Have you missed me?

Wow, it seems like forever since I have written on my blog!! 

Things have been crazy overwhelmingly busy in my world but I am happy to say that I have survived my first crazy week back at school. You see, when schools in BC finally opened up I got to spend three days moving into a new school/classroom and one day with kids and then...I had surgery!! Sooo that ment spending two weeks at home recovering before I was able to return to school and meet my students.

Monday finally arrived and I returned to school!

There's nothing like starting a new school year with an assembly first thing in the am (I didn't even know my students names yet!!), followed by a surprise fire drill in the afternoon. I felt like I was treading water all day, well actually that is how I felt all week.

However, I am very happy to say that I survived the week with a minimal amount of tears (thank goodness they weren't in front of my students) and still had a smile on my face Friday afternoon!!

I am excited about this school year!

I have 20 Grade 2 students and have the help of a wonderful EA.

I am loving my classroom setup this year and I can't wait to share some picture with you in the near future. But for now, here is one sneak peek of my partially set up classroom.

I LOVE the PURPLE!!

 Thank goodness of a long weekend break, as I will be spending most of my day tomorrow sorting through the piles of paper on my desk (from my two weeks away) and also planning for the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned for more classroom pictures and activities from the week.

Lauren

Dear Future Me...

Thank you Crystal at Kreative in Kinder for this great Link up!! I am excited to write a letter to myself for school start up 2015.

This was fun!!

I hope you enjoyed reading my letter, and maybe some of my advice will help you out too!

 

Lauren

Monday Made It...

Hi again!! I'm back from a fantastic two week holiday with my family. We put on the miles this trip, driving down to the very hot Okanagan and then out to the beautiful Vancouver Island and home again.

This is a picture of me exploring the tidal pools at Gabriola Island.

 I felt like a kid again!!

The camper is mostly unpacked and the laundry pile is slowly disappearing so I figured it was a good time to jump back into school planning mode. Being that it is Monday I thought I would Link up and write a Monday Made It!!!

Returning to the classroom after being home with my daughter for a year is like having a fresh start! I have been busy planning, creating and most of all collecting amazing ideas from Teacher Bloggers and Teachers Pay Teachers. I am happy to share some of my finds with you today!

Morning Work has always been a part of my daily routine. Typically I would have my students complete a Calendar Journal as well as another small extra practise activity (sometimes this was LA related and sometimes Math) which I would photocopy for each day and my students would put them into folders. By the end of the year of each week I was tired of photocopying morning work. So imagine my excitement when I came across THIS Rise And Shine Binder. Reagan does a fantastic job of explaining the binder on her blog so I wont go into detail.

These are two of the 21 binders that I have put together.

These are some of the pages I have included for the beginning of the school year.

I am looking forward to seeing how they work for me and my students! 

You can find this binder HERE on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I love organization!! Whether at home or in the classroom, being organized makes life so much simpler. One way that I keep my classroom organized is with...LABELS!! So in preparation for the school year I found these super cute labels to help keep all my student's books organized this year.

Don't get me wrong... I always have labeled them, but they just didn't look as cute as these.

You can find these labels HERE for Free!!

My third Made It Monday item is something that I made previously and dug it out of my poster bin to give it a facelift for the coming school year.

At the beginning of the school year I like to take my students picture with this DIY Frame that I created using a x-large picture mat, ribbon and lettering. (I still need to update the lettering for this school year as I will be teaching second grade). I use these pictures, along with a self portrait of each student, to create a bulletin in the hallway.

I will post more about this bulletin board when school begins and the bulletin board to completed!

Well that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed reading my Made It Monday post. You should hope on over to 4th Grade Frolics to check out other great Made It Monday posts.