Monday, July 27, 2015

Monday, July 13, 2015

chair pocket success!


It took me two days but my chair pockets are finished! I am so pleased with how they turned out! I like the hodge podge-ness of them :) What took the longest was cutting the fabric. I was a little concerned with the length - I didn't think to measure how long the backs of the chairs are but all I had to do was fold up those pockets that I felt were a little too long. I ended up buying four different curtains at a local thrift store to make these. I had enough material to make nineteen chair pockets - I wanted a few extra. The total cost was about $30 - which is cheaper than the pillowcase route I was originally going to go. I really think these are going to be a big time saver. No more having to go through table buckets to find your journal (and sometimes knocking the table bucket over) or me having to make sure I move journals to the correct bucket should I switch one kiddo with another :) This is a definite summer project and I'm glad I'm done! One more thing I can check off my list! 

If you didn't see my other post, click here to grab the chair pocket tutorial for yourself. 

post signature

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

chair pocket success…almost


I'm not finished with this project but it's well under way. I'm halfway through and need to get more fabric but I'm super excited with how my chair pockets are turning out! I had posted an easy idea with pillowcases but I then realized how expensive that would be :) So I took a deep breath and decided to sew a set of chair pockets. I was nervous - the tutorials I looked at seemed complicated but I found the above tutorial and thought, with a name like that, I would give it a try. After making one, it really is pretty easy! I can just picture how these will look in my classroom and they're going to be really cute :)


post signature

Monday, July 6, 2015

getting organized


A new school year is like a new year (as in January 1). Just like in January, I find myself making teacher resolutions :) I consider myself a fairly organized person but want to do a better job with keeping paperwork organized. I found these super cute labels for the drawer I just emptied out by putting those supplies in my new teacher toolbox! My drawer organizer is a bit bigger so I have space on either side of my labels but oh goodness, how cute are these?!


post signature

Saturday, July 4, 2015

the next step in guided reading

I'm excited to be participating in a book study of the book, The Next Step in Guided Reading! I'm about to enter my third year of teaching and want to always learn how to be a better educator. It'll be a little while before my I post about my specific chapter but I've heard good things about this book and am excited to learn how to be more successful with guided reading. It amazes me how my kindergarten kiddos can go from knowing a few letters and sounds in August to reading by the time May rolls around. I find it so fascinating how the brain processes all of that! So stay tuned and search for #guidedreadinggals to see what the others in this group have to say about the book!

post signature

Thursday, July 2, 2015

small group space


I've just wrapped up working in my classroom! I've spent a few hours each day this week unpacking and getting everything ready for my next group of kiddos. I was there a full day today but I'm done! Just about :) I have a few things I need to do but they can wait until later. I'm going on a missions trip in two weeks and really wanted to have my room ready so I could come back and enjoy one more week off before school officially starts. It's such a relief to have things done! I'm super excited about my small group space. I was going to make seating - with some inspiration from Pinterest - but instead found exactly what I had been looking for! These stools are technically side tables but they're sturdy and I love the colors! I need to have my table raised just a bit so my kiddos have leg space but oh goodness, I just love it! My other improvement are these adhesive dry erase circles I found on Amazon. They're called wall dots - something that would've been helpful to know as I searched and searched online before I found them :) I like them for two reasons: one is that I won't have to pass out dry erase boards and second is that the dots mark the space for each student. I used duck tape last year, dividing my table into six sections. I'm hoping these dots will last all year :) *fingers crossed*

post signature

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

teacher toolbox


I've wanted to make a teacher toolbox for at least a year. But I could never find the right organizer and other things came up…and it just never happened. Until today. I went to Lowe's yesterday and found an organizer and then found some cute editable labels and I now have my very own teacher toolbox! I'm super excited with how it turned out! And I have two empty drawers - I'm not sure what I'll use them for but I like that I have options :) And I love the different patterns of the labels - there are several other versions available for free on Teachers Pay Teachers but I liked this the best. The font I used is KG Shake It Off. 


post signature