and so it is....

This is it the last day of summer for me.  Schools starts tomorrow and the race will begin.  As I put in a previous post I will be the only 5th grade teacher in my school this year, and found out on Thursday that I have reached the cap of 30 students...yes 30! Although, a little apprehensive about the task ahead of me, I am surprisingly calm and ready.  It looks like it is turning out to be a beautiful day here, hoping to take advantage of the sun and warmth.  Good Luck to all who will also be starting school tomorrow. To a great year!

one of my tricks

So something I like to do to label containers is to use puffy paint.  It's very inexpensive, but totally fun, and totally easy to do.  For transparent containers just print out the size and font you want to use, my favorite has always been 'curlz'.  Tape it on the inside of the container (font facing out), and then trace with your puffy paint.  I usually hold the tip of the bottle a little above the side of the container for a good puffiness, tracing right on the side will make it flat.  For non-transparent surfaces I just try my best to not mess up :) There are a few examples below of some of the things I have labeled with puffy paint. Putting in on staplers, tape dispensers, ext.  makes it harder for those precious objects to "accidentally disappear."  Let it dry at least over night, and try not to get tempted to touch it or else you'll have a flat spot.

The outline for my Think Tank container.  Purchased a bunch of hand held games like rubix cubes and ball mazes at the dollar store, as well as, solitaire card games like trivia and visual logic problems.  It's meant for my early finishers to have something to do and hopefully keep them occupied and quite while at their seats.  I had a 'Beyond Board' where I put worksheets up from different learning intelligences, but found that worksheet appeal wears off very shortly.  I'll let you know how it works out.

17 days until school starts

the mess within

Yes, it seems to be the time to show what our rooms look like before all the long hours and the after with all the improvements, new ideas, and of course all those 'had to do' projects we've pinned from pinterest!.....But alas I can only show the before as this was my room today, and pretty much still looks the same, save for the new piles I created after these pictures were taken.  See I have decided to go through all of my cabinets/cupboards, along with moving spaces around my classroom.  With three years under my belt I felt like this was a great time to go through the materials that were left to me, along with those that I have accumulated over the years.  Saving what I know I use, tossing or putting in storage those things that have just been collecting layers of dust. And although I left today with still a large amount of work ahead, I thought I'd share a few before pictures.  I keep telling myself the tortoise wins the race! 

21 days until school starts.