Classroom Quick Tips Linky ( A Few Days Late)

Oh my goodness!

Do not faint from shock, I am ACTUALLY blogging.

You know how when you haven't blogged for awhile its hard to get back in to the routine, that is how I have been for the past month... Or maybe you are a WAY better blogger than me and you never take a break. :)

So back to the Quick Tips Linky.

(I have felt especially bad about not blogging more often because I help to HOST this linky! But here I am, FINALLY, sharing and hopefully getting back into my bloggy routine because I have really missed it.)

THE RULES

Link up with a quick tip that makes life in your classroom easier. There are no weekly themes or topics. The only real "rule" is that you may not link up with a paid product or unit. Our goal is to share the small nuggets of greatness that are happening every day in our classrooms! If you missed the backstory about how this party got started, click here! Angela and I would also appreciate it if you linked back to our blogs and included our button in your post :)

My Tip

So I loved the kiddo's having book bins in my room last year and I know many of you have them in your room. But I just did NOT have the space for them this year due to the new math curriculum that we adopted. ( It came with 12 binders! 12!!!!!) I needed the bookshelves that housed the book bins last year for something else.

In the past I used green file folders in a crate as book "bins", but I didn't really like how long it would take the kids to find theirs. So I thought about what made the book bins so easy to use and how I could transfer some of that over to the crate.  

I decided that adding a photo to the top of their green folder would make it easier for them to see right away which one was theirs. (Plus, even though it seemed pretty obvious to me which way the folders were supposed to go, I always had kids who were trying to put them in sideways or upside down and it just became a mess. This way they know for sure which way it is supposed to be. ) I also staggered them so that they could also be more easily seen.

I purposefully made this photo blurry so you could see the photos attached, but not see the peanuts faces.

 

Link up with us and share your classroom quick tip!

 

~Jean~



Classroom Quick Tips Linky! We're Back!

Happy Thursday Friends!

This is my first week back at school and so life is crazy and busy as I get used to being back into the swing of things. I am loving my new peanuts. They are doing an awesome job of getting used to 2nd grade rules and expectations.

Today I am here to bring back my favorite linky party of all time!

 

I am so excited to bring this linky back. I love everything about it. I love that it is teachers helping teachers. I love that we aren't linking up with paid items ( freebies are totally cool). Most of all I love doing it with my BBB Angela at Hippo Hooray for 2nd Grade.



Today, I don't a picture to share with you because , well, it's against the law.... How's that for an intro!

I thought this would be a good tip, especially for those teachers like me who have just started school. I don't know about you but our end of the day time is CRAZY! I started this two years ago and I am SO happy I did. Gone are the " oh my goodness did so and so leave" feeling in my stomach.

What I do is take a list of my students names out at the end of the day for pick up. When kids leave me I cross their name off. That way I know for sure that I did say goodbye to my student.

It is also handy because so many times parents will say something to me that I need to remember but by the time I get back to my room it has slipped my mind. Jotting a note down on the bottom of the list has helped me to be WAY more organized.

So there you have it.
My Quick Tip for the week.
I hope you will link up with us and share yours! Hang in there friends!

Tomorrow is Friday!

~Jean~

Currently: It's My Last Day of Summer

Well, I apologize for being so MIA lately. These past two weeks have been consumed with back to school. I have posted a few things on my Facebook page ,but my blog has been seriously neglected!

And I know, all of you who have been back in school since August are really crying for me right now. But just keep in mind that while you were living it up in June I was still teaching last years peanuts. :)

I am giving you the disclaimer now that I am not sure how much blogging will actually get done over the next couple of months. On top of all the regular teaching duties we all have, I have to take a class to renew my teaching certificate, and I have another pre-student teacher. SO, I will be a busy, busy, girl.

So anyways, thought I would jump back in with Farley's Currently. I know I say this every month but how KEY-UTE is this months currently. Seriously lovin' it!

( Font is Rowdy Fonts by Rowdy in Room 300)

I am seriously jazzed about my new peanuts and going back to school....BUT, I love summer time with my OWN peanut. It is always sad when that comes to a close.

The last spot is the Love Yourself Spot. And I *love* that idea. We definitely have to take care of ourselves too!

