Favorite Free Items (gathered from Pinterest)

There's a lot of great ideas on Pinterest...some free and some paid. I've found some great things for my classroom for FREE. Here is a couple of my favorites...


Can't wait to use this resource when I teach the Scientific Method.




Great Bucket Filling Packet!

Scientific Method Posters



Daily 5 Posters and Resources, will work with any reading workshop model though.




Great Math Station




Great for morning meeting, printing them out right now so I can laminate them before school tomorrow!



 What free items have you found on Pinterest?

Team Gifts

I still have 15 more days until teachers report back to school. My classroom is finished, my long range plans completed and steady marking things off my to-do list in preparation for a new school year! Thursday is our first team meeting. Very informal, held at someone's house. We'll have a pot luck lunch and discuss school items, we have two new teachers to our team/school so I wanted to meet so they could get some of their questions answered and talk about things such as field trips and homework and what committees we're going to serve on.

I'm excited to share my team gifts with you! I ordered t-shirts from this company http://teachertshirts.spreadshirt.com/ and as always I had to order some cookies from my favorite shop on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/acookiejar?ref=search_shop_redirect. Her shop is on vacation at the moment but you can look at her feedback and sales to see pictures of her work. I've ordered Valentine Owls, Hungry Caterpillar, Apples and now "Candy" themed cookies with a "3" for 3rd grade! I will be ordering again, probably for Christmas. Trust me, it's worth every penny, these are the best cookies you will eat, plus they have disco dust on them to make them sparkle!

The gift tag says "It's a treat to have you on the 3rd grade team!" and I added some Chevron tissue paper since that's my new obsession. Okay, now for some pics... would love your feedback!

 

 

 

 

Team Building

First, I have to share a deco mesh wreath I made for my classroom door. Look at my classroom tour to see the spiral deco mesh wreath I created!

Apple Deco Mesh Wreath for my classroom door

Leadership must be my "theme" this year. I'm team leader, a mentor to a beginning teacher and I've been accepted into the VCU Clinical Faculty Program (VCU will train me to mentor their student teachers in my classroom).

I haven't been team lead in years, 6 years. Now I'm at a different school, on a different grade level, working with different teachers. I really want to focus on building team morale. We're having our first team meeting next Thursday and I'm very excited. I purchased some team gifts and we're going to have a pot luck lunch and talk about some basics before teacher work week begins August 26th. Basically we don't get to work in our rooms until Wednesday afternoon of that week and Meet & Greet is Friday morning, good thing I'm finished!

In the past we've pulled names and that person was responsible for purchasing a birthday cake for the name they pulled. Then at Christmas we do a Secret Santa all week and do a breakfast reveal that Friday. This year I'm thinking of doing more.

First of all we're going to fill out these sheets. Then I'm thinking we'll pull names and that's going to be your "Secret Pal" for the year. Then we'll give gifts/treats at...

-Halloween (1 day)
-Christmas (1 week)
-Spring (1 day)
-Teacher Appreciation Week (1 day)
-End of the Year (1 day)
-Birthdays

Click the link above if you would like to download the sheet. What do you/ have you done on your team to build team morale?

Classroom Tour

I am so happy to report that my classroom is finished! I can now enjoy the rest of my summer vacation...all 24 days left of it!

view from the door

math workshop area: Mountain Math, Math it Up

classroom library

content vocabulary word wall

workstations

spiral deco mesh wreath

my desk

my name sign

guided reading materials

guided reading area

nonfiction text features

reading strategies

reference resources and puncuation

writing area



view from guided reading area

view from corner

view from sink

side view of my spiral deco mesh wreath... can you tell I love my wreath!

Long Range Planning

I only have 4 more days of summer school then I can start my mini vacation. I've got 3 workshops to attend before teacher work week which starts August 26th. I spent four afternoons last week setting up my classroom, my friends think I'm crazy but I want it over and done with by the end of summer school so I don't have to think about it while on vacation. I don't know about you but our teacher work week is filled with meetings and professional development and that leaves very little time to unpack and set your room up.

 

I've also done my long range plans for next school year. Now that I've taught third grade for two years I finally have a grasp on what to teach when. I downloaded the template from Ginger Snaps and filled in my information. You can click on the picture to take you to all my plans for the year.

 

I've also been busy creating stuff for my classroom, I blogged last week about the spiral deco mesh wreath I created as well as classroom signs and balloons for the Krazy Straws I purchased for my students birthdays.

Have you been working on anything for your classroom?

Spiral Deco Mesh Wreath

Saw this on Pinterest and knew I had to make one! I bought a small wire wreath from Hobby Lobby but after adding the mesh it grew to almost 4 feet in diameter! Can't wait to hang it on my classroom wall at school!

Spiral Deco Mesh Wreath: Before Ribbon

Spiral Deco Mesh Wreath: After Chevron Ribbon

Birthday Krazy Straws

Time for another Pinterest Inspired Idea... I usually give my students a birthday bag with a book of their choice, stickers, pencil, certificate and a couple pieces of candy. This year I decided to make them birthday krazy straws after seeing it on Pinterest. I purchased some birthday themed scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby and used my Cricut Create a Critter Cart to make the balloons. Then I attached the balloons to the straws.