Teacher Organizer Laid Out For Ya

One of my most popular items that I've put into my classroom is my teacher organizer.  I got the idea from Pinterest, (obvious, huh?)  It's funny because I actually ended up doing this around 5am in the morning one lazy summer morning!  

So here's my journey...

The person who made their organizer I found got this specific organizer at Garden Ridge.  (There is one you can get at Lowe's/Home Depot as well but it's a bit different.)

 So ta-da!  Here is the shell I started from... The example I found on Pinterest they spray-painted the black part white but I prefer the darker.  To me it helps the drawers pop (on the finished product).

So I made small Microsoft labels of all the items I could think of.  These were the larger drawers.  I glued the labels on scrapbook paper I had left over.  (I am a HUGE scrapbooker!)  I then mod-podged them on the outside cover of each drawer.  I really did complete it quickly.

Then I color-coded the smaller drawers with scrapbook paper and mod-podged them as well to the outside of the drawers.

I just let it dry for half an hour and voila!!  I absolutely love it this year.  It's on my desk and I use it probably every day.

And there's my desk (at the beginning of the year-covered computers).  I wish my desk looked that nice but the organizer helps tremendously!!

Love Me Some Dr. Seuss!

So, I LOVE reading.  Anyone that knows me knows that I know as much as most elementary librarians know about up-to-date children's literature and I'm a complete author stalker (in lite terms, of course)!  So when I decided on my travel theme this year I found lots of ideas for "Oh, the places you'll go!"  So I decided to do a co-theme of Dr. Seuss and Travel.  Indulging in my love of Dr. Seuss has been SO.MUCH.FUN.!  Just saying :)

My ribbon topiary was a lot of fun, and very easy to make.  Just wait until Hobby Lobby ribbon is 50% off and go to town!  I used wine corks to make the dots on the planters pot.  The color of the tool was right on key with my ribbon colors.  I just love it and I'd love to make more of these for the holidays, etc.

If you look closely you can see my ribbon topiary on top of the series section of my classroom library.  You can also see a lot of my Dr. Seuss stuffed animals that I got at Kohls, apart of their Kohls Cares program.

Picking my lunch box each year is a BIG DEAL!  I decided in early August that I really wanted an old-school tin lunch box.  One night I couldn't sleep and searched online for Dr. Seuss tin lunchboxes and found this one at www.lunchboxes.com  I love, love, love it!  And I've gotten a lot of fun compliments on it at school.  

And THEN, while searching for Leopard Converse I found......... DR. SEUSS CONVERSE SHOES!!!!!!  Can you say, "YES!!"  I mean, I was floored.  I couldn't find the perfect ones in women sizes on www.converse.com so I actually ended up googling Cat in the Hat shoes and found these from a company in Canada, www.bagginsshoes.com.  I also have my eyes on the Green Eggs and Ham shoes and The Lorax ones, too!  Christmas presents!!!

If you have any other ideas/resources be sure to comment!  I'd love to hear about them.  My students are really responding positively to my Dr. Seuss addiction. :)  It definitely brings life to the classroom!

Summer Pinterest Fun

This summer I traveled to Ireland, St. Louis (to attend a Whole Brain Teaching conference that I'll explain later) and just relaxed at home spending time with family and friends.  But before I blinked my eyes it was August and I found myself anticipating school starting!  Truth be told I was studying to get into my masters degree program at the University of Texas and doing Pinterest activities was way more fun than studying for the GRE! So here I've got my very useful activities I created using the help of others.

 My first project was this handy teacher/craft organizer. I found it here.  I used the one that was from Garden Ridge and used some scrapbook paper I had and Modge Podge.  The hardest part for me was definitely thinking of just the right labels I wanted.  Lots of other teachers at my school have now adapted it for themselves, too.  It was a hit!

Then I used the idea found here for my objectives wall.  Lots of people use their white board but I treat my white board likes it's gold!  So I decided to put them on the wall in cute (Dollar Store) picture frames.  I put scrapbook paper on them and scrapbook letters for "Writing", "Reading" and "Social Studies" frames.  Later on my friend's mom added bows on the white hooks so that it's a bit cuter.  A week after school started the school secretary made me take them down to put up the fire exit poster (ughhh) but I just took off the "Objectives" sign and re-stuck the hooks up to put the three objectives frames up.  I've gotten a lot of compliments on them.  I really love them!  The dry-erase markers work perfectly and I have been highly motivated to let people know our objectives each day!

I also made my Book Hospital found here with a FREE printable.  This really helps me out because the kids know to put all ripped/torn books here instead of come up to me while in a reading group.  This being my 6th year teaching reading, my books are starting to show signs of old age so it's pretty packed just after 2 weeks of school.  But it's definitely something that takes 2 seconds to print, laminate and stick on a box/container.  I found this one for $1 at the Dollar Store.

And my last Pinterest project before school started were these little cute Quiet Critters.  I got the styrofome sheets and googly eyes at the Dollar Store.  They also had small puff balls for a dollar but I'm glad I got the larger puff balls at Michael's, though they were $5.  My students keep asking me if they can use them, because I have them on my shelf, lol.  But I'm saving them for a more special occasion-benchmarks will be here soon so I may use them during those weeks.

And once I figured out I wanted to have a Dr. Seuss inspired classroom I found this adorable ribbon topiary idea here.  It took me a few nights to make while I just watched tv.  It was super fun, though and SO easy!  I put it on my bookshelf that you can see above.

Yay to Pinterest!  I love the resources on there!