A Work in Progress

I have recently discovered this whole wonderful world out there about teacher blogs.  There are so many amazing posts, classrooms, teachers, and ideas that sometimes it becomes very overwhelming to me.  I always look at these blogs and think, "Oh my, I should be doing more in my classroom."  Then my perspective driven husband chimes in (when I am in full panic mode) and reminds me that it is a work in progress.  So, here is the start of my work in progress (3 years in the making) but by no means my final project.  It is exciting to get and share new ideas for classrooms (thank you blog world and Pinterest)!!!

My first grade teaching partner and I decided on these cute little monsters for our hallway and calendar decorations this year.  I love the little monsters!  My wall says "Wild About Learning" and hers says "It's a Great Day to Learn Something New"

Okay, this is the view of my whole classroom from the doorway.  Only 10 kiddos this year so I have a lot of extra room!!!

Right when you come in my door, this is to the left.  It is kind of busy but all necessary things. 

The little boy and girl are my bathroom passes.  My wonderful mother-in-law painted those for me.  On the back, they say OUT so the kiddos just flip it when they have to go.  

Then the green, yellow, and orange papers are our milk check-in.  The kids move their clothespin to which type of milk they want for snack.

The "We Are Wise" frame will be used for something…. (pending project idea)...

The first bulletin board has our All About Me poster that each kiddo will get to present on throughout the year.  Right next to that is my calendar area.  I use the monster calendar set but also pieces from our Saxon math program.

 Here is a view of my desk area from the door.  The purple rug is where we sit for calendar time, sharing, etc.

 YAY! Go Pokes!!  This is one of my favorite areas of my classroom.  It used to be a bulletin board right next to my desk but this year, I decided to put it on the front of my desk so it is more obvious.  I have to make sure that my kiddos and everyone at school knows I am from Wyoming even though I teach in North Dakota.

This is a new area of my classroom this year that I am really excited about… a writing center!  I have my tablet to model writing for the kiddos and then all kinds of papers for the kiddos to practice their writing!!  

This is a picture of my classroom library.  It is a little hard to see, but all of my books are on the shelves to the right.  I have way too many books to fit though so there are a few bins on the bench and under the word wall.  I added the curtains this Spring and it made the whole classroom feel so comfortable.

Here is my Chicka Chicka Word Wall.  I wrote about it in a previous post.  You can see all of the extra book boxes on the counter.

Here are some math manipulatives under the word wall.  

This table and drawer system is for the Word Work portion of Daily Five.  During the year, I will have different activities in each drawer for the kiddos to work on!

Here is my very boring, start of the year Daily Five board.  As we begin to learn the five parts, we will add more posters to this board.  I love, love Daily Five!!!!  I will have to do another blog post on how I have made it work for my classroom.  

I had the woodshop kids (benefit of K-12 school) build that shelf and the one by my writing center to fit under my board.

This is my reading table for Daily Five.

Here is the wall opposite to the library.  It is a little hectic but a work in progress! =)  I have to store stuff up above the cupboards but despise what it looks like so I repurposed my wedding decorations to try and cover some of it up.  

There is the overall layout of the classroom.  Mind you, this is pre kiddos so it looks much more neat and organized than it will come September…. =)

Spring Layers

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Under a Month

Monday: I wore this khaki, pencil skirt (Target) with a black/tan patterned tank top (Maurices) and a plain black cardigan over top.  I love how dressy this outfit looks but it is still simple!

Tuesday: I wore grey pants with a dark plum t-shirt and floral over thing (no idea what to call that). =)  Note: same shoes from yesterday…they must be new!!!

Wednesday:  I wanted to be comfortable today because it is an early release and teacher's have inservice for the last couple hours of the day.  I wore these coral skinny jeans (JCPenny) with a tan shirt and this great, little jean vest (Target)!  It is still a little chilly so I had to go back to boots.  :(

Thursday: Happy end of the week!  Yay!!  We are calling it jeans day!  Go Falcons!!!

As I am finally getting to posting these pictures, I realize that we have just about a month of school left. Yay!  I absolutely love my class, my school, and my job but there is nothing better than the feeling of summer knocking on your door!!!!

So Many Pics, So Little Time

Oh my goodness!  

What has happened to the time?!?  

