Other – Page 13

Are you there, Michaels? It’s me, Sarah.

July 6, 2012 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 7 Comments

The other day my husband and I took a trip to Michaels to browse around now that we’ve both got our placements and are starting the process of preparing for the upcoming school year. Now, ordinarily I don’t spend much time in Michaels because my brain goes on “crafty overload” and somehow I lose all sense of “do I really need to spend an hour in the scrapbook paper aisle?” So imagine my sheer glee when there’s an approved trip to literally spend an hour slowly walking around the store (and taking pictures of anything and everything)!

Without further commentary about how much-anticipated this outing was, the photographic evidence (that will almost certainly compel you to print a coupon and run to your nearest Michaels!):

These great stamps were only a $1! I’m planning on using both of these as peer-feedback mechanisms, with me stealing the “great idea” stamp once and a while as I’m looking through their interactive notebooks!

I thought of several of my favorite bloggers when I passed by this display! While I’m not a football fan (I know, I know), there are so many of you that have utilized football as your theme and these — especially once clearanced — could be put to use in a variety of ways in your classrooms!

Let’s have a moment of silence. Printed craft sticks, y’all! Forget Mod Podge-ing your own and spending your time and money on that (the paper you’d use alone would be more!) — these suckers are $4.99/100 pack!!!

Oh, the bargain bins. The bins on the left are filled with National Geographic merchandise; pens, sticker books, notepads, mousepads, etc. These were all very reasonably priced (most about $2), and would be great for animal-themed units or classrooms. The bins on the right were filled with environmental-print alphabet items. I tried to convince Mr. Plum that we needed matching “P” mugs for the teacher’s lounge, but it was a no-go.

Raise your hand if you’ve pinned the salt & pepper shakers as glitter-distribution devices. Only me? Well, imagine my excitement when I stumbled on these! I didn’t end up purchasing any this trip (priorities!), but now that I know where to find them, I’m good to go! Just you wait, I will earn the title of glitter queen.

I loved both of these setups, and it didn’t hurt that they were clearanced-priced either (though none of it made it into the basket this time). I can see the watering cans being used for a great discussion on how we grow as individuals, as authors, as a class, etc. and I can certainly see the stones as being used to anchor some character education.

Origami paper. There is an origami aisle, y’all. There is an origami aisle and I purchased nothing from it. Personal triumph, ahoy!

Chevrons! Bright colors! I started to walk past this display and then I did a double-take. I didn’t end up purchasing either of these, but I definitely wanted to snap a picture to post for y’all. There are 25 sheets in each of these stacks and they were heavy-weight cardstock — for only $3!

This one I did purchase. I can’t wait to create some activities for the first week of school surrounding this book to refresh on sequencing skills, etc. I’m toying with the idea of writing my own parody to surprise the kiddos with, featuring me. Does anyone know where I could get some custom clipart made?

I picked up a few other (small) things I’m going to feature in other posts, and then headed next door to Home Goods to check it out for the first time. I was a little underwhelmed — I’m not sure what I was expecting. Certainly not this randomness! Behold:

What in the world? Also — $500?!

Thank you for accompanying me on my trip to a little slice of crafty-heaven! I’ll be back tomorrow with (hopefully) some ‘before’ pictures of my very first classroom! I took a sneak-peek yesterday and oh my word. That’s all I’ve got to describe the feeling!

My Ruby Red Danskos + A Freebie!

July 5, 2012 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 10 Comments

I wish. I totally wish I had a pair of ruby Danskos, or that this post was about me finding out they even make a pair of ruby Danskos — nope! This post is actually about my metaphorical ruby Danskos, or what a day in my life was like as a student teacher.

For reference, these would be the actual Danskos (my feet are so big and awkward I have to buy the men’s) that graced my soles:

5:00 a.m. – Alarm goes off, depending on how much sleep I’ve gotten (assuming I’ve gone to sleep at all, hah!) I may or may not hit snooze. I shower/get dressed/put finishing touches on lesson plans and materials.

6:45 a.m. – Wheels up and out of the driveway.

8:00 a.m. – Drop William off at daycare. (Depending on traffic, we have about an hour commute to his daycare!)

8:30 a.m. – I get dropped off at my school and Mr. Plum drives to his two miles away. (Both of us completed our internship at the same time — a mere two miles apart in the same school district!)

8:45 a.m. – Shovel a hardboiled egg down while writing the morning message and laying out the days’ materials.

9:05 a.m. – Kiddos walk in, announcements start, and I pretend I am well-rested and totally energetic!

9:25 a.m. – Language Arts block starts; guided reading happens, center rotations, mini-lessons, etc. We do a big word study focus on Monday, and then are pretty flexible the rest of the week.

11:25 a.m. – Science or social studies starts, depending on the day. About half the time these two subjects gets integrated with language arts, which I loved doing.

12:20 p.m. – Time for lunch! I drop the kiddos off, heat up my lunch (assuming I didn’t leave it in the car — which is two miles away — d’oh!) and eat lunch with the kiddos and my cooperating teacher.

12:50 p.m. – We head out for recess (and I try not to burn with my near-translucent skin).

1:20 p.m. – We head inside and start math, and try not to roast like chicken in our un-air-conditioned hotbox. Sometimes we’d do centers or small group, but this bunch of kiddos responded best to whole-group math instruction.

2:20 p.m. – SPECIALS TIME! I do a happy dance and hope the kiddos don’t see.

3:05 p.m. – I pick ’em up from specials, we wrap up with some fun activities, and do a few administrative tasks (notes, signing agendas, reviewing homework, afternoon annoucements, etc.).

