Tuesday, July 19, 2011

What we have been up to...

Well, Tanya and I have caught the organizing and labeling bug! We are in the midst of moving out of a small cramped classroom and into a very large and roomy one. We have only been able to move small things like things from our cabinets and closet. None of our furniture or large items have been moved because one of the teachers moving out of our new classroom has to wait until some new classrooms that were just finished being built in our school building pass inspection. The inspections were today and.... No Passy!! So, with only 19 days and counting until kindergarten orientation and parent night, we are neck deep in STRESS!!! We are just repeating over and over, "It will all get done! It will all be good!" Our poor administrators are a little stressed, too!
To make ourselves feel better and to help remind us of all we have done, I am going to post some pictures of the awesome organization we have done!!
Tanya took a few trips to Big Lots and purchased these great tubs/totes. She worked hard to organize our reading materials for small group, whole group, and stations. Here are a couple of shelves in our reading closet.
These tubs/totes are holding our books on tapes/cds. We categorized them into themes so we can easily just pull down the bin labeled with whatever we are teaching and put the materials into our "Listening to Reading" station. Tanya made labels using a Lettering Delights font that looks western because our classroom has a western/cowboy theme. These tubs are on the top of one of the sets of cabinets in our classroom.
Some of our arts and crafts supplies are in this cabinet and yes, we labeled it too! The rest of the arts and crafts supplies are in the cabinet next to this one and the cabinet under it. ALL LABELED!
We are so lucky to have 2 sets of these awesome wide shallow drawers in our classroom. Tanya labeled each drawer with either what kind of paper is in the drawer or what color 12X18 construction paper is in it.
Okay, all our math books used to be in one tub that was just labeled "math". Actually in a few tubs labeled "math". So, I decided to organize them into categories. We now have tubs for patterns, counting, numbers, colors, addition & subtraction, time & calendar, shapes, measurement, sorting & comparing, fractions, and Greg Tang & other. WOO HOO! I know I will use more of my math books now that I know where they are!
A close-up of the cute western style font I purchased for 50 cents at Lettering Delights! I used this font for the labels on the math book tubs.
I sorted our math materials and used the very cool labels Deanna Jump and Mrs. Wills Kindergarten were so kind to share!
More of the math materials! One whole side of one of our closets is now full of math stuff!

We aren't finished yet! We have made labels for all the supplies the students will be bringing with them. We have the empty cabinets for these things waiting...
So, I think Tanya and I will have a new motto this school year...."A place for everything and everything in it's place!"
While you are all setting up your classrooms for the new school year, just say a little pray for us!! Hopefully we will be all moved in and ready to roll by the time our students get there!!

4 comments:

  1. New classroom and lots of storage. I am jealous. You girls have been real busy. It looks great!!
    BusyBees

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  2. Looks wonderful!! I miss those wide drawers! I'm so sorry the inspections didn't go well today and it's holding up the moving. When I moved into that room (well...half of it) I had no desks and guess when they got delivered? Right in the middle of orientation. The county guys started wheeling them in on hand trucks as parents, 1st graders, and siblings were in the room unloading supplies and filling out paperwork. Hopefully your timing will be better!

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  3. I would love to see your end of the day poem!


    I am always up for new ideas

    What is your pinterest url?

    here is mine http://pinterest.com/shunap/

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  4. Busy Bees, storage is one of the best things about our new room!
    Melissa, those drawers are nice! I hope and pray we have everything ready for Monday August 8th! I would hate to start things off not being ready!
    Ms. Patterson, our Good-Bye poem is in our archives in January. My pinterest url is
    http://pinterest.com/cindy_w_hutter/
    Hope you like it!! Your's was cute!

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