Noon Year's Eve Party- Back to School Fun

Happy New Year Friends! What's your new year's resolution?? Our resolutions include blogging more, creating more products and posting on Facebook! Yay!!

Cristy's kiddos had a blast today coming back to school! They had their first ever Noon Year's Eve Party. Cristy and Christie were decked out in party clothes (school appropriate of course), fun hats and cool glasses. The kiddos had a blast enjoying their special snack and counting down the Noon Balloon Drop! 

Why do this?? Well to make goal-setting and making resolutions more memorable and meaningful for our kinders of course.

We love the free flip book from our friends From The Pond. Check it out! It's awesome! Just click the image below!

How did you celebrate with your kiddos??

Coming soon?? Cristy's pictures from the the very first Noon Year's Eve Party at Arbor Springs Elementary! Tune in for more details about the event!!

A Little Faculty FUN

So, this is the slack partner of Kindergarten Squared!!! I have been missing in action and Cristy probably about ready to fire me!!  So what have I been doing?? Mostly trying to get my 4 year old acclimated to pre-k! From the time he was 10 weeks old until last Friday, Brooks stayed with Nana. Let's just say the first day was a mess!!! Luckily he only ran from class once and the principal only had to call my husband once!! Each day has been getting a little better, but we still have Nana on reserve, just in case.!! Keep your fingers crossed we both survive!

My little one resting after running away from pre-k!!

Wish me luck!!

At our first faculty meeting we decided to have a little fun!!! We borrowed a STEM idea from one of our awesome new teachers, Mrs. Hardin. We have a pretty competitive staff so we knew a competition would be great for getting teams working together and having fun!! What was the prize???  Lunch out and the school foots the bill!! Yay!! Well all except for tip and taxes!! Our book keeper keeps us in line! We challenged each team to stack cups into a tower using a rubber band with strings attached. Each team member had to control a string and no one could use their hands. Unfortunately we did not give very specific instructions. However, in our mind we imagined these super tall towers where each row had one less cup! Of course the kindergarten team in conjunction with out REACH teacher decided to create their own interpretation of a tower.  We sent three teams to lunch!! It was really fun!!

We would love to hear some fun ideas you guys do at your faculty meetings!!! 

Thanks for reading!!

Hallway Displays for BACK TO SCHOOL!

Woot!  Woot!  We survived the 2 weeks of getting our classroom all set-up AND our FIRST DAY of school with the kiddos!  And oh my word....I LOVE them already!  They totally stole my heart.  The mischievous ones right along with the little sweet ones.  We are going to have an entertaining year for sure!  Love them to pieces!
So each year, our whole hall goes ALL OUT to make some super cute hallway displays for back to school.  It's the first thing our new families see as they are coming down the hall to meet us at our Orientation afternoon.  Of course we want to make a great first impression, not to mention we are all a little bit competitive and like to make each other step up our game from year to year! ;)
So here's what we came up with for our display this year!

   So I do have to say I'm pretty darn proud of this.  First off, we came up with the idea COMPLETELY by ourselves.  I mean, that's a pretty big deal...right?  Since Pinterest hit the scene, I mostly just hopped over there and found something.  But this idea...it just came to us.  Well...we did have a little help!  Here goes....The adorable lady selling popsicles out of the back of our truck is my bestie and my teaching TA.  We take an annual girls trip with another longtime teaching friend, and we've just added said besties oldest daughter to the mix the last 2 years.  Maggie is 24 so she counts for an adult, plus she keeps us young (I mean...Christie and I are in our mid forties...sometimes naps sound better than late nights out if you know what I mean!)

Anyway, as we were soaking up the sun relaxing on the beach..."When what to our wondering eyes did appear, but an ice cream truck bringing lots of cheer!"  We heard the tunes playing and Maggie and I were both like "Hey, we could do a hall display!"  I mean seriously, do we teachers ever STOP doing the teacher thing...I mean ever...even while relaxing on the beach!!!

