A non kids post - my classroom!

Pinterest is a teacher's best friend. Pinterest + 5 months of maternity leave = one cute classroom! I found a teacher blog that sold decor. One of the "sets" had this color scheme and I went with it! I didn't buy the set because half the fun is in the making!

The class rules sign is from a blog that was a free printable. I painted a cheap frame I had at home. I love those tiny little blue frames (that I painted). They are from Michael's dollar bins and I got them on clearance! I googled "Dr. Seuss quote images" and found these cute quotes and just put them in a word document to size them. 

Another printable...I loved these because they were in my color palette!

A close up of the fancy frames. 

This idea was stolen from my friend Julie. I plan to have the kids write tweets once a week (or more often) about something they enjoyed from the week. If they write about math, I will come up with cute different hashtags for each week (#ilovenumbers or #icandolongdivision)

These curtains were bought for $2 at a garage sale this summer and I added some rick rack. They cover up the mess that is 25 backpacks. The copy boxes on top hold copies for each subject. 

My reading corner. The kids love the crates with cushions!  The green and yellow calendar math components totally bum me out...

This was the first thing I made for my classroom! I started this color scheme by going and buying a ton of coordinating scrap paper. Love these letters. 

More Seuss. 

This looks a little messy, but anyway...book bins with labels. 

I got this idea from a professional development book I read this summer. I pick a new book each week to read. It's then "blessed" and sure to be picked up and read by many a kid. 

Homemade name tags and table numbers. My cricut earned a gold star for working so hard this summer! 

Cans with scrapbook paper for pencils, erasers, pencil shavings, etc. 

My desk

This letter border is actually scrapbook paper. I used 3 inch strips, so each piece could be cut in 4 pieces,  so it made 4 feet of border!

Another cute printable in my colors! Yay!

Birthday pencils. 

Cute letter labels for my books. Thanks cricut. 

For meet the teacher night. 

And last but not least: the hall bulletin board. This was my idea. I didn't see it on pinterest or anything! I made a little template in Word with a blank profile picture face and added the students names. On the second day of school I had them write in a status update about what they are excited about for 5th grade. 

Ryan and Mommy

Five Months Old!

Ryan was 5 months old yesterday! This past month has been a little rocky. We started out with going to reunion at Camp Farwesta in Stewartsville.  Ryan, Dan and I slept at my mom's house and Courtney stayed with my mom in the cabin. We spent all day at camp, letting Ryan nap and play in the cabin. He went swimming each day and was over all a pretty good baby (except that he was a bit fussier because of the heat - over 100 each day!).  When we got home, we started Ryan in his crib in his own room! Dan and I noticed a big change in his sleep this month. He sort of stopped sleeping all through the night. He was waking up a lot and sometimes staying awake instead of just taking the pacifier and going back to sleep. We started sleep training and that has really helped! We were still swaddling Ryan but he was constantly getting out of it and waking up, so we transitioned him out of that and now he is just in a sleep sack. So, we feel like we are back on the right track with sleep and we will probably never remember how stressed it made us for a few weeks. Thank goodness I am writing this so I can remember :) Right now, he goes to bed at 6:30 and is after eating is usually asleep by 7:00. We may have to give him his "giggy" one time a night. He wakes up around 6ish, but will go back to sleep until about 7:30ish. He takes a nap at 9 and 1, for an hour to an hour and a half. I'm hoping he can lengthen these out! He takes a little catnap around 4:30 or 5:00 to make it to bedtime.

Other things that Ryan started doing this month were playing in his exersaucer and moved to 4 hour feedings. He had 2 trial days at the babysitter and started going full time this week! He is doing great there and we get good reports every day! I think he will love Tina just as much as Courtney does!

Book Projects with Courtney

Dan has gone back to school, so I wanted something special to do with Courtney each day so she didn't  feel like a third wheel to me and the baby. While he napped in the morning, we had a book that we read each day and then did a project. I saw this idea on pinterest, but didn't have the books, so I chose my own books and projects! 

If You Give a Pig a Pancake and making pancakes!

We used a clean ketchup bottle to squirt the batter on. We were able to make letters and shapes. Courtney thought that was pretty cool! 

Bartholomew and the Ooblek and making ooblek (warning: this book is sssuupppeerr long). 

Draw Me a Star and painting in Eric Carle style and practicing drawing stars. 

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and acting out the books with foam letters. 

Courtney put all the letters up "the coconut tree" in alphabetical order, then we shook the tree so they all fell out! She wanted to do this over and over!