Getting Ready for Back To School - 1

It's the season when school begins to start all over the U.S.  Teachers are back in classrooms getting ready for students, students are awaiting teacher assignments and picking out first day outfits.  Some have already started and are in a week or even two and others have a month yet before returning.  I begin this Thursday, with students' first day on the following Wednesday, August 19.  I've been in my room here and there over the last two weeks to get things organized and set up.  This will leave me with my PD days to plan my lessons and not stress about room readiness.  I feel lucky that of the 4 days of PD that my district gave us this year, only 2 of them contain meetings.  I will have all of Friday to plan, half a day on Monday and half a day on Tuesday.  Our meet the teacher time will be Tuesday afternoon, so everything must be ready by 1:00 pm Tuesday!

I'm planning my next few posts to introduce you to my classroom and how I've prepared for students.  First tip, make sure you're room is welcoming on the outside, not just the inside.  I used the Ecostatic cling white board sheet from shoplet.com on my classroom door to help welcome students to my classroom.  My 11 year old daughter was excited to decorated it for me!  I love that it clings to my door with static electricity, so does my custodian!  Tapes can take the varnish off the doors so it's always a trick as to how to post something welcoming up on the door.  This was perfect.  I will probably still add some bulletin board border around the sheet to spruce it up a bit.  I'll be placing the student desk name tags around the sign for meet the teacher.  Students will take their tag off the door and choose their desk and attach the tag to the one they choose.  We switch desks at the beginning of each month, so they'll only have their chosen seats for the first two weeks.  This time allows me to get to know them and better understand where to seat them in September. It also gives them choice and ownership right off the bat. 

It is a little difficult to smooth out, you can still see a few bubbles there.  It's easy to clean off if you do so right away, but if you leave the dry erase marker on for more than a few hours, you'll need to use the specialty white board cleaner spray to get the marker off.  These will post on any smooth surface, so consider turning your cupboard fronts into whiteboards and windows and doors. These would work great for around the room writing or group work.  They're reusable and you wouldn't have to use and throw away large chart pages that are sometimes very expensive.  

Ecostatic also makes the cling sheets in smaller notecard sizes.  I posted one up on my fridge for reminders.  They might come in handy at school near your desk, but I couldn't really think of a reason I'd use the smaller size at school in place of regular sticky notes.  Perhaps you can think of some ways you might use them. 

Whatever you decide to use to decorate the outside of your room, it's great to have some way to welcome students and families into their new classroom.  They'll be spending a lot of time there, and they want to know it's an inviting and comfortable place to be.  

How do you decorate the outside of your room to welcome students and families? 

Note: shoplet.com sent me the Ecostatic Beginner Kit free to review.  Opinions and my use of the product are my own from my experience with the product.  Links in this post are not affiliate, they only direct to the shoplet.com website. 

Back to School Blog Hop

I'm happy to be collaborating with several other 5th grade teachers to bring you some back to school tips and a giveaway!  

My tip is to not be afraid to let students know about you.  On the first day, share with them about some of your hobbies, what you did over the summer and about your family.  When students feel like they can connect with you, they are more likely to trust you and to be open to receive information and advice from you.  

I'll be sharing a PowerPoint slide show with my class on the first day filled with pictures of my summer and family.  I'll also be sharing my "3 about me bag" with the students.  It will serve as an example for students as they will each be asked to bring a bag containing three items that represent them in some way to share with the class.  I'll assign ten students per day to bring in their bags for the 2-4 days of school as a way to help us get to know each other and start to get comfortable in front of the class.  

Be sure to hop through all of us to get all of the tips.  You can enter to win some amazing prizes below or at any of the other blogs along the hop.  You'll find the next tip from Nicole at  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Must Have for Back to School: Trashy Crafter Book Bracelets

Well, back to school is just around the corner.  I feel like I've been preparing for fall all summer!!  I bet many of you feel the same way.  I've had some relaxation, but not nearly enough.  My daughter's swim teacher mentioned to me that we need two summers, one for relaxing and one for getting things done.  Maybe we just live in the wrong place! Southern California or Florida were seeming like really nice places to be!

