Welcome to My Space

When I first decided I wanted to be a teacher, I had all of these visions of having the cutest room with a decked out desk and everything being in its place.

Reality Check

Being in a toddler class, the whole room is "their space". There aren't formal desks or a teacher desk but, I love it. Thankfully, the director of my center understands the importance of some 'teacher space' and had shelves and built in areas installed in each room. I'd like to share with you what I have done with mine. 

I have two filing cabinets that I now use for storage since I am no longer a file folder user-I upgraded to binders! I store extra supplies in here, my substitutes 'survival pack' student folders, extra file folders in case of emergencies and of course, snacks! 

On top of these cabinets, I have my students art center-again, the whole room is the toddlers play space. Even though most of this area is "mine", the art center made the most sense here as there are many art supplies we use that I can't just leave out without direct supervision such as scissors, glitter, small parts, etc. 

The children have direct access to their markers, crayons, chalk, and paper. Paint and the items in the purple drawers are "teacher jobs". In the purple drawers, I store everytime from pipe cleaners to brown bags to fabric scraps to googley eyes. 

Moving up to the second shelf, I have attached wore baskets to hold our items for the week. I preset and precut everything for a smoother time during our art centers. I also usually plan 3 weeks in advance meaning that all of my crafts and books are picked out, pre cut and pre set for 3 weeks. I also keep our lunch supplies, my lesson plan binders, and all of my post its, pens, hot glue guns, staplers, scissors, etc on this shelf in organized and labeled drawers. 

Finally, on the third shelf, I keep my bag, a jacket and a spare change of clothes, playdoh supplies and random art suppose such as foam stickers, shaving cream, and rainy day activity supplies. 

Although my room is not traditional, I love it and I love that my class loves it! 

What does YOUR space look like?? 

Sarah 

My First SLANT BOX Review!

Oh my goodness! I am so so so excited to finally be sharing my first SLANT box experience. When mustering up the motivation to start blogging again, I came across the #SLANTbox. Naturally, I keep clicking and clicking and reading more posts and reviews until I was practically obsessed. If you haven't heard of SLANTbox, click here. Jameson, the SLANTbox originator, is a rockstar! She takes the time out of her personal life to come up with awesome themes and match over 200 teachers with two partners. Each teacher sends to one person and receives from another, how cool?! 

In August, I was paired up with Angela Gatt from Fun in Fourth to send to. Angela lives in Canada. She is so incredibly sweet and I had an awesome time getting to know her and pick out items that I hope she will love. 

I was matched up with Kristy Fasano from Librarian Life to receive from. Kristy lives in New York. Although we didn't speak much, the gifts I received were pretty spot on to my personality. 

Super cute NY--> FL 

Birthday/Hello Note

All my awesome items! Including:

Blueberry preserves (yum!)

purple glitter pencils

purple stamp pad

lots and lots of stickers

jeweled nail file

heart and star cut-outs

washi tape

a gorgeous purple and turquoise necklace

several keepsake boxes

a compact mirror

letter stamps

Thanks Kristy! 

I can not wait for September's match ups! 

Read All About It!

I am not sure why, but bulletin boards are probably some of my favorite things! I love to find neat quotes for them, fun borders, and the perfect background paper to tie it all together. In my classroom, I have four. 

 

This first board is a mandatory school information and "teacher board". On here, I have a list of all the allergies in the center, our monthly menu, class roster, and proper table washing procedures. I also hang notes that I get from staff members and families, our current class picture, and "Praises for Young Children."

This next board hangs right above the changing table. I have our daily schedule, proper diapering procedures and our daily/weekly cleaning list. 

This is the Parent Board. I hang our monthly calendar, daily schedule, weekly lesson plan, and my "Why I Teach" note here. I encourage parents to bring in interesting articles, questions, etc. to hang here as well. 

And last but not least, our classroom board. I change this board monthly based on the themes. For July, our theme's were Fourth of July, Pets, Jungle Life, Reptiles, and Dinosaurs. I typically make my board correspond with the theme that I have the most decorations for and this month it happened to be the jungle! "Monkey See, Monkey Do. We Love to Learn, How 'Bout You!"

How do you decorate your bulletin boards?

-Sarah

First Day Jitters

"First Day of School! First Day of School! First Day of School!" This is what runs through my head on the morning of the first official day back. For some, it's excitement and happiness. For others it's dread and moaning which makes me question why they're in this profession. And for a few it's nerves. 

Being that I am a preschool teacher, our center is open year around and only closed on major and bank holidays. However, our summer numbers are pretty low so the classes typically combine, many teachers take various days and weeks for vacations and the students are not where they would be when we are at full enrollment. Although the toddlers are kept on the "toddler side", our summers are much more laid back than our curriculum August- May. 