So the idea was hatched then and there.  Maggie said she could do her magic on the popsicle creating using her Cameo, Silhouette, or whatever her fancy machine is!  Popsicles...done!  I knew I could use some KG fonts to bust out a cute title.  So all that was left was an ice cream truck design.  That would be easy.  I headed over to TPT and found some cute clip art from Monster Wrangler Mike.  Normally Christie has me print it out, transfers it to a transparency, enlarges it onto the board using an overhead, traces it onto butcher paper, and 10 hours later...VOILA!  But seriously, she was working a part time summer job and wasn't able to help.  Maggie and I have NO PATIENCE for that.  So we did the super fast route of printing out his ice cream truck image, and drawing that sucker freehand on the paper!  I think we kinda rocked that part!

Then we put it all up.  I knew it needed something else...especially a way to show the kid's names.  So I added the "Fogle and Mappin's KINDERGARTEN Ice Cream Truck" sign and put the kiddo's names as "Flavors of the Year".  It was still missing something...in comes my amazing coworkers to save the day.  Meredith, the Pre-K teacher from across the hall, says "Why don't you put your pictures on there?  One of you driving and one of you selling popsicles?"  She's a genius I tell you.  So we took some photos, cut them out...and BAM!  It was finished.  (Unless you count the fact that I was driving a magical truck because I had no steering wheel!  In came another fabulous coworker, Janene, who printed me one and even added it to the display!) DONE! and DONE!

Here are just a few of the other super cute hall displays.  Some of these are original ideas, and some were inspired by Pinterest, but I think they all turned out fantastic!

Here's hoping you find your own inspiration to spruce up those hallways for Back to School.  We hope you each have an amazing year!  Teach on!

SitSpots Giveaway WINNER!!!

Um...what just happened there?  The giveaway ended Wednesday morning, and then there was a crazy blur of 4 hour PD sessions, hot glue scenarios that involved strings of the stuff falling out of places hot glue should not be, name tag creating, hallway decorating, copying, and other madness otherwise know as "HOLY MOTHER....School Starts THIS FRIDAY and I'm NOT READY!"
Whew!!!!  Now that I actually survived getting my room ready AND our FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL just yesterday, I am finally ready to announce the SitSpots Giveaway Winner!!!  Woot-Woot!
Hundreds of folks entered and we sincerely appreciate every one of you!  If we could, we would so be like Oprah..."SitSpots for YOU, and SitSpots for YOU, and YOU!"  But alas, we teach, so that just ain't happening! ;)  But at least we are able to randomly select (along with the helpful random selector people over at Rafflecopter) one of you to snag this amazing prize!
So here we go...

Sheryl, you are the LUCKY winner!  I'll be emailing you the gift card code for your $50 SitSpots prize!  We truly hope you love these bad boys as much as we do.

And if you don't know too much about SitSpots, but now you're thinking "What are these magical creatures and how do they work?"...then head over to SitSpots to read all about them or our SitSpots Blog Post.

And as an update....We started school yesterday and the kiddos loved them.  They thought they were cool and they thought choosing a color was pretty awesome.  (Side note...I did have ONE friend that considered pulling one up...you should have heard the teeth sucking going on in my room.  If the kids could have shot darts from their eyes...they would have.  Needless to say, he politely smoothed that sucker RIGHT back down!!!!)

And A HUGE THANK YOU to Joyce over at SitSpots for her VERY GENEROUS donation!

TPT "LOVE Back to School" SALE!

Oh my word!  I love a sale!  I truly and seriously love to save some cash AND score on my favorite finds!  It's time for the annual TPT Back to School sale.  And this just may be my favorite one yet...because, well...it's all about LOVING what we do!
Here are a couple of items that will be up for grabs when the sale goes live Monday, August 3rd and Tuesday, August 4th.  Be sure and use the code BTS15 for an additional 10% savings!
So to take all of the guess work out for you, we've already broken down the savings!  This is our Back To School GALORE for Kinders pack!  This pack is chock full of FUN and ENGAGING activities for Back To School.  You'll find "getting to know you" activities, simple interactive readers, fun 1st day photo props, and more.  You'll snag it all for ONLY $5.76!
You can also find our Back to School GALORE for FIRSTIES pack on sale!

