Five for Friday- July 10th

Happy Friday everyone.  I am linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for her Five for Friday link up.

I hit Target the other night to pick up some Tazo Passion Iced Tea.  It's the main thing I drink other than water so I tend to stock up on it and rarely run out.  Of course I happened by the Dollar Spot and found way too many things I do not need for school that were too cute to pass up.  I know I have a problem.  

Target dollar spot is my kryptonite.

My oldest son Ben is part of a LAX tournament team for the summer.  It is comprised of 7 boys from our high school and several boys from another city.  Tues. nights they practice in the other city (a good 30 min away).  It was our turn to drive this week and Cooper chose to come along and hang out with me at Starbucks while Ben practiced, because my other son had a BB game.  I was able to get my blog post written about Getting Started with Math Workshop.  Cooper was good for the first hour, but then got bored.  I think he was actually exhausted from his 3 hour basketball camp that afternoon.

My little lovebug

My favorite middie.

Yesterday I had the best afternoon.  I met up with a dear friend of mine for lunch. We taught together our first five years of teaching.  I taught 6th grade and she was the 6th grade computer teacher.  We had so many great times.  Sadly her husband passed away of cancer last December.  It was so much fun reconnecting with her, she is definitely part of some of my very favorite teaching memories (from when we were just babies starting out).  Lunching with girlfriends is definitely good for my soul!

Happy to be off to meet my friend. Someday I'll figure out how to take a selfie better.

After lunch and picking up Cooper from another day of BB camp I headed over to my coworker/friend's house to drop off a meal for her and her husband.  She went on vacation to TX and broke her leg on Day 3 so she is now laid up for basically the rest of the summer.  I signed up to bring her dinner.  The menu was crispy chicken, cheesy potatoes, and chocolate chip cookie candy bars.  This is definitely a favorite meal for my family.  Needless to say the boys were very jealous that the food was not for them.  She just had to pop the potatoes and chicken in the oven and bake.  I got the pans from the dollar store so she didn't have to worry about doing dishes or returning anything to me.

A great prep ahead meal to take to someone.

I finally wrote a blog post about How to create a font using your own handwriting.  You can see below the font I created last night.  It's just basically my handwriting.

Another font I made.

Today is my birthday and I am feeling the love from family and friends.  I've had phone calls, texts, birthday cards in the mail, and lots of FB love. I love having a summer birthday which means I get to celebrate multiple times with my family and friends.  I went out to lunch with all my boys today and tried out a new to us restaurant that was amazing.  We had calamari and frites cones (french fries) for appetizers.  I got a really yummy salad.  When we were done eating Cooper informed our waitress that today is my birthday so she brought me a piece of very decadent flourless chocolate cake.

Asian chicken chopped salad

Birthday cake

I was cracking up when I looked up to see the vultures swarming boys digging in to my cake.  I was feeling very vulnerable with them basically eating the cake over my head.  The cake was delicious and gone in a flash.

Many hands make cake disappear quickly.

I hope you are all having a great Friday.  I am having the best birthday thanks to my wonderful family.  My husband and I are going out to one of my favorite fancy restaurants tonight.  I have a very busy weekend ahead.  Tomorrow Ben has another LAX tournament in IL and Drew has a BB tournament in my hometown.  Greg coaches Drew's team so Cooper and I will be cheering Ben on.  I'm super excited for my nephew's 2nd birthday party on Sunday.  I can't wait to see him and my niece.  Drew, Cooper, and I will be going to the party and Greg will take Ben to his LAX tournament.  I'm ending the day Sunday with a two hour massage.  Looking forward to a fun, family filled weekend.

A few new photos and a couple of tips for decorating your classroom

The past two days I have spent eight hours day on a math review committee.  We are working on looking at the CCSS and also doing research on best practices among other things.  The days went really well, other than the AC not working in the library of the HS where we were meeting.  It was hot!  Today we got done a bit early so I headed to my classroom to see if I could accomplish anything while my dad was still watching the boys.

I got one of my most putzy tasks accomplished, which is decorating the front of my classroom door.  Seriously it took me an hour and there is so much tape on everything it will stay up for the entire school year.   I changed up my decor for the front of my door and I absolutely loved it.  I changed things a bit this year and added a new poster that I love and am very pleased with how it turned out.  I will probably add a couple of Calvin and Hobbes comics to the front door.

Love my new Learning Zone Poster!

Using yarn for straight letter placement.  Also to fancy up my letters, ruler border,  posters  I added some silver star stickers.  I just love how the finished product looks.

A tip for putting up letters and bulletin boards if you are as anal retentive as I am about things being straight.  Tape a piece of yarn to use as a guide.  I got this awesome trick from my teacher friend's husband who was helping her put up her bulletin boards yesterday.  Another tip it to add stickers to your bulletin board letters, borders. or posters.  I used silver stars, but you can use anything, especially if you have a theme going in your class.  I just think it really adds something to the letters.  I add the stickers to everything before I laminate it.

My comfy rocker chairs with a pink ottoman.  The big pillows will be for students who want to work or read on the floor and be more comfy.  Pillows from Sam's Club, everything else from Target.

 I need to find a good storage option for the pillows.  Any ideas?  I thought about a black laundry basket, but I think the pillows are too big.  I will probably bring in a laundry basket tomorrow and check it out.

I love my pink and green.  Chairs from Target and pillows from Sam's club.

I am starting to feel like I am accomplishing something in my room.  I don't officially start back until next Thursday, but I (like many of you) prefer to get as much of my classroom set up out of the way so I can start off the year feeling organized.  I plan on going back to school tomorrow for a few hours in the morning to do some more classroom set-up so I will hopefully have some more photos to share with you.

