Bulletin Boards Galore!!

Back to School shopping, goodies, and my finds!

Two blog posts in one night?! :)

I jumped in today and I started my back to school shopping. It's kinda nice because I can do it early in the morning and NO ONE is out! I'm extremely blessed to be at a school where most supplies are given to us if we ask for them. So I really don't have to buy the basic supplies, just things I want for my own use. 

As I'm shopping for the next few weeks I plan to share with you my finds and how I'll use them in my classroom. If you're a Pre-K teacher and haven't joined in our #prektribe...do it!! You can find us on Facebook by searching "Pre-K Tribe." I've also left info about it on my Instagram.

So...my goodies and deals! 

I'm apologizing in advance that all my pictures are on the floor. I'm still in the process of packing my apartment so I have very limited space!

I started my day at Target, which is always a mistake. I had to have some serious self control there today. Here's what I came up with...

An emotions wheel! I grabbed about 5 of these. I use Conscious Discipline in my room and LOVE LOVE LOVE having a safe place in my classroom. We do use the choice board but I like the idea of having this as a choice for them to learn to manage their emotions. Yes they may not understand some of these but what a great teaching opportunity!

Dry erase labels! I'm not sure exactly what I will use these for, but I'm thinking for my own supply buckets.

Love these pointers! I have tons already in my room but these green ones will be specifically for the kids to use. They love to use them in their centers and if they get broken they weren't my expensive ones. ;)

How cute are these notebooks?! I had more in my cart but put them away for now. I go through notebooks like crazy through the year. I use this time to stock up on all the cute ones!

After Target I ran over to Office Depot/Office Max. 

They currently have 4 pack Flair Pens and flash drives on sale. Yes I adore the colorful flair pens but I was in serious need of just black ones. They were only $4! I've been in need of a new flash drive for years. Couldn't pass this one up for $11!

So the other day I saw a post on Instagram about these scoop chairs from Wal-Mart. For the life of me I cannot remember who posted it. So if you know, please remind me! It took me 4 different stores but I finally found them!!

I plan on using these in my library. I think the kids will love them! They do stack pretty well so they won't be in the way or anything.

What kind of deals and goodies are you finding? I'll keep posting as I find more!

Rachel :)

Periscope!!

Howdy howdy!!

Have you heard about Periscope? Umm...if you haven't you're missing out! I love it!! I've done 1 broadcast and it wasn't even teaching related. I did a broadcast about the Home Run Derby. If you saw my post on Instagram then you know what I'm talking about!

I'm linking up with Shelia from Sheila Jane Teaching and sharing my Periscope info. If you're on there go find me so we can follow! Stay tuned for more Periscopes as I start to get ready for back to school!

Live, love, learn :)

Rachel

Catching up!

I'm baaacccckkkkk!

Y'all I have totally just pushed my blog aside as the school year came to an end. Things were CRAZY! Another year is in the books and it's summer!!! 

I'm going to use this post to catch everyone up and also do a link up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade.

So here we go!

My summer has started as a roller coaster. If you follow me on Instagram then you've been keeping up with my daily pictures. If you're not go check them out! 

I started my summer in East Texas as my family began the process of moving my grandparents into assisted living. Let me tell ya....I had no idea what all went into this! I'm beyond blessed with an amazing family and we've done nothing but support each other through this. 

How can you not love them?!

During this time I made a pretty big decision. I decided to become a seller on TeachersPayTeachers. I was beyond nervous to do this and to actually post an item. You can check out my store and first product here. If you download them please leave me some feedback! I'm still growing and learning with all of it so I would love to know what works and what doesn't! 

Finally...

I'm linking up with Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for July currently! 

Listening: Well my dad LOVES Jeopardy and watches it everyday. I could honestly care less so I don't pay much attention to it.

Loving: SUMMER VACATION!! It's July and I feel like it's finally vacation. Things have just been so busy. I haven't even sat down to read a book!

Thinking: My back to school list is so long. I have to do a lot from home because we aren't able to get back into school yet. Every time I sit down to work on something I get distracted. Oops.

Wanting: Baseball, baseball, baseball! Have you heard that I've got OBD? Obsessive baseball disorder. Ha!! Go Rangers!!

