Busy as a Bee

I have been super busy this past week. At the end of last school year I brought home EVERYTHING that belonged to me from my classroom and it has been living in my garage. I had planned on going through a few things every week while I've been off. Well, of course that didn't happen. So this past week I have gone through just about ALL of it. The week it was in the 80's here I thought about doing it every day...but never got around to it. So this past week while it was 95-100 degrees I did it. Anyways...I have 2 sets of shelves and a file cabinet in our garage storage room and it is now very neatly organized. I have boxes for each center, teacher resource books, homemade games, treasure box items, bulletin board things, and teacher equipment (laminators, book binders. etc) I am so happy with the way it is turning out. I also have all of my center storage baskets in one place. So, once i went through everything I could see what I had and could then start creating files and drawers for all of my teacher supplies that will be taken to school. I don't have a teacher desk so I have to be very creative on how I can store everything in a corner and keep it looking organized. I think I have finally gotten it organized into 5 sets of plastic drawers...1 mini, 2 small, 1 medium, and 1 large. After I figured out where everything would go i HAD to make them look CUTE! So far I have covered the 2 small sets of drawers. I had already done the mini- Teacher's toolbox. Here's how the 2 small ones turned out...

My latest creation

I hope to continue getting things done each day until I go back to work. If I am able to continue at the rate I've been going, I might actually be ready when we go back. Today I finished painting my name canvas that I will have outside my classroom door. I took the inspiration from a website that I cannot find anymore, but anyway. Here was my inspiration picture

 

and this is the one I made myself....

I'm going to add the ribbon to hang it once I get to my room and decide what the rest of my entry way looks like. I'm thinking I will probably use a red polka dot ribbon though.
I also found some more containers to use in my centers...and believe it or not I found an entire set of gray containers at Target...in the dollar section(even though most of the containers were $2.50) anyway it was still a deal. I also got some rainbow pencils that I think I will give away at our parent orientation meeting with some kind of cute something with it. I am really getting pumped to start back to school.

So, today was a very busy day for me. In a good way! I started the morning out going to KidsTown consignment sale and got some great deals on school clothes for B. I spent $64 and got 2 pairs Abercrombie jeans, a pair of Ralph Lauren jeans , a pair of GAP cords, a Hollister sweatshirt, a GAP polo, an Old Navy Batman t-shirt, a Leap Frog toy for H, and a book for my classroom. Then while I was feeling thrifty I went to Goodwill and got a Baggie of magnetic letters b/c lets face it I can NEVER have too many letters at school, and a brand new Operation game for B. and only spent $2.50. Then I went to the dollar store and Hobby Lobby. I am going to try to have each center decked out in its own color, so I started buying containers to go in each one. I realized quickly that some centers will be much easier to stock than others. Red, blue, and green will be easy while the others will be a little more difficult. I figured if I can't find containers I will just use the white ones that I have and run a ribbon through them or I might try to line some of the clear boxes with colored paper like the sterilite drawers. I also started getting some prices for other ideas I have stewing in my head. I am super excited about setting up my room this year and can't wait to get started. Since we technically only have a week before in service starts that we can get into our building, I've started making LOTS of lists to help me organize my decorating. Last night I made a list of everything that has to go on my wall and exactly how it will be decorated which has made it very easy for my ADHD brain to decide what needs to be bought ad/or made. As soon as I can get in I wil be there taking pictures as I go.

So about a week ago I decided to make the adorable teachers toolbox...well after many days of deliberating...should I paint it? what colors should I use? should all of the paper match? should I use Mod Podge or tape? I have finally finished! All I have to do now is label the drawers (which I'm gonna wait and do after I get all of my supplies in there)

Drum roll please..............

In case you were wondering  the answers to all of the questions I had over the past week ...here they are! Hopefully it will help someone else when they decide to take on the project for themselves.

Should I paint it?
Yes...I decided to because the stack-ons that I bought from Home Depot were gray...so I debated whether I should go with white or black.I really wanted to do white, but then realized how dirty they would get so I went with black instead. Black really makes the colors POP I think!

What colors should I use?
Since I'm going with kind of a rainbow theme this year...really just bright colors....I decided to use several primary colors.

Should all of the paper match?
NO too boring for me!
But it will probably save you a lot of headaches if you buy a pack with all of the papers together. I originally tried to use the hodge podge of papers I had left over from my scrapbooking projects...but I couldn't find enough that really meshed for me. So after I bought the theme packs I was much happier! (that could have been just because I got to go shopping but IDK)

Should I use Mod Podge or tape?
I really struggled with this one. Originally I was going to use Mod Podge but after watching the tutorial from Maria at http://kindercraze.blogspot.com/2012/05/fancy-up-your-sterlite-drawers.html
I decided tape would be just fine, so I used double sided tape. This will also work with my need for change every year. The tape will make it much easier to change up the paper when I get tired of it.

I bought my first supplies to complete my first Pinterest activity for this school year. I went to Lowes and bought 2 different sized pool  noodles to make ramps for marbles to be used in my block center. My kids are gonna LOVE them I just know it! Now I just have to decide how we are gonna set it up (since we don't have stairs in the classroom...THANK GOODNESS)!

I am going to try to add some pictures into this post...
Last year I was in a new school and was a total MESS. Even though I had been teaching for longer than most of the teachers I was working with , I still felt like "I didn't have a clue what I was doing" needless to say it was a whole new "Pre-K world" for me. Forget Pre-K, it was a "whole new teaching world". Our principal is AMAZING and is so knowledgable about Pre-K and teaching in general. My biggest problem was my lack of organization going in SO....this year I am determined to start off on a more organized foot. I have been searching all over other teaching blogs and Pinterest and have come across some WONDERFUL ideas. Here is the one I think I will start with. I got this from Mrs. Rojas post and hers turned out so cute I thought I would try too. When I finish mine I will post a pic too.

This was my inspiration

So...here goes a new adventure for me. I decided to start my own blog because I spend so much time on other peoples blogs and because I always have to try the latest technology thing.