This fun little number can be found in the Back to School Galore Pack too.  But if you just need a quick back to school activity, you can grab this Back To School Keepsake Flapbook by it's self for ONLY $2.16!

Some other GREAT deals include our Interactive Sight Word Flap Books, Readers, and More!  Since this is an already discounted bundle, the savings are even BIGGER!

Regular Price Before Bundling:  $40.00

Bundle Discount: -$16.00

With 20% Sale Discount: -$4.80

With TPT Code BTS15: -$1.92

FINAL PRICE: $17.28

So take some time, feel some LOVE for Back to School, and head over to our store for some AMAZING DEALS!!!  You're gonna ROCK this year!

Thanks Gabby for the adorable button!

SitSpots GIVEAWAY! I'm in LOVE!

If you've been following us on Periscope...then you KNOW "I got 99 problems and my rug is one!!!"  We had to pack up EVERYTHING...and I mean EH-VUH-REE-THANG in our rooms at the end of the year.  Our entire school had all the carpet ripped up and shiny new white tile installed in its place. 

Great, right?  Everything's all sparkly and clean.  Except I had a major RUG drama going on.  Our old Lakeshore "spot for everybody" rug was on it's last leg.  I mean, a rug can only be barfed on, peed on, drawn on, and tooted on so many times before it dies a slow and ugly death!!!! ;) It was past the point of no return.  And alas, the drama didn't end there.  Those bad boys cost upwards of $400 and the funds are just NOT THERE for everyone in our school to get a new rug.  So our sweet admin team found a way to allot each of us a smaller sum to purchase a rug or a class set of carpet tiles that can be carted all over the place and used for a ton of purposes. I ended up choosing the carpet squares, but that still left me with my RUG DRAMA.  Don't even think those carpet squares can be carted to the front of the room and placed in ANY sort of order that wouldn't tear my nerves slap to pieces.  I mean...the thought of that just makes my stomach twist into knots.  I'm far too OCD in that regard.  I agree with Kristin at The Teeny Tiny Teacher when she said,   "I never did anything except say to my kids over and over and over again . . . Where's your spot?  Which row are you on?  Wait.  I am supposed to have five rows.  It looks like we have six and a half and a couple of islands and possibly a peninsula.  What's going on here?  Last row -- scoot up and join us, I can hardly see you back there!  First row -- scoot back, you're practically on top of me and I cannot breathe For The Love Of Pete Can Everyone Just Sit Where I Assigned Them?!"  

That woman cracks me up y'all!  I totally envision the carpet squares ending up this way when I tell the kids to bring them in.  SOOOO... to solve the rug dilemma...I bought my OWN 8x12 rug from Lowe's for $72 bucks.  Now the tag said it was "charcoal", but once I got it in my room it said "black".  To be honest, I am feeling some serious love for it, but I already know that my teaching partner is going to beat me.  Beat me, I tell you.  My brand new rug is not so good at hiding stuff, what with it being "black - supposed to be charcoal" and all.  I bought a Shark vacuum cleaner to solve that.  Now that woman can vacuum to her heart's content and fall in love with the rug too. But...I digress!!!

So how did I solve the whole "island, peninsula, what kinda order is this"seating dilemma?  I bought SitSpots.   I did y'all!  I really did.  And I swear I believe in my heart that it may just be the best $55 dollars I have ever spent.

They look SO bright and happy on my rug.  EVERYBODY has a spot and this OCD teacher is happy for some order!  AND the best part is the rug and spots came in at just $135 total!  Way better than $400+.  And to be honest, I think it's WAAAAY cuter.  No offense to my old rug, this one just matches my class decor perfectly.  And did I mention I can wash those SitSpots and keep that rug looking beautiful! And did I also mention that this suckers stay put.  You can vacuum right over them with no worries, and you KNOW that will make my teaching partner very happy.  And did I also also mention that they come in all sorts of bright colors and even other shapes like stars and hearts and fish, oh my!  People...it's my JAM!  I am one happy girl!  Now...let's just hope none of my sweet new babies even CONSIDER pulling up 1 of my SPOTS!

