Before De-Cluttering

  So here are the pictures as promised... I know my classroom needs a lot of work. I wish I could just have a organizer consultant with me at all times. One of my co-workers in first grade has another teacher working with her to reorganize things. And you don't realize how much stuff you have until you either have to unpack it at the beginning of the year, you get frustrated and feel the need to clean up (my feelings right now), or when you are packing it all up at the end of the school year.

  I hate that this is the first glimpse into my classroom you get. I wish I could just take you back to the beginning of the school year before I even had students or had to teach any curriculum.

At the front door of my classroom. I put that desk there so I would have somewhere to put the stuff I get from the mailbox... you see how well that is going. 

This is what you see when you come all the way into my classroom. On top of the shelf holds journals and the basket for turn-in work, plus sharp and not sharp pencils, among other things. 

My math area. Well I know it is the math area even though my kids do not. I had it all set up on that shelf on the right. All the math stations materials and their math books... it doesn't even get used unless I am looking for some bear counters or dice. There is just no time to fit in daily stations and try to fit in calendar. Oh and puzzles are housed in the shelf by the computer. 

Carpet area. This is where I do circle time and calendar here. And that table was supposed to be used for the listening area but you see how that is going. 

Bookcase for my students' station work and station folders. Look how my students keep their folders, think it is a learned behavior? Oh and the rainbow cart was supposed to hold literacy station stuff, but it is currently mostly empty.

The red table in front of my desk that just holds what ever. I do have books in the green tub on the table and extra copies of papers (class sets) in the blue tub. The green baskets off to the left is where my students put their folder each morning. 

My teaching table. This actually looks calm compared to how it was looking. It is supposed to be clear everyday so it is ready for the next group to actually do some learning. 

My teacher's desk (I'm starting here first!)

 

The mess behind a teacher's desk I don't use. Well I use it to store stuff on it and behind it. 

Behind my teaching table

Storage of over the cubbies or even in the cubbies, just clutter, no proper home yet.

 

I thought to add in a picture of my teacher bag already filled with things. The first week of school I toted that bag back and forth with all this stuff in it. After my shoulder continued to hurt I found some stuff to get rid of... but is it being used properly, not really. 

De-Cluttering

I know I haven't made a post in awhile but... I've been trying to de-clutter. This all started one Wednesday when I walked into my room and I needed to find something, some worksheet, something I needed to copy for the day. Well I couldn't find it and I was running out of time before I had to get my kinders. Good thing I was in the room all by myself when I screamed aloud "I can't find anything!" Okay so that was the last straw.

     Previously (like the week before) I had taken pictures of my clutter so I could link up with what others are doing over at Clutter-Free Classroom trying to clean up too. I had searched through the blogs and did not feel like I could really post my "real" pictures because my clutter was BAD. Well, I did find some blogs that were like me which made me want to take pictures of my classroom and post them on my blog (they are to come). But that Wednesday I stayed behind and tried to de-clutter that area where I couldn't find the worksheet in (my desk). I was on a time limit too as the building wasn't going to be open past 7pm. But I was determined to do it because I was so frustrated all day and needed to get something accomplished.

  And all the posts at Clutter-Free Classroom were right... once you start pulling out the clutter you have you will find all kinds of containers and baskets to use that you don't need to go buy anything else. So I currently have a bin filled with baskets I can use with something else. I have even changed my room around. Hopefully I will get a chance to post pictures tomorrow (or later this week...)

The Versatile Award

 I want to thank Louanne from My Kindergarten Kids and Mrs. Greene's Kindergarten Korner for nominating me for The Versatile Award... it is my second to date. I did not know of their blogs but now I do. I so love these blog awards. I am still surprised that anyone notices me. I am so thankful that I do offer enough to keep someone beyond me learning and having fun.:)

Blog Award Rules...

1. Thank the person that nominated you with a link back to them.

2. Tell 7 things about yourself.

3. Pass this award on to 15 newly discovered blogs and let them know that they've received an award!

I got #1 done at the beginning of my post! Here are 7 things about me:

  1. I am originally from Long Beach, California. I especially miss CA now when Virginia has the "mix-it" winter weather. Mix it with a little freezing cold at the beginning of the week, may be some snow flurries at the end of the week...

