Cricut

My cricut paper cutter is my favorite decorating tool. Unfortunately they aren't cheap. But they are a great investment. 

If you can't afford one then find a friend who has one! 

It is a must. 

I have the small one, but a I have friends with larger ones. They are nice and let me borrow it when I need to cut out something larger. 

Even with my smaller cricut I'm able to cut out 5 inch letters for my bulletin boards. 

The letters and airplane are done with a cricut. 

I laminated the letters so that I can use them again next year. 

I'm told that they best time to get them is on Black Friday. 

I'm hoping to get a bigger one then. 

Local Geography

Our local water agency was passing out this poster of our local river. I love that it is a cartoon representation of the Russian River. And it helps my students know more about their local geography. 

Who knows maybe your water agency would have something like this too. Couldn't hurt to check!

Class Library

Using your space to the best you can is a huge asset. Over the summer while I was thinking about the layout of my classroom I realized that I wasn't going to need all of the cubby space for my students. What a perfect place to put our class library! The cubbies even made extra storage space for books and the gagillion (not sure how to spell that) dictionaries in my classroom. I'm also able to store any pillows or cushions I have for when my students are reading around the room. 

Wall Stickers

I was so excited when I found these at Michael's Craft Store. And I'm pretty sure they are reusable! Awesome!

Airplane Theme

I love the idea of having a theme in my classroom. So glad I am teaching 3rd grade this year. They aren't too old for a theme. Yes!
In my last post I talked about how I love having a travel theme. I figure I can have a rotation of travel themes for several years. Airplanes, trains, road trip, and cruises. Last year my co-teacher and I did the road trip theme. This year I'm going to use airplanes.
For the beginning of the year I'm going to send a Back 2 School letter home to my students and parents welcoming them to my class. Along with the letter I'll send a boarding pass for 3rd grade which they can bring the first day or week of school. I found this template made by Aylee. I love it! I'll post a picture of how it turned out later. I can't wait to personalize it to my class.

Easy/Practically Free Bulletin Board

Last year my co-teacher and I had a Road Trip theme. I love having a travel theme. My favorite part of a travel theme is collecting post cards. My 3rd grade students jumped at the challenge last year. We had so many post cards, over 100. Our largest bulletin board was dedicated to the postcards we collected. In the center I had a map of the United States and I cut out "Road Trip USA" using my cricut paper cutter.
Students asked friends and family to send postcards. A few of my students had grandparents who were retired and did a lot of traveling. We got some great postcards. As we got postcards the students stuck a straight pin in the state where the postcard came from. We made a few goals throughout the year as we gathered postcards. Our last goal was to get at least 1 postcard from each state. We didn't quite get there, but we had fun trying. At the end of the year we counted how many postcards we had from each state.

Let the count down begin

It is crazy to think that July is over half way through. 

School is starting in less than a month! 

Ahh! 

Don't panic! 

You can do this!

Take a deep breath. 

Ok, now let's think about this. What do you need to do to be prepared for the school year?

I don't know about you, but I am totally a list person. I love lists! The joy I get when I can cross something off my list is huge!
So today, as I'm feeling overwhelmed and don't know where to start in my classroom, I am going to make a list of things to accomplish. The list has to be realistic.

25 days till school starts list:

• Year at a glance - 75% complete
• put away stack of papers
• "Skeleton" Back 2 School Packet

Part of being realistic in your lists before school starts is knowing that you won't necessarily be able to finish a task in one day.  For instance, yesterday I was working on the daily schedule for my classroom. I still don't know the exact times on my pull-outs so I was able to get about 75% of it finished. For now that is awesome! Today I most likely won't finish my year at a glance, but 75% of it is a great start. And when I go to finish it later it won't take me too long.
So, my words of wisdom for today are don't stress out. Take it one step at a time. You can't eat an elephant all in one bite (hopefully you won't eat an elephant at all). You have to eat it one bite at a time.

{Now it is time for me to take my own advice.}