My Summer Shopping!

I'm pretty sure my coworkers, friends, and family think I'm totally OCD about teaching... and I'm sure going shopping for school stuff the second school got out doesn't help. BUT, there are others like me out there!!!! :) I'm linking up with Ladybug's Teacher Files for the Summer Shopping Linky Party!

At this point, I've purchased organizational things and of course things from TpT (gotta prepare for those second graders!).

I bought about 7 (don't ask how much money I spent. EEK!) of these 3 drawer bins from Target. That means I have about 21 drawers in all! I'm going to use these for my centers next year. I used about half as many last year and they worked out well. See pic here. Right now, I just have random stuff being stored in the drawers until I can bring it into my classroom.

I saw these cute baskets at the Dollar Tree and I knew I wanted to use them for something. They are going to be my book bins! They don't look that big in this picture, but they actually work pretty well. I already purchased about 10 right when school got out, so these are just the stragglers that didn't make it into my classroom for the summer. (I am not allowed into my classrom until the middle of August. Please tell me there are other schools out there like this?! It drives me crazy!)

My first Thirty-One bag!!! I am in love with it! I even used it as a carry-on bag for my trip to the East Coast. I can't wait to use it next year. In fact, I loved the Thirty-One products soooo much that I bought another bag. It hasn't arrived yet, but it'll be the Retro Metro Bag and here's what it looks like in the catalog:

Lastly, I purchased a computer lap thingy...not sure what they're called. Let's face it, my computer has been spending a lot of time on my lap lately. :)

Oh, and on an unrelated note, here is SOME of my laminating I need to cut. Forgot how much work changing grade levels can be! Haha, that book in the background belongs to my fiance!

If you want to link up too, click on the image below.

I'm Back (with a freebie)!

Wow, I've been MIA for a bit! My excuse is I left for the East Coast the day school was out! I had a great trip, but now I'm trying to get into a summer routine. My goals are to plan for 2nd grade and research possible wedding venues (oh yes, I have a spreadsheet in the works...and a binder).

I'm currently trying to create/find math stations for my second graders. And, after developing my first one, I'm giving it away as a freebie for the week! It meets second grade Common Core standards and deals with matching number forms. Specifically, it's all about matching standard, expanded, and written forms, along with base ten blocks.

To grab this freebie, click here. And while you're picking up the product, please rate it. Oh, and visit my Let's Get Into the Routine literacy packet for back to school as well. Now I'm off to work on my second summer goal.... :)

We've Gone Camping!

Wow, I've been MIA for awhile. I have been super busy with end of the year stuff, planning second grade, and most importantly....my boyfriend and I got engaged!

Along with that craziness and excitement, I decided to add to it and have an end of the year camping theme for the last two weeks of school. Take a look:

I'll start with the room setup. Here's our campfire made entirely of paper. I told the kiddos they can't touch it because it's hot. It worked! It's an ongoing joke at the moment. :)

I wanted to move the desks into a big circle, but it didn't work out. My room is too small. So...I settled with stadium like seating. They have that around some campfires, right???

Here's our tent, which is also made of paper! I used two chairs, a yard stick, and white butcher paper. The students had a great time decorating the paper before I made it into the tent!

We also have been working on activities from my Camping in the Classroom Unit! Here are some of the literacy centers in action.

In addition, we took 3 math hikes to review skills learned this year. You can see the product here. I scattered the cards around the room and the kiddos had to hunt for them and write down the answers. It's an easy way to make reviewing skills FUN!

We also wrote Super Sentences (expanding sentences) and our S'mores writing, but I forgot to take pictures!

And finally, here are some of the books we're reading over this couple of weeks.

Next week, we're going to continue our literacy centers and also add in the math stations, parts of speech hunts, make S'mores, and do some story telling. Are you "camping" in your classroom? If so (or even if not), what ideas do you have?