Back to School with Oriental Trading

Hey, y'all!

I've been working in my classroom the past couple of days to get things ready before we officially go back to alllllll the meetings school for teachers. Who's with me here?! We all know it's hard to get into your room once you actually start back!

Since changing last year from Kindergarten to fourth, it's taken me a little while to figure out how I wanted to do materials and such. I finally figured out I want to have caddies with community supplies for highlighters, dry-erase erasers, and scissors. My students don't always have these supplies on hand and it's a big pain to shuffle back and forth to get everything out! Problem solved!

Look what I found on Oriental Trading! These little caddies are perfect, and how CUTE are the little paw erasers?? {Our mascot is a tiger, so we've got paws all over the school!}

I discovered Oriental Trading's Wish List over the summer - such a clever way to let parents know what you could use in your classroom! Take a peek at mine {HERE}I'm going to share mine on my teacher webpage through my school. Our parents are wonderful about helping out!

So, hop over to Oriental Trading to create your own wishlist! I bet you'll be surprised with how many school supplies they offer!

*Disclaimer:  This post contains information about products that were sent to me by Oriental Trading for review.  Regardless of this, I picked out the items and all opinions in this post are 100% my own opinion.

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Field trip organization

Hi friends! We just went on our annual field trip to the Corn Maze this week. I think I'm still picking hay out of my hair! ;)

When it comes to taking 20 kindergarteners to a place where they can EASILY be lost...it takes a lot of organization on the teacher's part to ensure that no student gets left behind! This year I think I've got my routine down pat..

When we go on field trips we always ask for parent volunteers to work/monitor a group of kids. There is NO way I could do it all myself! Once parents have graciously volunteered, I put my students into groups of 3-4 depending on the amount of volunteers. Then I whip out my garage sale dots and name tags!

I put *my* name on the name tags...we have 5 other classes plus all the other schools and general public that are out there at the same time. That way...if a kid gets separated from the group it's easy to see who they belong to. Each kid gets a colored dot that places them into their group. Each volunteer is in charge of one color group.

Then...I make a little care kit for each volunteer. I pack things a parent might need without having to come to me to ask for bandaids, kleenex, sanitizer, etc. from my field trip kit. The little tag also has the list of students in each group.

This has been the BEST way to organize groups and volunteers for me and it works every time! Parents appreciate that I am prepared and aren't just throwing kids at them left and right. If you'd like the {EDITABLE} tags click HERE to snag them up!

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Welcome letter

Happy Sunday, friends!

I went back to school this week on Wednesday for professional development. I still have another week of PD before school starts on the 25th! We've slowly been getting open house packets together and something I wanted to share with you is my welcome letter! I think it's so important to have a warm welcoming letter to your parents when they come for meet the teacher night. There is always so much going on that you're lucky to talk to each parent for just a minute! So, the first thing that I always place in my student's packet is a welcome letter!

This "a few of my favorites" idea came from the fabulous Cara Carroll! I started it 2 years ago and my parents really pay attention to them! I've had parents bring me a random Sonic cherry coke after school or a latte in the morning. Bless them!!

If you're wanting to create your own letter just like mine, click HERE to get the editable {FREE} version. Just click inside the text boxes and insert your text! I have left links to the fonts that I used to create my letter.

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Back to school Blog Hop!

I'm joining some of my best friends in a blog hop today!! This hop is full of back to school tips, tricks, and freebies!! I love back to school for so many reasons, but I SERIOUSLY love to organize. You guys. For real. There's nothing like the feeling of a neatly organized room with labels all over. 

I have a confession. I had a great summer to-do list. 

I crossed off many things!

But there's something that I didn't have the time to finish...

 Look at those chair pockets! {don't look at the room. this was taken on the LAST day of school last year as were were clearing everything out!} They have been LOVED to pieces. Literally! More than a third of my chair pockets look like this and I had the best intentions of making a new set. Maybe by Christmas I will be motivated again?!