So here is how I plan to do just that...

The hubs just recently got a new bike ,and after getting a bike cart for Peanut, we are ready to rock n' roll with the family bike rides. We went for one the other night and it was SO much fun. We used to go on bike rides as a family all the time when I was little, so going on one the other night with my own child made me feel SUPER old. :) I love to walk, but the Hubs...mmmm, not so much. This is something active that he WILL do with me so I am pumped about that.

My peanut LOVES her nails painted. And I do too. So I can take care of me, take care of her, AND start a fun tradition with her.

Finally, I lovey-love-LOVE TV. I am so excited for my shows to come back on this month...Scandal, Greys Anatomy, Glee, ( Although I am devastated about Cory Monteith! SO, SO sad), DWTS, Chicago Fire, The Voice...I could go on and on.

Well, that's all from me! To those of you like me who go back tomorrow, enjoy your last day of summer. And to those of you already in school I say enjoy your Monday off!

~Jean~

Five For Friday and The BEST Sale of the Year!

Happy Five for Friday Friends!
                  

#1. ( This is a linky within a linky!)
I am taking a break from working on my classroom to share about my week AND THE SALE OF THE YEAR?! What might that be you ask? Oh, just a little thing called.....

                                  

I will be participating in this awesome sale as both a seller....everything in my store 20% off....and as a buyer! You know I cant pass up those awesome deals!

So first off I wanted to link up with WHERE THE WILD THINGS LEARN for her TPT sale linky.

                                  

                                  
My number one wish listed item and one of my best sellers is my Shopping at the School Store: Finding and Estimating the Sums of 2 and 3 Digit Numbers pack. ( Geesh! That's a LONG title!)



                         

It comes with 6 different instruction and recording sheets so you can level your students independent practice based on the skills they need more work on. Here is an example of one of the instruction pages and recording sheets.

 

                            

These are some pictures of it " in action" in my classroom.

 

 

 

 

 

 My second most wish listed item is also my newest. It is my Making Text Connections packet.

 

                        

 

 I don't have any classroom photos of it in use...yet. But I will DEFINITELY be using it this year.

                                        

OH SO MUCH to choose from. I will not even tell you the amount on my wish list because it is A-LOT!

 

But one of the things I have moved from said wish list to my shopping cart is

 

 

                                  

This is by That's So Second Grade and I am IN LOVE with it! You can get it here.

 

 

#2

 

Moving on from the Linky Party...

 

Thursday nights are my girls night. My best friend and I hang out and watch bad TV and eat junk. And usually I put her to work. Tonight's project was cutting out the labels for my FISH ( Friday Information Sent Home) folders and gluing them on.

 

 

 We also watched one of my FAVORITE bad movies. Grease 2.

 My favorite part: Cool Rider! Seriously if you have never seen this movie at least watch this clip. It's great!

 #3
Peanut and I spent most of our day today working in my room. I am LOVING how this area looks.

 

 

 

 #4 This is another area that is really coming together well.

But I have a question.

 

See the brown nightstand in the picture. I am wondering if I should paint it? And if so what color? I have kind of reached that point in summer where my creativity and my brain are starting to go. Thoughts?????



 

#5

 

I hit over 1,000 Facebook likes the other night and I am PSYCHED! I am working on a fan freebie currently and hope to have it up tomorrow. :)

 

Well, that is all from me. Link up with Doodlebugs Teaching and share about your week.

 

~Jean~

Teacher Week: Day 3: Organization

Happy Wednesday Friends!

Well on Monday I said I was hoping to link up with Blog Hoppin all week...what I forgot about was the Tuesday post about showing off your room. And mine is simply not ready. It is not NEARLY as bad as when it was HERE, but its not anything to be showing off.

            

Today's topic is organization, which I LOVE! Things sorted and labeled and facing the same way make my heart super happy.

I thought I would share a few of the ways I have things organized. I find that especially in my " space challenged" room being organized is so important to my sanity and sets a good example for the students.

 We do AR at my school. I am not the biggest fan of it, but it is what it is. I have all of my books labeled for AR. If you click on the picture you can see that each of my books has a sticker. The sticker on the book corresponds to the level in AR.

