Back to School Gifts

It's been an awesome "Back to School" so far! I was excited to see how quickly my new class jumped into the classroom procedures and routines. They're just the cutest little things! I can't wait to watch them learn and grow this year! :)

As I'm still pulling together pictures from my first week and half, I thought I would share the little gifts I pulled together for some of my new coworkers, many of whom are first time teachers!

In the picture on the left, you will see some simple mason jars purchased in the dollar aisle of Walgreens! I filled them with emergency chocolate, magnets, safety pins, erasers, paper clips and gum. I then attached a cute pencil magnet I found at the Dollar Tree with a rubber band!

In front of the mason jars is an adorable pencil case that I found at Safeway and filled with emergency chocolate for my aide! I got a little cheesy with the tag. ;)

Finally in the picture on the right, you will see my silly "Sea" basket that I created for a new coworker who's starting her first year and has an ocean themed classroom! It too is filled with fun new teacher items and even some cool anchor duck tape that I found at Safeway!

I had so much fun making these little gifts and am beyond excited to be working with such amazing and wonderful people! It's going to be a great year!

Kick Starting a New School Year!

As we get closer and closer to the first day of school, I'm spending more and more time in my classroom. I've run countless errands and have been busy setting up the room. I've mapped out my year's curriculum, updated my classroom handbook and redone many of bulletin boards. With school starting next week... I'm excited to say... that I'm almost done!!! Whoot! 

Today, I was excited to have finished my Welcome Back to School Bulletin Board! Each year I pick a silly pun and create a classroom bulletin board that welcomes my students into Second grade. Last year, I created a crayon bulletin board. We left it up all year long, and they got to keep the crayon with their name on it when the school year was over! 

This year, I decided to celebrate one of my loves, Soccer! With the U.S. Women's team recently winning the World Cup, I thought it would be a fun board to welcome my new class of kiddos. It took me a long time to get the goal just right, but I think it turned out cute! 

My plan is to add my students' names on the soccer balls once I have a completed class list! How is your classroom coming along?! I'm looking forward to showing you my finished classroom when its all done!!