Substitute Binder

I decided that this year, I really need to get my act together when it comes to being absent for the day..or several. So, I just created an ocean-themed substitute binder. I think it turned out too cute…what do you think? Check out a few pages from the binder below and grab all 18 pages for yourself at my TpT store by clicking the link to the right. What are you busy doing to get ready for the upcoming year?

                                                    

Joining the Class Coupon Craze!

Well gang, I have decided to join the classroom coupon craze by creating my own class passes for my Teacher Pay Teachers store. I am going to use them with a punch card and at the end of the week, whoever has a certain number of punches (to be determined later, haha) will be allowed to draw a class pass out of the coupon container on Friday to be used the following Friday. Make sense? This will just be one of many other things that I will be using for management as I like to also do whole group cooperation prizes/parties too! So, I hope you have had a great week so far….let’s face it our time off is getting slim..yikes! Check out my class passes here and let me know what ya think!!

Sneak Peek…

Here is the box that I used to store the class passes. My hubby bought it for me on the tackle box aisle at Wal-Mart. It’s perfect for this size business cards and has several different ways that you can arrange it to fit your needs.

    Open view with coupons in it…one extra spot for my punch cards.

     Closed view.

Pinterest Crazy!!

I have been going Pinterest crazy this weekend!!! How about you? Isn’t Pinterest the best thing for teachers since the #2 pencil?!? LOL! Well, I can’t think of much more that I would rather do this summer than steal borrow ideas from other creative teachers! So, I thought that I would post the few things that I have done so far for my classroom.

This first idea came from the superlativesix blog….and I love the idea of this simple game called BAM!!

         

Superlativesix showed the Spelling BAM! example and I decided that it would also work great for a vocabulary review, so I just tweaked the rules a bit to create Vocabulary BAM! Enlarge the pictures to read the directions if you can….it is very simple and I think that it could work with so many different subjects!

I just covered empty oatmeal containers in scrapbook paper and Mod Podge. :-)

I saw this next idea somewhere on Pinterest and I am pretty sure that it was an Etsy item. I decided that it would be a great idea to have a box where my students can leave all correspondence from home, etc as well as a place where they feel safe to leave me personal notes and suggestions. So, I created this Notes for Mrs. Flentge box. I decided to make mine say “notes” so that I could cover a plethora of items..but I think it would be adorable as a Comment Box as well. I plan on leaving little strips of paper beside the box and a few pencils so that students can leave me a note whenever they have a spare minute.

I just took a shoe box and made a slot on top and covered it with scrapbook paper and Mod Podge.

Last, but not least, is my “To-Do List”  and this is my favorite!! I had been on a rosette kick all weekend . . . making stuff for my home (see pics. below) and so I decided to make just a few more for this To-Do List that is dry erase. It is very simply made out of the cheapest $5 black WALMART frame that I could find… if I wasn’t so lazy busy I would have probably found one cheaper at the dollar store. Anyway, you just open the frame up, stick a piece of scrapbook paper behind it with a white “To-Do List” paper atop and put it back together and then make rosettes out of leftover fabric and hot glue to the bottom (or wherever your little heart desires). Isn’t that fun? This is going to be a great addition to my teacher desk!

Here’s all of my home rosette projects that I completed this weekend. Note: the F letter and the wreath were Pinterest ideas that were for sale on Etsy that I just figured out myself :-)

      

And here is the “To-Do List” frame. This was on Pinterest and originally posted on Craftaholics Anonymous.

So, what have you been Pinteresting? (this is a verb right?) LOL!

What’s up with Me?

