PROJECTS

As July is wrapping up, I am wrapping up several projects around my house.  Every summer I purge things around the house we no longer use, and organize the house.  But with those things finally wrapping up, it's time to focus on my school projects!

Before summer began, I had packed all of my school belongings and moved everything into my new classroom in a very large pile.  I had counted on having at least a week in my new room to unpack, organize, and decorate for the new year.   However, bad news in a school under construction, we are only going to have TWO DAYS.  2 days!  And the funny thing about those two days we are being given is that I was already asked to attend Dyslexia training those exact two days.  As much as I would like to attend the Dyslexia training,  if the building stays on schedule and we only get two days, I will have to skip the training to work in my classroom.  I'm praying that whatever the hold-up is with my building, it will be resolved earlier than expected so we can get into our classrooms early like we had planned!

So, I need to make better use of my time at home.  I have already printed out my class labels.  I created cute owl labels for the Take Home Folder, Math and Science journals, etc.  You can find several kinds of labels in my TPT store: Owl,  Super Hero, and Foxes!

Today I went to Hobby Lobby.  I find it's better to go there with a list or else I can get easily sidetracked with new ideas!  I purchased the felt squares to make my chair footies.  With tile floor, these chair footies are wonderful!  And the custodians really appreciate them!  No more black marks on the floor, or loud noises when chairs are moved!  Here is my post from last year on Chair Footies.  I'll post more once I get them finished.  I added a new color this year than just turquoise and purple!  Neon Lime!  (not as bad as it sounds!  It looks great!)

I also need to change out the fabric on my seat crates.  Four years ago my husband and I took some milk crates, added a wooden top with a thick piece of foam and covered that with fabric for cute seats for my Reading table.  Inside the crates I store seasonal books or random things.  The fabric had stains and just looked so dirty, so I decided to change them from the original gingham to a solid color.  They are going to look so cute!

While I was at the fabric counter at Hobby Lobby, I ran into a parent of a former student.  I taught her daughter in the First Grade, but I didn't realize how long it's been until she mentioned that the girl is now 16 years old!  Time really flies!

Summer really flies too!  I hope it slows down a bit before the Back to School Craziness begins!

T

MARDEL in JULY

I love teacher shopping at Mardel!  Every summer they have a 20% off Educator sale, and they always have cute teacher shirts for $5!  This year they have four to choose from.  This is the one I chose for this year!  So cute, and just $5!

When I taught First Grade before, I had one of these yellow Counting Caddies.  I loved it!  However, through the years the straws went missing and it's just not in good condition anymore, so I decided to get a new one!  I've had the old one for more than 10 years, so I'd say I got my money's worth out of it!  I'm sure this one will last a long time too!  This is a fun way to count the days of school, especially looking forward to the 100th Day of School!  

My classroom theme is owls, again.  Keeping the same theme is nice, just adding a few pieces each year keeps costs down.  I have the cute owl folders to keep my students' Fountas and Pinnell testing data organized.  I loved my owl shaped magnetic whiteboard eraser last year!  I found them on sale this year for $2.  No more hunting around for the traditional black eraser, wondering where it went.  These hang on the board, nice and easy!

I'm getting ready for school, slowly but surely!

NEW NAME

It's a very exciting day here on Just a Second, It's Time For..... FIRST!  That's right!  The name has changed, but I'm still the same!  Moving back down to First Grade is very exciting!  I know it's going to be a lot more work than team teaching Third Grade, but I've spent enough years in First Grade to know that I can handle it.... or I will feel like that once my new classroom is all set up!  I'm looking forward to my 15th year in the classroom!  

Be sure to visit my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/justasecond2.  "Like" and share my page with your elementary teacher friends!  

Thanks a bunch!

BUSY WEEK

It's been a very busy week around my house!  Aside from the mother-in-law suite remodel still in progress, we had a lot more projects going on around here!

Here is a sneak peek at the master suite laundry closet!  

I have wanted to upgrade our main laundry room for quite some time. My vision was simple: paint and install a new light fixture.  But then our dryer died so we decided to get a new washer and dryer set!  Then we ripped out the only shelf in the laundry room to add a cabinet and 2 shelves, giving us more storage!  Pinterest gave me a great idea about storing the laundry pods in cute glass containers.  So my simple upgrade turned into it's own remodel project!  I love how it turned out!

The color is called "Frosty".

We chose a beautiful crystal light fixture!

The color is much brighter in person, as is the light!  I am actually looking forward to doing laundry now!

We also had our address painted on the curbs, had an a/c check, and a roof estimate. Sadly the front bay window roof needs repair, so that will be next week's project (thankfully, someone else is handling that!). I've also been organizing and purging.  That will take much more time, but this week was a good start!  5 bags ready to donate!

I even did a little bit of school work! I looked over my first Reading manual to refresh my memory about the first week of first grade!  (First up will be the letter "M" in case you're wondering...)  I tried to print the first unit from my district's curriculum website, but it hasn't been updated for the new school year yet.  I'll try again in a few weeks- I have plenty of other things to do around my house in the meantime!

I love summer!

DOLLAR DEALS

I love Dollar Deals!  My two favorite places to shop for great classroom deals are Target and Dollar Tree!  Target's Dollar Spot has a variety of great classroom deals!  The problem is that everything goes quickly!  I've been known to visit a few Target stores to find things, as not every Target may have the same things in stock!  I found some great deals at my local Target this week though!  Everything pictured was just $1, with the exception of the supply bins.  Those were $3, but made of thicker plastic than what Dollar Tree currently has in stock.

My favorite Target find was the large coins.  Since I purchased my one and only large coin set many years ago, there have been some new coins created!  I love seeing the Gold Dollar in this new set!  And for only $1, I won't mind letting the students use the big money!  Clipboards are also a good deal.  They will only last the year, but will get used daily!

Dollar Tree is one of my favorite stores because I have a strange addiction to plastic containers!  Seriously!  I walked in the main door and immediately saw this lovely row of plastic containers and my heart sang!  (you think I'm kidding!  LOL!)  

I didn't go too crazy this time!  Just a few things for my new classroom!  I remember that First Graders cut/glue often, which tends to leave little scraps of paper all over the floor.  These cute small green trashcans will be perfect for the groups!  The coloring is a bit off in the picture below, they are not neon green, but rather the green in the picture above.  I'm not quite sure what to do with the round purple bins, but I am thinking about putting a set of headphones and an ipod touch in each one.  Last year I used smaller rectangular bins and the headphones and/or headphone cord stuck out.  This way they will be contained and look more organized.  We'll see when I set up my room though.  I could find another use for them instead!  

Pretty soon the name of my blog and Facebook group will change just a tad.  The addresses will remain the same, but in July you will notice the name change to "Just a Second, It's Time for First!"  Can't wait!