Friday 14 August 2015

Five for Friday - August 14th

It has been so long since I linked up with Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching for her weekly Five for Friday linky party! I had a bunch of random stuff to share with you today, so I thought this would be the perfect way to do it. I will be back this week for some more of my Daily Schedule posts--Guided Reading and Guided Math. What are the other students doing while I am with my small group? Check back for those posts!




I'm going to start with the most exciting news. Our house finally moved onto our property!! We are building a new house. Our builder built the house on his site and then once the basement was ready, it could move onto. We've been waiting for the house to come for three weeks now and it finally arrived on Wednesday! They still have to build the double attached garage, the entry way, and finish the inside (it's just drywalled right now), but it's so exciting to finally have it on site! :) If you have never watched a 1400 sq. ft. house being moved, it is pretty incredible!




My second set of news was not as fun. My principal called me this week to tell me that my room and the K room across the hall would be under construction starting September. This could last two months or it could last the whole year. The only spot available for me to move into is the Science Lab. I will have two weeks to move everything from old class into the Science Lab and get it all organized and set up. Luckily I have some amazing coworkers volunteer to help  already, so I'm sure it will all get done!

It just means that all my hard work planning out my organization and classroom layout is going out the window! I have never even stepped foot in the Science Lab, so I have no idea what the room looks like! The Science Lab is down the 6-8 wing, so I hope I don't lose any firsties in the hallway with all the big kids! lol. At least when my old room is done it will have nice new floors, a new ceiling, and hopefully new bookshelves!


Next up are my new crate seats! I only have one crate now--the rest are at my mom's. I don't have anywhere to store them right now. My awesome daddy cut out the boards for me. He's so great. I put some foam on top and stapled my awesome chevron fabric on top. I used regular milk crates because they are a lot sturdier than the ones you buy at Staples. Not sure what I will store inside--maybe extra tissue boxes?


Here are all six of the fabrics together. I love how they turned out. They match my pillows! I think I will use these as seats at my guided reading table. Or in my library. I guess it depends on how my new room will be set up.



Here are a few other things that I created for myself. First I have been putting together different pages to put in my day planner. I made these parent communication trackers. The first one is a goal I set for myself--it's a positive communication chart. My goal is to make at least three positive phone calls and and send home at least three positive notes home each month. I will keep track of which student's I called/wrote about and the positive thing they did. I will try to get around to all of my students at least a few times throughout the school year. The second page is just a communication log to document any other communication between myself and parents. You can download these pages {here}.


I also created a small back to school gift for my new students. I found these Scentos smelly bubbles at Dollarama for 4 for $1.25. I printed out some cute labels onto 1-1/2" round labels (Avery 8293) and stuck them on some coloured cardstock that I punched out using my fancy scalloped circle punch. Then I just tied the note onto the bubbles and curled the ribbon. Easy, cheap, and cute! You can download the stickers {here} or you can download larger tags {here} to print out on cardstock.




And lastly here are a couple things from other TpT sellers that I made. You might have seen these on Instagram. First up is my Back to School Flipbook. This is from Learning in Wonderland. She has such cute stuff! The template for this flipbook is totally editable so you can change the wording and add your own pictures. I put a section all about me, our class schedule, communication information, our rules and procedures, and our curriculum for the year. On the back is all the contact info for myself and the school. Love how they turned out and how easy they are to put together. Photocopy onto colourful paper, fold, and staple at the top. No cutting required!


Next up is this Classroom Songs booklet from Miss Kindergarten. There are songs for classroom management, calendar, learning songs, and attention getters. I printed each section onto different coloured cardstock. I love how it turned out!


That's it for now! Going to go spend some time with the family now on this beautiful evening. We will probably go sit in our empty, half-finished new house for awhile. lol. Have a great weekend!

7 comments:

  1. I love the communication log pages... such a simple way to document contact with parents!

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  2. Wow, I've never seen a house built with that method! Is that common where you live? Love the communication forms!

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    1. Yeah, there's a quite a few companies in our area that do RTMs (Ready to Move houses). Some of them build a bunch of houses on their sites and sell them as they are, while others make them custom for the customers (like ours did). Our builder usually builds houses and ships them all over, but because we live 15 minutes away from him they can do some of the work right on site! :)

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  3. Congratulations on your new house! So glad I found your blog. Thank you for the communication forms.

    Kelly
    Thirsty Firsties

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  4. So glad I found your blog! Loved your crate seats and back to school gifts! Thanks for sharing the communication page too. :)

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  5. Congrats on the new house! That is so exciting! I just pinned your parent communication forms to my BTS board. Thanks for a great freebie.
    Katie
    Mrs. Byrd's Learning Tree

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  6. Congrats on the new house!!! We are in the process of selling/ buying and are set to close Oct 1st (fingers crossed all goes as planned!). There's nothing like doing all the insanity of a new home around the same time as back to school- and now you need to move rooms! :( :( :( Just remember- good things come to those who wait! Best wishes to you!

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