It's a Back to School Giveaway!!!

School supplies are selling out in stores across America.  This can only mean one thing - it's time to go back to school.  <insert wailing teachers here> We want to make the summer to fall transition as easy as possible for you so we have 10 bundles of everything included below to give away.

Fern's coloring pack would be great for introducing school staff, meet the teacher night and bell work.  It's important to keep the kids engaged and learning while you attend to parents and incoming students.

The Inspired Owl's Corner is offering an Owl themed or Brightly themed decor set.  I personally use these sets in my class.  They are amazing!!!

Easy Teaching Tool's  is going to make your parent communication a breeze with her back to school pamphlet.  It's a great way to let the parents know what to expect and to ease their worries.

Learning Is Something To Treasure is going out of her way to make your whole year a breeze.  She's giving away mega pack of phonics sorts!!!

A First For Everything has all of your close reading needs for the fall right here in this pack.  Start the students off on the right foot.

Positively Teaching knows how to develop a classroom culture of respect and learning.  She wants to help you do the same thing with her classroom management bundle.

Amy is giving away a Jan Brett pack with lessons and activities for 10 of Jan's books.  Everyone loves to display cute student work.  It's a great way to make admin. happy and the kids ecstatic.

Cassie has everything you will need for sight word centers.  This is a must have for every primary classroom.

We wish you lots of luck in the raffle.  Be sure to check out each person's link to see if they have any other fun give aways going on.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Student Birthday Treat Cups!

Glad that you were able to join us for the third annual Orange Ya' Glad it's a Blog Hop!

I am the

If you have hopped with us in the past, some things will be familiar, and some things will be new!

This year, all of our bloggers are focusing on free tips or ideas that they can share with you to get your school year off to a great start.  Some ideas will have a freebie, others might just be a stand alone concept.  The idea is to try and share things that will solve problems and create a happy and stress free first few weeks!

Let's get started!

This tip is an organizational and fun tip for your students! Today I'm going to share about my birthday cups that I make for my students every year!

As a teacher, I am all about organization and prepping ahead of time! I came up with these birthday cups a few years ago as a fun way to recognize student birthdays in the classroom. They are a hit! They end up looking like a milkshake. :-) They take a little time to prep, but I do it all right before school starts and then there are NO WORRIES!!! 

To begin, I purchase the bubble cups off of Amazon. There are 50 cups in a set currently for $15.00. That usually lasts me 2 years. Here's a picture of the cups that I usually purchase:

You can find them HERE!

Another suggestion is to see if your local Starbucks might donate the cups! I haven't had any luck with that, but every Starbucks is different. :-)

Next, I got the following materials together to make the cups:

 I usually buy my paper shred from Michael's. It is $3.99 and I use a 40% off coupon, plus my teacher discount to buy it. You may want to try the Dollar Tree or similar places to see if you luck out there!

 I always get a big bag of party candy at Walmart (approx $7.00). I try to get the ones with Tootsie Roll pops so I can yield some extra red or pink lollipops for the top of my birthday cups. I also buy an extra bag of Tootsie Roll pops so I have enough for the "cherry" of each birthday cup! Now I have had some people tell me that they are not able to give candy in their district. However, you don't have to use candy. You can use any items you want, such as stickers, temp tattoos, and any other little trinkets that you can get at the Dollar Tree. Then maybe you can find a red bouncy ball for the cherry!

I usually have lucked out and found my birthday pencils at the Target Dollar Spot every year! I also purchase address labels that are 2"x 4" in size to stick a happy birthday label on the outside of the birthday cups (see the label freebie below!!)

To make the cups is really simple! Fill the cup between 1/3 and 1/2 of the way up with candy. Then fill the rest of the cup up with the paper shred. I usually put the bubble lid on and stuff it with more paper shred so when I top it off with the lollipop, it is stable and doesn't fall over.

Then finally, I place a birthday pencil down into the cup and VOILA!!

Now one question I have had about this project is about storage. This type of candy is fine to be stored for the school year. The shelf life is well over a year, so I usually make them all before school starts. I keep them in a deep storage tub that I place on top of my metal storage cabinet which is sealed tight. I haven't ever had any problems. :-)

Here is the template for the labels that I have for the birthday cups:

If you'd like to have this freebie file for your own class,

please click HERE.

We will be having an Instagram giveaway again!  At the bottom of each post, there will be a letter. 

 The letters all work together to give you the name of a type of orange!  This year is a bit tricky...it's a two word name!  **Hint: Starting at Mrs. Russell's Room and going through will give you the right answer!** 

Once you've solved the puzzle...take a picture of the answer.  

