Five for Friday Linky 10/31

This week I am trying to get back in the blogging groove and link up to Doodle Bugs' Five for Friday Linky.

I'm not going to lie. I am not a big crafty person and when one of the ladies on my hall suggested this picture frame craft from Oriental Trading for the Halloween Party I was not jumping for joy. I also wasn't so thrilled about doing a scrapbook last year, but I have completely changed my mind about all things picture related. This craft officially made it all worth while.

While we were at the pumpkin patch, I took pictures to use in our end of the year scrapbook and this craft.  I don't think much of it and my kids usually don't think twice about it either. If anything, they want to ham it up for the camera. On the way home from our trip, one of my kids asked me why I liked taking so many pictures. I told him I was going to put them in our scrapbook. He didn't know what a scrapbook was so I explained that it had pictures of things we would do this year. Then he said, "So you keep it?" When I explained that I sent it home and it was his to keep, his face lit up. Then, he got this frame and picture to take home today. When He saw it his face lit up once again and he gave me a huge hug. I had to leave the room before I started all out bawling. These little things may not mean much to me, but you never know when a family or even a student will appreciate it. Call me a crafty wanna-be but I am now looking for other crafty stuff I can squeeze in that will be memorable for my kids.

As a new teacher I've been working hard to get enough shelves and storage for books in my classroom.  Since my amazing mother (who happens to be my inspiration for teaching) donated lots of books to my library, I don't have anywhere near enough space in my class. At the moment I have boxes and tubs stacked on boxes and tubs full of books.  Early in the week I made some room on one of my shelves in my house and unpacked some of my small group sets and my seasonal read alouds. About half of the books on the bottom shelf are Christmas books. I think I went a little Scholastic book order crazy my first year when it came to the November and December issues. I thought I didn't have enough Christmas books...problem solved. Haha. 

This week we are getting ready to wrap up our second unit in our new series. My goal is to finish up the third unit focus wall pieces so I can get them ready before I leave for my conference. Super excited about that!

Well Halloween means Halloween parties and we had a hot dog party complete with cupcakes, chips, cookies, and candy. It was super simple, but I didn't have any tongs to take the hotdogs out of the crockpot. My coworkers needed some items for their party to so we went to Wal-Mart. The above picture is what happens when we go shopping together. We spotted the colorful tongs and it was love at first sight. The lady standing about five feet away left the aisle shortly after giving us odd looks and commenting on how super excited we were...we might have been overly happy about the prettiness.  What makes this fabulous is that we all got excited and we all had to have one. Working with ladies who get my quirkiness, share it, and encourage it just makes my week ten times better.

This is completely not teaching related, but I received a new bracelet in the mail. I'm completely in love with it. A little sparkle to add to the end of my week! I hope everyone enjoys their fabulous weekend!

Columbus Day Weekend Sunday Scoop

Today I am linking up with the Teaching Trio's Sunday Scoop!

Here it is ladies and gents! Happy Sunday!

Computer Tags

September has managed to run away with my life.  If I thought August was a whirlwind, September definitely takes the cake on busy.  This month our school has been focusing on deploying laptops and getting the school to a one-to-one position.  My classroom has gone from 10 laptops to 20 laptops.  When my students walked in the next day there was lots of squealing and excitement.

What makes it a little more difficult for me is now I have to keep track of computers and how they are functioning.  With ten laptops it was hard enough when students told me what was going on.  Last year I started out putting a post-it note on a computer that wasn't working, but sometimes I couldn't remember what students told me was wrong or I couldn't remember which computer they told me.

Of course, simple solutions are the best! Number the computers.  Seriously.  How did I not think of that? It took seeing someone's blog where they had tagged their computers or iPads or some other technology.  Sorry, I don't remember who it was or I would give credit.  It was a simple fix for the problem I was having.  Everything is numbered and labeled in my class.  I really didn't think about putting labels with numbers on my computers.  Now students can tell me which number computer is having the issue so if I can't take care of it right away I can write down the number and the problem and look at it later.

Of course, if I'm going to label things it has to be pretty. I practically live in my classroom some days and I don't want to be surrounded by things that irritate me or don't look pleasing.  I'm in love with these frames from the Workaholic NBCT.  They are adorable and I use them for so much right now. Plus they come in lots of color variations. I fit about 12 on a page and my name is above the number.

Starting My Day Right (A Wordless Wednesday Post)

This week I am linking up for Miss DeCarbo's Wordless Wednesday!

To make sure I start my morning smoothly, I've learned my desk and table must be organized before I leave the night before. How do you make sure your mornings start smoothly?

Pesky Computer Cords

I mentioned in an earlier post that our school is currently moving towards one-to-one for students and laptops. This is great for me because it reduces sharing issues and my students can do independent projects with less management.  Plus, if a computer isn't working it doesn't disrupt my class as much.  Before when a computer had an issue it meant more students at a single computers, students moving, arguments over who was doing what, and so much more.  You know how one minor problem can spiral into a bigger issue.

Now I have twenty laptops, but with twenty laptops comes lots of chargers, cords, and having to store those cords.  Laptops on desks means their cords need to be around the desks. That means students have to be able to move around them.  Well this isn't the prettiest solution, but it works.  The cords aren't in the way and my students aren't tripping on them.

Our janitors and maintenance staff had these little thingy-ma-jiggers (yes that's as good as the description is getting).

They have a sticky back so all you have to do is peel off the back and stick it on.  You can also use a screw in the middle and screw it in to give it more stability. Then you use a zip tie and run the cords through.  It is super simple and easy.  It doesn't look gorgeous, but it is done and I don't have issues with it. Woohoo!

Wordless Wednesday: Focus Wall

Two posts in one day! Say what??? For this post I'm linking up to Miss DeCarbo at Sugar and Spice's Wordless Wednesday.

Certain things have to be cute in my classroom. Certain things have to match. I'm pretty sure there is a law.  This week I managed to start on matching sets for my focus wall, because I have been pulling resources from everywhere  this year (yay new series) and nothing matched. So matching focus wall pieces is my new hobby. 

What things in your classroom or life need to be cute or match to make you happy?

Pumpkin Patch Scrapbook Page

One of our field trips is a trip to a local pumpkin patch.  Our kids get to have a ton of fun and they get to bring home a mini pumpkin for Halloween.  I make two scrapbook pages out of the trip.  The first page is our class photo.  Field trips are great opportunities to get class photos because almost all your kids will show up for these.  Haha.  This scrapbook page was super simple.  The background was by Graphics from the Pond (AMAZING clipart) and I found a cute pumpkin font here.  This was the end result except instead of the ugly black box you would obviously put your class picture.

The second page was more personal. The day after we went to the pumpkin patch I had my students write a paragraph about their experience on the field trip. They published this on the computer and I printed it out on cardstock.  One field trip, two scrapbook pages!