Welcome Wednesday & Classroom Tip!

Happy Wednesday and a great big WELCOME to all my newest readers! I hope you all know how much I truly appreciate your finding my little corner of the Internet and following along. I love reading your comments and e-mails and enjoy chatting with many of you over on my Facebook Page. I hope you enjoy what you find here and know that it warms my heart to share with you the ups and downs in our life!

Our mailman came bright and early today and showed up with many packages! Don't you just love days like that??? Each and every package was chock full of books! We ordered some for our Summer Curriculum and others just for fun! What's your favorite thing to get in the mail?

I found this LARGE cork board at an estate sale for a whopping 1.50 on half price day and I couldn't wait to get it home. Behind this space is where our fuse box is located and it's hideous as are all metal doors. I first framed out the box in wood and then put 2 nails into the wood, so that I could suspend this cork board over it and completely cover it up! Now it's easily removed and yet covered nicely. The next step was to make this board somewhat prettier. I didn't want to spend any money on  bulletin board sets at the teacher store, so I only used what I had on hand.

Voila! I love the punch it packs with color! It holds important information that we have going on at the moment, along with our reading chart. Our goal is to read 100 chapter books this Summer!! Hopefully we can do it!

 Now, about that Classroom Tip. Look below the cork board. See that curtain rod? It's a skinny cafe rod (about 2.00, but our house came with 50 or so of them when we bought the place!). I have it held up by 2 cup hooks and now it holds an assortment of flashcards! The cup hooks make it easy to remove when needed and the binder rings on each set of flashcards make them easy to flip through and store. No more torn and bulky boxes.

Enjoy every minute my friends!!

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Classroom Tips

Monday! Wow, I cannot believe how quickly it all just comes to an end. Time to head on with our shortened week. We will be taking Holy Thursday and Good Friday off. I wanted to share some quick tips with you all today.

To save your sanity in the classroom and playroom, change out the dice that come with board games with foam dice!! They are light and quiet and absolutely perfect. The kids like these too, because they feel like they are throwing 'air' Hahahah!!! 

I am also the Mother of 3 wild children that love to throw their dice across the room on their roll! In order to stop this 'delay of game', I popped the foam dice into a mini plastic container. This keeps them contained AND quiet. BONUS!

No matter how organized I am with my magazines, they never seem to get the use that I would like out of them. I put up a small clothesline in our classroom and lo and behold, they are looked at daily! I was planning on putting up a little colorful carpet or something below it but a beanbag chair or even some pillows may work better! 

STOP! Sometimes Mommy and or Teacher needs a little peace & quiet and sometimes it's acceptable to let loose and get wild! I use these 3 magnets in the playroom to symbolize what kind of time it is. I will move the magnet of that time to the center of the board, so that they are aware of how to behave.

Green: GO GO GO! Running, jumping and loud games are okay!
Yellow: Light Chatter is okay, keep the movement to WALKING ONLY .
RED: It's QUIET TIME! Read to yourself, color any kind of quiet activity is acceptable during this time.

Homework Fun!
Do your kids constantly ask how to spell something or what something means? Solve that in no time. I picked up a dictionary from the TARGET dollar spot a few years ago when Autumn entered Kindergarten. (Now I have done the same for the other 2 boys when each started Kindergarten) Whenever they ask what something means or how to spell a word, I refer them to their dictionary.They look for the word and then highlight it once it is found and learned. This way they will have a complete collection of words they know meanings of and spellings when they complete high school. In only 3 years for my oldest, her dictionary is well worn and much loved!

Get creative with your storage on your work tables! I use recyclables and always look at normal household goods outside of the box! Whenever you are about to pitch something, ask yourself if they could be used for something else!

Share any classroom tips you have with a link in the comments please!

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