Post it on instagram and hashtag it with #orangehop2015.  We love original ideas...so, do something fun with your image!

We will go through the pictures and select a winner!

Next up, a blogger I absolutely ADORE! :)

Kelly from Beg Borrow Steal!

Florida Blog Hop...Coming Soon!

Happy back to school season!

I'm excited to announce a fun Florida-centric blog hop!

I'm joining with some wonderful Florida bloggers to give you some great back to school ideas that will give you all you need to start the year off right!  You can look forward to seeing tips from the following Florida PreK-5 bloggers!

Please join us on Saturday, August 8th at 12 noon!

Can't wait to share some fantastic ideas with you!

BTS Giveaway!!

Hi friends ~ I'm so excited to be teaming up with one of my awesome blogging buddies Vicky from Teaching and Much Moore & kicking off this BTS Giveaway!  I hope you are getting ready for BTS and this giveaway can help meet some of your BTS needs.  First you will be getting a CJ Teach Anchor Planner ~ complete set 

http://cjayneteach.com/teacheranchor.html

Click the link to see all that's included:  CCSS for each grade K - 5.  Birthday lists, parent contact information, teacher planner, grader and so much more.

That is an almost $100 value.

Next...

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Victoria-Moore

&

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Learning-Is-Something-To-Treasure

Then...

So be sure to spread the word and enter the Rafflecopter below:  Good luck~ hurry!  Ends August 6th so we can get your goodies out to you before school ( hopefully ) and if you are already in asap.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Back to School BASH Linky: Classroom Setup + GIVEAWAY!

Hello!!!

Today I am linking up with some of my amazing blogger friends to bring you a 4 week linky series of helpful tips as you venture back into the classroom for a new school year!

This week I am going to be discussing some ideas and tips that I have for classroom setup and organization!

Before you even walk into the classroom, it is really a great idea to draw a diagram of how you would like to set up your room. This will be a MAJOR timesaver in the future for you!

***Another important helpful tip: Prepare ahead of time!! 

I know a lot of people don't want to give up their summer by working on anything school related, but it will really help you when you are crunched for time during preplanning and in meeting after meeting if you have most of it prepped and ready to go. Here are some ideas that I prepped over the summer for when I go back to school in a few weeks:

 I always make inspirational quotes based on my classroom theme:

 I place these table numbers in the middle of each table. I make them based on the school theme that we have this year. This year we are doing a space theme!

I have printed my new classroom decor, and I am already laminating away so it is ready to be hung.

I also prepped my birthday cups for the year. This is an idea that I started a few years back. I give each student one of these cups on their birthday and it is a HIT!! They love them!

Here is the blog post about the birthday cups if you want more information! Click HERE to read!

I also made these privacy shields for students to work independently. My teammate gave me this idea last year, and I loved it! They do have some "helpers" on them to aid during math, reading, and writing specifically. I took triboards and cut them in half to create these.

*** When you consider your classroom environment, make it warm and friendly for your students. I want my students to be excited about our classroom. I want them to WANT to come back to school everyday!

I like to make everything crisp and clean looking. Since I haven't returned to my classroom yet this year, here are some pictures of my classroom from last year! 

 As you can tell, I love colorful and bright! Last year our school theme was a rock star theme, hence the zebra stripes. My students were so excited about our classroom from the minute they walked in the door at Meet the Teacher! This is the vibe you want to establish.

As you can see above, I hang my word wall on ribbons. I like the presentation that the ribbons make and the words are super easy to hang on the ribbons.

***Make everything user friendly and accessible for students.

There is a caddy in the middle of each table with pencils, a box of crayons for each student, their scissors, and glue sticks for each student. This provides quick and easy access when you ask students to get out their materials.

I also make Tidy Tubs for each table for students to put their scrap paper in after they do any cutting. Let me tell you that this idea has worked wonders for keeping all of that scrap paper off of my floor!

*** Have everything set up in student desks for Meet the Teacher!

I have all books in their desks ready to go and name tags already on their desks. I attach their nametags with velcro dots in case I need to make any adjustments. This is an easy way to be able to switch any students around. 

I also have a welcome goody bags on their desks, which of course are a hit with my students! The most important thing, like I said above, is that they walk in your room and feel like it is HOME! :-)

Please hop around and read about other classroom organizational ideas from these fabulous bloggers! Also please link up and share any FAB ideas that you have to start our new school year off with a bang!

An InLinkz Link-up

And that's not it... we are having a GIVEAWAY!!! You have a chance to win some amazing prizes below.

 Please enter in our Rafflecopter below!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway