Assemble the Minions!

Oh.my.word! This summer has been completely on a hiatus as i have had to handle various personal family issues... But, as the adage says "the show must go on!" So whether I am prepared for it or not, back-to-school officially starts for me tomorrow{insert gasp here!}.  It was definitely not my intention to go M.I.A this summer but hopefully things will slow down enough for me to give y'all some much-needed attention.  Last we spoke, I was filling you in on the fact that I had been moved from 2nd to 5th grade and that my school had not chosen a theme... Well, the theme has officially been set and it is "around the world in 180 days" but LONG before i received the news I had already begun planning for it (call it teachers intuition) but i changed it a little.  I am a HUGE Despicable Me fan and since I will be teaching 5th this year I couldn't imagine decorating with all those 'around the world kiddies' they sell at the teacher supply stores so i came up with my own sub-theme "Taking around over the world in 180 days" and this is what I have done so far when I went in last week...

Before pictures:

After...

That's it for now. Sorry if the pictures aren't that great... I will take more tomorrow (the Mr. took these) and I can see that he missed a lot so when I go back to work tomorrow I will take more and add the captions underneath each to explain them.

Until then...

Have a great time back-to-school prepping!

I CAN'T believe it! My 1st Year teaching is over and I'm STILL alive!!!

Y'all are not going to believe the year I've had!  I feel like such a bad blogger...but in my defense, I want you to STOP reading right now and take a trip down memory lane to YOUR very first year teaching.  That should explain why I have been MIA this whole year.  Now, back to the business at hand, I promise that I will try to make it up this summer with lots and lots of posts but I can't guarantee anything during the school year because *yikes!* it's going to feel like my second-first year all over again.  You see, I have been notified that this coming school year I will be teaching 5th grade and since I have never ever ever taught 5th grade I am thinking that I am going to be super duper ooper shmooper busy again.  But I will try my very very best to post every now and then so that none of you think that I have been captured by vampires and/or zombies.   If I recall, I left off last summer promising that I would share my finished classroom pics.  Well, drum roll please, here they are... I hope you like them and I look forward to reading all of your comments.  Also, if you like any of my superhero stuff it is still available in my TpT store.  On the last week of school all of the teacher's voted on a couple of themes and there was a tie between Candy Land and Around the World so as soon as I am told which one it will be you can expect lots of classroom decorations on that theme.  I just wanted to give you a heads up so that you can check back for new posts and items in my TpT store.  As Abby would say, I am *12 kinds of excited* to be teaching 5th grade Reading/Language Arts next year and I look forward to all of your advice and ideas about that as well so comment away!  Oh, and for giggles... this was me this year during Mad Scientist week! Ha!

On to the 2012-2013 Superhero Classroom Tour...

Reading and Math Group Rotations

The famous pom-poms and superhero girls

My Math "bulletin board"

Science/Social Studies "bulletin board", cubbies and pennant window decor

Superheroes above my marker board (I did LOADS of coloring last summer!)

"POWER! Words" Word Wall (Superhero Word Wall alphabet is available in my TpT store!)

My one and only filing cabinet, bookshelf and my Superhero behavior clip chart (also available in my TpT store)

My "Hero Code" (WBT class rules)

One of my bulletin boards with student work for the Exemplar Text: The Stories that Julian Tells 

 

 

Superhero Word Wall Labels

Hi Friends!

I've been working like a Wonder Woman in my classroom and at nights clicking away at my keyboard to get my classroom ready.  The kids and their parents are going to be coming in on Friday for "Meet the Teacher" so I promise to take all of the pictures necessary for the big reveal of my classroom on Friday.  In the meantime, I"ll be posting things up as I create them and share them with y'all.  Then, you will be able to see them "in action" on my reveal day.  So, I just added my Superhero Word Wall Labels to TpT so if you're interested you can get your own personal copy for your classroom for $3.50 by clicking POW!  As with all of my other Superhero products, this one matches perfectly with my classroom decor of bright colors and is a perfect addition to all of the other superhero products that are featured in my TpT store.  If you wish to see all of the items for sale then simply click on the frog bunting on the pennant at the top of the page.

P.S. I put my Superhero Word Wall up today but it completely escaped my mind {between all of the setting up, stressing out, meetings, stressing out and new team building activities...did I mention stressing out?! Ha!} to take a picture of the finished product so hopefully tomorrow I will remember to take a picture of my "Power! Words" Superhero Word Wall and I'll add the image to this post...so stay on the lookout!

Happy Setting Up Week/Back-To-School Week (for some of you)!!! :)

Here's a screen shot of one of the pages that is included in the file...

Noise-O-Meter: Superhero Style!

Hi Friends!

Happy Sunday! Today is the last day of the weekend...long gone are those endless summer nights where I could stay up late without having to worry about waking up early or hearing that pestering alarm clock... oh, how I hate thee, alarm clock with your incessant ringing! Ugh! Anywho, I've been working away this weekend still trying to get the last little details of my classroom put together and I made a Noise-O-Meter for my classroom and it turned out so stinkin' cute that I decided to post it at my TpT store so head on over there to snag it for $1.50  I absolutely LOVE how it turned out and I'm sure my Super-Smart Squad is going to get a kick out of it the first week of school when I introduce and model each level.  Below is a sample of the finished product and if you'd like to get your copy you can hop on over to my TpT store by clicking the frog bunting at the top of the page or by clicking It's a bird, it's a plane!