Thinking of heading back to school means not only getting the classroom and lesson plans ready, but you need to get yourself ready too.  New clothes and accessories are usually on that list.  I was recently introduced to Kim of Trashy Crafter who makes darling bracelets from old books.  There isn't a better accessory for a hip teacher than a bracelet made from her favorite book.

Kim sent my bracelet set right away in this darling packaging from an old map.  It's a map of Texas, I know you wanted to know!  Inside, was the set packaged as you see above.  The back gave me a few directions about care for the bracelet. 

I chose to get a bracelet set made from the pages of Winnie the Pooh.  It's my favorite book from my childhood.  A.A. Milne had his characters share the most profound thoughts about life like:

"You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you.  You have to go to them sometimes."
A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

"Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude."
A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

How could you not love Pooh Bear, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, Rabbit, Owl, Kanga, Roo and Christopher Robin?

You can totally see Tigger and Piglet in those beads can't you!!

The beads are strung on a jewelry quality elastic, so they fit everyone perfectly. You can see how well they lay on my wrist. 

Kim makes each bracelet from the pages of discarded or no longer wanted books.  Of course you have to have one to coordinate with your favorite book to help share your love of reading and books with your students.  There are also bracelets from sheet music, many children's classics and adult books too.  There are even coordinating earrings! 

Here's some great news for you!  Kimberly is offering readers of this post a special discount! You can get your own bracelet set (or anything else you like in her store) for 15% off by using the code tc2014 at checkout in her Etsy shop.   Hurry over and make your order now so you'll have yours ready for back to school. 

Don't miss anything new from Kim.  Be sure to follow her by clicking the links below: 

Trashy Crafter Blog

Trashy Crafter Etsy

Facebook

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Go get your book jewelry now! 

It's Back to School Time...That means a Sale!

It's back to school time which means a Teachers Pay Teachers Sale!  It's just in time for me to head back to school on Monday with the students starting on Thursday.  Here's a peek at some of the items that will be on sale in my shop:

The Common Core posters are my best sellers.  They are available for grades 1-5 in various themes.  These will make posting "I Can" statements a snap. 

The adding three numbers pack contains many activities and games to help your students become fluent at adding three single digit numbers.  Check out my time pack as well.  

The two products that go best, hand in hand, are a set of counting frames and the counting frame flash cards.  See my post all about using them in the classroom here.  Use the same code, BTS13 in my blog store to get 15% off your order of counting frames. 

Thanks to Christina of 

For this fun Sale Linky Party

Classroom Tour - It's Almost Done

I've been posting a few pictures as I've been working on my classroom over the last few weeks.  Well, it's nearly done.  Just a few minor things to do, but if they don't get done before the first day, no one will know (except me). I'll do some posts about some of the aspects more in depth next week.

Classroom View.  Everything's on the desks, ready to go. 

Starting at the door.  Class jobs, attendance and hall passes. See my post about the attendance board here. 

Other side of the door.  The crate is for turning in work, a wall calendar and community supplies.  Students receive a set of colored pencils, 3 regular pencils, 3 cap erasers, an expo marker and a felt eraser to keep in their pencil pouch a their desk.  Glue, scissors, markers and crayons are in the community totes.  Lined paper and rulers are on top of the shelf. 

White board and doc. camera.  Still need headings for the vocabulary and spelling columns on the board. The divider is black Washi tape.  Same thing I used on the attendance board. The left side of the board has my schedule and class behavior system.  The post about the map is here. 

Guided reading corner.  A kidney table sits just outside the picture.  My IKEA shelf for organization and dry-erase pockets to write each groups reading assignments on. 

My desk.  A few odds and ends still out to take care of.  I'm loving my new teacher tool-box (under the monitor) and the lined sticky note pad stuck to the closet side.  The shoe organizer is holding calculators.

Class library organized with labels from Ladybugs Teacher Files.  Boxes on top are the students book boxes with reading response journals, guided reading books and class library books to be housed in them. There's another shelf on the backside.

My "Helper"

Reading texts ready to grab when needed.  Students have a larger set of cubbies for their coats and backpacks.

