My Classroom

Hiya peeps!  I last posted on August 10th stating that I hoped my next post would be about my moving into my brand new classroom. 

And that's what has happened!!!

First, I must say that I LOVE my new school, principal, and my team!  They rock!!!!  Here is my team at our convocation.  Aren't we just fabulous!  I am the one on the ground on the far right with curly hair.

 

Here we are after a very long day.

Okay, now onto the classroom.  Here is how it all started.

 This is the 10X10 storage unit my friend Shannon and I stuffed for e summer with ALL of our teaching materials.

 

  Here is my barren Barron classroom.

I became a busy, busy bee and got to work...

 Click here to see the finished product on my website.

Wish me luck for tomorrow.  I am teaching about Daily 5 tomorrow to my campus and then there is Meet the Teacher night.  I am soooo excited to meet some kinder cuties!

Winner of my giveaway and some project pics

Happy Friday friends!  Congratulations to Nicki for winning my giveaway!

I wanted to share some fun photos of a few projects I have been working on at home (because our school is still not finished - sigh...).

 

These are for sharpened and unsharpened pencils.  The little containers are from the Target Dollar Spot.

I made this little guy from a pinterest idea.  I used my dishwasher detergent box to make him.  His name is Mr. Munch and Welcome to Room 36 has an awesome song to go with a sound muncher.

 

 Here are my 2 new products on TPT.  The first on is called Rascally Raccons.  It includes rhyming clue cards to lead your students on a tour of your school and a craftivity for only $2.

The next one is called ABC Bump.  It's a bump game to match lowercase letters to uppercase letters.  There are also bonus roll and record pages to match the dice in the game.

I will give both of these to the first 5 people to leave me a comment with their email address.

  

  

While we're on the subject of TPT, I am participating in the mega back to school sale on Sunday and Monday.

The next few pics are non-school related, but I just wanted to share them.  I am hosting a baby shower for a dear friend on Saturday morning.  The theme is pirates.

 

This is the bunting I made.

 

This little treasure box has nail polish that I tied rafia onto.  These are the prizes for the shower games. 

So I didn't make this little guy, but I grabbed three of them at the dollar spot to add to the decorations.

This is the start of a lot of crazy, good fun!  Think of me this weekend and pray for my sanity.  I have the shower, then a wedding rehearsal, then lots of family time, a bachelorette party, and a wedding to be in.  It's all wonderful stuff and I am beyond honored to be a part of such precious memories for people I love, but I am tired thinking about it all.

Enjoy your weekend and let's hope that my next post is about moving into my new school.  :)

Just "stuck"on this experiment (and a little giveaway)

Have you seen this glue cap before?

 

It's the absolute most fabulous glue cap you will ever want because it keeps glue from clogging.

I conducted a little experiment to see if it would work after sitting out for days. I put this cap on this glue three days ago and left it alone. 

Today I picked it up to see if it would work. There is nothing to twist.  There is no opening or closing.  Just tap and press!  Check out the glue dots I can do:

 All you have to do is tap and press and it works EVERYTIME!!

I ordered them from Discount School Supply, but I am giving away 5 of them.

 

(Do you see little Daisy's nose in the left corner!?!?!)

 

 along with 2 items of your choice from my TPT store. 

 Enter on the Raffle Copter below.  I will choose 1 winner on Thursday at midnight!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I also have to share that I had my 17th Donors Choose project funded today!

Busy, busy as a bee and a little free"bee"!

So, because of "buzzy"ness, I am feeling so behind on school projects.  Here is a peek of some of the things I have been able to squeeze in this past week.

 

This will be one of my Working on Words choices in the beginning of the year.

 

Students match uppercase clothespins to the lowercase cards.

 

I made three sets in three different colors.  (This pic shows the back of the lowercase letters paper in the first two pics.)

 

I made each set a different color and wrote the uppercase letters in the color ink to match the back of the lowercase cards.  That way if one pin is left out on accident, I know where it belongs.

 

I also made these letter shakin' bottles.  This will also be a Working on Words choice at the beginning of the year.  Students shake the bottle and record a letter that they see.  The letters inside the bottle are letter beads.

 

 

I also printed, laminated, and cut out these "bee"utiful alphabet cards and number cards.  I bought these on TPT from Hedrich's Hive.