  2. I love to do the Chicken Dance and the Tooty-Ta songs with my students. That is when you can see me get really silly.

  3. My favorite colors are purple, blue, black and green. My favorite colors reminds me of the colors of a black eye healing. I know a weird analogy sorry.

  4. I want to be more organized... I know it helps my students to be too but just the thought of changing things (or in my case buying things) doesn't make organization sound very fun!!

  5. I love to write... I can often be found stringing rhyming words together and creating a song for my students to sing or writing just to get my thoughts in order.

  6. I love to travel and often go by myself. I love to go to B & B's and to visit wineries. My next destination I hope will be San Antonio, Texas this summer to visit the Riverwalk and Six Flags. I am trying to visit all the Six Flags, I have been to 5 already!

  7. I LOVE TO BLOG HOP! I am so glad that I found blogs this summer because I enjoy it so much. I have even gotten my colleagues in on it and they even get giddy when they find something new to try on a blog they have seen. I love finding new ideas or reading about what other classrooms are doing. It is is like the biggest pen pal service ever but created by teachers!

New Blogs:
 I did not know that there were so MANY kindergarten blogs, so many I haven't even found yet! I can't wait to go search for more. Exciting!

A Place Called Kindergarten

Mrs. Huff's Kinderblog

Literacy and Laughter

Beginning Reading Help

Mrs. Nation's Learning Garden

Kindergarten Lesson Plans 

Kindergarten Rocks (and her teacher website too)

The Resource(ful) Room

A Little Kinder told me so

Queen of the First Grade Jungle

Beg Borrow Steal (I had to check out the blog... fun name and I am glad that I did!)

Miss W Teaches

Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas

Tales of a Teacherista (1st grade blog)

Booky 4 First

 Okay so this list was difficult to compile. There are still many more blogs I haven't found yet... how many blogs do you think my Google Reader will hold before it says "Stop! No more"?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope that this year is great and brings you many wonderful experiences. For those of you going back to school tomorrow, deep breaths and try not to get stressed out thinking about all the stuff you STILL have to teach them before the end of the school year.:)
Enjoy!

Merry Christmas

I hope you have a wonderful holiday. And check out this cute card from Ladybug's Teaching Files. Isn't she wonderful? Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your holiday.

A December Post

I hope everyone is enjoying their winter break. I have been home for a week already and for those who just got out this week... I hope you take some time to just BREATHE. I am enjoying my break. I even thought to myself that this is what I should have been doing all summer instead of thinking about school... NOTHING!!

But I did want to take a minute to give some shout-outs to a blog called Technology rocks... seriously. This blog helped me out tremendously during my last week before break. On Thursday our principal said we needed to use technology all day throughout the day in every subject. Well in our morning lesson for reading is pretty much difficult to do but I did get in a lot of Christmas fun activities to do. So I know sometime during the break you are trying to pack up your winter holiday stuff so just add in this blog of fun Christmas websites to try for next year. But if you just want to check out some other things on her blog it is called Technology Rocks... Seriously. Just this year our whole grade level got Smartboards so I have been trying to use mine, or to figure out how to use it to its full potential. So I love the already made up ideas that I can just plug into my lesson and go from there. I'm not to handy with the notebook software and making my own yet but I will get there.

I also trying to "catch up" on reading the blog posts from Google Reader. I say "catch up" because I don't think I can actually catch up when the ALL ITEMS says 1000+, it is kind of like my email when it gets over 1000 I just don't want to deal with what is beyond it. But as I was trying to catch up I hit the star button on several Christmas/holiday items you can always use for next year.

