Monday Made It :: Pencil Drawers

It's a great Monday for a new Monday Made It!  I had so much fun with this one!  I love any excuse to pull out my Silhouette Cameo and I LOVE adding color to my classroom!

I've been using buckets for my sharp and dull pencils for the past few years.  You know, those adorable buckets you find in the dollar spot at Target?  The kind that I can't stop buying even though I already have more than I know what to do with?  Yes, those. ;)  

I wish I had a picture of what I used before, but I didn't want to drive to my classroom just for that.  My setup was very similar to this from Peace, Love, and Learning.  Even the same signs!

While they were cute, the problem I had with them was that they tipped over ALL. THE. TIME.  There were newly sharpened pencils and also dull, broken pencils on the floor every day.  My students were always good about picking them up, but it was messy and just became less and less practical with every tip of the buckets!  I needed something different for this year.  

I wish I could remember where I got this idea.  I know that I saw it somewhere before, but I can't remember where.  Anyway, I saw a teacher that used small Sterilite drawers for her sharp and dull pencils.  I loved that idea, so I set out looking for a drawer set for myself.

I actually was on the hunt for a 3-drawer set because that was the kind used in the photo I had seen, but the store I was at didn't have any.  They only had 5-drawer sets.  At first I thought that would be too many, but I quickly thought of other things I could use the drawers for to simplify my life at school.  I picked up a small 5-drawer Sterilite just like this one.

I started with this... 

 

...and then I got to work with my Cameo!  I designed and cut the words for each drawer.  I also added a star to each drawer just because they're cute!  I covered two words on the middle drawer because it gives away the name of my school, but you get the idea.

 The other drawers I added are things I have kept behind my desk before, but it will make my life easier for students to have access to them.

  The bright colors and practicality of this classroom addition just make me happy!

 Keeping pencils in these drawers will eliminate clutter and mess, and everything will still be just as easy for the students to access.  Win win.

Thanks to Tara for hosting Monday Made It!  Head on over to add your own item to the linky or to check out what other teachers have been up to!

Must Have Monday Linky Party

The gals at Freebielicious are hosting a week of linky parties, starting with Must Have Monday.  I love checking out posts like these because I think it's so much fun to see what items other teachers love using in their classrooms.  I couldn't help but think of a few of my own Must Haves!  There are certainly things that make my life as a teacher easier or more fun, and I'm going to share some of them today!

SCENTED MARKERS

I love love love Mr. Sketch scented markers.  I use them for everything, all the time in my classroom.  Seriously, just looking at this picture makes me smile!  Aren't they so pretty??!? :)  From anchor charts to classroom posters to marking papers to drawing on my students' hands (yes, I totally do that with these markers....they LOVE it!!), I have scented makers placed in several spots around my classroom.  Obviously they are not a necessity for teaching, but they make me happy.  And they make my students happy.  Win win! 

Then, last year, I discovered these...

Mr. Sketch Skinny Stix! So, so good.  I LOVE these for writing notes or making to-do lists or really ANYTHING that the bigger ones aren't the best for.  HAPPY!  They just make me happy. :)

A GOOD SCISSORS

A good scissors is a must in my classroom.  This is the pair that I love the most.  I NEED a good sharp scissors for cutting laminating.  Drives me crazy if my scissors doesn't work well!     

I keep my scissors far away from glue sticks and Go-gurt tubes.  If you're a primary teacher, I know you understand that! :)

POCKET DICE

Oh goodness, do I love my pocket dice.  They are SO versatile!  I find ways to use them in almost every round of math and literacy stations, which means that they are very rarely being stored away and are almost always in the hands of my students.  

These are the exact cubes that I have.  LOVE THEM.

THESE EXACT STORAGE CONTAINERS

Best ever.  They stack.  They close.  They look clean and organized and awesome.  Durable, sleek, and easy for the kids to open, close, and stack.  Best best best.  Love them so much.

TIME TIMER

I have two of these and use them both every day!  I LOVE this for the BIG visual it provides for my students.  It is so easy and clear for my Kindergarteners to read.  It's fabulous and I recommend it to other teachers often!  It's a bit of an investment for a timer, but it has been well worth every penny to me!  Love this timer!!  

PANDORA RADIO

This is most certainly a must-have for me in my classroom.  I love music -- it makes me happy, energizes me, calms me, centers me -- and I love incorporating it into my classroom for those very reasons.  Sometimes I play music for my students and sometimes I play music for ME.  I use Pandora to play everything from KidzBop to Disney Classics to Jim Brickman.  I absolutely love the energy and JOY that abounds in my classroom as everyone in the room sings along to familiar songs.  And I love the way my heart gets re-focused when I put on an instrumental hymns or worship station. One of the best pieces of teaching advice I've ever received is to play instrumental hymns or worship music in my classroom.  My students don't pick up on the tune, but I know the words and I use the songs to re-center my heart and find those moments of calm and peace, even with a class full of Kindergarteners!  I love to play calm music during our writing block or more upbeat music during snack time or morning work time.  I also love to have music playing when my students enter the room each morning.

I choose to pay for Pandora One so that we don't have to deal with commercials.  Totally worth it, in my opinion!

All this talk about must-haves makes me excited for another school year!  

After I enjoy the last weeks of summer, of course!! :)

48 hours...