So, I'm going to use a new system to organize our interactive notebooks, calendars, book bags, and such until I get a new set made! I bought these magazine bins at Mardel this weekend. I bought 1 for each of my tables. 

 

These bins will be on our back counter {where the sink is} and I will have a table leader each day that is responsible for getting the materials out. Easy peasy!

If you want to grab the labels, click HERE for your freebie!!

Now hop on over to my friend Megan's blog for the next tip! 

{click the button!}

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Teacher Life Map!

I had the chance to meet a few of my dearest blogging friends recently!! I met April from A Modern Teacher and Reagan from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits a few weeks ago when I was on vacation. We had so much fun chatting!! {forgive the lighting! We were inside a restaurant at night!}

 April was SO SO sweet to bring Reagan and I one of her fancy new teacher planners. She calls them the Teacher Life Map.
 Y'all... I have a problem with planners...my school gives us a calendar with everything all pre-typed out for us {district dates. PLC's, birthdays, etc.} and it is great...but then I HAVE to use a desk calendar for my desk. Then, I have my teaching binder, post-its everywhere at home, and then menu lists strewn all over the place. I love a good planner.

Here's the monthly shot. I LOVE using washi tape on my calendar..I usually color code with  the tape...the green here is family, yellow is kid's stuff, pink is school, and stripes are appointments. Plus, it's pretty aesthetically pleasing, right?!

 The Teacher Life Map has weekly pages, a place for meal planning each month {big 'ol puffy heart LOVE that} a place for a monthly curriculum overview, notes from meetings, and I could keep going! It is PERFECT for a teacher!! This little guy is not leaving my side this year!

Visit April's post HERE to take a closer look at some of the other pages. I'm so excited to have this this year!

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School Supplies!

So..I am officially on the "back to school" countdown! It's a month still until school starts but I go back in 2 weeks for a million hours of trainings. One thing I always do mid-July or so is change my habit when grocery shopping! We use the reusable bags when getting our groceries, but starting in July I ask for paper bags instead.

For meet the teacher night, I usually have a decent amount of students that come with their school supplies. I do not do community supplies {other than pencils and I will post more about that later} so I like my students to all have their own bags of supplies. Sometimes they come in with a plastic bag, sometimes it's all stuffed into their backpack. I like it all to be organized, and I have a method to my madness...so paper sacks is the easiest way to organize it all!

My parents will have jobs that they have to complete {all in their manila folder that is in their child's mailbox} and one of them is to put their child's sticker onto the brown bag and place supplies inside. I usually have them find their child's locker and place the bag inside. This way I can come back to it later when there are not {what seems like} 200 people in my classroom.

{supplies nestled all neatly in the paper sack. I pull out supplies as we introduce proper care of them each day the first week of school. My TA is a HUGE help and places labels onto all of their folders, binders, notebooks, etc.}

 

It is so simple...but seriously! LIFE changing!

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Calendar Organization

Hi friends!

I'm so excited about this post today! I'm a pretty organized person by nature...and I LOVE a good organizational tip! So when I was reading my one of my FAVORITES blog a while back I knew I just had to do the same thing. You guys...I got to meet Kristin in person in January and she is seriously the best! She is just as hilarious in person as she is on her blog and she was super nice and kept us entertained when I got us lost for, like, an hour in Dallas. {I am the WORST with directions- just ask the Mr.}

So, anyway...I saw Kristin's calendar organization post and knew that I was going to become a certified whack-a-doodle right along with her! Half of my calendar cards as we speak are laying in the top drawer of my desk at school in a bunch of Ziploc bags. They're not even labeled. I know! Just thrown in the drawer. {the bags are clear...right?! You can see exactly what's inside! ;)}

So I dug through my closet and found this empty index card holder. It says "my recipes" on top. I have no idea where it came from, but it works perfect! {I covered the "my recipes" up with a little "calendar" label} Then I went to our teacher store and bought some library pockets and index-sized folders. Look at these cute polka dot folders! I labeled them with the months that we are in school.