Needing: Oh goodness I need an oil change so bad. With all the traveling I've been doing I haven't had time to get it done. It's on my list for when I get home!

All star: I think I'm a pretty great cook! Summer is a time that I do a ton of it and I love it! (I'll be sharing recipes and such soon)

That's all for now! Expect to see this blog up and running more and possibly even a new design! 

Rachel :)

Meal Planning and Staying on Track!

Hey y'all! So it's been quite awhile since I've blogged, but I'm back! 

Here's just a short catch up..

-My school year has started off great and we've been extremely busy!

-We've been implementing STEM in our classroom. It has really exposed my students to more science vocabulary and experiments.

-I've kept up with my goal of no frozen dinners. I've successfully made my lunch every day of the school year so far!

-I've started back at the gym and loving it! I am working towards my goal of running a 5k again this year.

Me being back at the gym has lead into my blog post today. I joined a motivational fitness group with some fellow IGers. So this blog post is for you ladies! I'm sharing with you my meal planning and prep for the week.

Now let me just say that these recipes/meals will not be perfect by any means. They will also be dairy free so you can add or change whatever you need to! I do what works for me! 

Here's what I have planned for the week...

My lunches will look like this.

I have tuna, turkey lunch meat, pepperoni slices, whole grain wheat thins, and 2 oranges. I will be eating these Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday-Friday I will be doing the same thing, except I will replace the tuna with hummus. 

I usually cook my dinners in large amounts and eat on it for a few days. Tonight I cooked "meatball pasta." It's just like spaghetti but I use penne pasta. I paired it with Green Giant's just for one corn bowl. I love those things! It keeps me from having to cook a whole lot of vegetables at once and them going to waste. 

Here's the recipe I use:

-1 box penne pasta

-1 jar spaghetti sauce (I used a garlic herb, HEB brand)

-5-6 meatballs (You can make homemade but I keep a bag of frozen ones in my freezer. I also cut them in half so I can keep it portioned.)

That's it! I don't like a lot of meat in my sauce so I only add meatballs. Of course if you wanted you could add ground turkey or beef. 

I've got my dinner for the next 3 nights! :)

If you follow me on IG (Instagram) you saw a picture I posted a few weeks ago about my meal planning. I like to plan out all my meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) for the whole month. It keeps me on track, helps with grocery shopping, and also keeps me from grabbing fast food! Now I'm not currently doing what my calendar says dinner wise, but I pushed everything back a few days. These calendars give me the flexibility to move things around. Once I figure out how to upload my calendars here then I will allow you all to see them! :)

I hope everyone has a great week! Eat some good food and get in some good workouts! :)

Live, laugh, love

Rachel

First two weeks, meal prep, surviving!

Hey y'all! I've successfully completed the first two weeks of school. It's been crazy busy but so much fun. I absolutely love my group of kiddos this year! We've had a few hiccups and mishaps since day 1 but I'm very confident that we will get them worked out. 

Even though I haven't posted since day 1 I've been snapping pictures to share with everyone. In case you don't know the first few weeks (sometimes months) of Pre-K is exploring and just focusing on the basic social skills they need. This year has started smoother than previous ones so the kids have had more things to explore and play with. Here are some things we've done over the last two weeks....

The first week of school I let them explore and play with Play-Doh. It was also a great time for me to explain how to properly play with it. I gave each student a plate (yes they are birthday plates) and told them their play-doh had to stay on the plate. I must have said it at least 100 times, but they listened! We had very minimal play-doh on the floor and no color mixing! Plus it made clean up so easy that the kids were able to take over the whole situation and I could focus on helping other centers get cleaned up. 

After a week of Play-Doh I pulled out the dry erase boards. During this time I got to explain how to use the markers correctly, discuss that these special markers can only be used on the boards, and how we keep our boards clean. Last year almost all of the markers had flat tips after about a week and I had kids covered in Expo marker. Not the case this year. We are still using the same markers and everyone went home clean! :)

I happened to be wearing my hair up and with a headband on this day. So according to a 4-year old this is my self portrait. Ha! 

