Sunday Smorgasbord

How fun! A whole linky dedicated to randomness! 

Sunday Smorgasbord from Fabulous in First

If I had one word to describe this weekend, it's PRODUCTIVITY, baby! Yes! 

Random and productive—here we go! 

All summer, my sister has promised that she'd come to school to help me put up my bulletin board paper. In my classroom, every inch of wall is horrible gray carpeting. The only places that aren't covered with the ugliness are taken up by cabinets and windows. So, there's  A LOT of floor-to-ceiling papering to be done. Insert tall wheely ladder and agile baby sister. I finally got her to school this weekend, and she even agreed to help me change every board, rather than the few that I originally promised. I completely changed my color scheme, and I'm IN LOVE. Lime green, teal and navy blue. They are happy colors. 

The only problem with a new color scheme? Shopping for new borders. Oh, Lakeshore. You get me every time—$30 later, and I'm armed and ready with new matching borders! 

While I was at school before my lovely sister arrived, I was organizing a few different areas of my room. I came across my writing area, and I decided that I wanted to have a variety of papers (colors, sizes, etc.) for my publishing group. During last year, I saved a very, very used paper sorter from our teacher "free table" in our workroom. I just couldn't let it get thrown away. It's been shoved in a cabinet since. But, I had an idea! Using some fun chevron duct tape that I couldn't pass up at Target, I attempted to make the paper sorter cute. The pictures aren't perfect, but hopefully you can see the improvement! I'm ecstatic—it's not perfect, but for where it is in the room, it's so much fun with the bright chevron colors. I love it! 

While I had a productive weekend, yesterday was a sad, sad day. During the school year, I visit the public library weekly to switch out my read to self and read to someone options, as well as books that match our phonics pattern and other learning topics. Every week, it seems like I get 2,347 books from the library. I ripped several reusable shopping totes during these endeavors. I finally stole one of those old lady carts from my grandma. I promise she wasn't using it anymore, and she said I could have it! This cart (while ugly and frumpy) became my best friend during the school year. Yesterday, in the pouring rain and only a few steps from my car, the cart decided to fall apart. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Oh, no. It cracked." Friends, this was more than a crack. All at once, the entire bottom fell out and one side snapped off. Books everywhere. In puddles. In a parking lot. Bad news bears.

So, I'm on a mission to find a new one. When I do, I know it won't be cute. Does anyone have any ideas how I can make my new cart cute? I'm tired of the black and gray look. It doesn't work for me.

This weekend, I also spent time cutting lamination. One of my very favorite things that I laminated is my new mini-posters for spelling patterns! Thanks to the fantastic Whitney from The Crazy Schoolteacher, I finally found a way to display our phonics learning throughout the year. As with many programs, our literacy curriculum outlines a spelling/phonics pattern each week. This past year, I really struggled with an idea to display these bits of learning in a cute, but meaningful and useful, way. So, I'm super excited for these little beauties! First of all, they're CUTE. Second of all, they match my new color scheme (priorities, right?). 

Here's my plan: 

Use the mini-poster to introduce the phonics pattern. Then, throughout the week, we'll come up with words that fit within this pattern, as we normally do. I plan to create some sort of back drop where we can record our words that we think of throughout the week. Then, I'll slap it up on our big literacy bulletin board and refer to it throughout the year. In first grade, I've learned that it's so important for the kids to see the patterns and relationships between these parts of words. So, I'm hoping that by keeping these up all year and adding on, it'll really help with their phonics development. It's also something that they help to create, rather than a pre-made phonics poster. SCORE! 

Two random, quick, non-teacher tidbits: 

Sweet corn! Yay! I finally got around to freezing some of this deliciousness this weekend. My mom and I worked together to freeze three and a half dozen! Woooo, boy. I love having this all-year round! 

I fell in love with these headbands! I bought them from The Little Gypsie, and they are just the cutest! She makes such amazing products, and they are all handmade! I seriously want one for every.single.day. I can't wait to add them to my cute teacher wardrobe! 

Okay, friends…if you made it this far, oh my, you're a trooper! 

Have a wonderful, wonderful week!