And do you remember when I said it was the best $55 I have ever spent?  Well...here's YOUR CHANCE for it to be the BEST $50 you DON'T have to spend!  That's right!  You get a chance to win $50 in SitSpots for FREE!  I know, right!!!!

I emailed Joyce over at SitSpots to see if they had any coupon codes going on right now that I could offer to you all.  And that sweet woman, well she did even better.  She said "How about you give a $50 SitSpots gift card code away to a reader!"  And I was all like "Woman, I love you!  Sit Spots are my new JAM and now I get to share them with a bloggy friend". (Or something along those lines...I was so excited who knows what I emailed her!)  It was a happy moment I tell you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway  The giveaway will end Wednesday!  Come Thursday morning...you might just be the new proud owner of some glorious SitSpots!!!  Good luck!

Grandparent's Day Pack...Just UPDATED!!!

Just a quick post to let you know we updated our Grandparent's Day Pack.  This is our ABSOLUTE BEST SELLING product in our store!

The mini-unit includes everything you need to have a GREAT Grandparent's Day celebration with or without your grandparents in attendance!

There are poems, coupon gift books, writing about grandparents, a song for entertainment, Roll a Grandparent game, plus more!  

We also just added this adorable activity in the update!

There's also a page to interview Grandpa as well as one where the grandparents get to interview their grand kids!  How fun!

If you already own this pack, please be sure and RE-DOWNLOAD it to get all the new goodies, plus the updated fonts, borders, and graphics!  It's SOOOOOO much cuter!

Happy Grandparent's Day!!!

Classroom Reveal!!!

Finally...a night with a few spare minutes since school started! Holy smokes! We are a week in and we are exhausted! We have such a stinkin' precious group this year, so it makes all these crazy long prep hours TOTALLY worth it!

So...let's get on with it! The BIG classroom reveal! We sure hope you like it and snag a few ideas that might work for you too!

1.  My desk covered in polka dot fabric and purple border.  LOVE me some spray adhesive!

2.  So in LOVE with these FREE inspirational posters from Traci Bender.  They are mounted in $4 Wal-mart frames and then we added the ribbon for cuteness sake!

3.  Paper lanterns are from Party City.  The printed banner is from Hope King's Decor pack.  You'll see we used it all over the room!

4.  SWOON!  Our new class library!  Rug from Target, pillows from Wal-mart and Target, book bins from Big Lots, white storage piece from Target, and awesome black library labels from Maria Manore! 

1.  Calendar board including days of the week, weather, straws, box tops, character key...

2.  Weather chart.  This was originally pinned with no link...picture only.  And Rowdy in Room 300 remade it and shared it FREE with others. Score!

3.  These are desk name plates we created in brights, stripes, chevron, polka dots, and more.  They print 4 1/2 by 14 and we have to say we think they look pretty darn great on the tables.  

4.  Up close calendar view.  

1.  Our library check out system.  Kiddos move their clip to the "Library" tag when they head out the door.  They know that 4 names may be moved at any given time!

2.  Our cute days of the week cards from Hope King's pack.

1.  Our CAFE board headers with a couple of strategies already posted!

2.  Daily 5 labels.  We just painted the clothespins red (we tried washi tape last year which was super cute, but it kept peeling off! So sad!) and clipped them to the chart.  This is how they choose which Daily 5 they will visit each round. These signs were free, but we've had them a couple of years and can't find where we lucked up on them!

3.  Our MATH POP! cards that hang on our calendar area.  The kiddos love these and it's an easy way to quickly add in some daily math practice and review that's fun!

4. Cute 1st day photos of our sweet new littles.  The sign is from our Back to School GALORE pack!

1.  More Daily 5 FREEBIES that we LOVE!  The Mr. Check-In's and 3 Ways to Read a Book sign are from A Year of Many Firsts!