Christmas
Kelli from Castles and Crayons is doing 12 days of Christmas. Check it out so you can grab the freebies and great ideas for this holiday season. If you like brownies and oreos then this recipe is for you. Click throughout her blog for the rest of the 12 days of Christmas.
Ordinal Number practice from Wise Owl Factory over at Classroom Freebies. And if you haven't checked out Classroom Freebies yet you should. Those who post FREEBIES usually tag their stuff according to grade level. So you can bypass the things you don't want and get to the good stuff.
As much reading and fun Christmas activities we try to get our students involved in, I found a Candy Cane Observation sheet from 2 Teaching Mommies. See we can add science into holiday stuff. And if you like this observation sheet be sure to check out their PUMPKIN unit for the pumpkin observation sheet. It was an easy recording sheet that told me as a teacher whether or not my students understood the concepts of the 5 senses.

Winter/Snowman
If you have a really great winter idea that you always use with your students, submit it to be included in the Winter Packet from Me and My Gang. Submissions are accepted until December 28th and they hope to have the FREE winter packet to us by January. Doesn't that sound awesome? We share our ideas of fun things to do then we get to enjoy everything free!
If you are interested in adding your item to the packet please email your activity and the following information to meanmygang@gmail.com and add Winter Favorite to the subject line.
Please include the following: Your First and Last Name & Your Blog URL.

Each entry will be credited with your name and blog information.  

(This is a great opportunity for ALL you new bloggers to get your name out there:)

We welcome ALL grade levels and ALL subjects.  The packet will be organized into categories once all of the entries have been submitted. 

We will be taking entries until December 28th. 

We hope to have the FREE packet up the first week in January!

For All of your hard work we will also be putting every person's name that submits an activity into a drawing for a $15 Target Gift Card!  

YIPPEE!  After Christmas SHOPPING!

Heather's Heart Save the Snowman and Winter Tally Marks freebies!!

Non-standard measurement ideas from Little Miss Kindergarten

FREEBIES!!
Freebie Friday... I just stumbled upon all the Freebie Friday posts that I have missed from Teaching Blog Addict. WOW! I can't want to go through and stumble upon more stuff.

Beginning and Ending Sounds: My kids really struggle with hearing the ending sounds so I like to practice as much as I can. Especially since the kids are assessed on their phonemic fluency weekly.

Cyber Monday

So I know it might be a while before I get back to my blog today so I wanted to remind you about Cyber Monday. I forgot all about Cyber Monday last year and missed some deals. You can check your favorite stores online to see what their deals are for today. I found Kohl's is having "take an extra 20% off" (which is always fun). And PLUS check out your favorite seller at TPT who might be having a 20% off sale and TPT is having a 10% Cyber Monday sale. So you could get 30% off things in your wishlist. And if your wishlist is like mine you might have tons of activities to by for "later". Well it is later... so check it out!

Thanksgiving and some help needed...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you are enjoying yourself and relaxing... especially enjoying your days off from school. I am trying to do my best to enjoy the Thanksgiving break because my principal tried to get everyone into the CHRISTMAS spirit before we left from break. I can't even think about Christmas right now but I have to if I want my class to win the door decorating contest... which has to be decorated by Thursday of next week. We have so many days left of November where I wanted to plan to "fit in" all the Thanksgiving stuff I didn't get to do, but can't do that if I have to do Christmas projects with my students to get our door ready and competition ready.
So does anyone have any fun Christmas (or other holidays) activities/projects my kinders could do to help decorate our door? Thanks in advance for any ideas.:)
Enjoy your break!

Another Google Reader Find!

So I was in Google Reader... love Google Reader and I saw that Mrs. Cole (Cole's Little Pups) created a new Number Sense Unit for December. It came just in time as this weekend I am trying to create the math lesson plan for the next few weeks on number sense. Check out her NEW UNIT on TPT. And if you want a new blog to check out, see Cole's Little Pups, it is a cute blog. And last time I was there she offered part of her unit, the gingerbread ten frames for FREE. I can't wait to use them with my class.

Another Giveaway!

Deedee over at Mrs. Wills kindergarten is having a giveaway for the Learning Resources Talk Buttons. Go check out her site so you can enter too.:) Giveaway ends Friday November 11th, so hurry so you can have a chance to win too!