days ago (actually day after V-day) I bought this super cute box of cookies for $1. He was too cute to resist. I actually threw away the cookies and kept the container for my future classroom. Now this lion proudly sits on my desk holding paperclips and the occasional rubber band. Everyone always ask if I made him, but I cannot take credit for that. Isn't he adorable?



The proof.
So as I said I am super organized and OCD about where things belong. In fact, I stay late everyday to make sure my desk is cleaned. One area that I cannot keep organized is this. It contains letters sent from the office that I haven't read just yet, my folder to put my items to be laminated in, my notebook for sending notes home, write up slips, and a few other items that I want near. Any suggestions on what to do with this? It really bothers me! And I promise I clean it ALLL the time!