B2S Prepping '13 New Mommy Style

Having two little ones at home is a whole new world for me. I am so used to be able to do it ALL and that just does not happen these days. At first I would make these extensive to do lists that I hoped to complete each day. That lasted about hmmmm... 1 day until I was crying over all the things I was "supposed" to do and didn't. That was early on so don't worry I am not a sobbing mess anymore. I have a new outlook and it makes a lot more sense. 

I get done what I get done and if I get nothing done that's that. 

It's sort of an "It is what it is" mentality and right now it just works. I am too Type A (all the way) to just do nothing this time of year when kids will be filling my room in just a short couple of weeks whether I will be the one there to greet them or not. 

My back to school prepping has been a little more here and there than usual. I leave crossing a few things off my list on a good day and sometimes I cross nothing off. Things are still falling into place though and I am so lucky to have such an amazing teacher in my place while I am away. 

Here is some of what I worked on today. Averie had her 2 month check up and that tired her out. After a full belly she slept the whole time. Conner made messes and entertained me. I loved taking them with me. I didn't miss out on a second with them!

This is our focus wall. The writing poster is a place holder for now. When I make it to the store it will be replaced with a giant piece of notebook paper to add daily homework. -- More on that part later (see bits and pieces). 

Here is a close up of the I can... portion. 

This little guy will tell us the pages we should begin with each day so that I don't have to repeat my self 150,000 times. :) 

Is my theme for this year obvious yet? Love these elephants!

Math board. There will be more on this later, as well. In short it will show Math rotations for small groups and below the kids will add the vocabulary we are currently using. 

This will be the math word wall. The vocabulary words will rotate over here as we add current ones. The titles/headings are straight from common core. 

Got these clocks at Ikea and they are perfect to show off important transitions in our day. 

Well there is the quick run down. I promise to be back to tell you more about the Math Vocab. and the Focus wall soon and give ya some freebies. 

DRUM ROLL PLEASE..... Classroom Reveal!!!

Okey dokey artichokies.... I am finnnnally ready to show you everything I have been up to! My goodness it has been a lot of work but I feel pretty ready for kids on Tuesday. I have a few loose ends to tie up here and there, covering a couple more cans in contact paper and some copies. But all in all I am so excited to start the year!!

I have a flood of pictures for you! Come back tomorrow for another FREEBIE too!

As you can see, I moved schools this year. I am now back at my home school where I started! There were a lot of boxes to go through!

I made the apple name sign... love painting!

The red folders at each spot are filled with word searched, scrambles, review math and other activities for those first few weeks of school. It can be so hard to predict how much time something will take. These work folders are great to keep them busy in the morning and throughout the day when necessary. 

To the right are additional cubbies. I had to be creative to add more with 35 kids. 

I plan to use this bulletin board to put up artwork as well as writing and other work the kids are proud of. I love using the clothepens so I don't have to worry about stapling and taking down work. 

My supply cabinet, clip chart and designated chart space inspired by clutter free classroom

Our meeting area. It is much bigger than it looks in this picture. I saved the whole front of the room for this!

Across these two bulletin boards; schedule, morning check in, birthday chart, calendar and math board

Hand signals from the clutter free classroom and my "What do I do when I am done" signs

Math materials

Daily Math Board

Another view of the room

Each table has a crate. Inside the crate are 2'' box bottom hang in files. In these hanging files students will keep folders, composition books etc. Underneath is another crate that is open. In this bottom crate students will keep their Daily 5 binders. 

My "desk" and group work area

close up of the word wall

Here are a few of the items included in my back to school Giganti Pack... I can't wait to show you some of these back to school activities. On Wednesday we will be doing my favorite activity Leader Feed!

On Tuesday I will take pictures of the kids for the month of their birthday

The bottom portion will be used to pin up our vocabulary words throughout the week. You can get these for free at my TPT store

DIY Character Canvas Paintings

For this week's project I made Character Canvas Paintings. Now, before you stop reading and think it looks too difficult read on because I am not artsy fartsy at all so if I can get this done anyone can. This has been my favorite Made it Monday project! I hope you all love it as much as I do and find time to make a few for your classroom.

Materials:

Painting Canvases- I bought mine at Michael's Craft Store on Sale in a 10 pack for $10

Acrylic Paint

Directions:

1. Google pictures of your favorite book characters. Try to stick with simple pictures that do not have too much detail and focus mostly upon the main character. 

2. Once I had my characters picked out I then put each picture on my document camera and projected the picture onto my blank canvas. 

3. Use a pencil to trace the outline and details of your picture onto your canvas

4. Once you have all of the pictures penciled on to your canvases you are ready to paint

5. Use the acrylic paint and various size paint brushes to paint your characters. This part takes time and patience but I was able to complete all 6 of my characters in about 3 hours. (The toddler was at his Grammies! Otherwise I would not have been so brave and it probably would have taken me 10 hours).

I also made this no sew banner to go above the windows in my classroom. Click on the picture below to get the template. I printed the triangles on card stock, cut them, stapled them to ribbon at each corner and VOILA..... banner hung!

Click the picture to get your template!

This one should be called a post and a 1/2

There are just too many amazing things going on right now, so bear with me!

#1

It is not even 7:00 in the morning and there are already so many wonderful freebies linked up at this party. Click the Freebie Friday picture to head over to the Teaching blog Addict

These two items were my faves!
                                         

#2 Teachers Pay Teachers is throwing a HUGE back to school sale!! From now until Sunday you can get 20% off of everything in my store... no codes required! I have so many things on my wish list how about you??

#3 I made crazy progress in my room yesterday... I was starting to feel a bit panicked, the way I do unnecessarily. We don't officially start until September 3rd but I have so many things I need want to do!!! I am sure you know! 

So here is the progress and a little blurb to go with everything because I just can't keep myself from talking!

can you believe that contact paper turned out so well?? I also went around the edges with turquoise duct tape so that hopefully it will keep the kids form picking at it. 

Not loving the duct tape border. I think I am definitely going to have to redo that

Thank you, Clutter Free Classroom for the designated chart space idea, love it!

I will have to do a close up. There is a label for just about everything. I have a few more to add and then I will post all of the labels as a freebie for ya!

Cutesy Pie Owl Clip Chart from 3rd Grades a Hoot

Finally my white board area. I will share the check in questions ASAP!! They are fabuloso! Just have a few more tweaks before I am ready to show you what it's all about!

Have a great day, everyone!! Don't forget today is the last day for the T-shirt giveaway!!! Click here to enter before it is too late!