I Love Back To School Sales!!!

I am so addicted to school supplies!  I love shiny new notebooks and sharpened colored pencils.  I can't get enough folders or glue bottles. 

Thank goodness for Staples and Office Max.  Do you know about their policies for teachers?  Both stores have good sales going this week.  At Staples, with the teacher reward card, teachers can buy more than the limit on sale items and will be credited on their rewards card the difference between regular price and sale price.  So, those penny deals?  You pay 1 cent for the first 2 (or whatever the limit is) and then spend regular price on the rest up to 50 items.  Then they send you your rewards with the difference to spend like a gift card.

At Office Max, teachers can buy double the limit as long as you have their teacher's reward card.  Plus, for every $75 you spend in a quarter, they'll send you $10 to spend like a gift card.  This week, I bought a whole bunch of PURPLE pens for 25 cents/10 pack.  They also had a great deal on AAA batteries, which our house never has enough.  I spent $16.99 on a huge pack and will get $16.98 back in my rewards in a few months.  I love those rewards coupons.  It's awesome to go back in October and grab the things that didn't go on sale in the summer.  New electric pencil sharpener, here I come!!

I don't work for either store.  I don't get any kind of special deal for mentioning them on my blog.  I just wanted to share a couple of great resources for any teachers out there that may not have realized these services were available. 

Look at what I've got!

So, I've got great projects coming soon.  Hopefully this blog will help keep me working on stuff like this so I'm ready in the fall.  It will help keep me accountable if I post here that I'm going to do something.  I'll be much more likely to conquer the procrastination habit if others may come look at my blog to see my progress.  Here are my "before" pictures of several classroom decor projects.  Let's see how long the "after" photos take!



I'm going to turn this into my attendance board!  This is a magnetic and chalkboard covered canvas with printed inspiration on it.  I think it was $14.95 at Meijer and I LOVE it!!  Each of my students will get a magnet with their name on it to place on the board when they come in each day so I can take attendance.  I'm even thinking I'll have little slips of paper to put under the magnet to show whether they are eating hot lunch or cold.  I can't wait to get this up in my classroom!!

So, then I found this ice cube mold in the shape of little stars at Meijer, too.  I'm going to make my own magnets in star shapes using the Plaster of Paris and then paint them to match my black and white and turquoise theme.  I think that I will make little shooting star tails for their lunch choices.  Won't that be stellar???  (sorry -- couldn't resist that pun)





Now for my Party City trip...  I found a vinyl tablecloth to try making sanitize-able cushions for my classroom reading nook.

I found those paper fans to hang over each group with their group number on it.

I also bought some square blue plates.  I've got a few ideas for how I will use those, but I'm going to keep that a secret until I've made some decisions. 


Help keep me accountable this summer.  I don't want to spend my Labor Day weekend freaking out about the first day of school!  :)

Store #1 is open!

I finally put a few things in my Teacher's Pay Teachers store!  Check out the link on the right to see what's up and available.  Know that more will come soon!!! 

I've been "Out of the office..."

I was all excited and ready to post a bunch of stuff on my blog, but then time got away from me.  (Unfortunately, that's a habit I need to work on breaking!)

I spent several wonderful days at a family wedding in Montana.  It was beautiful.  The wedding took place in Red Lodge, which is in the foothills of the Beartooth mountains.  It's right along the highway between Billings, MT and Yellowstone National Park.  The town is full of great resorts and B&Bs.  There are quaint little shops full of the cutest things, lots of restaurants with delicious noms, and scenery that stretches for miles.  Here are a few pictures to tide you over for now.  Tomorrow, expect some great things on this blog! 

Hmmm.... how can I use this in the classroom?  I'm sure there's a way!

Prettier than cardboard

I need to get ready for my new classroom in the fall, but it's not ready yet.  They're still cleaning it and I can't get in to do much.  So I've got a lot of projects I'm working on and a TON of stuff in my basement.  I decided to get some of those cardboard file boxes from my local office supply store.  I had planned to get the cheapest ones possible because they'd be temporary.   But, when I got there, I saw THESE:

DiVOGA File Storage Box


 They were only a little more expensive than the basic cheap ones, so I splurged.  I plan to decorate my classroom in black and white with a splash of blue, so I thought these would be PERFECT!!

I excitedly began to fold the 6 boxes and lids into shape.  Then I looked at my hands.  The black was rubbing off on my fingers!  EWWWW! 

I decided to get creative and cover the lids with contact paper.  Here's my step by step tutorial for you on how to cover a box lid with contact paper smoothly.

1st:  Measure and cut the contact paper a few inches bigger than the box lid (enough that you can cover the sides and roll the excess to the inside of the lid.

2nd: Peel the backing off of MOST but NOT ALL of the contact paper -- you'll need somewhere to hold it where it won't stick to you.

3rd:  Line up the side of the lid with enough excess that you'll be able to roll it over to the interior.

 4th:  Lay the lid flat on the table carefully so that the contact paper has no/few wrinkles.

 

5th:  Peel the remaining backing paper off of the contact paper and press against the side of the lid.

6th:  Cut a slit in the contact paper from the edge of the paper to the edge of the lid.  Do this to all four corners, then fold over the two sides.

7th:  Cut the contact paper where the folded part meets the table. Do this at all 4 corners. (I used binder clips to help hold down the contact paper as needed.)

 8th:  Fold the contact paper over the side.  Then fold in the corners.
9th:  Cut a slit in the contact paper to make a triangle in the corner. Fold down the larger part.  Then fold the triangle part into the corner of the lid.  Repeat on all four sides.

 10th:  Sometimes contact paper does not hold well on certain surfaces.  Black duct tape did the trick here!

Here are the finished boxes:

But wait!!! As long as I have the duct tape out... let's cover those handles so that I don't get black stuff on my hands when I move the boxes.




Well, that's it for now.  Tomorrow's another day!  :)
HQ

Welcome to my new blog!  Please allow me to introduce myself. 

I've been teaching since 1998, in three different states, and in many different capacities.  I have worked in affluent private schools, poverty-stricken urban public schools, and publicly-funded-but-privately-managed charter schools.  I have taught 4th, 5th, and 6th grades, multi-age classrooms (4/5th or 5/6th), K-2 gifted and talented, Kindergarten ESL, and Adult ESL.

This fall, I am scheduled to return to the classroom after a few years of teaching ESL.  I am very excited to be preparing a classroom all over again, but there's a ton of work to be done.  I will be teaching 5th grade again this year.  This blog is going to be my place to share my progress this summer as I set up for this new endeavor.

I look forward to sharing my ideas, projects, and progress with you.  I'd love to connect with others who are preparing for the classroom.

See you tomorrow for my first project posting!
HQ