November Currently

I am linking up with Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for November's currently. I cannot believe it has been over 2 months since I posted on my blog. I remember September and October's Currently posts going by and I kept saying I was going to do a post. Now it is already November...crazy!!

Listening:

I like to start listening to Christmas music right after Halloween. It is some of my most favorite music. I am listening to my "Favorite Christmas" playlist. Some of my favorite songs are:

Wrapped in Red by Kelly Clarkson

Hallelujah Light Has Come by BarlowGirl

Jesus, Savior by Chris August

Jesus is Alive by Josh Wilson

My Only Wish by Jessica Simpson

and many, many more!

Loving:

We have finally gotten some cooler weather in Charleston. This weekend we got a super cold front, like snow in some cities a couple hours north of us! It is supposed to be a little warmer this week. I love being able to wear sweaters, vests, scarves and boots.

These are some fall outfit inspiration photos I like:

Thinking & Wanting:

Back in August when I last posted, I was hoping to be in my new trailer soon. It is now November, and I'm still not in the new trailer, but the trailers are at our school. They are getting plumbing and electricity hooked up. I am thinking I will be in there by the end of this month...hopefully!

I need to take some more recent pictures of them. This was right after they were delivered. They each came in two pieces.

Needing:

I created this blog 2 summers ago, but I didn't really start posting on it until this summer. I really wanted to keep up with posting. I want to try to get back into the swing of blogging and post at least once a week. I also need to take pictures of the crafts we have done so far this year!

Reading:

I have been reading many different links from pinterest about helping children with reading at home. I am having parent teacher conferences over the next few weeks. I want to have good resources to share with them. I am open to suggestions about helping parents find books for their students that are reading on levels A-D. Our students are expected to be reading on level D or higher by the end of kindergarten. Most of my students are not on a level A yet. I know that Scholastic has many great choices, but I don't know where else to refer them to for books on these levels.

Thanks for stopping by to read and catch up. I will be featured on Amanda at Teaching Maddeness' blog for her Budding Bloggers Showcase on November 15th. I'm excited to share about myself and my teaching!

Monday Made It

I am finally ready to share my Monday Made It's from this summer! I'm linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for the final summer weekly link up.

I had this unfinished wooden crate in my room for the last two years. It always ended up on top of the fridge and I never did anything with it. Then this summer I saw people posting pictures of these book crates that they had painted.

This is the book bin. It never ended up holding student's library books, like I intended for it to do.

First, I had to sand the entire box. I used my dad's sander and it was so easy!

My dad ended up having to help me with the painting :). I have actually never spray painted anything.

Here is was after it was finished. I let it dry outside overnight.

I ended up using 1 can of yellow gloss spray paint for this. I also made the bunting flags and taped them to the front. I keep this at the front of my room for books I get from our local library.

My mom brought this magnetic board/easel home from work for me. They were going to throw it away!! I knew it just needed some yellow paint to go perfectly in my classroom.

First, I covered the magnetic center with paper and painter's tape.

I also covered the silver on the back with painter's tape. This is what took the longest. 

This was after one coat of spray paint.

Here it is after 2 coats of spray paint.

Here is was in my classroom, all finished with the paper and painter's tape removed. 

My dad attached a hook to the back so it could hang on my wall. I made the bunting flags and put some magnets on it. I will use this board for notes from parents. I love how it turned out and how bright it is!

My last Monday Made It is a basket I painted. My mom was going to give this to Goodwill and I told her I could spray paint it and use it in my classroom.

I love how bright the green is. This basket was so easy to paint. I let the inside dry for a few hours before I turned it over to paint the outside.

I forgot to get a close picture of it in my room. you can see it at the bottom of my easel cart. It will probably hold books when I get settled in my new room. For now, it holds the monkey stuffed animals I have.

Thanks for stopping by to see my Monday Made Its!

When I Teach

I am linking up with Blog Hoppin' today to share my daily schedule. My schedule has been the same for about 2 years. Our lunch and recess time are scheduled at a time that is late enough for me to complete literacy centers before lunch. I like that the core instruction for our day is finished by lunch time. We are able to focus on writing workshop and our thematic units in the afternoon.

My students complete literacy centers from 10-11:15. I pull my guided reading groups at the same time. My students work with my assistant, complete 2 independent centers, and visit a "play" center each day. We still get to have rest time in our district. After our Winter break, we switch to independent reading time instead of rest time. I also like how we are finished with our academic instruction right before special area. I am able to put out folders and homework notebooks while my students are in special area. When they return from special area, we spend time packing up, eating snack and cleaning up our classroom.

Thanks for stopping by to see my daily schedule!!

Where I Teach

I am linking up with Blog Hoppin' for their Back to School 2014 link party. I have been crazy busy since my last post on August 4th. I found out on Aug 7th that I would be starting my school year in my old trailer from last year. I am supposed to be in this trailer for about two weeks. My new trailer is ready, but it has not been delivered yet. Our school is under construction and our Commons Building should be ready by next week. (Yes, school started on Monday, and no, the cafeteria is not ready yet. We have been eating bag breakfast and lunches in our room and will continue to do this until it is ready!!) 

I had a few days to work in my room before I reported to work last Monday. My mom, dad and brother came and helped me get the trailer ready really quickly. I still have a lot of my stuff in boxes and will not unpack until I am moved into my new trailer. It didn't take us very long to get the room ready, because a lot of my stuff is still in boxes.

We started with our students yesterday and I am happy to say we have survived the first two days and everyone has made it home correctly! Yesterday I went from having 22 students, to 25 and then back down to 23. I had 3 brand new students register yesterday that were added to my class. We have many parents that wait until the first day to register. I also had 2 students that were out of our attendance zone that did not end up staying. The first day is always so hectic, but I have a really sweet group of kids.

This is what my trailer looked like when I first came in. Everything was on the right side of the room!

There were boxes everywhere!! My mom and brother were helping me look in each box and decide which boxes to unpack and which boxes I needed to leave packed. I had 78 boxes, not including the rubbermaid bins.

These pictures are from the "in-between" time when I was going through boxes. I also had to find somewhere to store all of the boxes that needed to stay packed. I have a wall of boxes because I didn't have anywhere else to put them.

This is my assistant taking all the boxes we opened to store in the old cafeteria. I asked her if she thought we could put all the boxes on some craft paper I had and if she thought they could be pulled all at once. She tried it and it actually worked! It only took us this one trip to store the boxes!

Here is a panoramic view of my completed room.

Cubbies and job posters

Housekeeping center

This is the inside of my reading castle. I got the bookshelf from a garage sale at my church this summer.

The front of my room.

I decided to not put my desk at the front of the room this year. I always had to walk around the desk to get to my laptop and wanted the laptop to be at the front of the room by the smart board. I am really liking this so far!

This is the art center. My desk is behind the art shelf that holds our art supplies and daily art boxes and scissor/glue stick caddies.

This will be my leveled library. I did not unpack this yet.

The left side of my room.

The right side of my room.

Thanks so much for stopping by to see where I teach. Keep checking in to see pictures of my new trailer. It should be coming soon and I will do a classroom reveal post as soon as I get it ready!