Sending Love to Joplin

My favorite thing about blogging is how supportive everyone is of each other.  Right now, DeeDee over at Mrs. Wills Kindergarten is having a linky party to support teachers in Joplin, MO.  She received an email from a fellow kindergarten teacher that read:

I teach in Joplin, which made worldwide news last May when our town was cut in half by an F5 tornado.  Many of our elementary schools were destroyed or damaged, and as teachers, we have had a roller coaster year.  I came from a meeting yesterday where many are struggling with the weight of all we are dealing with.  My request is this:  would you be willing to donate a created pack of your choosing to give away at a drawing at our upcoming district Kindergarten grade level meeting?  The meeting is Monday and I am sorry for the short notice but I did not realize until the meeting how down everyone is feeling.

Not only did DeeDee step up to help, but she thought we could help as well!

Here is how:

1.  Send your TpT or Teachers Notebook product to Erica:  edoennig@joplin.k12.mo.us

2.  Then link up by clicking on the picture below

I sent over my All About Common and Proper Nouns and Basic Spelling Activities packets.  Please help out if you can!  Thank you to Mrs. Wills for letting us be a part of this.

Cupcakes and Polka Dots

Friday?  Friday??  Friday?!? Where are you?  Oh my goodness this has been a busy week.  Just.  So.  Many.  Meetings.  I was really dragging by this afternoon when I was at my eye dr appt.  The dr gave me new contacts but I didn't have any (safe) way to get my glasses home.  I asked the lady if she had a spare case.  She pulled out a beat up white one but decided that wasn't good enough for me.  I didn't really care, though, I  just needed it for the ride home.  Then she pulls out this beauty:

Pink AND polka dots!!!!  Totally turned my WHOLE week around.  I tried to convey that to her and I'm pretty sure she thought I was crazy.  But, dang, I was excited.

Next stop was Target.  And, hellloooo dollar spot!  I'm not allowed to go to that section when I'm with my husband, he pulls me the other way.  So when I'm by myself, well, I just go crazy.  (don't tell him that his plan backfires)  So much wonderful stuff!

 It's all going in my classroom, but mostly for me!  The cupcake-themed items are a running joke in my class.  I started to type the story, but then realized it was one of those had-to-be-there moments and you would not find it interesting.  Moving on.  

The polka dot pad and pencils are, of course, for me to use in my new no-desk spot.  I guess the 100 days bookmarks are for the kids - that's all they get from today's trip!

Speaking of my no-desk spot, I finished cleaning it out today.  I left a note asking for it to be removed tonight.  Hopefully it will be gone tomorrow and I can start organizing my new area!  I'm really glad I decided to get rid of it.  I realized I didn't use the drawers at all.  It was still full of stuff from the teacher that was there before me.

I also cleaned out another closet yesterday.  It's almost completely empty!  I honestly thought I would never see the day.  I'm keeping a running list of all the odd things I find in my room.  I'll share my list when I post pictures.

January Currently

Linking up with Farley for my January Currently!  I look forward to this every month.

Can I just say that when everyone started the year with their OLW, I thought you all just couldn't spell owl.  Whoops!  My apologies!

I have to blame credit Erika over at The Honey Bunch and the Clutter Free Classroom for my latest project.  I started with just cleaning my crazy, overflowing closet.  Now I've moved onto my other two closets and then removing my desk from my classroom (what purpose does it serve the kids anyways?).  With the help of my resource teacher, we are on a roll!  Pictures to follow.

Thank You!!

I owe a huge amount of thank yous to a lot of bloggers.  Here goes:

Thank you to all of these women for the Liebster Award!

Go check out all of their wonderful blogs!  Go here to see who I awarded the Liebster Award to.

Next, thank you to to Erica for the Versatile Blogger Award!  Go here to see who I awarded it to.

Also a huge than you to Erica and Beth Ann for helping me with my blog button that wasn't working! 

 While they were in the process of helping me (I didn't even realize they were being so nice), I ended up getting a whole new blog from Stephabee Graphics.  I love my new design!  And it was 50% off! Score!  I've wanted a really cute one for awhile but didn't want to spend $$ on one until I was sure that I was serious about this whole blogging thing.  I tend to get distracted easily and could've forgotten about the whole thing.  Apparently I am serious!  But thank you ladies for your hard work!

