Crazy Day

This was one insane day! Our fire alarm went off during specials along with the announcement that this was NOT a drill. Of course, we were all wondering what was going on but my daughter and I helped the other kids out since ours were across campus. When they started closing the gate we knew something was up. We ended up standing out in the hot Florida sun for about 20 minutes, thank goodness I had taken my water bottle with me when I left. We did manage to move the kids to shade while we waited for the fire dept. Turned out to be a short in the wiring panel in the building with the AC chiller. Then as I was getting to the cafeteria door the alarm went off again. Another 20 minutes waiting in the parking lot while the fire dept arrived and checked it all out. Finally a quick lunch, a little playground and then I was off to a 2 hour training while a sub took over my class. Let me just clarify that it was the whole grade level that went to the training. Luckily, I have done enough routines and procedures that my kids handled it pretty well. Maybe tomorrow will be a little more calm. One can only hope...

Ready or Not Here We Go!

Well, I went back a couple weeks ago and this is the first chance I have had to post about it. I missed out on the last one or two Monday Made Its even though I had been very busy. Last week I was my youngest daughter's 16th birthday but it was also Open House at my school. To make up for it I made her cupcakes, chocolate with peanut butter frosting. Sorry I don't have any pictures, my family couldn't wait to dive in. Needless to say, my daughter wasn't upset with me for having to work at all. In fact the whole family joined me in greeting my new families as well as visiting with my past students and their families.

Thanks to Tara for her Monday Made Its for keeping me on track and getting things done. It certainly helped me get things ready for my room. This week my first Made it is my classroom. When I walked into my classroom a couple weeks ago this is what greeted me. (Well this and the electrician rewiring the light in the ceiling.)

Doesn't look too bad until you look in the closets where I had to shove store everything.

Well there is an upside to all of this, my oldest daughter has been a HUGE help to me. She starts college in a couple weeks as an education major so she might as well get the hang of it besides she has grown up in my classroom so this is nothing new to her.

Finally, almost everything is in place. I made a new alphabet to go with my movie theme. I wish I had made the letters bigger but it will have to do for now. Maybe next year I'll make it bigger.

Guess I'll have to post some close ups later. But before I end this very long post let me just post one of my Monday Made Its that I did take a picture of. I finally got my toolbox labels in my box since it was buried in the closet all summer.

Open House and Finishing Classroom

Well, tonight was Open House. I had 10 out of 18 families show up in addition to even more former students and their families. It's going to be an interesting year. Still hard to see how it will all fit together. The boys seemed to get along very well playing with the Legos together. My room finally started coming together right at the end of the day and right before the parents arrived. My closet on the other hand now needs help since I stuffed a lot of the mess in there for the time being.

These are my book buddy bags hanging on the stand that my wonderful hubby made for me.

My writing center, my hubby built the table years ago so that one side is chalkboard and the other side is dry erase. The table top lifts up and flips over to change.

Calendar and group activity area, my hubby built the chair too.

View from across the room.

I gave a bag to each new student that came for Open House.

Another view, hubby built the listening center table as well.

Arrrgggghhhh

Oh my goodness, I'm soooo exhausted that I started nodding off tonight during youth group at church. Even as I sit here writing this, I'm nodding off so this should be short.
I have so much to do and tomorrow night is Open House. My custodian walked in today and asked if I was done. I seriously thought she was joking since it was very obvious that I was anything but ready. Then she preceded to tell me that I couldn't put things here or there. I basically told her too bad, they were staying where I put them. Tomorrow there are no meetings so I'm planning on cranking up my music and busting it out. I think right now I'm on complete overload. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to finish taking pictures and post them on here. In the meantime, I'm heading to bed for a fresh start tomorrow.

Here we go!

Well, tomorrow I officially go back to work. I've been working on and off in my room for 2 weeks but tomorrow it's official. In one aspect I dread the end of summer but on the other side I look forward to a new group of kids and a much needed paycheck. Today my wonderful hubby and I spent about 4 1/2 hours building a stand for my Book Buddy Bags. For years I have kept them in bins but they were hard to see so I wanted a stand to display them on. My husband was in construction for years before he became a computer tech so he's a VERY handy man to have around. He's always been great about building things for my classroom as long as I draw a picture of what I want. I must say I was thinking really simple but he made it so much better. The book bags get very heavy so I knew I wanted something sturdy that would last. Luckily, we had some purple heart wood in the garage that had been sitting untouched for years. I love exotic woods and this is a very hard iron wood.

This is the base of the stand. Unfortunately it's too big to fit in my suv so hubby will have to bring it to me after he's done at his school tomorrow.

This is the final product. The dowels are just regular pine. I can't wait to finally have all my book bags hanging on it. I will post a pic when I finally get it in my room.