Aren't they just buzz worthy!?!?!

And since we're on the bee theme {again} here are two unnecessary, yet fun, items that were given to me over the past week.  {I love little gifts, especially bee ones!}

 

Chubby little bee!

Bee shoes!

Okie dokie, if you made it to the end of this post, here is your free"bee"!

 

Click on the pic to grab this little goodie at my TPT shop!

Magical Product Swap

Hi friends!  I was blessed to be a part of Jessica Stanford's Magical Product Swap.  This swap allows TPT sellers to review other seller's products on their blog.

  

Here is the product I reviewed from Amy Grout at Adventures in Teaching.

 

This game is fabulous for helping kinders, firsties, and second graders with making friends of 10.  

The product comes with easy to read instructions and a well designed game board.

You also get four different colored cars, ten frames, counters, and a recording sheet.  All you need to provide is one di.

To play, students place their cars on the game board.

Then the first player rolls the di and moves their car that many spaces.

 

Then the player uses the provided ten frame and counters to create a number sentence that adds up to ten.  

You can see in my example that I placed four counters on the ten frame since my yellow car landed on the number 4.  Then I wrote on the recording sheet the number 4 in the first part of the number sentence.  Now I would need to figure out the number that would complete the number sentence to equal 10.

Click the pic below to grab this wonderful math game for only $1!

I hope you enjoyed my review of this product!  Check out Mrs. Stanford's blog for the list of reviewers and their product.  Click the pic below to see them all.

Oh, I have to say CONGRATS to our women's gymnastics team!  Way to go, Fab Five!!!

Tell me more, tell me more

I decided to link up with Amy at Step into Second Grade and share a little more about me. 

Here I am with one of my second graders, Nathan, in the 2010-2011 school year.

1.  I am crazy obsessed with red pandas.  I think they are precious animals.  Here is my most recent visit to the Houston Zoo - which is the closest location to red pandas.  It takes three hours to get there from Austin, but we go at least once a year.

I love them so much that my hubby sponsored one in my name for Christmas last year.

Side note - my hubby is so sweet to go with me to zoos.  I love animals and enjoy zoos a lot.  Here we are at the San Diego Zoo.

2.  I love Audrey Hepburn movies.  My favorite is Funny Face, but I could watch Audrey Hepburn movies all day.

 

3.  I love the color pink.  I have so many clothes that are the color pink.  Here are some of them.

 

Pink shoes

Pink purse

Pink coat

4.  I wear dresses all the time.  I would rather wear a dress than jeans or shorts any day.  I have about 50 dresses and they are all worn.  In fact, I wear pants so little that the first time I wore pants this past year one of my students said, "Mrs. Crowder - why are you wearing pants?"

5.  I love Paris, France, more than anywhere in the world.  I have been once and just might get to go back next summer with my hubby's aunt and uncle.  

 

6.  I could eat watermelon ALL DAY LONG.

 

9.  I started college as a pre-med/chemistry major.

10.  My two favorite shows are Jeopardy and So You Think You Can Dance.  We don't have television, though, so when I watch these shows, I go to the gym and pedal a bike the whole time.  Our gym is set up so you have to be working out in order for the tv to come on.  It makes me not feel so guilty for watching tv this way.

11.  I was blessed to be named District Teacher of the Year for my district in 2010-2011.  I went on to be one of three finalists for Regional Teacher of the Year.  I was quite shocked to be given the honor but I am very grateful for the chance to have represented my district in many ways.  This plaque hangs in the lobby of our administration building.

12.  I love my fabulous hubby!  We laugh all the time.  He is my bestest friend and I love him oodles.  Our foundation and hope is in Jesus.  We love going to church together and doing service projects.  Here is a pic of a pic of us as Mary and Joseph for our church's live nativity at Christmas.

  

13.   We sponsor a child through World Vision.  I learned about this organization at a Women of Faith conference in 2005.  Since then, I have become a regular volunteer for the organization by being a representative at events.  I tell people about the organization and try to get kiddos sponsored.  Click the pic below to learn more about it.

 

Thanks for being kind enough to read a little bit about me and my life.  :)

And while you're all here, I just had to share the updated burlap bee that I made.