I used to have ALL of my books organized into AR levels and just sitting on the shelf. Well, I can keep them organized and beautiful that way, but 7 year olds cannot. :)

So a couple of years ago I got a ton of plastic tubs at the Dollar Store and sorted my books down a little more. I do still have some books that are just arranged by AR level. But now I also have them grouped by series, genre, and author.

When they are first introduced to the library in my room we go book shelf by book shelf. I take all of the books out and walk around our room dropping the books as I go. Then I divide the kids up unto teams. They have to take a tub and find the books they think belong in the tub. The first team done is the winner. It is a fun way for them to be introduced to the organization of our library.

This baby is one of my proudest accomplishments. Picture this: Me, 6 months pregnant, on my way to school and running a little behind when suddenly I spy this set of bins by the side of the road. The people who are getting rid of it have a FREE sign on it! So what do I do? Call one of my teaching partners to tell them I may be a little late and haul it into my car of course....while 6 months pregnant!

I love this to organize my math manipulatives for two reasons. One reason is each thing has its own tub so everything isn't thrown together. The other reason is its out in the open for the kiddos to use. And because everything is labeled they know exactly where it needs to go!

 

 

I love holidays and seasonal items. I wish I had the space in my room to have my seasonal items stored neatly in tubs with a super cute label on the outside. But I don't.

 

However, I have always thought it was important to keep seasonal items together. I have a filing cabinet in my room where I store all of my seasonal stuff.  I have a large manila file folder where I house black line masters for activities and crafts that is labeled with each month. I use that as the dividing line between each of the months. I also store any books that go along with that month and any station activities in there as well.

 



 

Now, while I do love a good label I don't love taking time to re-label things year after year. This cabinet stores a lot of art and crafting supplies. So while I do think it is important to label things in your classroom, especially things used by your peanuts, I don't think everything needs to be labeled. If you use clear boxes, like I do, then you can save yourself from having to label and re-label if you consolidate or change things around because you can see in the box. Just keeping things neat and tidy is a form of organization in and of itself. :)

Well, that is all for me. I hope I helped give you a new tip or idea for organizing your classroom.

Do you have something fun to share about organization? Go link up!

~Jean~

Teacher Week Day 1: All About Me!

Happy Monday Friends!

I was planning on doing a Monday Made It post today but my stuff isn't quite ready. I was sad to see that Tara is going back to monthly now, but I understand. It is so weird to know that many of you are already back to school. Don't worry, my time is coming too. :)

So instead I decided to link up with Blog Hoppin' for Teacher Week.

 I am going to *try* to do the posts all week. We will see how I do.

 SO today's topic! Here are 10 things you might not know about me!

 

#1 I am obsessed with Mason Jars.

I decorate with the vintage ones. The blue ones are my favorite.

 

 

And, we use them to drink out of.

#2 I love black picture frames.

( This wall is a work in progress.)

 

#3 That beautiful fireplace in the picture above was one of the main reasons for buying our house.

 

#4 I have an unhealthy love of spray paint. These are just a few examples of the things I have given new life to through spray paint.

 

 

 

#5 You already know I collect Santa's (or you should if you have ready any post where I talk about Christmas...which is just about every one! LOL!) But I also collect angels and Jim Shore figurines... Jim Shore angels like in the picture above...DOUBLE SCORE!

 

 

#6 I have three best friends.

 

One is my mom.

 

One is almost as old as my mom and is my daughters godmother.

 

The other I have been friends with since I was 14....so for 17 years now...you can do the math if you are dying to figure out my age. :)

 

 

#7 I love taking 4 generation pictures with my daughter, my mom, and my Mormor ( Swedish for grandmother).

 Too funny that Peanut is in the same dress in two of these pictures!

 

Everyone always said I looked like my mom growing up and I believed them, but it wasn't until my sister pointed out in this picture that we all have the same chin and nose that I was able to pinpoint the similarities.

 

 

#8 My husband Kelly and I met while working at the movie theater. We actually did not like each other when we first met. He thought I was stuck up ( I'm NOT!) and I thought he was a boring computer geek ( the geek part is true. hee-hee.)

