Donor's Choose

Today was a crazy busy day with all 19 of my Kinders!  I forgot how long it takes them to do everything at the beginning of the year.  I thought we were going to have to spend the night! We missed snack because they got back late from Encore, but it will be ok - tomorrow will be better!!

In other news, I am super excited because I submitted my first Donor's Choose project for wireless headphones and listening books/CDs and it was approved and is already half way funded by Kia!  If you can make a donation, we would appreciate any help you can give!

To learn more or donate:

1.     Visit my Teacher Page, www.donorschoose.org/mrspayton
2.     Choose one of my projects, enter the amount of your donation, and click "Give"
3.     During check-out, enter the word INSPIRE where it says "Match or gift code", and your donation will be matched dollar for dollar.

The INSPIRE match code will double your donation for the next 7 days.

All About Me Unit

Today we only 8 had Kinders and it was a pretty good day! My teacher friends and I have been planning for next week and so I came up with some activities for an All About Me unit, which I just posted in my Teachers Pay Teacher's store.  Stop by and scoop it up!

1st Day of School!

I survived my 1st day of school!  Here's my and my little guy this morning:

We left super early and the kids were lined up at the door this morning!  I had 9 Kinders scheduled today and 11 showed up, but many were late due to the insane traffic and a bus mishap.  We didn't get to everything I had planned today, but we had minimal tears and everyone made it home the right way - that my friends is success in my eyes!  I got a new student folder in my box at the end of the day, so that leaves 8 Kinders for tomorrow (if everyone that came today doesn't come tomorrow!)  I didn't get a minute to breathe today, so I am sure tomorrow will be just the same and then again on Wednesday when they all come.  For now, I am beat and have a few things to work on before bed! How was everyone else's first day of school?

Open House & Classroom Reveal!

Tonight was our Open House!  I met 18 of the sweetest Kinders ever :)  They played in a few of my centers, which mildly tore my nerves to shreds, but I got it all cleaned up and we are ready for business Monday!  It has been a SUPER busy week getting the room ready.  Next time I decide to redo my room, remind me how crazy it has made me this year.  But y'all am in IN LOVE with my polka dots! :) Here are some pictures of how the room turned out!

I got this idea from pinterest...from here.  I used my Cricut to punch out the stars and then I put a label with each child's name on each one.  The other letters are die cut...I didn't have the patience at midnight last night to cut them with my Cricut.

My Terrific Kid Board

 Our Names - I did use the Cricut for this and the Wish List

 The Door, my sweet Kinders names for staggered enrollment and my crayon wreath.

Looking in from the door.

 The writing center and my writing posters.

 The math center and the my shapes posters.

 The front of the room with my favorite part of the room, my Kindergarten banner at the top!  

 Rules and schedule

 Behavior clip chart

 Calendar (Very basic - we do it on the SMART Board)

 Reading Strategy posters by my reading table.

 Word Wall with my Kinder's names

 My desk area.

Standing in the front of the room looking at the back of the room.

Well, that's about all I have energy to post for today.  Tomorrow is our last workday and I must get some plans done!  Hope you all had a great open house and I will be back to stalking your blogs soon!

Monday Made It!

I'm a little late posting, but I'm linking up with Monday Made it again at 4th Grade Frolics! :) I stopped by school today because I felt the need to sweat take all the posters off my walls down so I could have them ready for when all my new goodies I made this summer are laminated.  When I looked around the room and there was nothing left, I had a extreme mild panic attack.  I keep telling myself it's going to be good because all my stuff is going to be cute, polka dotted and match, but nothing like bare walls 2 weeks before school starts to send you right over the edge.  Anywho, the walls are officially ready for all my new stuff.

Today I worked on my Centers Chart and Math Groups Chart.

Pretty simple.  In the past I have used animal names for the groups...I'm not feeling that this year, so I'm going with numbers.  Under the numbers I will put some velcro dots and then put the kids names on card stock and that way I can move them based on what group they are in for each topic.  I used the Cricut to cut out my letters (All Mixed Up font - MY FAVORITE!)  Don't you love that HOT pink.  The poster board choices at school may possibly be the ugliest and dullest colors I've ever seen - so I got these loud colors from the Dollar Tree :)

This chart is for my literacy centers during reading groups.  Again with the loud colors - a little lime green :) The pink squares will have their names on them.  The blue squares will have the center choice cards.  Each day the students have 2 center choices and we do centers 4 days a week in my room. The students see me, go to a center, do seat work and go to a second center.  Maybe not in that order, but some variation of it.  

