Back to School 2014

It's back to school time and I am super excited again this year with my teacher teams! I am also super excited with the decorations I just ordered from Just Artifacts I ordered the big paper lanterns in pink, purple and black patterns. I can't wait for them to arrive!! I ordered these....

Plus I ordered a solid color of each....so a total of 9 lanterns. I am lucky that I am allowed to hang things from my ceiling. :) I plan this year to just have a color theme, rather than an animal or character as I have done in other years. 

It has been a crazy few months for me with lots of time needed for family needs. I hope things settle down and I can get back to blogging more regularly. I have had some computer problems again so I am back to my ancient and slow computer. I can't really make or draw on it because when I do too much it freezes and shuts down. Once I really investigate computers I will replace the "good" one.

So this year I will re-do my room using the above colors. I think I will do black backgrounds on all my bulletin boards and use the colors for border. I want to keep it clean, bright and organized this year!!

I did a LOT of throwing away at the end of last year so hopefully this year my set up will be quick. Last time I was at the school my floors were being waxed so I couldn't get in to set up but hopefully later this week I can go in and take some before/after pictures. I love the before and after pictures dont you?

I have a few back to school boards on Pinterest that might be helpful with your planning and organizing. I also have as a brand new COLLABORATIVE board called "Elementary Doors and Bulletin Boards". The "rules" are simple....just pin elementary bulletin boards and decorated classroom doors. :) If you would like to pin to my collaborative board it's super easy!!

1. Follow me on Pinterest.

2. Send me your email/pinterest user name.

3. I will add you and you can begin pinning. 

Joy of Kindergarten

I have a few packets which might help you with your beginning of the year planning. There is a sale right now on Teachers Pay Teachers using the code BTS14. This will give you an extra percentage off. TPT Sales are a great time to stock up on products you will need throughout the year.

September Kindergarten Common Core Homework

I like to go through my "wishlist" and try to purchase some of the items I have saved. I also use the sale as a time to check out new teachers to TPT. I know some prefer to buy from only teachers with a particular amount of followers but I have seen great products from newer teachers as well.

I will be back soon to share my other new craft project and before and after pictures of my classroom. Enjoy the rest of your summer!!!

Calendar Numbers Freebie

Well have you ever gone to set up the monthly calendar and you don't have all of the numbers?

Where do they go?

I usually use the same set for August and September....they were cute little kid faces that I bought a long time ago....but not this year because somehow I lost two of them, lol. I also 'lost' my camera (but actually I am hoping I left it in my classroom). We set up the 3 main bulletin boards and took pictures but now I cant find the camera. We (my daughter and I) were there a long time and we were pretty 'pooped' when we left so hopefully it is there!
I think I will go there tonight or tomorrow to get it so I can share the pics. Everything looks so bright and fun with new backgrounds and borders!!
So back to the calendar numbers....I gave up searching for the numbers and decided to just make new ones. I used the new digital colored crayons that I drew and they turned out great. There is also a page of blank labels (sorry not editable) that you can use.

I put this one up through my FB page.

https://www.facebook.com/JoyofKindergarten

To grab your free set, click on the Fan Freebie tab. It will take you to the site to download your free set. I will likely make a new set for each month as some of my numbers are REALLY old!!

 

I'm still not counting down, but if I were it would be 10 days....

 

 

Final Four Freebie Colored Pencils

Here are the last of the colored pencils set. If you need any different colors let me know and I will try to add them.

I learned how to make files editable in a quicker way so I was able to make two sets from last summer now have editable labels.

/Bee-Happy-Classroom-Design-Set-EDITABLE

Monster Classroom Set EDITABLE

They are both priced at $4.00 for a few days.  When I make my classroom labels, I use the heavy lamination sheets (is that 5ml??) I write on them with a sharpie and place where needed. At the end of the year I clean them using nail polish remover. They will hold up REALLY well. I have some labels that I am using for the 3rd year this year and they still are in excellent shape....they look new.
If you have any goo from tape just use a little Goo Gone and it will come right off.  I use a personal laminator from my mybindings.com. I bought my lamination pages through Amazon. Oh, one more trick I found is to always run everything through the machine twice...I always do this even if they look ok with just one time.
I will not count down my days of summer until it is 10.....or maybe 7.....or 5, LOL!!

Have a wonderful week!!!

Double the Fun Freebie

Well...I'm not sure what I did wrong with this post yesterday. I wrote it from my ipad but somehow it saved as a draft and never published. It includes 2 more colored pencils. I will add 2 more tomorrow (blue and purple).