48 hours before open house and I decide to repaint my classroom picnic table.  I painted it last-minute last summer to make it fun! (See that brown color??  That's the color it was before.)  The bright color seriously brought this sweet thing back to life!  

BUT...I wasn't smart last summer.  I didn't put anything on it to seal or protect it.  Therefore, it bears scars from matchbox cars, pencil pokes, play food dings, and who knows what else???

 SO...I spent my night painting over those war wounds, and tomorrow I'll seal it. 

Hopefully it will help to protect it this year from my crazy Kindies!!

I just wish I weren't doing this 48 hours before open house.  Oiye.

Books, books, and more books...

Oh. my. word.  I spent yesterday morning and part of today in books up to my eyeballs!  My teacher stash of read-alouds had gotten so unorganized.  Organizing my books was also on my to-do list LAST summer, but I never did it, so it was a MUST before school started this year.  It got so bad that last year I had to get read-alouds from my teaching partner because I know I have this book but I just can't seem to find it anywhere!  Bad.  And, even though I had all of June and July to work on it, OF COURSE I waited until the week before school starts to finally get it done.  BUT....I did it!  Finally!  It's done....well, almost... ;)

This was my mess mid-project yesterday.  Books everywhere!!!

I have this great cabinet that holds all of my read-aloud books.  It closes and the kids know that those books are for my hands only!  I forgot to take a "before" pic, but it was just books....in random places that didn't make any sense or have any order to it at all!  Drove me nuts!

I got these book boxes (actually, they are called magazine files) from Amazon so that I could {finally} know just where to look for the books I needed.  And I got to work.  When I started, I still wasn't exactly sure of the system that I wanted to use, but I figured out that, for me, it makes the most sense to organize them alphabetically by title.  I most often think of a book by it's title, so this way I'll know just where to look for it.  I also sorted some books out by author or main character (Pigeon, Splat the Cat, etc).

And then there are my holiday and seasonal books.  I actually had organized those at one point....maybe last summer???....and they are stored in a nearby closet because there isn't space for them in my book cabinet.  Which leads to the next discussion of how I probably have way more books than I need.  I parted with some during this process, but obviously have a problem parting with any book that I might want to read again at some point.  I have a very hard time giving books away!

(Total sidenote here, but it makes me think of the stash of board books I have in my basement storage area at home because I will need them for my grandchildren one day, and they are just so gosh darn sweet!  My hubby thinks it's crazy, but he's surrendered.  My kids are 6 and 4, people.  They will NOT be having babies anytime soon...and by soon I mean the next 20 years.  Whatever.)

Anyway....holiday and seasonal books.  They are staying put.  No room for them in the inn.

TRIPLE YIKES.  This here is the full photo of the closet.  I won't be getting to that this summer.  Close the door and forget about it!

 By the time I left yesterday, my chaos had turned to this!

 It's organized and pretty!  Stories just waiting to be enjoyed!  AND, I was able to find so many duplicate copies of books that will find a new home in my reading corner.

Okay, okay, so I do have these {few} books that I still have to find homes for.  Some will go to my reading corner, some to my leveled book cart, and some to the donate pile.  But boy do I feel better about my book situation!

This morning, I added labels to the boxes.

 I do have one theme box for farm books because that is the field trip we take each Spring and I wanted them to be handy come May.  The rest are organized alphabetically.

Phew!  It's done!

What big project did you tackle over the summer that will make your life so much easier this school year???

Tour My Classroom Tuesday

I'm joining the fun of Blog Hoppin's Teacher Week again today with a tour of my classroom!

I don't start school for three more weeks, so my classroom is pretty bare bones right now.  I do have a 3-day camp for my Kindies this week, so most of the basics are there, but all of my finishing touches won't be in place until closer to the start of the school year.  My class list is bound to change yet before the year begins, so most things don't have names on them yet.

Even though it's not all finished, I'm happy to show you around and give you a tour of my room!

 We call this our "carpet area".  This is where we do most of our whole-group learning.  The calendar gets set up on the bulletin board in the corner, and this is where my projector and screen are.  

This is my small-group, teacher-directed learning area.  I moved the word wall here last year and have the words on magnets so that kids can remove them from the wall and take them to their seats if they'd like to.  Not sure why I'm missing chairs at this table -- my classroom is missing several chairs right now!  I'd love to get stools for this table eventually.  You can see part of my "reading corner" on the right side of the picture and my teacher desk is to the left.

This hangs right next to my classroom door as a sort of "check in/check out" every day.  For the first part of the year I use first names, then I switch to last names, and then to birthdays.  They set on the table by the door each morning, and my students put them in the chart as they enter the room.  It's a super easy way for me to see who is at school and who isn't.

This is the view from my classroom door toward the front of the room.

And this is the view toward the back of the room.  You can see another table in the corner that I use for small groups.  

Here is my teacher desk area.  I finally cleaned out my filing cabinet and organized the shelves behind my desk last week.  It was long overdue.  I still have a few piles of things needing homes, but it's all SO much neater than it was before!

The view toward the back of the room from the front of the room.

My kitchen area for free choice time.  Always a favorite!

My students are the only ones in the building without lockers in the hall.  I have this coat corner area built into my room.  The door leads right out to the playground.  Sometimes I can't handle the mess in this area, but I really do love the convenience of it.

Thanks so much for visiting!  I'll be posting more pics as I add finishing touches to the room!