We have been quite the happy travelers since the beginning of November! This two month unit is so much work… lots of outside hours put in so it all runs smoothly! We traveled to Mexico first, then Sweden, off to England where we had an amazing afternoon tea, onto France after Thanksgiving Break, to Italy and Australia and our final stop before returning to the United States is Germany! We will enter Germany tomorrow! The customs table is already set up and ready to go!

I had big plans to compile my ideas and projects into a huge unit but I have been too busy to do that so I have plans to work on that during the winter since my winter units are already finished!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Classroom Tour

As we enter the second nine weeks, it is time to FINALLY post some pics of our new rooms! I keep thinking that everything I envision will get accomplished but I am learning that our rooms will continue to be a work in progress the entire year because of the HOURS we had to organize and prepare for this school year. My dream has been to create completely customized classrooms with most, if not all, components and designs to be created by me. J There is a lot to create for an entire classroom! Our theme is pink, lime and zebra with some dots and designer fabric thrown in to pull it all together. There is so much still to do… but here are a few pics of our beginning!

Move In Day… 2 days before reporting for meetings!! Can you spell STRESS!?

Blank Slate J

 

 

We are finally side by side… 17 years was a long time coming!

 

 

 

We are a Leader In Me School! I am SO proud to be part of the founding team of teachers to begin this!! My Leader Board is available in my TPT store!

I saw a similar idea on Pinterest and put my own zebra-kind of spin on it! J It is my “How We Go Home” organizer!

Our students have daily take home folders which go here… soon they will have homework/reading folders too!

 

Matching Alphabet Line/Word Wall… Pics on alphabet cards coordinate with Saxon Picture Clues. J

 

Book Boxes… Read to Self and Buddy Reading Tools

Matching Color Words Tool Chart

My spin on Touch Math… just had to go with matching tools! J

All About Me Board! J It now hangs next to my Leader Board above my desk! I will try to snap a pic of that soon!

What do you do when you have extra fabric/wood after making crate seating… YOU USE IT! J

 

I couldn’t resist labeling the chairs!! I was over the moon when I saw that little cut out part at the top… and the creative juices started right there! OH MY WORD! They turned out so cute!

Our crates… where it all began this summer! J

 

Word Wall Words of the Week… They double as table names! I use my word wall pack (in my store @ tpt) and make 3 copies of each word (1 for the wall and 2 in order to double side the table sign). More about how we teach word wall words with great success later. J

 

So… there is our running start to our coordinated classrooms. These are all pics of my room (Kristine’s room) BUT… Kelly’s room looks just like it! J Designing and creating coordinating spaces takes a while!

Farm Fun!

We made the cutest lil’ farmers last week! J The details made them extra fun! They will be included in my farm unit... if I ever have time to work on it! We have also been workin’ hard on learning vocabulary... our focus was on compound words last week. We are so proud of our students! We made our first flip books too... all about irrigation!

 

Kelly and I finally share a wall! J We are SO excited as this is our first EVER display together! We love having our students' work all mixed together!

 

 

 

Vocabulary Strips!

 

Our First Vocabulary Flip Book of the Year!

They wrote about irrigation and illustrated their understanding of the word.

Our students did a great job! J

 

 

Our Smart Community is off to a great start!!

We are off and running with our farm unit! J I have the greatest intentions of creating a comprehensive unit to place on TPT but so far, I have not found the time to do it… hoping to catch up with thematic inspirations soon!! We started our vocabulary word of the day 2 weeks ago! Our students have already begun the process of understanding and applying their new found knowledge during discussions and through projects. We are having so much fun learning new words at Our Smart Community morning meeting! This week, we will begin a new addition to Our Smart Community… an afternoon math meeting which will include a math lesson and calendar activities. We meet in Mrs. Parrott’s room in the morning and we will meet in Mrs. Weyher’s room in the afternoon. We are looking forward to this new collaborative portion of our day! Kelly and I are still working on our rooms… and we wonder if we will ever get them truly finished.  We are finishing up our Leader Board this week and I will post classroom photos ASAP. Have a great week!

 

Our First Vocabulary Strip!

 

 

 

 

 

 

New classroom pictures coming soon... until then, a Leader In Me FREEBIE! J 7 Habits Bookmarks for your students! Enjoy! I hope your year is off to a GREAT start!

 

Classroom Storage Crate Seating!

So… Are you addicted to Pinterest?! If so, I am SURE you have already seen the fabulous and very functional crates for classrooms!

When I saw the first post, I knew I had to make some… but I wanted to add my own touch to them. If you have followed my posts at all in the last 4 months, you know I am moving to a brand new building. I am absolutely determined to have a beautiful and well decorated classroom! J My room will be black, bright pink, lime green, a little zebra thrown in for good measure. It all started with the fabric for the crates!

So, you wanta make ‘em too? Here is what you need to get started… (We made 12 so keep that in mind) We purchased 6 yards of fabric… had probably a yard and a half leftover. We chose “duck cloth” for the fabric because it was heavy like canvas and we thought it would hold up well. We bought 12 black crates at Target. We bought one sheet of wood @ Home Depot where they cut it FOR FREE and even rounded the corners for a perfect fit!

 We purchased foam from Hobby Lobby, along with ribbon.

We made a pull on each crate for easy removal of the seat.

We used a professional grade staple gun and it took some elbow grease to get those babies into the wood. I have already had some questions about the matching labels. J They are my favorite part!! I photographed the fabric and inserted the pictures into shapes in Powerpoint to create matching labels. Pretty cool, huh? I must admit… I am in love with our crates! We can’t wait to use them in our classrooms!