I had good intentions of updating my blog last Sunday but life happens, and blogging did not so AGAIN I am doing 2 weeks of outfits/blogging in one post.

Monday:  Here is my outfit all planned out and ready to go for the day.  I am prepared and going to start the week off right!  I have planned black pants (Maurices) with this mint/teal shirt (PickYourPlum), pink, chevron scarf (PickYourPlum), white watch (New York & Co), and pearl bracelets.

HA! 

Joke is on me.  

Spring storms mean no school on Monday.  This great Monday outfit turned into a Tuesday outfit because I never go to wear it because of an awful Spring snow storm that brought about 4 inches of snow.  

The good news was that, I got to see this beautiful sunset a couple of days later!  

Wednesday:  Spring in North Dakota means that you are ready for nicer weather but may have just had a snow day so you have to dress accordingly. I wore this bright Spring outfit but had to include tights because it is a little bit chilly.  Shirt is from my mom's consignment store, skirt unsure where it is from, tights from WalMart, and shoes from Kmart.  Sometimes, you just find a great outfit piece at those stores!

Wednesday night:  Trying to pack for a conference but instead end up organizing my chaotic scarf collection.  I think I might have an obsession….

Anywho, here is the finished product with colored coded rings on a coat rack to organize my scarves.

=)

And it turns out, I did finish my packing which was quite difficult because usually I take multiple outfits per day.  My goal was to take one outfit per day and fit EVERYTHING into one small suitcase.  Here are my outfits for Thursday throughout Sunday.  

Success!

Thursday:  I am leaving right away at the end of the day to drive to the North Dakota Reading Association's Spring conference.  I wanted to be comfortable so I wore these crop, denim-ish pants from Gap with this cute stripped shirt.  I wore this nude colored necklace because I wanted it to have multiple purposes all weekend.

Here are my conference notes.  Great things learned and I cannot wait to get back to start some Writer's Workshops at school.

After the conference, I went way up north (almost to Canada) to attend my partner teacher's mother's funeral.  We got back late on Satruday and had a lazy day on Sunday so I did not update the blog.

Monday:  Week number 2 for this posts starts with brown pants (Maurices), flower tank (mom's consignment store/Target), and a cream cardigan.  I loved how the colors in this outfit matched so perfectly!

Tuesday: On Tuesday, I wore an orange and grey skirt with black shirt and heels.  In the first picture I got photo bombed by my puppy because she LOVES to lick lotion off my legs.  I took a 2nd picture to show just the outfit!  This wonderful skirt is from my sister!

Wednesday:  I worked out Wednesday morning before school and had a heck of a time getting ready so the pictures are not too great.  I had to shower in the coaches' room at school because I live 15 minutes out of town and did not want to drive back and forth after working out.  While blow drying my hair, my blow drying quit so I had to air dry my hair in my classroom (about 7am) and then curl my hair at my desk using my black computer screen as a mirror.  It was a cluster!  

Here is my outfit: black capris (Maurices), grey shirt (PickYourPlum), pink scarf (PickYourPlum), chevron, teal watch (PickYourPlum).

Thursday: Ha! Jean's day because I had a doctor's appointment in the morning and conference in the afternoon.  Skinny jeans with this cute white and purple striped shirt from my dear friend, Rachel.

Friday: Real jean's day!  Our Falcon's softball and baseball teams won last night so I am supporting them today with my skinny jeans (mom's consignment store) and Falcons shirt.  I love the look of skinny jeans with sandals that have a strap on the back.

Saturday:  I just wanted to post my Saturday picture because it is what I am thankful for this week.  I was able to go turkey hunting this morning (top picture) with my husband and our friend Zach.  Although, we did not kill a turkey there were so many wonderful things that happened this morning: called the turkeys and they responded, saw a large group of turkeys, and saw this beautiful sunrise!  This afternoon/evening I was able to sit on my front porch and watch the sunset with my puppy and a glass of wine.  I am so grateful for this life!

Routine

Monday 

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Routine sometimes get mundane and boring but I am a person that thrives off of routines and schedules.  Grateful to have a routine because it means I have a job, a husband (and pup) to come home to, and a place to call home.  Feeling blessed!

Also note that I kind of had a pink/reddish theme going on with my outfits this week until Friday.  I planned 2 outfits already for next week and noticed I have a blue/teal theme going so  far so we will see how that plays out. =)