Come August 18, everything changes around here and goes back to "normal". With this change causes a lot of confusion and transitioning from class to class. Some of the children are not phased at all but others recact as if their world has been turned upside down...and that is okay because it is my job to help them get acclimated. 

I am a very particular person and I like everything in my room to be perfect for that first day. I start preparing all of my bulletin boards, student forms, cubbies, diapers baskets, etc. Well in advance. I like my classroom to feel like a home away from home for these children. I hang pictures of them at their levels, plaster the walls in their art work, have their names written in several places and just try to make them feel like they have a place here.

The first day at a new school, in a new classroom, with a new routine can be scary to some children but teachers aren't classified as superheroes for no reason, right? 

What do you do to make your students feel comfortable in your classroom? 

-Sarah 

Back to School!

Hi fellow bloggers! I am excited to show you my Back to School forms! 

I have been diligently working on these to get them perfect and I am finally happy with them! 

 This flip book is the first item in my "Welcome" folder to the parents of the children in my class. I found this gem in Lindsey's TPT store after browsing google and Pinterest for HOURS and coming up with nothing. As usual, Lindsey's products are thoughtfully designed and are editable meaning they work with any grade/age! I tailored it to my needs then used astrobright paper to print it on. (I did capitalize the S in Supplies after taking this picture!)

I then included a biography page detailing where I am from and my schooling.  

My director found this darling poem through a series of pins and I added it to cute paper. 

A copy of our daily schedule, of course! 

And finally, another darling poem encouraging parents to read to their children. 

What do you put in your back to school packets?

-Sarah

Toddler Sensory Bottles

Children (and adults) learn best when their senses are engaged. Sensory play helps the development of cognitive, social, language, physical, and creative skills.

Cognitively, sensory play encourages children to problem solve. If you give a child a sealed bottle of oil and plain water, they will shake it over and over but see that it will never mix. However, if you hand them a sealed bottle of red water, oil, and blue water, they will see that the liquid turns purple. 

Socially, sensory play lets the children be fully in control of their actions. In my classroom, we have a large water/sand table. I usually have 2-3 children at that center at a time. While they are of course learning and playing I will ask them questions about the material or liquid in the table and they usually talk amongst themselves about it as well. 

Physically, sensory play is usually combined with the development of fine motor skills. Sometimes, the sensory tables will be filled with items or liquid that the children can measure, pour, scoop, or roll (play doh) 

Creatively, sensory play provides an open opportunity for the process to be more important than the product. 

Each day I make sure to include at least two sensory activity times on our lesson plan. We usually play in the water/sand table in the mornings and then cook, play with sensory bottles, play with playdoh or cloud dough, etc. In the afternoon. 

Below are some of the sensory bottles that I have made for my classroom. Each of these were made from the small nesquick chocolate milk bottles that were thoughly washed, filled, and then sealed shut with hot glue and super glue. I have had one or two break after being slammed on the floor (toddlers, what can you do? Haha) so make sure that you do not use anything inside that could porentionally poison or hurt a child. 

LEFT: confetti/paper scraps, beans, and glitter RIGHT: "I Spy" bottle

LEFT: colored rotini noddles, glitter, plastic toy bugs RIGHT: yellow rice and red beans 

LEFT: gold glitter, oil, and water RIGHT: dish soap and Pom Poms

LEFT: dish soap, water and red food coloring RIGHT: bubble mix, green food coloring, and googley eyes 

I usually make my own playdoh using: 

1C flour 

1/2 C salt 

1 C water 

2 TBS vegetable oil 

2 tsp cream of tarter

7-8 drops food coloring 

Put all of the ingredients in a sauce pan over medium heat until it starts to boil. Reduce heat and stir together until a dough forms. It will be very very hot so I usually remove it from the pan, place it on a sheet of wax paper and let it cool for 5 minutes then knees it together until it is completely cool and the perfect consistency!

Finally, this is our OOBLECK. I use equal parts cornstarch and water, shaving cream, and food coloring. 

Many parents have told me that they don't allow this type of play in their homes because it is "too messy". That is unfortunate but it is my job to make sure that they are at least exposed to it at school. I love messy play and the kids love it too! 

If you have any recipes for messy play comment them down below! 

Sarah! 

Top 5 Children's Books

A parent came to me the other day and asked what books I would recommend her to read to her son. I told her that I thought any book that she could read to him would be perfect as that is such a valuable thing.

Most of my first memories include my parents reading to me. My parents made it a big part of our day to read. Before I got out of bed in the morning, my mom would read me a story and before I went to sleep at night, my dad would read to me. I believe that not only is reading obviously important for development but it is such a bonding experience. 

