Orange You Glad to be in {1st/2nd/3rd/4th/5th/6th} Grade!

I made this banner for my classroom and haven't been able to get a decent photo of it. Trust me, it looks great in person. This is a perfect end-to-summer and back-to-school welcome banner for your new class. As a bonus, it's 20% off (and another 10% off with code: BTS13) today only.

And, a bonus, bonus! I included citrusy nameplates to match!

2013 Back-to-School Sale!

Every time I think about the TpT BTS Sale this August 18 - 19 (for some of you it's already started!) I get a bit giggly. It's hilarious to me to think that we have been back in school for a whole four weeks and many of you teachers have just started or still have some of your sweet vacation left. Regardless, a TpT sale is a big deal! Sunday and Monday you get 20% off my TpT store, and many other stores, plus you get an additional 10% off by using code BTS13.

(Thank you Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah for this gorgeous banner!)

Some bloggers put together this excellent link up to share some wish list items.

I was honestly surprised to see how many people have wish listed some of my items. I'm both flattered an humbled. What wasn't surprising was the top wish listed items, they also happen to be my top sellers. 

My #1 wish listed item is The American Revolution Lapbook/Interactive Notebook. I absolutely love putting together foldables with my students and I started getting into lapbooks a couple of years ago. Last year this was my big project and I hope to put together a few more this year. Perhaps on explorers, the 13 colonies, westward expansion, and maybe even the civil war. 

The second most wish listed item is Calendar Math for Upper Grades. When I moved down to 5th grade last year I left a somewhat departmentalized 6th grade and I hadn't taught math in years. I knew that I wanted some kind of spiral review for my students and I know that calendar math in the lower grades really helps students see patterns in math, so I developed this for my intervention class. My kiddos work on this with one of our intervention aids and she does a fabulous job. 

This product has 4 different sheets of math intended to be two back-to-back worksheets and was intended to be used for the first semester. Because my intervention kiddos needed even more practice with these skills they weren't ready for a new sheet and this took them through the whole year. I do intend on making a second semester though I'd love some feedback and ideas for what to include!

Although I made a set of Common Core posters last year I absolutely fell in love with Jason's Online Classroom's poster set. These include "I can..." statements but the selling point is the example! Wow, what a great thing to include for both students AND teachers! 

What's on your wish list???

Back to School 2013

Wow, I really can't believe that school starts on Monday - the start of my 10th year of teaching! This past week was filled with inducting our new teammates, a couple of short meetings, some good PD on RTI and co-teaching, lot's of prep, and meet-the-teacher night!

I'm kind of proud of this sign I made to hang in my window. The lighting wasn't ideal, but it says: Orange you glad to be in 5th grade!

I made a few changes to my classroom. You'll notice something a bit different about my tables. If you were following me last year I posted about putting contact paper on my tables. The main reason I did this was so that my tables would match; I had a few different styles of tables, and the contact paper gave it a cleaner, more cohesive look. As I was removing the contact paper from last year the custodian came in and said that one of our teachers was switching from tables to desks and could get me MATCHING tables! I was thrilled. I was even more thrilled that none of them were loose and creaky (this drove us mad last year). These tables are also a bit longer and so the kiddos will have a bit more room.

I don't know how I got it in my head that I wanted plants on each table (could I have possibly had an original idea and not something seen on Pinterest?!?!). Don't they look lovely! When they are in our way there is plenty of room on the window sill. Plus, they were cheap! Ikea pots = $.50 each, Ikea placemats = $.99 for 4, and 99 cent store plants = $.99. 

Last year my tables were continents. When I taught 6th grade my tables were the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. I wanted something more creative this year, but inspiration has yet to strike. For now they are just color coded. I love these FREE frames from Ashley Hughes.

I now have more room in the back, although you can't tell in the photo, to meet for Reading/Writing Workshop. You can see my book boxes on the shelf. I wish I had taken a photo because I added numbers from the lovely Ladybug's Teaching Files, and they look great! I used her FREE labels for the boxes and their Reader's Notebooks.

Meet-the-teacher night went great! Most of my new 5th graders stopped by and it was great to meet all of the wonderful families I will be working with this year. It was also great to see some of my class from last year.

I still need to finish scripting out week one, but I'm really excited for Monday!

Don't forget to join in on my Pinterest Top 10 for Next School Year Linky Party! You have until the end of the month to join in!