Since I'm moving from the Elementary to the High School I had to bring all my little kid stuff home. My basement is a complete mess with all my stuff just piled in there so I've been trying to organize it in a way that will be usable if I want to take some of it in and use it with the older kids.

Supplies can defiantly be used in my new room and I've been making lots of new labels for them! Here is a preview of all the stuff I've been doing this week!

I have 6 of these smaller 5 drawer units, they have office supplies and craft supplies in them, the kids don't access them so I didn't need  pictures on the labels,  I used some of my blank labels from VistaPrint to give them a make over! (photo above = before)
The green labels are after! They look much better in person!
 I have 18 of the three drawer units to hold community supplies a lot of these are accessed by students so I wanted to add pictures for easy reference for my struggling readers (Above = before, Below = After)

 I have 5 narrow three drawer units (bigger drawers then the supply drawers) and they hold all my math "stuff" I labeled each draw with a concept from the common core standards! Loving the round labels!!
I've done the same thing with reading, one drawer for each component of reading (Big 5) 
 


My Center activities are stored in plastic shoe boxes inside cardboard cubbies (got this idea from the sisters  Daily 5/Cafe) I have a set for indpendant reading activities, and one for math activities.

Also using the round labels here and adding pictures for the kids to reference!
this is what they looked like before, random shapes, picture with description
here they are now with beautiful new labels!


Blue 3 drawer units hold various graphic organizers labeled by the strategy that they correspond to
New bins for the word work/writing center, one for notebooks the other for word cans that hold the individual words students practice (they each have different words since I teach special education)
I made some of the white board holders I've see around blogland (Like here http://ladybugsteacherfiles.blogspot.com/2011/01/diy-dry-erase-storage.html)
And finally I made some Crate Seats (first seen here http://theboutons.blogspot.com/2010/09/crate-seats.html) of my own! I am storing my books on CD inside them and rotating them out by theme each month! I added a cute ribbon to each one, don't know how long that will hold up!

So as you can see, I've been really busy and disappointed that I won't be using many of my things this year! But still making them because I will use them again someday!
I got some more great deals this week and have been working on some projects I've found here in blogland (crate seats, round labels for everything, customized binders on Zazzle) I'm excited to share what I've found!

I got this electric pencil sharper on sale for  2.50, regular price 19.99! It works wonderful - my kids tried it out on all their new school pencils!!


and the ink for my computer to print all my wonderful freebies and round labels on sale a target as well!

$32.00 - that's a $20 savings for me!!

Check out what everyone else is getting here!


I have decided to link up with Kathleen over at Growing Kinders because I have the same problem! What to make and then clean up! UGG I don't even want to think about this part of going back to school! A few years ago I found an awesome website that has mad meal planning a LOT EASIER! - Check it out here http://e-mealz.com/  For $5 a month you get weekly menus and shopping lists, planning done for you!! It has been amazingly simple - if you subscribe to a store specific menu such as Walmart it will tell you the section of the store to find the product in and give you a brand name - now even my husband (who never shops) can get the groceries and I have exactly what I need for each meal! I LOVE IT!! I have been subscribing for over a year and never had a repeat recipe, I have saved all the recipes and shopping lists so I can remake my favorites! Here is one of my absoulute favorites, I've made it several times and it tastes great every time - best part it's one dish!

 Mexican Casserole


Ingredients:  
     ½ lb ground beef
     1 ½ c crushed tortilla chips
     1 c salsa
     ½ can chili beans, drained
     8 oz sour cream
     1 med tomato, diced
     4 oz can sliced black olives, drained
     1 c shredded cheddar

Directions:
      Spread crushed chips in bottom of square baking dish. Combine cooked ground beef, salsa, and
drained chili beans. Spread over chips. Spread sour cream over meat mixture. Sprinkle tomatoes, black
olives, then cheese. Bake uncovered @ 350 for 30 min or until bubbly. Serve with remaining chips and salsa.

Thanks to Kathleen For hosting this Linky Party, can't wait to get all the great recipes!





































































































































I thought I would link up with TBA and offer a writing tip today!

Our district has not had a writing curriculum in quite a while and many teachers were really struggling with teaching writing in a cohesive way as everyone is just doing their own thing! When we found this


we were all Very Excited!! It is a wonderful program that coordinates writing through the elementary grades, so what we teach in 1st builds off what they learned in K, what we teach in 2nd builds off what we teach in 1st, you get the picture. I love the program, it was designed to follow the Michigan Grade Level content Standards, but is being revised to address the Common Core! We've been using the program for two years and the improvement in student writing is amazing, of course we still throw in our favorite activities from other sources but this provides the continuity we were looking for! Head on over and check it out! There are videos for all the lessons - you can view some samples.
I've been busy today working on a couple projects that I've been thinking about all summer! They turned out great!

First I have wanted the letter sound tubs from Lakeshore Learning
but I just couldn't afford them, so I decided to make my own!