Of course being that I am a teacher I can rattle off tons of story titles but I started to think about my absolute top favorite books and this is what I came up with:

1. Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney. This will forever and always be my favorite book because of the memories I have attached to it. My dad would read this to me almost every night after we read a book of my choice. He would read this right as I was on the verge of crashing. He would(and still does) tell me that he "loves me to the moon..and back".

2. Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss. This book is another all time favorite again because of the memories it holds. Both of my parents have always been so supportive of my sister and I and have told us that we can do anything or go anywhere as long as we put out minds to it. At my high school graduation, my parents gave me a copy of this book with the sweetest notes inside.

3. Is Your Mama a Llama? By Deborah Guarino. I love this story because in each toddler class I have taught, after reading it once they keep asking me to read it and will pick it off the shelve themselves. They start to guess the animals before I say them and they just seem to really enjoy the story. 

4. The Moon Shines Down by Margret Wise. This story is actually fairly new to me. Each year we ask every parent to donate one book and we separate them based on classroom ages. This book was donated this year and put into my classroom. I don't necessarily think that it is "toddler material" but, it is a very thoughtful and cute story nonetheless and my two year kids love to look at the bright and colorful pictures. 

5. Horton Hears a Who! By Dr. Seuss. I am a huge Seussfan obviously! I love this story though because the message is that everyone matters no matter their size. I like this because I have one of the smallest and youngest classes at our center and I like them to feel included and important no matter what. 

What are some of your favorite children's books? 

Sarah 

Five for Friday!

Hallelujah it is finally Friday! This week has been a rough one. Weeks like this almost make me want to transfer into the school system but then I realize I would miss my little babes too much! It does get difficult sometimes though working in such a close environment with all female co workers-YIKES! Anyways, I am linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! 

 I am so SO excited for this weekend! J is a die hard Massachusetts sports fan and this weekend the Red Sox will be in town playing against the Rays. I bought us tickets for our one year anniversary back in June for the Sunday game and I can not wait to go! And after the game, we are going to a Hibachi Grill dinner because...why not? We are also going to find time to see the new movie Lucy which we have both been anxiously awaiting 

Us at Fenway during our trip up north! 

http://www.fandango.com/lucy_170271/movieoverview

 I finally have all of my Back to School/Parent Information forms completed and ready! *whoop whoop* With the help of some items from Lindsey Johnston's TPT store my 'newbie' folders are all done! (can I get a high five drink for being the first one on staff to be completely finished?) 

Many people don't know that I am a Fur-momma and a Fishy momma. J bought me a 28 gallon biocube for my birthday last year because I have always wanted a salt water tank. I have a "nemo" fish, a blue spotted watchman goby, and a cleaner shrimp but I am mostly interested in corals.

 This would be my ever growing Ricordea rock! I am so obsessed with this rock and Florida Ricordea is very inexpensive at the moment! 

My shrimp chillin' on my hand while glueing corals. 

But let's not forget about my adorably cute fur babies. 

I have been so addicted to glitzing up my clipboards! These are two more that I did this week! 

I am now in the process of making one for each of my co teachers. 

I think that EVERYONE needs to head over to Miss Lindsey Johnston's Blog and congratulate her and Jason on their very recent engagement! 

Congratulations pretty girl! 

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! 

-Sarah 

From Files to Binders

Like most teachers, I have acquired LOTS of materials since I started teaching. I have resources from team teachers that retired, from current co teachers, my director, and other miscellaneous things I have come across. Over time, all of these papers have piled and piled...and piled themselves into filing drawers. To be exact, I have  had 102 different theme/lesson folders...INSANE, right?!

 Drawer Number 1

After reading various blogs on organizing lesson plans, I decided to jump on the binder bandwagon. I was kind of hesitant on this idea originally because the way our curriculum works, we teach a new theme every week, so there are four-five a month, but they also change each year. 

Many fellow teachers organized their binders by month. Mine are alphabetical by theme. I basically transitioned all of my papers that were in files into standard page protectors. Being that I am a preschool teacher, we also do at least five art projects a week. I like to keep project examples so, I will usually do the project while I am lesson planning so that I have it to remember for the next year. I realized that these just took up an insane amount of room..and don't fit into page protectors so I snapped pictures of all of the projects (349 pictures later..) and added these pictures to the corresponding page protectors. 

 Getting ready to transfer the papers...

And, Viola! Here we have:

Three, two inch binders

58 tabbed dividers

90 themes

5 hours of hard labor

a very satisfied, organized, and happy teacher. 

-Sarah

Meet The Teacher!

Happy Tuesday fellow bloggers! I was browsing through my bloglovin feed and came across this pretty neat linky! Trina at The Ordinary to Extraordinary Classroom created this! I'm a day late on posting this on a Monday but who's judging?? 

