I don't have any big plans for today.  So far, I've downloaded a bunch of freebies from TpT.  Thank you everyone who creates such great freebies!  I plan to finish up my projects for Monday Made It and work on some curriculum stuff for next year.  My first Vistaprint order arrived yesterday so I'm going to organize that!
In other exciting news I've been awarded 2 awards:

Erin at First with Franklin and Katrina at A Love for Teaching both gave me this award.  Thanks so much ladies!  Here are the rules:
1. Link back to the person who gave it to you.
2. Post the award to your blog.
3. Give the award to 5 people with less than 200 followers.
4. Leave a comment on their blog to let them know.

I'm awarding this to the following fabulous bloggers:

1. April at The Idea Backpack

2. Every New Beginning

3. Cassandra at Adventures in Room 5

4.  Kristi at Learning's a Hoot

5. Kaitlyn at Smiles and Sunshine

I was also awarded the Versatile Blogger award!

Thanks to Lisa at Learning is Something to Treasure and Erin at First with Franklin for this award!  Here are the rules:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you.

2. Include a link to their site.

3. Include the award image in your post.

4. Give 7 random facts about yourself.

5. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award.

6. When nominating, include a link to their site.

7. Let other bloggers know they've been nominated.

So, 7 facts about me:

1. I received a softball scholarship to play at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  I had such a great experience and loved playing college sports!

2. I was valedictorian of my high school.

3. I'm a single mommy to a wonderful almost 4 year old.

4. I've never left the US and don't have a passport :(  {definitely on my to do list!}

5. I love detective/police/crime shows.  When I was hunger I wanted to be Claire Huxtable so I guess I play lawyer watching things on TV!

6. I love sweets--chocolate, ice cream, candy, cookies--it's horrible!

7. I love Sea World!  It's always been one of my favorite places and now that I'm a mommy I love taking my daughter there!

I'm giving this award to the following people:

1. April at The Idea Backpack

2. Every New Beginning

3. Cassandra at Adventures in Room 5

4. Kristi at Learning's a Hoot

5. Kaitlyn at Smiles and Sunshine

6. Teresa at Confessions of a Teaching Junkie

7. Dr. Penny at Teach the Math

8. Molly at Lessons with Laughter

9. April at Grade School Giggles

10. Teresa at 2nd Grade Pig Pen

11. Jessica at A Turn to Learn

12. Haley at Following Optimism 

13. Tyson at Glitter, Glue, and Teaching Too

14. Jennifer at Delighted in Second

15. April at Wolfelicious

Off to notify all these fabulous bloggers!  Have a great Saturday!

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Brandi

This is my daughter's last week at her current preschool.  She's been there since she was 11 months old.  They've seen me through good and bad times, so I'm a little sad to move on from there, but I know she needs the change.  Anyway, I made the pinterest chalkboards for each of her teachers and the director.  This is becoming my new favorite thing.  I'm thinking that my colleagues will be getting some for Christmas!  Here's how they turned out:

I just need to box and wrap them before Friday! 



Now onto my question:

I plan to implement student organization binders next year.  I'm doing a sports theme so I bought the STAR pack from Jodi at Fun in First Grade (it's awesome!).  For those of you that use binders, is the pencil pouch a must?  I was thinking of making DIY pouches like these from Classroom DIY:

From blog stalking I see that many use the pouch for money, but my students rarely buy lunch, and when they do, they mostly prepay.  They sometimes bring money to buy snacks at recess.  If I put pencils in there I'm afraid the DIY ones won't hold up.  I was initially thinking they could but money, book orders, and flashcards in it, so the DIY version would be ok.

Soooooo, my question is: What goes into your pouch and do you think the DIY version would hold up?  Thanks for the tips!

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Brandi

I'm linking up at 2 blogs today.  First is the usual Monday Made It with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics:

This past week I was working on organization (which never seems to be done).  I made schedule cards for my white board

redecorated my clipboards....need to buy some more duct tape!

and ordered a ton of stuff from Vistaprint.  I got groupon for $70 worth of product for $17!  Can't beat that!  Here's some of the stuff I ordered:

rubber stamp

business card for bucket fillers

business card for student login info

welcome postcard

desk fairy cards

holiday cards--postcards

small car door magnet

rack card used for DEAR bookmark

address labels for library

punch card for Jiji math

notepad

sticky notes

magnets with Texas image uploaded

I also got some free pens, an address stamp, and business cards with contact information.