Brace yourself, this is a LONG post! So, I am sure you are wondering what’s up with me! I started this blog and then went M.I.A. for about 10 days. Well, this week has been a little on the crazy side. I was sitting in bed last night thinking about what all has happened in the last 10 days and it almost blows my mind to think that we all deal with so much in our lives!! Here is my list of OMG’s for the week:

1. Our A/C went out (not surprisingly…it’s was ancient!) that was a ton of money we DID NOT want to spend!

2. I was in Gifted and Talented training ALL WEEK LONG!! *Bright Side= now I am GT certified*

3. I was a Tribal Leader every day last week at our Vacation Bible School, teaching 1st and 2nd graders about Daniel and his courage while in captivity. That was a joy, but also tiring because of being in GT training during the day and then having about an hour to rest before donning my Bible days robe and rushing off to church (with a hubby and 2 of my 3 kids in tow!)*Funny Story= As we were driving home from VBS, my friend Shelley called and we started talking…as we pulled up to my house we were still in full on gab mode so I just hung out in the car with the door open of course, this is Texas people! HOT!! The rest of my family went on in. So, I am chatting it up, and a group of cyclist pedal by and ding their bicycle bell at me (weird, but maybe there are just friendly) so I continue talking. I am still on the phone talking (only now I am out of the car moving around, and no doubt moving my hands about…that’s what I do when I talk…I can’t be still!) when they pedal back by and laugh and ding their bell again…hmmm. It finally dawns on me that I probably look RIDICULOUS!! I am still wearing my Bible time robe, walking around talking like a crazy person with my arms flailing!!! No wonder!! I was so embarrassed, but my friend Shelley sure did get a kick out of it!!

4. Sunday was my first official day of teaching a Sunday School class full of first graders. I take my teaching job seriously, but there is nothing more important than making sure that you are guiding children in the church in the right direction and helping them learn about Jesus and God’s love. So, that was scary and exciting all wrapped into one big bundle!

5. Meanwhile, my precious father-in-law is nearing the end of his time left on earth. My husband and I are trying our best to drive the 30 min. or so between our homes to spend as much time with him as possible before he passes. Which means, every time my husband is off of work and in the evenings he/we are on the road.

6. My two youngest children celebrated birthdays this week. My daugher turned 3 years old and two days later (no, that's not a typo!) my son turned 4 years old. Happy Birthday to my sweet babies!

7.  I STILL DON’T KNOW WHAT GRADE I WILL BE TEACHING NEXT YEAR!! If you are a veteran teacher, I am sure that you have had years of learning to deal with being moved around and told at the last minute where you will be…but, friends, I am a second year teacher with a Type A personality and OCD  tendencies and it is just about to do me in!! I am a planner, planner, planner and I had hoped to have this summer to plan for whatever grade I will teach :-(



8. Lastly, I am so THRILLED to be able to announce that I was awarded the ONE LOVELY BLOG AWARD by two wonderful bloggers this week!!! OMG! I am so excited that I have only been doing this a couple of weeks and already received TWO awards! It means the world to me! Thank you:

With the honor of receiving the ONE LOVELY BLOG AWARD you must follow 3 rules:

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 are 15 other bloggers that I think are spectacular! Click on their buttons and head on over to check out their blogs!

1.        My teacher bestie’s new blog! Visit her for great ELAR ideas and materials!

2.        “Satisfying curiosity at home and in nature”.
3.         Great ELAR ideas!

4.        Great 2nd grade ideas!!

5.   Cute 1st grade ideas and inspiration!

6. A teacher after my own heart, she has some themes that  I love!
7. Great 3rd grade ideas!
8. Themes~Themes!!
9. 5th grade inspiration!
10. Cute ideas!!
11. New blogger, cute classroom activities!
12. New blogger dedicated to literacy!! I heart!
13. Cute crafty ideas for the classroom!
14. Experienced blogger, lots of great information!

15. Two best friend teachers sharing years of expertise in the field of teaching!

Check out my Sandwich Day Unit (who knew there even was a Sandwich Day?!?!)

Okay friends, here is the second unit that I have posted on Teachers Pay Teachers. If you wish to purchase it, please click on the pic below or on the TpT link to the right. Be sure to leave feedback for me if you like it and pin it to your Pinterest boards…that would just thrill my little heart to pieces!! :-)

This second unit is all about themes too (imagine that!). It is for National Sandwich Day (Nov 3). I thought that this would be so fun to do with the students…don’t ya think? I mean, who doesn’t like sandwiches?!? And, how could you resist my adorable little chef? LOL!
Check it out! Blessings and Happy Teaching!