Meet the Teacher Monday: Summer Edition

1. What's your summer teacher persona? 

• Slacker Teacher:catching up on every episode of everything you wanted to watch during the school year 
• Mommy-On-The-Go: consumed with your children's extracurricular activities
• Summer Fun Teacher:hanging with friends and traveling the world
• Overachiever Teacher:Making TPT products, proparing your classroom, you never really took a break

Unfortunately, I work for a center that is insession year around. However, we are all entiled to half days and vacation time during the summer as our numbers are typically lower so I'd have to say that my summer teacher persona is a mix between the overachiever and the summer fun teacher! I definitely take advantage of my vacation times. J and I have been to Massachusetts, Orlando and Miami since the summer started. When I am back on the classroom though, I am totally fpcused on my students and how to make my room a better learning environment.  

2. It's a sunny day in July. Your schedule is wide open, so you decide to?

I would wake up leisurely around 8/830 and take my fur babies for a walk around the trail by our house, make a cup of coffee and browse my favorite blogs then get ready and try one of the many local and new restaurants down town before gorging myself on episode after episode of Orange is the New Black.-are we judging yet?! 

3.What is your favorite summer thirst quencher?

My " I am still only 23" answer would be Shipyard's Melonhead Ale. It is so refreshing and delicious but only found three months out of the year. My "professional teacher" answer would be a Nutella Frap specially concocted by my adorable boyfriend. 

4. Where will you be soaking up the summer sun? Have you planned any vacations? 

We have already been to Massachusetts, Orlando and Miami. I believe this summer is all travelled out! 

5. Any summer reads, professional and personal?

I was definitely one of THOSE girls and sped read "The Fault in Our Stars". I finished it before I saw the movie and loved both equally. I am now on the hunt for a new good read. 

6. What does your summer TV habits consist of?

Lately, J and I have been obsessed like OBSESSED with the food network. We have been binge watching Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen like it is nobody's business! I am also a sucker for Pretty Little Liars, The Fosters, Switched at Birth, and Teen Mom... Yes, I said it and you definitely have permission to judge now! 

7. What is your favorite summer song of 2014?

Hands Down "Where It's At" by Dustin Lynch! 

I hope you enjoyed meeting me! 

-Sarah 

Five for Friday!

Hello lovely bloggers! I am linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for another Five for Friday! 

Last Sunday, J and I went to our first open house together. Being that we are soon to be first time home buyers, neither of us had done this before and didn't know what to expect. The lady showing the house was so sweet and patient with us. We don't have any intention of breaking our current lease or moving until November but, we wanted to get our foot in the door (haha) and see what it would be like. After talking to the realtor and looking around, we definitely have a more defined list of what we do and do not want in our house. It was a great experience and it was a nice step in our journey together! 

I am pretty excited about this one! I was pinning ideas the other day for different diy projects from my home and classroom. I came across a clipboard diy and decided I would try it! Before I came to my current center to teach, my room had been a teacher-less storage room for about 6 months. When I was hired, I had four days to clean it, organize it, set everything up and label all the items. When I was going through the never ending box pile though, I found a box of 24 plain brown clipboards. I asked if any of the other teachers wanted them and they all said no. Being the type of person that I am, I kept them anyways and now I am glad I did. 

This is my first attempt at a diy clipboard. I really didn't have high expectations so I rushed it a bit but either way I am pretty happy with it. I used modpodge, cardstock, loose gold glitter, and masking tape. I plan to transform the rest of them and hand them out to the other teachers as gifts in the future. 

I think I'm really liking this blogging thing. Although I don't have any followers and my posts aren't being read, I like to write my ideas down. If I happen to get followers, that'd be neat but if not, I like to do this just for me! And, I signed up for my first SLANT box exchange! So so excited for this! Jameson at Lessons With Coffee set up this amazing exchange and I am so excited to finally be a part of it! 

So being that I live Oceanside in sunny Sarasota, Florida, it is pretty much a guarantee that every afternoon between June and September it will rain. This of course, prevents my little ones from going out. Some of the teachers here gripe and moan and believe me, I've had my days where I was just over being cooped up in a classroom but lately, I've been embracing it. I have created mazes out of nap mats, obstacle courses, we "camped in a tent", we do more than one art project a day, we've been doing more cooking projects, Etc. Being trapped in a classroom with toddlers isn't always the easiest but I might as well make the best of it! 

Finally, I am so excited for tomorrow. I am going to catch up and have lunch downtown with one of my dearest friends. Jane and I have known each other for three years now and I am very thankful for her. We met when we were both working for  the hotel. She still works there and I moved on bit or friendship has lasted. Although I don't have a ton of friends, the ones that I do have are for forever. 

I hope you all have fabulous and safe weekends! 

-Sarah