Next, I'm linking up with Kristen at Ladybug's Teacher Files to share what I've bought for my classroom.  In addition to the things above for Monday Made It, I've hit up the Dollar Tree like craaaaaazy!



I've bought 18 of these white shoe organizers from the Dollar Tree to use for math manipulatives.

 I've bought 22 of these somewhat larger organizers with blue lids for my supply closet.

picture from Teaching in Room 6

The picture of the pink bins from is Stephanie at Teaching in Room 6.  I bought 26 of these same bins in pink, lime green, and blue from the Dollar Tree and hope to have my library as organized as hers!

Shopping and crafting....what better way for a teacher to spend a summer!

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Brandi

Tonya at Tonya's Treats for Teachers is close to 200 followers!  Stop by her blog and become a follower.  She has such great stuff including those awesome scratch off classroom rewards!

I'm off to finish up by Monday Made It projects for tomorrow!

Have a great Sunday!

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Brandi

I think I'm ready to take the plunge put my pinky toe in the water and start selling items on Teachers Pay Teachers!  Right now I'm still finishing up some things and I'll probably start by just having some free things available until I get all of the cute and creative items up.  I'm definitely going to take it slow and not overdo it....like I have with blog stalking!!!  But it's something I really want to get into.  I'll post a link when things are ready!

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Brandi

First off, I know it's a no-no to post multiple times in one day, but I just couldn't wait to share my new blog design and I'm so excited that Alicia at Dreamlike Magic installed it.  I absolutely love it! She was so great to work with and so patient when I gave her the wrong login information....I guess I was super excited to have a blog makeover!!!While blog stalking today, I read Tara's post about Kidblog.org and started thinking about how I can integrate more technology into my classroom.  Kidblog looks easy and great.  A few teachers at my school use Edmodo so I'm looking into that this summer.  I also have an iPad and am looking for my resources for use in class.
If you use a blog-type platform how do you incorporate it?  Also, what apps do you recommend for in-class use of an iPad?

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Brandi

I was super excited when I saw that I received the "Our Lovely Blog Award" from Megan at I Teach.  What's Your Superpower?

Once you receive the award you have to pass it on to others!  I love it!  Here are the 3 rules to follow:
1. Follow the person that gave you the award.
2. Link back to the person that gave you the award.
3. Pass the award on to 15 new bloggers.

Here's who I'm passing the award to.  Please make sure to stop by their blogs!
   

EduKate with Whole Brain
Mrs. Stoltenberg's Second Grade Class

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Brandi

I'm so excited to have finished my first giveaway!  The winner is Kimberly!  Congrats and I'll be emailing you the TpT gift certificate.  Thank you to everyone who entered!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Brandi

I'm so excited to be linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics again. I've gotten so many great ideas and have been motivated to finish up my to do lists!  Last week, I was super crafty.  Now that my kids are gone, I'm focusing on getting organized.  Me and the Dollar Tree are now BFFs!  I've organized my supply cabinet and math manipulatives.  I still need to laminate the labels, but here's what I made:





I'm so proud that I actually made something cute and purposeful!  The font is Pea Lauryn from Kevin and Amanda (love it because it's my daughter's name!), the frames are from DigiScrapDelights, and the background paper from Dreamlikemagic.  Can't wait to get everything labeled!  Next task is to organize and relabel my classroom library.

Also, if you haven't entered my giveaway for a $10 TpT gift certificate, please click here.  It ends Thursday!

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Brandi

Since I began blog hopping a few months ago, I have found so many good resources that I can immediately use in my classroom.  It's also inspired me to be more creative make more things for my classroom instead of just buying things from teacher supply stores.  I just wanted to quickly share a resource I came across today.  Tonya at Tonya's Treats for Teachers create a super cute multiplication facts game, that's currently on sale at her TpT store.  Head on over and check it out.

**I also wanted to remind everyone about my Hello Summer giveaway!**

There's still a few more days to enter!



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Brandi