First Freebie- Johnny Appleseed Day Unit

Hi friends!
I just got all set up on Teachers Pay Teachers and wanted to post my first freebie here for all of you! Just click on the picture or on the TpT link to the right to download your own digital copy! Pretty please with (insert favorite topping) on top…leave me a positive rating on the TpT site if you like the unit. :-)


If you want to see me happy…give me a theme for a day or a week! Seriously…love themes!! So, I decided to come up with a Johnny Appleseed Day unit for my class. This one would work for 1st-3rd (in my opinion) but you may have to make the Money Dig Worksheet either easier or harder according to the grade you teach. Enjoy and Happy Teaching!

Cute Classroom Stool

I am very, very excited to be entering the blogging world! It is definitely in a ‘”class” of its own! You will be hearing from me and my teacher bestie, Brande throughout this blog adventure. We work together and have lots to share with you, so we decided to go on this journey at the same time by creating “sister blogs”…. so be sure to check Brande’s blog out at http://www.iheartmiddle.blogspot.com . I am so excited about the possibility of getting to chat with some of you that I have been blog stalking for the last 6 months or so!! ((ha, ha !!)

To get us started I thought that I would post the first thing (stool) that I have created for my Rock Star themed classroom for this upcoming school year; not too shabby for only being on summer break one week if I do say so myself!

Now, what you must understand about this stool is that it was very FUNKY (and I don’t mean in a good way). The teacher before me dumped left it for me and so I used it in the sad condition that it was in this entire year. HOWEVER, I knew that this misfit was not coming into my classroom this upcoming school year without a makeover! As I was obsessing looking at Pinterest late one night (yes, I’m a night owl!) I saw an idea for an adorable red, white, and black stool (perfect timing right?) so, I attempted to remake my sad stool into a beauty, I love the results!

MATERIALS:

1. Old or new wooden stool
2. Acrylic Paints
3. Various Sized Paintbrushes                
4. scrapbooking papers
5. Mod Podge (or click here for a DIY)
6. Feather Boa
7. Crystals (optional)
8. Hot glue gun and glue sticks
9. Scissors

 

 

Directions:

Make a plan first! Do you want all of the spindles to be covered in scrapbooking papers? Do you want to paint some and decoupage some (like I did)? Boa or no boa? Crystals or no crystals?

Once you have a picture of what you want in your head (or if you are visual like me, drawn out) proceed.

1. Paint all of the sections that you want painted FIRST * this is a very important step that I wish I would have done!! ugh! Let paint dry.

2. Next, measure and cut your scrapbooking paper for the spindles or legs that you would like to cover. *Note: make sure that when you measure that you slightly overlap your seams and make sure that the seams are on the bottom of each spindle when you glue.

Also, if you want a monogram or any other scrapbooking paper on your stool, now is the time. I just created my circle monogram in MS Word and printed it out on bright orange printer paper and backed it with blue printer paper and put that on top of yet another circle from my zebra scrapbooking paper.

3. Once measured and cut, spread a thin coating of Mod Podge on the back of each piece of scrapbooking paper and adhere it to the stool in the desired spot. Do this for all of your scrapbooking paper, one at a time (Mod Podge dries fast)

4. If everything looks like you want it to, go ahead and get a large brush and Mod Podge the entire stool, paint and all. Let it completely dry and do it again. * Note: it will look foggy when applying but dries crystal clear, so no worries! Whew!

5. When dry, turn the the stool upside down and with your glue gun, glue the boa to the edge of the seat part of the stool. Make sure that you go all the way to the outside edge.

6. If desired, hot glue crystals around the edge of the seat, right above the boa.

Viola! You are done! From funky to fab!!

Happy crafting!