Now that I am done with my math review until our September meeting I plan on really figuring out my math stations.  I will definitely be sharing how I plan in implementing them, in an upcoming post.  I also will be responding to some questions/requests that have been posted in the comments section or emailed to me.  If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment or email and I promise to post answers in the next couple of days!

Busy as ever!

I have been very busy doing lots of professional reading, trying to figure out how to implement math stations in my classroom this coming year, interviewing VP candidates (my #1 choice was hired YAY!), attending several committee meetings, and getting my classroom set up.  Here are a few new pictures of my classroom and a few new purchases.

The awesome pillows are from Sam's Club.  The ottoman and lap desks are from Target.

Posters and border from The Learning Shop a local teacher store.

My bookshelf for math stations materials and manipulatives.

This will be my "math corner".  The book cart full of textbooks will hold games and manipulatives once textbooks are handed out.

That's all I have time for right now.  I have meetings for our district wide K-12 math review today and tomorrow 8-4.  I have read so much this summer for the review and I plan changing up things quite a bit in my classroom this year.  I plan on doing some upcoming posts on instructional strategies that will raise student achievement, how I weaving literacy into my math instruction, information on how I am setting up my math stations (that is definitely a work in progress), and I will share pictures of my classroom as I get things set up.

My Target Finds from last week Part 2

Last week I did two trips to Target.  There have been so many lately I am losing count.  I get voucher money for being a math liaison this year so I am planning on saving my receipts this summer from my various shopping trip for reimbursement (for those of you wondering when my shopping madness will end).  It has been a few years since I did a major restructuring of things in my classroom and I feel this year is time for some change.  I am still diligently working on my math learning stations idea and am reading, reading, reading (check my Shelfari and you will see I am not messing around with all the professional reading I am doing this summer).

The latest Target haul

Colorful crates

Now where can I find a pink one?

I DO NOT recommend getting those food storage containers on top of the storage boxes.  I went to put some dice in one and it was difficult to get the top on.  When I tried to open it, the top cracked.  They would be trashed in two seconds with my middle school crew.

Come to mama!

Some magnetic letters to go with my numbers.  I could not resist the pink and green paper clip tabs and the pink goody bags.

Can't wait to get into my classroom and get everything organized!

More Target Love

I spent six hours at school yesterday working in my room.  I will do a post tomorrow about what I accomplished.  I also have before and after photos of my blue storage cabinet where I house most of my math manipulatives.  I will share a few organizing tips also, so check back tomorrow for all of that.

I made two Target shopping trips this week, on Sunday and yesterday.  I am sharing my purchases from Sunday in this post.  

Most of what I bought.

These will come in handy for organizing manipulatives and for Learning Stations material.

More organization.

These clips are magnetic and will be used for a variety of things.  I bought a few koosh balls to use for fun.

I think I may use this for dice or game pieces for learning stations.

This frame color was on sale.  I have an idea for this and will share once it is completed.

A few large storage containers.  Some post its and wrapping paper in my color scheme.

Sidewalk chalk.  I thought it would be fun for the kids to solve equations or do some vocabulary work outside.  Any other ideas?

Magnetic numbers for solving equations.  I purchased a set of letters.

A frisbee just for fun.

Some chairs for my classroom.  I have to decide if I want to keep these or  go with the rocking recliner floor chairs.

This is what they look like.

My collection is growing.  :)

I want to thank Hadar for featuring me at Target Treasures.  I am doing some serious revamping of my classroom set up this year and Target has the perfect items to incorporate into my classroom organization and math learning stations.  I also cannot help, but love the bright color scheme.  Pink is my favorite color and I love me some pink and green.  I think the addition of the blue balances things out a bit.  :)

Classroom purchases AKA My Target Addiction

I have been on a roll lately hitting up the Dollar Store and Target's Dollar Spot.  I have decided on a color scheme for my classroom organizing this year.  It is pink, green, and blue.  I love everything pink and green (that's just the preppy coming out in me), but I felt if I just went with pink and green it might be too girly so I threw the blue in for some balance.  

This morning I stopped at Target before going into my classroom to unload most of my summer purchases. I have taken over a bookcase in the living room with my teaching binders and other math resource books and I knew my husband was not too thrilled with all the bags of goodies strewn throughout the house.  I hit the jackpot at Target this morning with some items that were perfect for my pink, green, and blue color scheme.

Unfortunately not everything comes in my lovely color scheme.  I know these pocket charts are more geared toward the elementary level, but I will figure out a way to use them either in my learning stations or for classroom group work.

Everything is from Target except the green bin three pack in the middle of the photo.  Don't you love the color scheme?

I am bound and determined to do some Math Stations this year and will figure out a way to use those files either for the stations or for teacher created math games.  The scrapbook paper will be used for cutting out letters or something like that.

This is the shelf where I store all my math binders and other teacher resources.  Looking forward to adding more color this year.  Not sure how everything will come together, but I assure you it will all get used!

Blogger is misbehaving right now as I try to add captions to my last few photos.  When I add a caption the photo jumps to somewhere else in my post and it's super annoying.  The next photo is of some little planes I saw at the Dollar Spot and decided to buy to figure out a fun activity or learning station.  My students LOVE to do anything out of the ordinary and I know they will have a blast with the airplanes.    Now I just need to figure out what to do with them.

This last photo is of some random items I have purchased to use in my classroom.  I just love getting my classroom set up for the new school year and am looking forward to spicing things up with my new purchases.  I teach middle school, but I assure you my students love to a have a fun brightly decorated and very organized classroom.  I like my classroom to feel cozy and inviting to anyone who enters it.

This I am linking up to Love2Learn2Day's Math Monday Blog Hop and Target Treasures.