So here's the fun part... the calendar pieces! I placed a little label on the front of each library pocket and laminated them. I sliced open the pocket with the tip of my scissors and put each month's calendar pieces inside.

So now I have perfectly organized calendar pieces! The holidays for each month are also in the pocket. NOW...here's where Kristin gets suuuuper smart. She pre-fills-out little birthday cards and places them in the month that they fall in. For those kids that have summer birthdays {I feel their pain!} she finds a month where there are only a few or none and places their card in that folder so when it comes to that month, she sees it and there's no "OH MY GOSH IT'S THE END OF MAY AND WE HAVE 4 BIRTHDAYS TO CELEBRATE BEFORE THE END OF THE WEEK!" {but you've never done that before, right?!}

 So, once I get my kids' info I will be doing this first thing! 

Then I won't have to think about it the rest of the year!

CLICK HERE to snag up the month labels and the birthday cards for FREE! And then go over to 

A Teeny Tiny Teacher and tell her how smart she is for this idea.Then head over to Tara's blog to see all the other Monday Made Its!

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Life: Organized

Morning you guys!

Y'all went bananas for my last post so I added another page to the organization pack that includes a "school projects" slot for those of you who are non-teacher bloggers. Thought that would make you happy :) Click on the picture to head over to TpT and re-download the freebie!

While I was at it, I made a weekly meal plan sheet that you can GRAB HERE for free!

The hubs and I are really trying to eat at home a lot more...and what perfect time to do this than the summer?! I actually will have time to make full meals {as long as we don't stay too late at the pool!}

The meals that I have written down on my plan for this week are from Bless This Mess. I just discovered her blog and I am LOVING it!

The shopping list behind my weekly plan is from my good friend Jen over at Teacher By the Beach. Click HERE to snag up her shopping list planner. I love it!

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It's allllllllmost summer!!

Can you taste it?! It's sooooooo close! {I know some of you are ALREADY out, I'm super jealous!}
I'm pretending that tomorrow is not a school day...we haven't put the kids down yet- we're living on the wild side!! {it's 8}

Also, I've been working on reservations for Ella's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese's.... I know, I know!! We went to a party there last summer {the one and only time we've been!} and she HAS NOT been able to stop talking about it. I try to suggest other fun activities...to no avail. The girl's got a strong will, I tell you.
So, Chuck E. Cheese's it is.

I also planted some succulents this weekend. They tell me they're super easy to take care of. I sure hope so...because I have the WORST luck with plants. Seriously.

I've also been day-dreaming about my summer. And what I might do with my classroom next year. I've been making a to-do list in my head and on my Pinterest account! :) So..I like to stay a little on track with my plans and make a few million to-do lists. Anyone else with me?!

I made up this little freebie pack last summer. It helped me to stay on track and not lose my summer to catching up on the Today show and reading all the books I can manage {don't worry, I'll still do that}

I'm adding these little to-do lists to the packet...so hop on over and snag them up. All of the calendars and lists are EDITABLE so for those of you with OCD...you can type in them instead of write ;) 

{click on the pictures to snag these up!}

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Back to School Kit!

Hi guys!!

I have a new packet up that includes everything you will need for back to school night/ open house and the very beginning of the year!

This packet includes over 150 pages of back to school printables to get you ready for the year!

Included in the packet:
- Writing office printables {alphabet chart, writer's eye, often used resources}
- Back to school "lucky to have you" printable tags for gifts
- Polka dot name tags in 5 different colors. Editable version included
- Open house night classroom scavenger hunt
- Open house sign in sheets
- Journal covers and different journal printable pages to differentiate
- Open house {or beginning of the year} information sheets for parents to fill out and manilla folder cover sheets
- Intervention and Contact logs

- Over 40 printable binder pages for {almost} everything you could need!

- 12 editable binder pages for those things not included

Click HERE to check this packet out on TpT. It's 20% off for this weekend only!

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