I am packing my bags today...no not for vacation, lol...to head back to my classroom to get things set up. I got the 'go-ahead' from the custodians that my floors have been cleaned so now I can go have at it! I am excited for the new year! I am a pre-planner... Much like my students, I don't do well wiith change at the last minute so the more I can get ready ahead of time the better I feel. The last time I left my room it looked liked this....
I threw away A LOT! I also did some rearranging of furniture so that I didn't have my tall cupboards blocking the windows like I did last year.  The classroom windows have blinds between the glass, so I can't get a lot of natural light. Hopefully moving the furniture will allow me a little more sunshine.

I will take pictures and share my progress.
I'm adding two more colored pencil clips today so I can get them all shared in a week. Here is yellow and green.




Have a great day!!

Birthday Sale & a Week of Freebies

This will be a quick post...but if you stop back this week you can grab this set of colored pencils. Up tomorrow will be orange. I will also be having a one day "It's My Birthday" sale tomorrow July 29th.

TPT Kinderland One Day Sale...WooHoo

WooHoo.....you read it right... I am linking up with some Kinderland friends for a one day TPT sale.For one day only, Sunday June 30th, you can grab some great deals and get a head start on getting ready for August. I know, I know...we just got out for the summer. I'm planning on getting everything set up now with my classroom decorations and beginning of the year activities so I don't feel the time crunch in August. Last summer I made some classroom theme sets. These are not activities, they are decorations such as nameplates, tags, labels, table numbers etc with a theme. I currently have Bees, Ocean, Red, and Monsters. The labels in these sets are NOT editable...sorry. Since that time I have created one new item that does have editable labels. It is a colorful dot set which includes a word wall, font, and a variety of labels and tags that you can edit in PowerPoint.
Here are some of the items on sale from my store:

Let's Get Hoppin' uses the colors aqua, green, pink, black and white with a frog theme.

All About Monsters is aqua and green with polka dots and lots of cute monsters.

All About Red is red and white with a ladybug theme throughout.

The Beach/Ocean theme set is a colorful set with an ocean/beach theme throughout. Colors include bright pink, aqua, yellow, orange and green.

The Bee Happy set is a sunny yellow set with lots of bees buzzing through.

I also have a set called Blue and Red Polka Dots, which is all fun polka dots.

You can grab these sets for under $4 during the sale!! 

I also have some of my word walls currently set as FREEBIE's in my store so be sure the check that out!

My monthly homework packets for Kindergarten will also be discounted for the sale so if you are missing any of the months you can grab them at a discount.

In case you hadn't read I started a new blog for my clip art, blog designs, and avatars. I would love for you to check it out. It is called Uniquely Yours Blog Designs. I am taking blog design orders for mid July and August. If you are considering a blog makeover or beginning a brand new blog I hope you will consider my work. I am also taking orders for avatars drawn by me.  :)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!!

Back to Class and September Calendar Freebie

I went to school today to get my room back in order from the floor being waxed. I met two of my teacher friends and we all took turns helping each other. It was fun having the whole building to ourselves. We took a peek in different classrooms to see how everyone was doing with their classrooms.
My room was a mess from the floors being waxed. Not much was back into place where I had it. I really wanted to take a picture so you could see the transformation, because it looked 'two thumb's down'... but my phone died...boooo. I guess it was ok that I needed to reorganize again because I ended up throwing away a bunch more.
Are you the teacher that keeps everything or throws everything away? I used to keep EVERYTHING. If I made too many copies, I kept the extras. If a game had missing pieces, still kept it. When I changed buildings last year and saw how much I had accumulated over the years I began throwing things away. My classroom is very organized but my cupboards were packed full. It was like you took one thing out and six things fell out with it. They look so much better now after a year of throwing away or giving away things I will never use. My next step is to put post it labels on every drawer and cupboard and label the main contents so my new aides will know where to find things and where to put them away.
The sad news of the day was for my friend. She changed classrooms to a larger room and they punctured her Smartboard during the move. They hire extra employees during the summer, usually college kids and they tend to not be too careful with the belongings...don't they know those are our treasures?  :)
I made a new calendar set for September to share. It's very simple, just numbers to 31 with an apple theme. You can grab a copy via my google docs. I dont tend to use google docs too often so please let me know if it isn't working.

Here is the link to google docs:  September Calendar Numbers
A while back I made a larger word wall to go with my free classroom set on TpT titled 'All About Yellow". I wanted to share it again since I know everyone is getting ready for back to school.

Here is the link for the Word Wall. Yellow Word Wall

I have my last week of ESY and then a little break before the start of the regular school year. I will end with a little 'Mom of Teenagers' humor...saw this one earlier today...

Have a wonderful week!!

Smiles!