So I've become that blogger...................you know, the one that stops blogging!  Getting ready for back to school has been crazy.  I'm almost completely done setting up my room.  It was just my luck that the days I moved from the back of the school to the front, we were having a heat wave........................what could be more fun than moving in 100+ weather!  And to top it off, my foot kept acting up.....................as in, it's been irritating me for the last few months, so I went to get it check out and it turns out I have to wear an aircast brace..................the first day of school is going to be super fun with a brace on!  I'm hoping to have pictures of my finished classroom by the weekend!  For now, I'll keep blog stalking everyone else's beautiful rooms and wishing for mine to be done!
So this may not be a "find", but it is super fabulous and I found out this week that....................I'm teaching 2nd grade again in the fall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to move classrooms, but I'm super excited to be doing 2nd.   I truly love this age and the curriculum!

Since I'm linking up with Elizabeth for
 
I thought I should share a real find!  I was stalking the dollar spot at Target for the lightbulb stress balls (still no luck with those yet!), but I did find all of this stuff:



this is from the Dollar Tree: sports invitations that I plan to use as conference reminders
I'm just super excited to be back in second........and will be spending this weekend and the beginning of next week moving and setting up!

Have a great weekend!

I'm super excited to be participating in the Teachers pay Teachers Back to School sale.  My items will be 20% off, but then you can save up to 28% by entering the promo code BTS12!

I'm also linking up with Cassandra at Adventures in Room 5 for the What's in your cart? linky!


Here's what some of what I plan to buy:
1. Hope King's Going for the Gold pack:
I'm all about the Olympics and am doing a sports theme this year, so I think this will go great in my room!

2. Amy Lemon's My School Rule! pack:
In addition to using WBT to get active engagement of my rules, I'm going to use this pack to continually review and follow up on the rules.  This is an area that I know I can improve on and feel like this pack, along with WBT, will help me do that!

3. Rachel Lynette's Spelling Task cards (and a bunch of her other task cards):
This year I want to do more activities in class with the weekly spelling words.  I figure this will help me get the kids to engage with the words in meaningful ways in the class.

I can't wait to shop and see what's in everyone else's cart!
I am probably the last person in the blogging world to begin using Mod Podge, but I finally bought some and decided to put it to work for this week's
I probably should have started with the smaller stuff, but I was inspired by Erin at Creating and Teaching.  Last Monday she made this:
Now, I made a "Where are we?" poster toward the beginning of summer but this is so much cuter!  Here's what I came up with:
I used a whiteboard from the dollar spot at Target and mod podged glitter scrapbook paper on it.  Then I put a ribbon in between to add a little bit of sparkle.  To match my classroom theme, I used the sports-themed clipart from Thistle girl and created location cards.

For my first time using Mod Podge, I think it came out ok.  After patting myself on the back, I made buckets for sharp and dull pencils using 2 teal buckets from the dollar spot at Target:
Then I used another dollar spot bucket to make the "highlight your name" bucket.  I got the label from Teaching in Flip Flops:

Since summer is ending (too soon), I decided to do some projects with my daughter Lauryn.

The first was an idea that came from a previous Monday Made It by Lana at For the Love of Teaching.  She had her son create a canvas painting with the Bible verse:
When I saw this, I knew I wanted Lauryn to do it and finally got around to it.  I headed to Michaels and bought a 16x20 canvas and some stickers.  We already had paint at home.  I put the stickers on the canvas while she was at school:
sorry it didn't rotate
Then I let her paint!


Finished painting, now time for drying:

Took off the stickers the next day to reveal the finished product:


I love how it turned out and think it will add so much to her room!

Finally, I pinned these a while ago as a way to keep Lauryn's projects and papers organized:
from dandee
from brown paper packages
I went to Target, bought a legal sized storage box (she's always coming home with things that are larger then letter size) and hanging file folders.  I love the idea of putting a school picture on the front as well as a sticker with school information.  I decided to create my own sticker and get the folders ready:


some stuff still sticks out!

sorry about the glare
I went thru her box of art and papers from daycare and tried to only keep the "special ones", but at this age isn't it all special?  I did take out some of the basic coloring or tracing and tried to keep "true art", but I know this is something I'll have to revisit often to keep consolidating.  I finished up 3 years of daycare, and have everything ready to go for each upcoming year!  I might even try sprucing up the box with some cute scrapbook paper and my new friend Mod Podge!