So that's it for me for Made it Monday - I didn't go crazy and paint anything this week :)  Still feeling pretty successful!  Can't wait to see everyone else's!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Center Activities Pack

Hey friends!  I just finished up my Brown Bear, Brown Bear Center Activities Pack just in time for the TpT Back to School Sale! I scooped up the cute clip art from KPM Doodles - she's offering 25% off in her TN store on all her clip art!  I am still offering 20% off in my TpT store + the additional percent off with the code BTS12.  I have gotten a few things - I hope you are taking advantage of it!  Stop by and grab this Brown Bear pack while it's still on sale!  Enjoy!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Anyone else love Chicka Chicka Boom Boom / Chicka Chicka 123?  These are 2 of my favorite stories to start the year out with!  I just posted a unit on TpT that correlates with both stories to get your year started. Don't forget - everything in my store is 28% off right now!  Scoot on over and grab this awesome unit :)

Word Wall and a TpT Sale!

I have been seeing a lot of word wall words posted on TpT lately.  When I first started teaching, I bought a set that included a lot of word wall words and since then, if it wasn't included,  I have written them on a sentence strip and posted them.  My word wall always looks SOOOO messy because all the words are different sizes.  I decided this year I was going to type them so they would all be the same size.  Going with my theme, they are polka dotted!   The first and most important ones are the Word Lists for Read 3D since they is the system we use to assess.  2 different colors are for sale in my TpT store.  I hope you can use them!

 

Speaking of TpT, they are having a back to school sale on August 12th and 13th.  Super exciting!  There are plenty of things on my wish list to purchase.  I am offering all items in my store at 20% off and if you use the code BTS12 you will get an additional 8% off.  28% off??? Yes please!   

Reading Strategies and a Giveaway!

I can't believe one week from tomorrow we will be back in school! I stopped by today to drop off some stuff that I had gotten at two different teacher stores I went to when I was out of town this past week.  I didn't have much time to stay, but I checked my purchase order and put it away.  I am planning on going next week to get everything else done that I can do before we get class lists and all that jazz.  The last thing I wanted to work on before I got in there to decorate my room was some reading strategy posters to put by my guided reading area.  I made a set for my room with pink and then a set with primary colors.  Both are available for purchase in my TpT Store!  

I have discovered a new cute blog!  First Grade Fairy Tales has just gotten 100 followers and has a giveaway for $25 to TpT.  Since it's the beginning of the year, I know I can't be the only one with a wish list at TpT and since they are about to give a discount, it's the perfect time to spend it!  Head on over and check her out and enter for yourself!

Monday Made It

I have been dying to link up with 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It!  I am not too terribly crafty, but I scored this little jewel piece on Craigslist for $10!!!

It's in pretty decent conditions, but it is terribly ugly.  I hate the color mushroom brown and I would never put this in my classroom :)  So when I was at the store the other day, I grabbed some Krylon Dual Primer + Paint in white.

This morning my husband was up early and while I was planning to sleep in, I got up to spray paint it while my kids were still asleep.  (Doing anything crafty with a 3 year old is essentially impossible.)

So far so good...minimal runs.  But guess what - I ran out of spray paint :( This is what it looks like now....

So, my husband is going to grab another can on his way home so I can finish getting a really good white base.  What am I going to do after that?  I have some super cute colors of acrylic paint and I'm going to paint some polka dots and other fun stuff on there.  I will post some pictures later today when I am done :) I am going to use this desk as an incentive.  I am going to have special supplies there (markers, colored pencils, 16 count crayons etc.) that my kids don't usually get to use at their tables.  I will let them sit there on their birthdays and also once a week whoever the Terrific Kid is will get to sit there.  I will post more soon!

  After the second coat of white spray paint.

 I decided to paint that design on the top, which needed several coats - so I taped the seat for stripes in the meantime.

I painted the stripes..I needed about 2 coats of purple and then I took off the tape.  Me and the painters tape had a fight...some of my paint bled - insert sad face here.  I got the grand idea to paint a black stripe to hide it...I hated that...I had to wipe it off which was completely aggravating and while I don't have a picture of it, the yellow was on at the time.

Then I taped the top of the chair back for diagonal stripes and added polka dots to the top.  I got a bright idea to put these little black dots outside of the pink polka dots...I hated them...FAIL.  I had to wipe them off...but it wasn't easy...so I had to wipe off about half the paint on top and redo it...omg...anxiety attack.

I thought I needed a star on back...so I traced it and taped it.  Just in case you are wondering - me and the painter's tape got in a fight again...it won.  So I spent some time with a q-tip getting the little spots off so there was a straight line!

This is what the finished back looks like.

 This is the rest!

I am ECSTATIC with how it turned out!   It was very frustrating - my back hurts, my shoulders hurt, my hands hurt, but it's just want I wanted :)  I am thinking about cutting out a quote with my Cricut and Mod Podging it on...I will see how I feel about that later :)


I decided to add some words :) I Mod Podged them on.  It rained tonight so I couldn't seal it, but that's all I have left to do :)

While I'm at it -  Simpson's Superstars has a giveaway right now for $15 gift cards to Dollar Tree, Target, or Walmart.  I am determined to win a giveaway one of these days!  Head over and enter for yourself!