Five for Friday - Back to School

We are back in school so that is on my mind lately.

1. My classroom is pretty much set and ready for students to start on Monday.  The only major thing left is to restuff my SCUBA girl and get her back on the ceiling by the window.

2. Sneak Peek was Thursday and that is when students drop in to meet their new teacher and parents fill out paperwork. I had all but one student come because she is still at the beach with her grandparents. Her mom did come and do the paperwork so I think this is the first year I had it all completed by the start of school. 

While kids are there I have them take a picture with their name tag against the background so I can trim off names and make flashcards to practice before the first day. Then I also have the pictures for a first day bingo game. Later I will put Daily 5/CAFE stuff on the background. 

3. I lowered my kidney table to accommodate my cute new stools that I made this summer.  The lids are pretty tight so I'm going to store extra reams of paper and things that I don't need to access frequently. 

4. I received a fun package in the mail from The Back to School Blogger exchange. My exchange partner was Robyn from Pinkadots. I got lot of fun goodies in blue and purple since those are my favorite colors. My favorites were probably the file bands and washi type tape.

Her blog partner Theresa just did a reveal of her exchange with another blogger.

5. This one is not teaching related. We've had some house projects going on recently. We had our fireplace resurfaced with stacked stone, refinished our wood floors and had iron balusters installed. We are also getting some new carpet but that hasn't happened yet.

Thanks for dropping by to see what I'm up too

Made It Monday - Back at School

I'm joining Tara for 

I had intended on getting this out earlier but being back at school out a dent in the free time :-)

We had a half day training and then I took advantage on some quiet time in my room to get most if it finished up except for two bulletin boards.

Here are the few things I did get done.

This is a large banner that will hang between the two classrooms in our team. I still have to create all the clear labels with our new students so we can stick them all over.  The other team in our grade made a display with bulletin board paper and letters to go between their doors. Unfortunately it didn't hold so I made an alternative for them but I want to make sure they like it before I print the 15 pages.

I made the book bin labels for our lakeshore boxes. They have each kids name as well as the proper gender diver. The kids can color them if they want to personalize it a bit.

I printed a bunch of bag toppers that I created last year. We will stuff snack sized baggies with goldfish crackers and Swedish fish candies.

These for a special ed teacher on our hall that needed something in primary colors to label her word wall. I used a couple of patterns that fit the bill. I let her cut them out.

My favorite Made It this week is actually something that I can't share yet. It is on its way in the mail to CT  as part of the Back to School Blogger Exchange.  I don't want to ruin the surprise so I will come back and add a picture later.

I probably won't get a chance to go check out everyone else's posts for a couple of days but that won't stop the rest of you that are still on break. Hurry over to Fourth Grade Frolics. 

Carolina Blogger Meet-up

I was so excited to get a chance to attend my first meet-up this weekend in Greenville, SC! Amanda did such a great job organizing everything and it went so smoothly. The Facebook event page made connecting so much easier. I was one of many that arrived Friday evening to extend our get together time. The hotel was very nice and super convenient to all of our activities. My roomie was Kris from Poole's Pages. We had never met before but she was such a pleasure to spend time with and I'm glad we were able to hook up. 

The festivities started with an impromptu happy hour gathering in the hotel bar. We walked as a group p to The Lazy Goat. I'm totally not a foodie but I loved the atmosphere at the restaurant and I even ventured out of my comfort zone to try some different tapas. Everything I tried was delicious so I guess I should be more adventurous in the food department. We were scattered around at smaller tables so I got a chance to really visit with teachers at my table. Everyone was super nice.  

Following dinner we walked over to a new dueling piano bar called Jack n Diane's. Amanda had made reservations so they had three big booths set up for us just to the side of the stage. It was a hoot! Everyone had a great time there was even some dancing up on the stage. 

The following day we met for lunch at another yummy spot called Chicora Alley. We had a huge table so everyone could sit together. I tried to make a point of sitting by different people at each of or activities and it was wonderful meeting so many fabulous people. For our lunch there were cute name tag with everyone's blogs, goodie bags with G-Vegas themed treats as well as tasty cupcakes. After lunch we took a big group picture. I will have to add it once someone posts it. A smaller group finished off the event by participating in a vocabulary filled downtown scavenger hunt, organizer by the fabulous Ginger. There was even some shopping thrown in. 

I LOVED ALL OF IT! I'm so happy I was able to participate and meet so many great folks. I just wish I had been better about taking some pictures to document the fun.

Amanda even put together a list with the blog buttons from our different attendees. She rocks and I so appreciate all her hard work (and Ginger too).

Brooke from Whooo's in Second?

Sarah at Education Electrification

Diane at Fun in Second Grade

me (Heather) at Room 4 Imagination

Elisabeth at Twins, Teaching, and Tacos

Amber at Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher

Natalie at Teachery Tidbits

Kim at Thanks to a Teacher

Kris at The Poole Pages

Brandee at Creating Lifelong Learners

Courtney at Classroom Snapshots

Ginger at GingerSnaps

Rachel at The Tattooed Teacher

Elizabeth at Fun in Room 4B

Ashley from Primary Teacherhood

Tammy at Life, Love, Literacy

Emily AND Kerry at Third and Goal

Lauren at The Sweetest Thing

Jeannie at The Second Grade Surprise

Lana at 4 The Love of Teaching

Amanda at Teaching Maddeness

I guess I better get to bed since we started back to school last Thursday.