My room is finally painted!

A painting we will go....

Well, we have 4 more days until school! And we're still waiting on the electricians to come out and turn on our electric. However, I was able to paint my room! I wanted to share the photos I took! 

These pictures were taken before we pealed the tape off!

Well I am off to watch some more Golden Girls! "Miami yooouu've got style!"

Ahh one week until school!

One more week!! 
What is on the list for the last week of summer? Any final preparations? Let's see:
Books? Check!
Sales? Check!
Room set up? NO CHECK!! 

Well you see, my room is a portable which was just delivered! I went to the school on Wednesday and saw it had finally arrived! I snuck out to see it and this is what I stepped into:

.......

And the sky opened up and said.."I hate you alfalfa!"

hehe! Over and out!

Jackie

Assessment notebook!

Today's post is about creating a quick and simple assessment notebook to store anecdotal notes or other items in one easy place! 

Behold: the FIFTY CENT composition book!!

All I did was cut tabs, enough to write each students name. 

It is hard to see, so I usually highlight each tab:) 

I am going to end up making one for both math and reading. I will probably write goals for each child and notes about their progress. :) 

Toodaloo!! 

Jackie  

From cereal box to storage space!!

Let the crafts begin!

Why hello there!! I hope you had a nice relaxing day like I did!

Since I started blogging, I have just posted mainly about great buys I have found for this year. Well today I am going to show you an easy storage space you can create for little to nothing!! I like to call this one cereal box to storage space!

Change this--> 

 <-- Into this!!

What will you need?

• cereal box (I just asked some facebook friends to save me any they had)
• scissors
• tape
• and your favorite wrapping paper or scrapbooking paper (I got mine from Target)

   

 Something to think about:

Think about what you want to store versus the size of the cereal box. 

Now these are super easy to make, but just in case you need a visual, here you go!

Begin by cutting all the extra flaps off

Cut a diagonal line along the front of the box and straight across the two sides.

Cut this portion off. (This will help make an even line for the back side.)

Line up your other side and cut along to make a matching diagonal.

Wrap the box in your favorite wrapping paper.

Prest-chango! You have your storage space!

 I am really excited to use these with my $.01 folders (@ OfficeMax) I purchased. I hope to store my students data folders in them as well as my "take it to your seats" and other file folder centers. I was able to get about 16+ boxes, some of which aren't as large. I hope to use those for book boxes from the Daily 5. Within the first week, I plan to let my kiddos decorate them on their own. 

Hope you find this inspirational and helpful!

Jackie 

Today's purchase!!

Well B2S shopping is so much fun! I found these 50 folders for a penny a piece! These are going to be used for my data notebooks and my take it to your seat folders! Behind that, I bought some composition notebooks for our NBKH roll out!

Next stop: Staples! 25 packs of index cards, 10 packs of erasers and 2 packs of pens for a penny a piece. Used my 15% rewards and will receive money back in my rewards to use on larger items needed for the year!

Happy B2S shopping!!

Jackie

Score!

Just got my newest addition to my pd collection. Lucy Caulkins primary writing unit studies. I know I teach 4th, by I couldn't pass up the deal! $ 40!! Thank you Craigslist! 

 I also stopped by staples and purchased myself 25 spirals for 1cent each and 25 packs of crayons (RoseArt not Crayola- ill take what I get) for a penny as well!! My dad said he wanted to name me penny and now I know why!! 

Lastly I stopped at the good ole dollar store to find these guys for a buck!! Building a classroom library can be pricey, so the deals are always nice to stumble upon! 

Happy shopping!

Jackie 

It's official.... Back to School Sales are starting!

Happy Saturday everyone!

It has been a while since my last post. Life has been insane with work, preparing for schools, vacations, JURY DUTY (how lucky I am), weddings, babies and everything else. I tell you summer festivities is a full time job in itself.

Anywho, this post is for all my sale fanatics. I feel target it changing course and headed to their back to school sale buckets. I looked at staples online ad and found some goodies for this week. Here is what Nashville has on sale.

Staples Weekly Ad

Short and sweet post before I head off to buy a L. Caulkin's set I scored off craigslist for 40 bucks!! I will update you with the damage done later today:)

And hopefully where ever you are, you are away staying out of this HEAT!

Jackie

Notebook Know-How Break Down

Evening happy readers!

Hi everyone, from HOT Tennessee! Hopefully your day was as successful as mine. Guess who created a skeleton of next years pacing guide with CCSS?? And "planned" the first two weeks of school?? Yep, that is correct. I feel my summer vacation mind slipping away and my teacher mode coming back... and it is only June 11th!! (Ahhhh...)

Anyway, today was very exciting because I got all my "potential" kiddos of next year, as well as, some interesting updates. One thing is.. I will be in a portable and I can begin construction soon, so I will update you on its progress when we get there.

Well today's post has nothing to do with today, although it is exciting. Flying on the plane back from San Juan, I began to read Notebook Know-How; Strategies for the Writer's Notebook by Aimee Buckner. 