On their desks: Binder, shower board dry erase board, student planner, two spiral notebooks (one for math and one for science, reading is kept in their book boxes.), pencil pouch. 

On each item, except the white board, I put a label with a number corresponding to the students' class number.  During open house the day before the first day of school, I ask students to write their names in the space to the right of the number.  This helps everyone keep track of items more easily.  

Now to take the rest of this week to plan curriculum.  I report back to school for contract on Monday, with students starting on Thursday.  Yikes!

How's your classroom preparation coming?  Share with us in the comments. 

Meet the Teacher

I'm very excited to participate in Teacher Week '13 brought to us by Blog Hoppin'.  A fun new post each day this week on various topics to celebrate back to school.

Today is all about "Meet the Teacher". I'm going to share some ideas for a Meet the Teacher or Back to School Night with your parents and students and then tell you a little about me.

My school has an open house the afternoon before the first day of school and then a back to school night after about one week of school.  During the open house, I usually have a way for students to become familiar with the classroom, a treat for greeting me, and any paperwork that parents need before school.  In first grade, I had a bit of a treasure hunt for students.  A note at the front door told them their class number and to find their desk, then on their desk was a clue or picture for them to find in the room and then another at that item and so on.  For fifth grade, I just wrote a letter to students and numbered their tasks of finding their number and desk, putting their name on all their materials, sharpening their pencils (with my new sharpener from classroom friendly supplies. See this post to grab a direction sheet for your students.)  And I did these fun little treats for them, an idea from my teammate.  The Pop Rocks were 3/$1 at my local dollar store. (This is also my Monday Made It.)

So, when students come on the morning of the first day, all of their supplies are ready and we can start the day right away.  Students are also familiar with the classroom and a few of the procedures as well.

For the parents, I give them homework this first night.  Yup, parents get the first homework of the school year.  The students think it's fun that parents have homework and enjoy that they don't.  Parents like the homework because it's all about setting up communication with me.  Here's a PDF version of the homework I give.  Feel free to re-write and adjust for your needs, this is just my example so you have an idea of what I ask of parents.  It works out so well and parents appreciate knowing that I value communication with them so much. With the homework, parents will receive a little treat too.  I'll post a picture when they're done, but they will be those apple caramel suckers with this little tag.  I'll explain why we went with suckers instead of apples when I have a picture and post about it.

I also give parents my disclosure document.  I loved the idea I saw a couple of years ago about doing it in the format of an ABC book.  If you know the origination of the idea, please share.  You can get the copy of what I did for my classroom here.  Again, feel free to re-work and do for yourself if you like the idea.

There's also a suggested supply list.  Utah provides all necessary supplies for students (no wonder we can't afford other things like salaries or smaller class sizes) so, I include a list of items that are useful to have around like tissues, lysol wipes and zip bags.  Here's my list if that's helpful to you.

Finally, I have parents fill out a quick information form and questionnaire.  I have access to their contact information in our district system, but I like having this on hand and I like the extra information it gives me. Again, here's my version, feel free to use it or do one similar that suites your needs.

P.S. If you find any typos in my documents, don't tell me, I already sent them off to the district printing, YIKES!  (If you do find one, I really would like to know before a parent points it out.)

I'll post about my back to school night in a week or so when I have that figured out myself. ;)



If you've been following me for a while, you probably know some about me and hopefully you'll learn some new things.  I'm a wife to a very supportive hubby.  We celebrated 13 years of marriage at the end of July. He has taken care of our children and home while I've worked for hours in my classroom.  He also helps me make the counting frames I sell.  He also does all the laundry and helps around the house in every other way too.  He's also a teacher.  He teaches students in Jr. High keyboarding and business skills.  He doesn't spend near the time I do prepping a room and planning curriculum. ;) We have three children who I think are just the most darling kids, both in looks and personalities.

It would be appreciated if you didn't pin or share this picture.

When I started blogging, I taught first grade.  Last year I was an instructional coach focused on K-3 literacy.  I'm coming back to the classroom this fall and will be teaching 5th grade.  I really am excited to go back to where I started.  I taught 5th grade my first year of teaching and from there went to 3rd grade then to 1st. Getting back into the classroom has also been inspirational for my blog, and I have loved sharing my classroom with you as I've been working on it. I'm more excited to begin sharing my lessons and learning from you as well.

