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Sarah Plum

K-5 Resources for Diverse Classrooms

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Why didn’t anyone warn me?!

August 18, 2012 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 2 Comments

Seriously — why did none of you warn me that I was going to need to stock up on ibuprofen and a heating pad for the nights after setting up my room?! Shame on you! 😛 My whole body hurts!
Mr. Plum and I have spent the last three days in our rooms — for a few hours each day — staring at the walls. Er, decorating them. It’s been slow going because, I swear, there’s some sort of space-time continuum in our rooms that makes time go on warp speed and our productivity plummet.
So far I’ve managed to:

  • arrange the room + desks
  • put up the fabric + borders for my three bulletin boards
  • begin the process of going through materials + arrange them
I also got my roster and — drumroll please! — I’ll be the teacher of 8 oz-some girls and 13 oz-some boys this school year! It was a surreal moment to read their names and realize that, yes, this is my class.
In other (super amazing exciting) news, I totally won a ticket to the Back to School Virtual Teaching Expo! I am *so* excited about this, because goodness knows I can use all of the information and help I can get starting off my first year. I won a giveaway from the amazing Melanie of Schoolgirl Style, but you can get your own ticket for $10 (and in the process, donate two tickets, too!).
I’ll leave you with a sneak peek of how Dorothy has influenced my front bulletin board… I haven’t decided yet whether this is going to be my Daily 5 board, or my “What do GREAT readers do?” bulletin board. I’m leaning toward the latter, since this is right next to my classroom library (which I have to tackle on Monday, eek!).
It looks much better in person.
And I’m sure it’d look better if I weren’t using a camera phone two seconds before they set the alarm!

A close-up of the (ugh, crooked) fabric and trim!

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: Classroom Decor, The Wizard of Oz

I *did* make it on Monday…

August 15, 2012 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 5 Comments

I’m almost two days late. But that’s okay. We’ll pretend that I indeed posted this Monday morning.
I fully intended to post a few more items on my TPT store during the Back to School sale, but that never happened. My to-do list ran away from me, my nearly three year old decided that he didn’t need to listen to Mommy anymore, and I got a little carried away. With this.
I started out with the plan to make my “pick me” bucket. I thought that since my kiddos are my “lollipop guild” and lollipops are featured on my student data binder I should do lollipops. So I made the labels, and started to affix them to my trusty popsicle sticks.
I had this nagging feeling. Come on. You know you want to go all out.

My car drove itself to AC Moore. My debit card purchased cellophane, cookie sticks, and ribbon. And then my hands, independent of my brain, made these:

Your eyes aren’t seeing things. Those are lollipop numbers wrapped in cellophane and tied with a ribbon. Yes. I went there.
The metal pot is an antique, and unbreakable. It reminds me of something you might see in Dorothy’s house, which is why I chose it over a plastic pot from Walmart (which I might’ve hot-glued ribbon and a label to before I changed my mind). I’m on the fence about a label. What do you think?
As a mea-culpa for not posting anything new so you could enjoy 28% savings, I’ve uploaded the numbers in three sizes (4″, 3″, and 1.5″ diameter) to my TPT store. You can grab them by clicking on the image below — I hope you find them useful!

I’ll be back tomorrow night to share the first progress pictures of my classroom — I’m spending the whole day there tomorrow cleaning it out and arranging it (once or twice or five times) before I start decorating. Wish me luck… and not clumsiness!

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: Classroom Decor, Freebie, Monday Made It, Teachers Pay Teachers, The Wizard of Oz

There’s No Place Like Home!

August 11, 2012 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 2 Comments

Really, there isn’t. I absolutely loved my vacation to visit my in-laws in NY, but I missed being home and getting things checked off my massive to-do list. I actually think I might be more stressed out for having had a vacation, but I’m sure an all-nighter tonight to clean our home office (it is a W-R-E-C-K) and make a list of things to purchase at IKEA/Lakeshore tomorrow (VA Blogger Meetup, yay!) will ease my stress. What can I say, organizing is therapeutic!
I’m off to wade through my Google Reader that currently has an “unread” post count of 376… I leave you with my August Currently!

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: Currently, Sleep is Overrated

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About the Author

Sarah Plum(itallo) is a teacher of emerging multilinguals and 21st Century Grant coordinator in Virginia. She writes curriculum for inclusive classrooms and presents professional development on a variety of topics.

Read more about Sarah and her background in education here.

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