I have been collecting lot of little things around the house and my classroom to add to the tubs

and then I found the cutest little erasers Crazerasers (see them here http://www.toys4minds.com/crazerasers.html ) each set comes with at least 4 different objects for .99! I have found them at Wal-mart, Target, Walgreens, and Meijer. I've collected quite a few!

Each of my tubs will have at least two objects in them, some many more than that, I was surprised at how many things I have collected.

Now I had to decide what to store them in! I wanted something small enough it could fit into one of my center tubs, and something I could collect enough of to represent each letter of the alphabet without spending a fortune. I have a pampered chef safe edge can opener, while I was opening cans of tuna for lunch one day I suddenly realized they would be perfect for holding my little treasures. So I began to collect them, we had to eat a lot of tuna, until I had 26! Then I pulled the paper off each one, sanded it down, and spray painted it in cute colors!



 Spray painted in three different colors, waiting for the paint to dry!

I use stickers to label each lid, and the inside of each can so students will know which two go together. I hot glued a strip of ribbon around each can! They turned out so cute!!





This is what they will look like when the kids use them, and sort the little objects into each one, I plan to choose two or three at a time, poor their contents into a bucket and have them sort them back into their proper cans!

I can't wait until my little kiddos get to use them!

I also made my cute little hand erasers found at the target dollar spot into pointers, I had some left over ribbon  from the can project above and added little bows to them. I love them too! So cute!

I love personalized things! Vista Print is such an obsession, I can't believe all I've ordered (for free - just pay shipping) over the past three years! Below are a few of my favorite things I've gotten.

Book labels, I've gotten lots of different designs but they all say: This book belongs to Mrs. Marshall and then have space for the AR level, and Quiz number for easy reference when the kids log in at the computer.

Blank labels to use on different games or activities, as well as labeling storage drawers,they look so much better than the plain white labels I was using.

Blank business cards (they come in packs of 250 each so I have tons) to use for labeling or name tags, flash cards, and activities.


I used this template to create a theme, this is a door magnet (our doors are metal) and a banner that I put in the hall with everyone's names around it on the matching business cards.


Birthday cards to give to my students! Along with a special treat (more on that in a later post)

Brochures that explain who I am and what my class is about, I love to give them out at open house, they look so professional! (It was a requirement in the elementary to create a brochure, these were perfect)

Flyers! This year since I am teaching High School rather than a brochure I created a flyer all about me and my expectations for each class. The second one is an information sheet that has space for the students birthday, IEP due date, and parent contact information with a space for notes at the bottom. I use these in my conferring binder as the divider page for each student in the back where I collect their specific data- just attach a sticky tab with their names and three whole punch, they held up very well all year long! (they come in packs of 25 so that may not be enough if you have a large class, you may have to order 2 sets)

Heart word cards, Postcards that students write their weekly sight words on to take home and practice!


Cute key chain to go along with my class theme!


Business card magnets, blank for writing names on and using in my magnetic daily 5 choice board, and the others with my contact information to give to parents.


Classroom management posters, I use the first one (actually a lawn sign double sided) to hand from the ceiling, with my three rules on it. The other three are separate posters we go over what each word means and add examples to the posters, everyone signs them in a pledge to be responsible, respectful, and safe!



I recognize my students for their great work with this banner and stickers. Once a month we nominate three students for a "Marvelous worker" award (kinda like the emmy awards) and everyone gets to vote, the winner is reveled in a sealed envelope! and presented with a fabulous wooden M "trophy" that they get their picture taken with - the picture and trophy go on display in front of the class, they get to sign their name to one of the stickers and add it to the M! They LOVE IT!! It's fun to recognize great work rather than always punishing bad behavior!

Mouse pads to match my classroom themes, computer rules are written on them


Notebook and notepads!


Note cards, Welcome back to school, parent's night, and thank yous!

Labels, the larger ones go home with important IEP paper work and have check boxes that let the  parents know if they need to sign the form and return it or keep for their records. The smaller ones are for the word work cans we use in the writing center that contain the individual words each student is working on.

Cute pens with my name on them, I have way too many of these now, you can get up to two free every time you order, and I always do (as you can tell I've ordered a lot over the last three years!)



Reading center Banners, The first one is a "status of the class" poster, I glued library pockets to it and each student fills out a card with the title and author of the book they are currently working on - that way I can keep track of how long they have the same book and what they've already read. The second one says "Recommend a Good book" - students use the post card below to tell about a good book they read and then post it on the banner for others to refer to!

Recommend a book postcard

Reading log cards, I used over sized postcards and bound them with a few sheets of paper between to make reading logs, the football field is a goal tracker, the goal is to read 5 books, I cut a slit down the middle of the card and inserted a brad, the kids move a brad for each AR book they finish and test on. Once they have 5 they get to add a sticker to their log and start over. The last card is to keep track of their AR login information and reading levels for their reference, it's personal so everyone doesn't get to see sensitive info.


Reminder post card for parent teacher conference dates, and IEP meetings.

Sticky notes, I have so many now, but these are a few of my favorites! I get lots of compliments on them!

This is a banner that we use to list our top ten favorite books, we usually change our top ten each marking period, I love displaying this in the hall for others to see, and get ideas from!

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