3:30 p.m. – I wave bye-bye and get some much-appreciated hugs from the kiddos.

4:30 p.m. – Mr. Plum picks me up, and we swap war stories from the day on the way to pick up William.

5:00 p.m. – We pick up William, he immediately demands snacks, and we oblige. If we’ve remembered them. Hopefully.

6:15 p.m. – We roll into the driveway, and immediately collapse. Just kidding.

7:00 p.m. – We eat dinner… well, William eats dinner. Mr. Plum and I just try and stay awake. I most certainly drink coffee.

9:00 p.m. – William hopefully is in his room, putting himself to sleep. I’m starting to sift through my massive to-do list, finish writing another four page lesson plan (torture, I tell you!), grade student papers, and write a reflection for each lesson I taught that day.

12:00 a.m. – Snack break. I’m probably on my second episode of Hoarders on Netflix by now.

2:00 a.m. – Generally finished creating/writing and printing, and now just laminating. I’ve moved on from Hoarders, and am probably watching Toddlers and Tiaras so that my outrage keeps me awake.

2:45 a.m. – Finally in bed. Usually.

By the time the weekend hit, both my husband and I were beat. Totally wiped out. When I look back on my final semester of graduate school, I honestly marvel at how we did it because the entire thing was one long blur. I do remember thinking about mid-way through that the days were just melting together and that it was best to “go with the flow.”

One thing is for certain — the experience solidified just how much I love this profession and could not possibly do anything else for the joy it has given me. Despite the complete and utter sleep deprivation (which I know everyone has experienced — a rite of passage!), I never wanted to give up. I never felt like the tasks before me were insurmountable, or dread getting up in the morning. That was a great feeling.

Now it’s your turn — tell me about a day in your shoes! Head on over to Ingles360 and link up as a part of TBA’s celebration of International Blog-Hopping Day!

And while you’re at it, you may as well head on over to my TPT store to grab this:

I’m celebrating with TBA by posting another freebie from my stint during student teaching! This freebie is a teacher “big book” and student booklet that can be used as basic reference or review for plane and solid geometric figures.

Do you have a freebie you’d like to share? Head on over to Kreative in Kinder to link up and share one!

Happy Birthday, America!

July 4, 2012 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 2 Comments

This is one of my favorite YouTube finds, ever, and is totally appropriate for today! I’d like to think that TJ would approve and find the 21st Century depiction of him to be positively awesome.

I hope that everyone has a safe and wonderful Fourth of July, and gets to spend some time with those you love! I’ll be spending some quality time with my sweet husband and kiddo today, doing absolutely nothing.

No nap-time, y’all!

July 4, 2012 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 4 Comments

Insert long, exasperated sigh here.

It looks like nap-time may be saying goodbye for good. My almost-three year old has taken a handful of naps in the last two weeks, and those have been hard fought. It’s a sad day in our household, as those two and a half to three glorious hours of work are now gone. Finished. Bye-bye.

Despite the mania of no-nap, I’ve been productive. Somewhat. I need to buckle down and do some curriculum-related items on my “to-do” list and leave my Oz and classroom creations on the “in-progress” list for a while… but not before I finish this:

Too much?

So once those are printed, laminated, and cut, Oz is in a time-out so I can get my “teacher tools” setup with some bare-bones planning materials and get started on planning out the first week. That’s not to say the car won’t magically drive itself to Goodwill in search of picnic baskets, because the car will do what the car wants to do — if you know what I mean.

Before I get to printing (oh, the ink), I wanted to call your attention to some fabulous new clipart from none other than the 3am Teacher herself! Michelle released her much-anticipated school supply art today over on TPT, and it is ah-mazing. Bananas, even. I’m definitely going to be creating lots of goodies with it — thanks Michelle!

Monday (Almost Didn’t) Made It!

July 3, 2012 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 14 Comments

During my student-teaching internship this spring I made a lot of resources. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. I don’t know why I thought it’d be a good idea to literally re-invent the wheel during internship, especially during an internship that my husband was also completing, while having a 2.5 year old, and commuting 90 minutes each way (totally serious — it happened). But I did!

This meant a lack of sleep for the months between December and May, but it has yielded great satisfaction since — especially in preparing for my own classroom and curriculum! One of my more lackluster projects was posters for the basic science process skills. Yes, folks, they were sad.

Check out all that white space and Microsoft clipart!

In searching for something else on Google Drive (P.S. thank you Google for that, it is a lifesaver!) I came across the original files and decided they needed a makeover immediately. And most importantly? This needed to be like Skittles (taste the rainbow) exploded all over them. What’s better than science? Bright, colorful science that makes you smile.

Thanks to some clipart from some of my favorite people on the internet (check them out on the sidebar), I made over my process skills posters in a very Oz-like fashion.

Oh yes… much, much better.

But that wasn’t enough for me on what is now my first Monday (oh my word, it’s 10:20pm!) Made It. I decided to print them (thank you, Canon) and laminate them (thank you, Scotch) and hang them (thank you Staples). And in doing so, I discovered a little shortcut to hole-punching accurately that I’m sure all of you pros already know!

Reinforcers. Yep.

All I did was measure where I wanted to make my initial punches, put the sticky reinforcers down, and then guide the hole punch right over it. It made it so easy to create a template to do all of the other posters with, and in literally ten minutes I had this:

Bam! Instant science-happiness.
(Excuse the poor camera work. There’s not enough light!)

So, it’s Monday. And I made it.

Would you like these posters for your classroom? Head on over to my TPT store and snag yourself a copy! (Sidenote: I’m totally doing a happy dance in my office chair because, yes, after three years of admiring everyone else’s work, I listed something of my own!)