That's all for this week!  Make sure you stop by Tara's blog to get some great ideas!  Also, don't forget to join my Summer in Pictures linky party!  Click the picture to head over!


I can't believe I'm at almost 200 followers!  I want to thank everyone for reading my thoughts and ramblings, for sharing such wonderful ideas, and for encouraging and supporting me!  I'm planning a giveaway to begin next week so please stop by for that!

Speaking of giveaways, I'm participating in a Back to School Giveaway from Heather at
Second Grade Perks
You could win my teacher autobiography and a bunch of other really great products!  If you can't wait to get my teacher autobiography, it's currently on sale (until Monday) at my TPT store!


Have a great Sunday!
Today I'm linking up with Debbie from Rainbows within Reach for
photo of: The Great EDU-Pinner Link-UP hosted by RainbowsWithinReach

I have to admit that I was late jumping on the Pinterest band-wagon, but I'm here now and love it!  I've found so many ideas for school, home, kids, fitness......okay, I haven't put the fitness ideas into use, but I've pinned them so that should count for something, right?

Anyway, Debbie is hosting this wonderful linky where you can link up your pinterest board.  Such an easy way to find and share ideas!  I'm #204 if you want to check me out!

I'm off to pin some ideas and finish up some projects for Monday Made It!
I can't believe it's already August!  Where did the summer go?  Today I'm linking up with Farley at
 
for the August currently:
 
Now I'm off to hop around!  Have a great Friday!
I am notorious for taking pictures then leaving them in my digital camera FOREVER!  I don't want to be that mom anymore, so I put my memory card in my computer and uploaded all of my photos.  That was the easy part.  But then I had to organize them.  That took a little more time, but I am happy to report that I am all caught up!  Every picture from this summer is on my computer in the right folder! 

Looking back on this summer, I had a lot of fun.  I took my daughter to Sea World, Knott's Berry Farm, and some local amusement type places (bounce house and pizza fun place).  I still have a little more time until I offically report back and will try to squeeze in some more fun!

Then it hit me!  I thought I'd create a linky as a way to share the fun that I know we all had this summer....and also force nudge us to get the pictures off our cameras and onto our computers.  Maybe for a Monday Made It someone will turn their pictures into a photobook.....oh no, another item on my to do list!

Getting back on topic, here is my summer in pictures:



What did you do this summer?  Make sure to stop by, grab the button, and link up!




I'm super excited to be linking up with Jessica at Mrs. Stanford's Class for the FIRST EVER
MrsStanfordsClass
Thanks Jessica for putting this together and organizing it!

For this amazing event, I was partnered up with Sarah at
Sarah is a first grade teacher from Virginia, but has also taught fourth grade.  She has great resources in her TPT store for a wide range of grades.  I was lucky enough to receive her "I Have....Who Has game for 2nd grade sight words".


The first thing I noticed was the amount of cards.  This set comes with 45 cards!  To me, that's great.  I teach at a school where class size is around 32....last year I had 33 students!  When I look at some products there are only 20 or 24 cards, which won't work for me whole class. 
The second thing I noticed was the cute clip art.  I love the butterflies!  Very cheerful and inviting!







After I marvelled at the number and cuteness, I got to work!  I began laminating with my most favorite home teaching product!  There are 3 cards to a page and 15 pages total.  I was able to get them laminated in no time!











After laminating, I used my nifty paper cutter to cut them.  I love the size of each card.  With 3 to a page, there wasn't much cutting or scraps involved!  Another plus!







Here'e a close up of some of the cards!  Super cute! 


After cutting, which didn't take long, here are all of the cards. Have I said how much I love the fact that there are enough for me to play this whole class? 45 cards! I love it! 








Now, I don't have access to any second graders, but I tried to get my daughter to play.  She loved the cards and kept saying "I have all the cards!"  Guess we'll still have to work on that!  But here she is holding some of them:

Thank you Sarah for sharing this product with me.  It's fun, engaging, and most importantly easily usable in the classroom.  If you're looking for a way to review sight words, make sure you pick up this "I Have...Who Has" game from Sarah at
And for tons of reviews on more great TPT products, be sure to stop by
MrsStanfordsClass 
Back to Top