We studied apples this week. It was tons of fun! We made the cutest craft Thanks to the teacher wife for giving me the idea...

Here are our apples, we hung them from our ceiling.

Here is a picture of our apple adjectives.

We learned the parts of an apple.

This is an up close picture of the parts of an apple.

I have very limited wall space in my 300sq ft room. It's not the best picture, but it's our apple glyphs by Shari Sloan.

We had a great time eating, studying and learning apples! Yummy fun!

Pictures of the classroom

Here are some pictures of my classroom! I'm ready for business. I have a really small classroom with almost no storage. I had to build shelves above my windows to put items on for storage. Where did you find storage in small places?

This is a picture of my "wish list" for meet and greet night.

Here is the view of my classroom from the back. I have a really small classroom, but it works! :)

This is a picture of my reading corner and my desk area. I only have a small closet for storage!

This is my word wall and calendar board.

The view from the front of the room.

My welcome Chicka Chicka Boom Boom board. Eventually, I will be putting my literacy center pocket chart here.

Last year I'm sad to say, I wasn't very organized. This summer, it has been my goal to be super organized for this upcoming year. Here are some pictures to see how I am getting organized. Plus, I teach in a super small space... 1/4 of a double wide... Four teachers share one building. Can you even imagine it?!

So, We all need band aids and have boo-boos from time to time. We don't need to run to the nurse for every little scrape. I found this "boo-boo basket" sign somewhere, I'll have to find where and give them credit. I turned a baby wipe bucket into the "boo-boo basket". I just cut the inside hole out. It's small enough, where you can store anywhere.

This nifty container was found at Tuesday Morning for $4.99. It holds 8 different items. So helpful! I put rubber bands, paper clips, gym clips, staples, etc. It has a pop top- so you can only pour the item out that you want! Great space saver!!

Last year, I was collecting money and I didn't know where to put it. As a new teacher, I was putting them in bags and then just putting them somewhere on my desk. NOT THIS YEAR! I made a expandable folder that has individual folders that are labeled for where money will go. The individual folders can be pulled out of the expandable folder when taken to the office, etc. Each folder is big enough for a piece of paper, to mark which student brought in money. I got the individual folders at Big Lots 2 for $1.50. I had the expandable folder. Also, I placed my receipt book in the expandable folder so I wouldn't lose it! So all money is in there. The folders that I made are: Lunch, PTO, School Pictures, Scholastic Books, Extra Money and Field Trips.

These are just a few things that I did to get organized this year! What are you doing to get organized in a small space? :)

50% Laminating

If you live in the Metro Atlanta area, The School Box is having a 50% laminating sale only on July 8th- and it's my birthday! My school doesn't have a laminating machine, so I have to catch these deals when they are hot! You have to have the coupon, to get the deal- so, print the coupon off the website. www.schoolbox.com

Happy Laminating! :)

Birthday Freebie

I just found this great blog Peace, Love and Learning. She created a cute birthday freebie. Head over to her blog and check it out!

Calendar Pack

KindergartenWorks is an amazing blog to follow! They just created an awesome calendar pack that I know I want. They are having a raffle, click on the link to enter it.

Summer is here!

Wow, summer is here! It has been an awesome year in Kindergarten! This summer, I'll be thinking, getting ready, planning lots of new things for next year. I'm already excited about next year's new babies coming into Kindergarten! I plan on creating a tpt store over the summer, after my cruise to Bermuda! Stay tuned to a few blogs this summer! :) Have a great summer, enjoy the sun!

Coffee Filter Butterflies

These coffee filter butterflies were a must do for my spring unit this year. I just had to pass long my idea! It's too cute! My kids loved it! I did it right along when I taught the life cycle of a butterfly. 

 Here is how we made them, pictures, words and all!

We water colored coffee filters and let them dry. (I have also colored the coffee filters with washable markers and then sprayed with a water bottle.)  Love the colors!

Then I hung toilet rolls-yes, I know! From the ceiling, as the cocoon. I stuffed the coffee filter inside the cocoon. The coffee filters stay up in the toilet rolls with out covering the bottom. The cocoons hung for almost a week.

Then after a week, the butterflies were ready to fly. I scrunched up the coffee filter and fanned out the wings, clipped a close pin and tied a pipe cleaner as the antennae. 

The butterflies are so cute hanging from their cocoons! I just might keep them up for the rest of the year! 

Feeling Buggy!

This week we talking all about bugs. We were fortunate to find caterpillars from outside and some have already turned into their cocoons! So exciting! Yes, they will probably be moths, but it's still exciting, and free- I won't have to buy them from Insect Lore! Here are a few things we did this week. Here is a link for my Graphing Bugs and the spinner that goes with it. Graphing Bugs. Bugs Spinner. We read the The Very Hungry Caterpillar and I got this idea from the blog, Chalk Talk and make my own graph. We graphed how healthy the caterpillar is. Here is the link: Healthy Caterpillar. We started the week off with a insect alphabet, another great idea from Chalk Talk. Here is the link: Insect Alphabet. Here is a  literacy center activity that we did that went along with our spring unit this week. Here is the link: Spring sight word cut/paste.  Enjoy.

Graphing Plants

Here is a spin and graph about parts of a plant. We will be talking about plants this week in science. To download the link click here:  Parts of a Plant Graph.   Here is the link for the spinner that goes with the graph. The students can use a paper clip as the spinner. Here is the link for the Spinner: Parts of a Flower Spinner. My kids love doing these kinds of activities with the spinning and graphing!!

Feeling Lucky!

These are the precious St. Patrick's Day hats we made! So Cute!

                                              Leprechaun Clues

We had a Leprechaun come visit our room today. He left the room in a mess and green glitter everywhere! He even abducted our class pet turtle, Tom-Tom. So, we went on a Leprechaun Hunt to look for him. It was so awesome. I have posted the link for the clues. I glued the clues to a big shamrock and had the first clue delivered to our classroom. While the students and I were on our "hunt", my wonderful para, was in the room placing gold coins and cupcakes at their seats. Thankfully, Tom-Tom made it back safely- and with gold coins in his tank! What a LUCKY day it was today!

Flip. Read. Write.

These are my FLIP. READ. WRITE. cards. I have some for each season/holiday or theme. I have about 11 or 12 in each set. The kids like it because each card has a different picture on it. 

Using the Flip. Read.Write. cards.

    A picture of the St. Patrick's Day cards.

     Flip. Read. Write.

St. Patrick's Day

Rhyme

Click on the Rhyme link for the download. My kids can't get enough rhyming words!