One of my hobbies is sewing and crafting.  I sell fabric, and the items I make at Dilly Dabbles Designs and during the summer and one Saturday a month I work at a fabric shop. 

What do you have students or parents do on "Meet the Teacher" night? Let us know in the comments.

Best Pencil Sharpener Ever and a Freebie

I took a little break last week as I taught some professional development for the new teachers to our district.  I get to do it again this coming week.  I really love the mentoring aspect of teaching.  Helping new teachers is so exciting and I love all the new things I learn from them as well!

I polished up my back to school forms and information packets last week.  One of the things I got ready is an instruction page for the open house my school is having the day before school starts.  I wanted students to look around the room and have the items in their desk ready for the first day.  (A post sharing these forms is coming later in the week.)

One of the things I decided to have them do is to sharpen their own pencils so they are all ready for the first day.  I could have spent quite a bit of time sharpening all the pencils, but 5th graders are fully capable of such a thing, especially now that I have the AMAZING pencil sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies.  It really is the best sharpener I have ever used!  It's so easy that I'm sure my fifth graders can use it without breaking it.  My two year old can do it for heavens sake!  If students have a chance to use it the day before school, the novelty of it will have worn off a bit and they'll each know how to use it appropriately using it with their parents so I don't have to take class time teaching that procedure. Read to the end of the post for a free instruction page.

So, here is the sharpener all set up on the counter in my classroom.  The sink is just to the left there.

It grips nicely to the edge there and has quite a range of adjustability to fit just about any counter thickness. 

Just pull the front plate out then grasp the two knobs at the top and squeeze together.  It's so easy I did it one-handed so I could take a picture!

Then turn the handle until you no longer feel any resistance. 

Then you have the sharpest pencil ever with no waste or pencil eating like an electric sharpener might do. 

As you probably saw in the first pictures, I do have an electric sharpener provided by the school.  They break easily, the kids like to stick their pencils in and see how small they can get them and for some reason they also like to stick crayons, erasers and pencils in backwards!  So pencil sharpening had become a teacher only job in my classroom.  Thus, the reason for the two baskets you also saw.  

Here's a comparison of the un-sharpened pencil, electric sharpened pencil and the manual sharpened pencil:

Incredible difference!!

I'm planning to get another sharpener soon so I have two in my room.  I'm thinking that my procedures for pencil sharpening will be that students can sharpen their own pencils anytime during work time.  If they're in the middle of something, they can put them in the dull basket and a class job will be "pencil sharpener" and sharpen when they are available and place in the sharp basket to be picked up.  Each student is starting with 3 pencils, so they should have an extra or two on hand in an emergency. I also labeled each pencil with the students' class numbers to they can keep track of them and be responsible for their pencils.  They can also grab them from the sharpened box and keep their own.  I just used a brand new sharpie marker so it had a nice tip on it to write the numbers small on the pencils. 

Get with some of your colleagues and order a set of sharpeners together for the best price.  Be sure to head over to Classroom Friendly Supplies to see all the color selections.  You can also buy replacement parts if you need them and not have to purchase a completely new sharpener, especially if the blade gets dull or gummed up with a crayon. 

Now that you've made it through my ramblings about this great classroom tool, you can grab the instruction sheet I am posting on the wall next to the sharpener for FREE!  Just click here to grab it.  

What classroom procedures do you have in place for pencils?

Back to School Poem Pack

As the school year ends, many of us begin to look forward to the beginning of next school year.  As I posted a few end of year poems in the last few weeks, I thought it was time to start back at the beginning of the year to get you set for next school year.  Here's the latest in the free poem pack series, Back To School.  Remember that there's one a week and they all correlate right along with my Poetry Task Cards which are also free.  While you're downloading these from my store, be sure to look at some of my other items perfect for back to school including:

 the All About Me Posters, (several themes available)

the Birthday Pack,

Daily 5 Reading Homework Pack,

and the Number Boards Pack.

Also be sure to get your set of the the Common Core Standard posters in "I" and "We" language.