 

 

This was us at Halloween two years ago....The year before we were ladybugs...so it was Kel's turn to pick. Of course he picked Star Wars!

 

#9 My best friend said to me after I went out with Kelly a couple of times that I should " just date him for a little while...it's not like you are going to marry the guy!" Glad I took the beginning part of her advice. ( She told that story in her maid of honor speech.)

 

This is the very first picture we ever took together.... 11 and  1/2  years ago...Look at those babies!

 

#10 My husband is an AMAZING daddy.

He seriously should be married to someone who wants like 5 or 6 kids.... I am not that person. :)

 

Yesterday when I got out of the shower I found this:

The two of them snuggling while watching " Call Me Maybe" ( Peanuts favorite song) and singing along.

 

Seriously, love that man!

 

So there you go! I tried to think of things I haven't shared before. I would love to learn more about you! Go link up!

 

 

~Jean~

Five For Friday

Happy Saturday Friends!

Today I am linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for her weekly Five for Friday linky. I was so excited when I saw it was back last week but I didn't have time to link up.  

 

Um, PS: This new button is SOOOOOO cute!

 

#1: Sunday: Family Reunion

 

Sunday was my family reunion. I know some people don't love going to theirs, but I do. My grandpa was one of 10 kids and so we have a HUGE family. We have DELICIOUS food ,we do all sorts of fun things like a penny scramble ( coins and candy in sawdust) and other games for the kids, and we do a raffle for cool crafts that people in my family make. Who wouldn't have a good time?

 

This is the 0-5 year old kids digging for treasures.

 

#2: Monday/ Tuesday: Math Training

 

So we are getting a new math curriculum this year, which I am SUPER excited about. We used to use Saxon Math and this year we are switching to Bridges. On Monday and Tuesday we had training for it. Which is good because it came with A LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT of stuff.

 

 

 

This is what I took home for " homework" after the training session. There are 12 binders in all! Yes, 2!!

 

It was an excellent training session. They don't have reps like traditional textbook companies do. The rep is an actual teacher who uses Bridges in their classroom. So she really knew what she was talking about.

 

Right now, I am really excited to use it. The only thing I don't really like, as opposed to our old curriculum, is that the components of the math meeting board ( or number corner) change monthly.  

 

If you have used or are using Bridges and have any tips for me, please let me know!

 

 

#3: Wednesday: Lamination Season is Upon Us

 

I brought this home Tuesday night and worked on cutting it all out on Wednesday. See Mondays post for the things I will be making with these.

 

 

I am one of those weirdo's who not only loves laminating I REALLY love cutting it out.

 

#4: Thursday: Trufant Flea Market

 

When I was growing up both of my grandpa's were big into antiques and " junk". My grandpa collected old tools and my morfar ( mothers father in Swedish) collected old coins. ( Both of them collected A  TON of other things too, but those were their main ones.) They would take me with them to yard sales or antique shops and it really is because of them that I love old junk so much. One of the places they took me to was a place called Trufant. It is a flea market that happens every Thursday morning in the summer. I have gone every summer since I was 13.  I am *cough and say it fast* 31 now. So I have been to MANY Trufants.

 

My Grandpa is now in heaven and my Morfar is a retirement community so I can't go with either one of them anymore. But I CAN take Peanut and pass my love of junk on to her. :)

 

 

This is her with her loot ( 3 My Little Ponies, 1 horse that makes noise, and 3 books). I didn't fair as well as she did. The bag in front has my 6 mini Pyrex bowls. And we didn't find any Star Wars stuff for daddy. So it was kind of a bust shopping wise. But that is all part of the thrill of a flea market for me. Sometimes you find the perfect treasure and sometimes you don't.

 

#5: Friday/ Saturday: Party Time!

 

So my brother and his fiancé are getting married in September. Yesterday was my soon to be S.I.L's bachelorette party. Thursday I went shopping for SOMETHING to wear and found this skirt and sandals. ( I already had a top to go with it.)

 

The best part? For both I only spent $15!

 

Even though it was three hours away and the driving part stunk, the rest of it was SO much fun!

 

Well that was my week in a nutshell. Go link up with DOODLEBUGS TEACHING and tell us about 5 things that happened with you this week!

 

~Jean~