Pocket Chart Stand!!!!

CHECK. THIS. OUT.

I have been wanting to start a poetry center in my classroom and was trying to find a place for a pocket chart to go. I didn't have a stand or any available bulletin board or wall space. THEN, I went to Target. I bought this garment rack for $20...

...and ta-da!! Pocket chart stand!!!

ADJUSTABLE pocket chart stand!!!!!

The stand has the perfect height options for kids to use it on the floor OR for me to use during whole group instruction.

 I bought pocket chart rings from a teacher supply store for about $3-5 and borrowed the pocket chart from a friend (since all the ones I had on hand are too big for it). The chart even has pockets at the bottom to hold sentence strips!

 This is its home until we are ready to use it. It is super lightweight and is easy to move around the room--the kids could even move it. It actually came with wheels but I chose not to put them on.

Here is what the box looks like:

I am SO excited about it!!

Class Easter Baskets On a Budget!

If you're like me, you spend trillions (yes, trillions) of dollars on your classroom each year! I don't mind spending money for my kids' benefit (though it would be ideal not to have to spend my own money!) but I do like being able to spend less when I can, especially for something we do not use for very long. Also, I am not a minimalist, but I do believe in having and storing as little as possible! I don't buy certain things for my classroom simply because I don't want to store it!! No pumpkins or Easter baskets for this girl!! Next week, we will be using Easter baskets and eggs for math manipulatives and I almost hyperventilated at the idea of having to buy Easter tubs or buckets or whatever for all of my students to use AND THEN store for the next twelve months!! Also, I wanted each of my 22 students to have enough eggs to work some of the problems we will have (with sums going up to 18). Ain't no way I'm buying that many baskets and eggs! My solution??:

Easter egg cups and pom poms!! The cups were 4 for 97 cents at Wal-Mart and the pom poms were around $3.00 for about 100 of them! Now I have enough baskets and eggs for all of the kids AND I can store them easily! Winning!!

Use the bigger ones for a more eggy look.

What do you think??? How do you feel about storing things?

Also, don't forget to check out my writing post from yesterday! I explain how writing is set up in my 1st grade classroom.

I have a writing pack giveaway going on it right now that I am actually extending until tomorrow. Here is what is at stake:

Check it out by clicking here! Have a fun Friday night!!! 

Black boxes and blurriness ever happen to you???

Has this ever been you???????

I know that is the last thing you want to see when you have just spent your hard-earned money on a product!! For several weeks now, I have received 1-2 emails per day from different people who have purchased my products and are experiencing this very problem. Most of you have been SO nice and patient (and I totally appreciate that!!). I have also received some nasty emails/messages about this. :( Don't worry, I'm over it. ;)

So, what does this mean?? Time for a simple tutorial!!! :)

You may want to start by updating your Adobe Reader, which is f-r-e-e, as Adobe recommends.

Right-click on the PDF you want to open and then click on "Open with Adobe Reader" (whatever version you have).

You can also go to "Open with..." and choose the program from there.

When you choose the program this way, you may want to check "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" so it will remember for future documents.

That should solve your problem! If you are using a Mac, the steps are virtually the same. Go to File, Open with... and choose Adobe Reader and NOT preview!! Hope this helps you out!!! :)

Office Depot--whoa!

Teachers, you MUST head to Office Depot SOON! They have a lot of different sales going on right now! An employee told me to really keep an eye on sales in July because they will have several deals on school supplies (and free breakfast for teachers!). Check out what I bought:

 These 2-pocket folders with fasteners were only 25 cents a piece! In true teacher fashion, I bought 26 of them.

My BFF actually bought this for me a few weeks ago. I saw some other creatures today that included a turtle, mouse, and penguin. Each holds 4GB.

I also bought 2 LED flexlights (the cutest little lamp-like apparatus) and 2 USB hubs. I'm one of those that has like, 6 things plugged in to my computer at any given time. I bought the pink person hub and the blue square hub for those times I find myself out of open ports. Here is the pink one up close:

I'll probably use this one at school because the usb cord is a little bit longer. Here is the other in action:

I am SO ready to get to my classroom and get to work. Unfortunately, my district has a policy that keeps overachievers like me from stepping foot on campus from mid-June until the beginning of August. I'll have to wait :(

Google--never ceases to amaze me!

You have GOT to check out www.google.com today! This is by far, the coolest thing they've done!

Save our Earth!

I know it's past Earth Day (though isn't EVERY DAY Earth Day?!?), but I thought I would pass on a few tips to help reduce the damage we do to our Earth. :D

Studies have shown that 60-75% of our landfills contain items that can be recycled. My husband and I have been recycling for about 3 years now. Here are our bins:

These are in our pantry. As you can see, we have a bin for paper, a bin for plastic, and a bin for cardboard. These bins empty into three different garbage barrels stored in our garage. My husband hauls the barrels to the neighborhood recycling center about once every month. We recycle whatever we can, including junk mail, food containers, and take-out containers--basically lots and lots of packaging. Packaging takes up about one-third of trash thrown away--WOW! (In fact, since we started recycling our trash only has to be taken out ONCE a week, versus 2-3 times per week. Recycling = less trash. Less trash = less waste.)  

FUN FACT: You may not have noticed this but every plastic container has a recycle symbol on the bottom with a number in the middle of it. It's not just there to remind you to recycle, but to show you how easy the container is to recycle. The lower the number, the easier it is to recycle; the higher, the more difficult.

I try not to use things that have a high number, but sometimes it's unavoidable (like laundry detergent). The plastic cups (usually red) used at parties and events (especially on TV!) have a HIGH number and shouldn't be used if you can help it. There are plenty of other cups that are just as fun and have a 1 or 2 on the bottom.

I also keep this little green folder in my school tote bag to use to bring home papers from school that can be recycled. (You all know how much paper is used at school, so it's usually quite a bit that I put in my folder!). 

I hope this post inspires you to make a few small changes in your life to help preserve our Earth! As far as we know, we only get one! :D

Do any of you recycle? What other green things do you do?

Organization Week: Day 1

Mrs. Patton is having a week-long linky party on organization! I'm actually not part of the party, but will post anyway. :)

Organization is one thing that I am VERY passionate about!! I am still working on being 100% organized at school. I'm about 85% there. (I did mention how OCD I am, right??) It would be SO much easier if teaching didn't get in the way ;)

I just so happened to take a picture of my daily materials crate on Friday, so here it is:

This is where I keep all of the worksheets & materials for each day's lesson. I have a folder for each subject for every day of the week. (You can pretty much tell how it is organized from the picture.) This works VERY well for me! It also makes it very easy for a sub to find.

I can't wait to see what everyone else posts! Long live organization!!!!!


....yes, I am a nerd.



-Super happy and relaxed

Gosh, I Love Target

My students use individual white boards fairly often during my math lessons. It's always a pain to pass out a tissue (for erasing purposes) to each student, each class period (not to mention a waste of tissue!). I know I'm not the first to come up with this idea, but while on my weekly Target run (borderline addiction) I had an idea! I've been wanting a classroom set of cute little fabric squares (with frogs, of course!). It hit me when I got to the bathroom decor section--why not use wash rags, which come in fun prints and colors?!? So that's what I did:

(Please excuse my poor quality iPhone photo)

I bought 24 wash rags, more than enough! I splurged on the middle set--I figured I could have at least one super cute set of wash rags :) The green and blue sets were $2 each! I used them for my after-school tutoring group today. The kids were very excited to break them in for me. Money well spent. :D