Giveaways and a Freebie!

It has been a lazy Sunday around here! I enjoyed being at school last week, but I vowed to enjoy my last 2 weeks to sleep in.  Lots of the blogs I follow have giveaways going on - take a look and go join them - awesome products being given away!

Amazon or TpT gift card!

A Vistaprint Gift Card

Synonym Rolls and Antonym Moments This cute 31 bag!

An Amazon gift card!

Literacy and Laughter A Target gift card!

A super cute planner!

I thought I would knock those all out in one post.  Now for a freebie. I have been working on lots of decor for my room.  I was in Raleigh yesterday and went to their teacher store and got my magenta fadeless paper and lots of cute borders to coordinate with the stuff I have been making.  I made some banners for my little one's birthday in June and have been in love with them ever since, so I thought I would make some as subject headers for my room.  I am going to attach them with ribbon and hang them above the focus walls I have for each.  I did them in 2 different colors because I LOVE pink and my friends that I am sharing with are primary color people :) I hope you enjoy!  

Classroom Setup and a FREEBIE!

I went to school on Monday to set my room up because I am crazy I couldn't get the room set up off my mind.  School doesn't start here until August 27th and our 1st workday isn't until August 17th (yes that's a Friday - What genius thought that up?)  Anyway, when I walked in it looked a little like this:

(At the end of the year we have to remove everything from bookshelves and push all the furniture in the middle of the room.  They take it out in the hall and wax the floors/clean the carpet and stick it back in.  I don't know who's bright idea it was to put those bookshelves up there on the counter, but let me tell you - no easy feat to get down by yourself with NO air conditioning!)

I had been carefully drawing diagrams of my room for the past few weeks, so I got right to work moving my furniture.  When I finished, I was nasty sweaty and my room looked like this:

Ignore the full trash can and recycle bin that is full of pizza boxes from my end of the year party in June! (I'd give someone the benefit of the doubt on that one, but it was in the floor when I left for summer and it's on the counter now, so someone had to pick it up!)

I went back yesterday and put everything on the book shelves and then today I had to be there for assessments and I brought my sweet teacher friends in and they tore my room to shreds rearranged some things because they couldn't believe I didn't have a cozy library center. (In my defense I don't have one corner in my room!)  I had to meet someone to get some teacher stuff so I didn't take pictures, but I have to go back again tomorrow so I will take some pictures then.  I have not printed/laminated/put up any new posters, so I have taken a few things down but I need to take the rest down and get busy. (I have plenty of time, no rush right?!)

How is your room coming along?  Is it just me or is it absolutely overwhelming to go in with your furniture in disarray and trying to maneuver it around like a puzzle.

On to the freebie.  The other day in my resolutions I told y'all about how I wanted to change my Behavior Management System. I ripped down my apple tree yesterday and today I created my new clip chart.  Of course, I need to print/laminate/attach with ribbon and get my clothespins together, but it's a start.  I thought I would share, just in case you needed one too :) PS It took me 3495834508 searches to find the frame in the middle...and guess where it came from...clker.com - go figure! :)  It has my Hello Dotty font that I am obsessing over - so it's perfect for me!  Enjoy!

Newbie Bloggers Blog Hop

I am feeling pretty pitiful with only 13 followers, so hopefully with the Newbie Bloggers Blog Hop I can find some new blogs to follow and some new friends will find me! :) 

 

I'm linking up with Janis Leach from Grade Three is the Place for Me for the Newbie Bloggers Blog Hop!  There are also some blogs linked at Mrs. Kelly's Klass!

Here are the Questions: 

1.  what state you are in

 2.  your current teaching position 

3.  your teaching experience 

4.  when you started blogging 

5.  share a blogging tip / blogging resource 

1.  I am currently in North Carolina. 

2. I am currently a Kindergarten teacher!! 

3. This will be my 8th year teaching!  I taught 1 year in 1st grade and this is my 7th year in Kindergarten.  I LOVE Kindergarten! 

4.  I started blogging this past school year.  I somehow started looking at all sorts of teaching blogs and I thought it would be a good way to post pictures for my student's parents to see what we were doing in the classroom.  I have also been stalking how others post materials and have TpT stores and I just started doing that myself and linking up with other blogs. 

5. Since I am fairly new to blogging, I don't really have any tips...I am still learning!

 I look forward to reading about other new blogs!

Another Give Away!

I stumbled upon another great blog tonight!  Mrs. G's Kindergarten in Heels is celebrating 50 followers and in honor of that she's offering a $25 gift card to amazon.com.  What can't you find on Amazon?  I'd love to win and I hope you will scoot on over and enter too!

New {School} Year Resolutions

I have been thinking a lot this summer about what I want to do differently this coming school year.  I decided to link up with Teaching Madness thinking if I wrote it out then maybe I would stick to it :) So here goes!

This year I plan to...

Resolution #1 - Offer more positive incentives and feedback.  I think I am going to change my behavior management system from the apple tree I have been using to a clip chart where they can work towards something positive instead of just pointing out their negatives.  I also bought a popcorn popper from a yard sale website and I am going to fill a jar with popcorn kernels as a class incentive and when it's full or gets to a certain point, we will have a popcorn snack.  Also, I got one of those old school desks off Craigslist for $10 and I am going to paint it and put special school supplies there and let the Terrific Kid sit there once a week and let them sit there on their birthdays.

Resolution #2 - Pass out Birthday Pencils, Bookmarks, Cards and whatever else I have in my drawer that I can never seem to follow through with giving my kids.  We always sing Happy Birthday, but I never remember the rest!

Resolution #3 - To keep my room less cluttered!  I am going to try really hard to keep my room organized and not have random stuff all over the place.

Resolution #4 - To make my centers meaningful and engaging and make sure that my students are doing what they are supposed to be doing and not just hanging out.


That's it for now!  I think 4 things is plenty to work on.  It's my renewal year and with Common Core starting for us this year, I think I am going to be immersed in new stuff to learn!  I look forward to reading everyone else's resolutions!

Alphabet Posters

I am so excited y'all - I sold my first thing on TpT.  I feel so accomplished :) I finished my Alphabet Posters to go with the shapes and colors I posted this weekend.  I still need to do numbers for sure and then I will see what else I need to do.  I posted them for sale in my TpT Store.  I will send the set to the first person who follows my blog, comments and leaves their email address.  I hope someone can use them! :)

No Monkey Business Giveaway!

Y'all know I love a giveaway!  I have yet to win one, but you can't win without entering.  No Monkey Business is having a giveaway to celebrate 500 followers.  There are some seriously awesome things being given away (like $50 to TpT!).  Head over and enter for yourself! :)