For the next few posts, I have decided to share her ideas as well as some of my own. I'll post for each chapter and once school starts (which is Aug. 1, YUCK) I will include how I use it.

So for now, let's start with the book itself. Most of you reading this will probably get to this point in the blog (hopefully you made it this far...) and you are wondering if this book is something you are even interested in. WHERE'S THE BUY IN, Right? Well you are in luck. I am up for the challenge! If you read my first post, you may have noticed I am transferring school. Last year, we did a book study over The Power of Our Words. This year, they selected NBKH to read. Since I wasn't going to be there, I wanted to see what I would be missing out on (the kids don't just get that curiosity naturally :)) 

When a picked up the book, the first thing I noticed was HOT DOG, it was only 132 pages long. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time investing in books that are 250+ pages. As I thumbed through, I realized there were lots of summaries, easy references pages, and short chapters. (Reason number 1 to read it). So I went home to look on amazon.com, and found it for a grand total of 10.99. (Reason number 2). Click of a button and wha-la it was mine. 

Buy it here

I decided to take it on the plane with me as a backup read, and spent the majority of the time reading it! As I read, I realized I would revisit it tons, which is so easy to do. This book is full of strategies on how to make your students active writers in their daily lives, not just responding to prompts. The best part is, it is super easy to change up and to incorporate.

As a second year teacher, I was looking for something that I would actually use with some sort of confidence. I would love to try the Lucy Caulkins series, but quite frankly, I am a little intimidated and need to have my focus on more than writing during this summers PD (it is on my list to read Caulkin's fans, no worries). (Reasons number 3-6 to read it).

So if you are like me and think your students need to dive into writing a little more, or if you are just looking for an easy summer read, The NBKH is the way to go!!

Jackie

Oh amazon!!

Hello all!

My birthday weekend has officially ended! And what is a birthday without some birthday dough?? Most people like to spend their money on clothes, shoes, or anything else, but teachers know this story all too well. What do we buy with our aging donations??? CLASSROOM GOODIES!! 

I went over to old faithful (Amazon.com) and made my second school purchase of the summer.

First on the list is... Dun Dun na na.... 

Take it to your seat... 

http://www.amazon.com/Take-Your-Literacy-Centers-Grade/dp/1557999309

I love this resource and was actually lucky enough to have used pre-made copies of these this year. There are all kinds of easy to make and teach centers inside. You can either copy the centers onto card stock or take it straight from the book... to your seat (after cutting and lamination):). Either way for a whooping $1.24, anyone would be happy! 

My second purchase was also my second book study of the summer...

The Daily Five!

I plan to read this once I am done with my Notebook Knowhow (which I will be posting about shortly). I have seen and heard great things about this book!! I have seen blogs, pins, and so much mayhem.. I mean more, using D5. So Daily 5 madness, here I come!!

Feel free to share tips, ideas, and anything else you found useful while using the Daily 5!


Jackie

Great find of the day!

Yay!! While I was grocery shopping, I saw these awesome fly swatters!!! Great for vocab reviews and games!! 2 bucks at Kroger!

Hi and Welcome!!

Welcome to my blog!!!

Hi, my name is Jackie Sanders and I teach in Nashville, TN. I am currently in a transition to a new school where I will be moving from 3rd grade to 4th grade. One year usually isn't a big jump, unless your like me who is hard to find in a group of third graders due to size! 

That's me, all of 5'2

Get to know me:)
As I said before, I taught third grade last year, which also happened to be my first year teaching. What a great experience! The stuff you don't learn in college!! I am sure with future posts you will come to learn all about me and my ideas as a teacher, so I won't fill this page with my cute kid stories and overly excited lesson ideas... yet! Let's see... I am a recent graduate from MTSU! I am married to a wonderful husband of two year, Kevin! We have a dog, Dobie, who runs the household:)

Kevin, Dobie and I 

Together, Kevin and I have a pretty large family. I have two nieces and 1 nephew!! 1 brother, 2 sisters, 1 sister-in-law. I have some really great friends in and out of education. I worked at the Country Music Hall of Fame for 2 years and still hold that job during the summer (Come see me if you are visiting):)

Things I LOVE!

Let's see, I love watching movies, being with my fabulous friends, reading (and it's finally summer, so I can get caught up), and crafting (which I hope to post more about in the future as well). But most of all  I love teaching ( Isn't that what we all say) and traveling. Which is why my blog is named teach to travel to teach (teaching so I can travel so I can teach kinda thing, cute, right?). I love to travel all over! I just got back from a 7 day cruise which puts my travels to: 10 states, 8 islands, 16 cities in Europe (9 different countries there)!! Yahooo!! Just a glimpse into what we have seen...

Nassau, Bahamas

Time Square, NYC

Smithsonian, Washington D.C.

Washington Monument

More pictures to come... 

So that's about sums it up! I am excited about blogging and beginning to share my ideas and experiences with others.

Jackie