Fruit Loop sorting! I used this activity as a pre-assessment for the kids. I was able to see who knew their colors and who didn't. It might seem crazy that I have to start with something so basic but I want to make sure I know where all my kids are coming from. 

If you follow me on IG you probably saw this already. Don't follow me? Follow me HERE.

We did the activity Bingo Dot names. Oh my...they loved it!! The first month or two we really focus on the letters in each child's name. This is a great activity to emphasis it.

I also posted this on IG last week. Our math lesson that day was about a circle being continuous. I used an example of putting people inside of the circle. When there are no breaks in it no one can get out, but when we put a break in the circle the people could get out. When I sent them off to centers I walked to the back table and saw this happening. They were repeating the lesson we just had and were even trying to use the same vocabulary. Proud teacher moment! Plus I will say that their "people" look a lot better than mine do.

I've mentioned before that I have a few goals this school year. One BIG goal that I have is to not eat any frozen dinners or "junk" for my lunch at school. With that in mind I have been doing a lot of meal prep for the week. I love it and I think that with this I will be able to meet my goal this year. I am going to start posting about my weekly meals and hopefully they will help other people with their meals. I'm also doing a lot of meal planning and prepping for dinner, but for now I'm just going to be focusing on what I do for lunch. 

I didn't take any picures the first week, so I'm just starting with week 2.

This week was a simple week and I repeated my meals. 

Monday-Wednesday I had this for lunch. Ham rollups, cubed cheese, hard boiled egg, and some strawberries. I really enjoyed all of this and each day I found that I couldn't eat all of it. I was satisified the whole day, though, and wasn't hungry again until after school. I call that a success!

For dinner one night I cooked cornflake crusted chicken, which is amazing! So Thursday and Friday I took this for lunch. Leftover chicken, spinach, hard boiled egg, strawberries, and vanilla yogurt. Again, it was really good and I actually looked forward to lunch each day. I felt good after eating it and was satisified the whole day. 

What are some of your favorite things to take for lunch? Any suggestions of what to mix it up with?

Have a great week!

Live, love, learn

Rachel :)

Classroom Reveal!

Hey y'all! It's finally that time...CLASSROOM REVEAL!!

I have to say that I am so in love with my classroom this year. I spent a big chunk of my summer in there organizing and preparing for this school year. I don't feel like it's as "cute" as I want it, but I have to keep in mind that my babies are only 4 and 5. I don't want to over stimulate them or give them a million things to look at and be distracted. Either way I still love it!

I will warn you that you will see a lot of empty shelves. Since I teach Pre-K I don't put everything out at once. We learn about 2 centers at a time. Usually by the end of the second or third week they will have activities out in each center. 

Enjoy! :)

I posted this on IG right before Meet the Teacher. This is what you see when you walk in...

As you're walking in you would see this....

It's hard to tell but I have letters with funny faces on the window. I've gotten so many compliments on them...and that wonderful green sign!

Our daily schedule! This thing saves my life (and the kids!). After a few weeks of using it I no longer get asked, "What's next?" 

My Safe Place looks pretty lame right now, but I don't add a lot in the beginning. As I teach them how to use things I will add more. I put the pillow and blanket in there just for the first day. 

I don't have a "teacher desk" so this is my area.

I had to get a close up of my toolbox. I am already in love with this thing!

And around the room we go....

Art Center..

This is one center that will be open week 1.

Math/Science and computers. (Ignore the trashbags)

Writing center. My library books are over here because there's just no where else to put them. I had the library here last year and it became a big problem. Hopefully this works better!

Yes it's roped off. They're not allowed to enter that center yet :)

Blocks...this center will also be open week 1

Pretend and Learn and ABC center

Job chart, birthday board, work display

Also roped off because they cannot be in that center just yet.

Trying something else new this year! I put tape down last year and it left ugly marks on my carpet. So we are trying velcro this year! 

Probably my favorite center.

I think the library will work better over here and the kids will enjoy it.

 The next few pictures are all pom poms that my wonderful aide, Lauren, made. I had all the tissue paper for them and while I had to be in PD all week she spent time getting them made for me. Seriously such a blessing! They are the cutest ever! :)

That's it! This is where I'll be spending most of my time at this year. What do y'all think about it?! 

Live, love, learn

Rachel :)