Please disregard the picture of my door in the background... I had nowhere else to hang it.  It will definitely get laminated on Monday though and I plan on using it on my whiteboard with magnetic tape.

Happy Sunday!

First Day Back-To-School Activity

Hi Friends!

So sorry that I have been M.I.A.  I have a really good reason though! I blame it on my classroom. Y'all have no idea how much brain power and muscle power I have had to use this past week to get things together...not to mention how many desks and chairs I have climbed on and off of to make sure that things are perfectly straight and hung correctly on the walls.  Just thinking about it makes me tired all over again...add to that all of the meetings and new teacher orientations I have had to attend.  My brain is definitely fried to extra crispy status today! Anywho, I created this "Interview a Friend" Icebreaker activity to use with my students on the first day of school and thought I would share it with all of you.  You can purchase it for a whopping $1 at my TpT store if you're interested.


I made sure to provide a very detailed and in-depth explanation of how to use this activity AND I made sure to include a Superhero question in there for all of you out there with a Superhero-themed classroom like me.

You need these materials to complete the activity...

"The Cat in the Hat" bag is from Target Dollar Spot... you can use any bag {as long as its not see-through}, the Crayola SuperTips markers are just a suggestion but you can use others if you prefer.  Just remember that you need 2 colors of each!!! I am going to have a class with 24 students so I found that it was much easier to purchase 2 packs of 20 markers versus buying the smaller packs which contain colors like black, brown and gray.

Hope you enjoy this activity! I gotta go finish laminating and cutting things out for my classroom now but I'll be back soon with my big classroom reveal.

Superhero Sighting

Hi Friends!

Hope you are having a fabulous week so far.  Its getting down to the wire for me and I've been working like a Wonder Woman here at my Superhero Headquarters trying to get everything ready for the new school year.  Since I am a first year teacher, I officially start on August 8th for some trainings and to begin setting up my room.  So, make sure you stay tuned by becoming a follower, if you aren't one already, so that you can stay up-to-date with the breaking news bulletins! Ha! I just finished putting together this bad boy and wanted to let y'all know that it is already in my TpT store for $1.50 if you are interested in snagging one up.  It matches perfectly with the "Hero Up!" Behavior Clip Chart and everything else that I have been featuring as freebies on my blog to go with my Superhero Theme and Bright Colors color scheme.

Here is a picture of what the finished product will look like:  Click on The Daily Planet to purchase or you can click on the frog pennant at the top of the page to hop on over to my TpT store.

 Note: I printed my set out BEFORE I changed out the camera...so the camera image that is on the one at my store is different, but for the sake of not wasting A TON of ink I settled for leaving mine as is.  The one on TpT is cuter though because the camera matches all the colors of my classroom! :( Oh well, one man's folly is another man's luck... so I hope you like it!

Monday Made It meets Harry Potter

Hi Friends!

Happy Monday!!! Can y'all believe how quickly time is flying... I feel like I just graduated and now I'm running around like a chicken without a head (true story!) because "by the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes!" Back-to-School is literally just around the corner! So, I'm on hyper-speed as I scramble to get everything in order for my favorite part of the school year... decorating the classroom! I can't wait to get in there and get started, until then I am living vicariously through all of you lucky ladies who have already crossed the school threshold.  In the meantime, here is  a simple, yet oober cute and chic, Monday Made It! For all of you Harry Potter fans out there... I hope you enjoy my little project as much as I do!

Making Memories History: The idea, as is explained in the post where I first saw the image {pictured below} of the jar, is that each week you're supposed to sit together, as a class, and decide what activity was most important and memorable for that week.  Then, whatever the activity was (albeit a field trip, new skill/concept that was exciting and interesting, something new they learned or discovered, etc.) you jot it down on a paper, fold it and stick it into the jar.  Then, at the end of the school year {the last week} you can read a couple each day and remember the "good times".  I plan on using different colored paper to also help to trigger memories in addition to drawing a small freehand picture to go with our writing.  For example, if what they want to remember for the week of March 17th is the crazy Leprechaun that came to visit our classroom then I would write it down on green paper and draw a small picture or add a St. Patty's Day sticker. 

So, here is my take and background story for this projects existence... I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Harry Potter and whenever I can concoct some type of project to include in my classroom that holds true to the whimsy and magical world that is Hogwarts I dive in full throttle! Anywho, I've been racking my brain trying to re-create this little gem because I wanted it to look different (so I'm not Pete the copy Cat) and every time I glanced at this picture {above}, in my "Projects to Make Over the Summer for the Classroom" board on Pinterest, for some odd reason I always kept getting images of Dumbledore and the pensieve in my head.  So, I did what any teacher would do... I sat in front of my computer and made it happen! Here is what I came up with:

My Version

I don't know if any of you out there are fans of Nonni's Biscotti but I am a *HUGE* biscotti lover and had this jar lying around so I decided to use it, but you can use any plastic jar that you have handy.

Original Version

I couldn't trace the original creator of this fabulous idea on Pinterest so if you see this and know who it is then please leave a comment so that I can give credit where credit is due!

For those of you who are new to my blog and are wondering why I made it this way... I can explain! My school is doing a "Superhero" theme this year hence the SUPER pensieve and the background polka-dots are my classroom color scheme plus the pensieve holds liquid in it hence the "bubbles" Ha! I hope that some of you can find a use for this in your classrooms.  Enjoy!

Click Professor Dumbledore Rocks! to snag! Ha! :)

Happy Pinning!