Lastly, I want to thank all the teachers who volunteered to help me with my Flat Stanley project.  Not all of my kids know someone outside of our little town and it will be great for them to get mail from far away.  I'm so grateful!

What a wonderful world the blogging community has created :)

I did it!

I know, I'm breaking the don't-post-more-than-once-a-day-rule.  But I worked so darn hard on my common and proper nouns packet and I just, just wanted to tell you about it.  Click on the picture to check it out in my TpT store.

(I don't know how to make those cute collage things that everyone uses to advertise their TpT products, so all you get is a picture of the cover.)

And, PowerPoint, where have you been all my life?!?

I don't like messes...

Is that a word?  Anyways I am quite the neat freak.  When I tell my friends that my house is messy, they say "oh, that just means you have a few neatly stacked piles on your table."  Aww man, they're right.  

When I moved into my classroom 3 years ago, as a long term sub, it was a MESS.  The teacher that was there before me, was very sick unfortunately.  I never met her, but it seemed that she was a very good teacher.  And, also, somewhat of a hoarder.  There was so much stuff in that classroom.  Okay, I thought, I can handle this.  I like to clean!  WRONG.  My challenge that year was that we didn't have a contract, so we could only get to school 15 minutes before the kids did and had to leave the building 15 minutes after they did.  And we couldn't go into our classrooms on non-school days.  CA-RAZY!  Here are some pictures of my first day three years ago:

Sooo many worksheets.  I almost never use worksheets in my classroom. 

This one is a little blurry, but the kids cubbies were a mess! (Yes, that area is where they were supposed to put their backpacks, lunch boxes, and coats.  Wait, wa-??)

So in the past few years, I've conquered the bookshelves and the cubbies.  I'll post my "after" pictures soon.  But now I just have one more area of attack.  These haven't bothered me quite as much since they are behind closed doors.  But here are my closets:

 Yeah, these doors don't even close all the way.

These next two, I started to conquer but got a little overwhelmed (and ran out of time).  So much valuable space and materials!  Must. Clean. 

My goal was to do them this past summer, but they tiled my classroom and no one could tell me when they were going to be done and when I could get into my room.  Apparently they finished them 2 days before school was supposed to start.  Needless to say, I wasn't able to get in to my room to work on them.

But now, thanks to:

I will now be cleaning my closets!  I've needed some motivation to get it done.  On Monday, I'm starting with the construction paper closet.  I think that will be the quickest one to do and the one that desperately needs it!  Any suggestions on how to organize it?  I was thinking plastic shelves or boxes so that I could get to all of the construction paper easily.

Freebie, Giveaways and a very Flat Stanley

I really wanted to link up with all the New Year's Resolutions linky parties, but I just couldn't come up with a good resolution!  I wanted one that would not only make a difference for me, but one that I would actually be able to keep.  After some thinking, I finally got it!  I want to work on using my time in my classroom more efficiently.  I tend to find myself wandering in circles sometimes, forgetting what I need to get done.  I also get distracted VERY - oo sparkles -easily.  To start off on the right foot, I created a checklist for myself, broken into morning, prep period, and afternoon.  Thought I would share it!  Click on the image to check it out for yourself.

There are so many huge giveaways going on in Blog Land right now!  I chose three to share:

Well, this one I don't really want to share because I really, really want to win!  Congrats to Tammy who is now at 113 followers (she's celebrating 100)!

Doodle Bugs Paper is thanking her followers with a $20 credit to her Doodle Bugs Paper Website!

And, lastly, Holly is doing a different kind of giveaway to celebrate 250 (now 255) followers!

Now I'm looking for a little help.  My students are doing a Flat Stanley project.  We read the story about the little boy who is crushed by his bulletin board.  He is fine, but very flat!  Stanley learns that he can mail himself to different states in an envelope.  My students are going to be creating their own "Flat Stanleys" to mail to people around the country/world to learn lots about geography!  We are hoping that our recipients will send back their Flat Stanley with pictures, souvenirs and information about their part of the world.

Unfortunately, not all my students have someone to send their Flat Stanley to.  I was wondering if anyone would be interested in receiving a Flat Stanley from one of my students?  Email me at Livs14@gmail.com if you think you might want to help out.  My students thank you very much!