2.  We call it "The Cool Stool".  The cushion is HOT pink...it looks a little weird colored in the picture??? We use it for Author's Chair sharing and any other "I'm Special and need a special chair" kinda moments!

3.  All my 3 ring binders in cray-cray anything goes colors were driving me crazy.  This year I splurged and bought matching ones in all my classroom colors.  It makes me happy!  The end!

4.  Our alphabet wall from The Printable Princess.  These look great and I love that whenever you may just happen to permanently loose, say...the letter Hh poster...for maybe, like weeks, or even months and have probably permanently scarred you kiddos, you can PRINT another one any old time you need too!

1.  Table signs that we hung from cute and vibrant polka dot ribbon that would not cooperate at the time of this photography session and kept spinning around backwards just to taunt me!

2. Containers for holding screens and green markers for Orton-Gillingham phonics.
3. My bright blue rocker...which is covered in that baby blanket fabric (minky...maybe???) that is so stinkin' soft.  FYI---Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT sit in this chair if you are at ALL drowsy, sleepy, or even considering becoming so.  Basically...sit at your own risk!

4.  Black boxes from Big Lots for $3. Perfect size for holding pencil pouches for each table group. Coordinating table labels from Hope!  

Another inspirational poster picture just because I am so in love with them!  And here are a few of our book boxes for Daily 5 from Dollar Tree!

And...did I mention this is my NEW favorite place in my room????  In serious LOVE!  It's hard to see, but we have some clothespins lying on top of the white bookshelf.  They have ribbons tied on them to look like either a bow tie (for my boys) and a hair bow with ribbon tails (for my girls) and the clothespins are covered in washi tape (because as noted earlier...it's so cute...and they won't be touching this so maybe it will stay put!).  We are going to hot glue those to the black, add their name labels, and hang student work.  I'll try to remember to add a picture when we finally have a finished product.

So that about does it!  Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Up to 40% Savings... TPT Sale Time!

TPT is throwing a HUGE BACK TO SCHOOL SALE this Monday and Tuesday - August 4th and 5th!

We are offering 20% off ALL of our products in our store...and we mean ALL of them...even bundles that are already marked at a 20+% savings off the individual packs!

Enter code BTS14 at checkout and you'll save another 10% off the sale prices courtesy of TPT!

That's a TOTAL of 28% off ALL products and you end up saving about 40%+ on our bundles!  

Here are some items that may be perfect for back to school...

SAVE A TON!!! (40+%)

SAVE A LOT! (28%) 

GRAB IT FOR FREE!

We hope these just might help you get your year started out right! 

Back to School GALORE for Kinders! I'm in LOVE!

Woo-hoo!  We FINALLY finished up our newest unit JUST for KINDERS!

And I have to say I have a little crush!  You know when you have a picture in your head of something you want to create, and well...it turns out all CRAY-CRAY and you are like, "That was NOT what it looked like in my head!"  Yeah...been there, done that!

So this project ACTUALLY turned out like what was in my head...can I get an "AMEN!"

I can't wait to get back to school and start working on these writing, math, and emergent readers with my kiddos!  I think they will love them, but more so I think they will be great for keeping kiddos engaged with meaningful and appropriate activities AND we'll be building our class community all the while!

Here are a couple of my favorite things!

PROJECTS that BUILD COMMUNITY

This project may also be purchased separate from the pack!

This flap book project has kiddos drawing and writing about themselves, their classmates, teachers, and a little about their 1st week in kindergarten.  These make great hall displays and a nice keepsake for families!

EMERGENT READERS

and

GETTING TO KNOW ME

 WRITING, GETTING TO KNOW MY
CLASSMATES, and MORE!

Grab these 2 CUTIES for FREE!

This pack is ON SALE TODAY for only $4.00...that's 50% off...woot! woot!

Be sure and come back tomorrow!  We have a BIG giveaway with products from some of your favorite sellers up for grabs!  Have an awesome Tuesday!