Cactus Classroom Preview!

I am moving to a new classroom this year, and I decided that I might as well have a new classroom theme! 

 I love trendy and fun so I chose a Cactus Succulent Classroom Theme! 

 I will be revealing my finished classroom in a later post. Since I can't get into my classroom yet, I am going to share with you the items that I plan on building my classroom theme around.

So my sweet cousin watched my lovely kiddos one day and made me this sign for my classroom door! She is so talented! Find her on instagram here! 

I found this adorable felt letter board on Amazon. It came with two sets of letters (One white and One glow-in-the-dark) I can definitely see this being such a fun place to put messages to my students or quotes! The 12X10 that I bought is currently unavailable, but here is a similar board.  

No classroom is complete without borders, am I right? So in my new classroom I plan to layer the metallic green, black and striped border to create a classy and fresh look. I cannot wait to play around with these and see how it turns out. You can find the striped border here. And the metallic corrugated borders were a gift. I am sure they have them at any teacher supply store. 

Amazing Dollar Tree finds! While taking my weekly ( who am I kidding daily more like it!) trip to Dollar Tree I stumbled on these goodies. The cactus decals were such a steal! There are three per sheet, two on the front and one on the back. I think I will either use them on the walls or my front window.
The succulents were a great buy and I plan on using those simply for decoration on a shelf.
Oh bins...... What can I say, you ALWAYS need more bins. I plan on storing glue, markers, STEAM supplies and anything else that will fit in these babies!  All of this cost around $23 at Dollar Tree so I call the a win. 

These tiny Cactus lights are EV. ERY. THING!!! I think I might put them around my smart board, or on the Birthday bulletin board. So many possibilities! I got these as a birthday gift from one of my sweetest friends. They can be found at Target!  And Amazon has some similar ones here. 

And last but not least, this adorable rug that I found at a boutique in my hometown. I am thinking of adding a burlap ribbon or twine hanger to the top and making it a wall hanging. I know if I use it as an actual rug it will be wrecked mid year. SOOOOOO on the wall it will go! It can be found on Amazon here. It is a 24 X 48 rug so will make a nice large wall covering.

Check out this Cactus Group Labels Freebie! I am planning on using these on my new Target Carts. Can't wait to share the finished product!  They are super fun and fit in the Target Dollar Spot 3 X 5 Adhesive square pockets.                                    

                                              

Thank you so much for joining me and reading my Okie ramblings. I am so excited to share my classroom reveal with you! Hopefully they will let us into our classrooms soon!! 

Bundle up for Winter with these Hot Bundles!

Plymouth Colony BUNDLE!

For those looooong days before break!! PBL: Planning the First Thanksgiving

Engaging students during Social Studies can sometimes be a challenge. Bringing an new element from across the curriculum can help! And face it anything that they can use scissor and glue on is a plus!

So I started thinking... how can I pull in an aspect of art into my social studies classes? We were also using nets in Math and VOILA! 3D History!

My first project was a 3D model of Jamestown:

Students began by coloring the background of the fort.



Then students cut out each piece for the walls. This includes a cylinder net.

 





They we put our 3D walls on our background and built our Jamestown Fort.

This can used as a group project or an individual. It would be great to display on a parents night. Follow the link below to purchase the project for your own students. :)

Jamestown Fort 3D

 



Sooo nothing was baking, unless a fever counts......

Where to start, where to start! What a day it has been already... I was not in the classroom today, because I was taking care of more important business. (GASP!) What could be more important than the little minds that I mold each day you say?


My own feverish little 4 year old...that is what. Poor little guy started his morning off with a 103 degree fever. I was really needing to get things done in my classroom today and state tests are upon us..but then I remembered there is nothing, no job, no activity, no earthly thing more important than taking care of my own child.


And he is quite a child, never even cried when they swabbed his throat for strep or stuck that ginormous q-tip up his nose to test for the flu (neither of which he had by the way.) He was so optimistic and upbeat..and cute, did I mention that he is cute.


So instead of being in my classroom, playing the part of teacher, today I got the rare occasion of staying home with my little C.W. And although I really got not a thing done, that was the beauty of the day. 


Hoping that you have a wonderful weekend and that you could say a little prayer for my little one.

Freshly Baked Friday

So it is already July....yep that is what I said, JULY. For teachers this is the time of year when we just start getting our deep tans and summer groove goin' on, only to be wrenched back into reality by the dreaded...BACK TO SCHOOL ads!!! Hiss..Hiss.. AHHHH!

But, what can we do but embrace our fate and join right in? I confess I have already started laminating and cutting out new classroom decor. So for this weeks Freshly Baked Friday I present my freshly written

Back To School Recipe Poem and Activity. 

I really cannot wait to use this in my own classroom. It probably will be within the first few days. I think that the poem will show students what they can expect from my classroom, a loving and sweet environment!
I also think that working together to come up with ideas about what ingredients should and should not go into it using the included anchor chart will be a great team-building experience for my class.  I really do love hearing what students think and it is a great step in getting to know them first thing. I also think this activity sets the tone for the year. It will help my kiddos know what works and what doesn't and that we are all responsible for the "mix" in our classroom!
So if you need a sweet little icebreaker for your back to school routine, check this out!
P.S. To make it extra tasty it is only $1!! 

Sweet tea wishes and Cowboy dreams!! 

Classy Classrooms!

I am thrilled to be linking up with Delightfully Dedicated for her summer blog hop series! Today's item up for discussion is the classroom! Every classroom is wonderfully different and I LOVE looking at pictures of other teachers classrooms to see how they organize things, decorate and any and every idea that I can steal borrow!


In my own classroom I love to use bins for EVERYTHING, but that is another blog post entirely! I also love to use polka dots and chevrons a lot but it works against the clean gray walls in my classroom. I am in love with the red, black and white theme of the past two years. But I am thinking of adding more of the multi-colored and chalkboard theme also. 



I divided my desks into groups and put a simple black bookcase in front of the group. There students can store their books, there is a small trashcan, pencil cup and tissue box to keep students from "wandering." I love my hanging folder holders (thats what I call them) I put absent work, extra printouts and morning work in them, great to have them off my desk!

Also at the back of the room you can see my black and white paper display areas. I bought a pad of scrapbook paper and then put each up with little bits of velcro, that way if I need to take them down for summer cleaning it won't be so difficult. I also put a clothespin at the top of each paper to display each students great paper grades or art projects. They also break up the grey!

Hope you enjoyed my little classroom tour. Come back next week when we are blogging about beautiful behavior! 

One item that means the world to me......

Hello again! I am here today linking up with I Heart Grade 3 for her summer blog hop series.

 Today's topic is 

One item that means the world to me.

I pondered this for a few days and decided to pick a "teacher me only" item. Of course my children, husband and family mean the most in my life, but I thought I would have a little fun while sharing my favorite item.

My one item that means the world to me would have to be my Social Studies book collection. I am thoroughly in love with all things history, I even majored in that in college. I collect these books like some women collect purses! (well I like purses too) They are such an asset when I am trying to get my students excited about the American Revolution or colonial times. Here are a couple of my favorites. :) 

My Teaching Quirk

Hey everyone! I am so excited to be linking up with I Heart Grade 3 for her summer blog hop series. This week's topic is "My Teaching Quirk." 

Oh where do I begin! I have many little quirks but one of my largest ones is bins. BINS, BINS and more BINS!! I guess that this could fit into the larger quirk grouping of OCD organizational skills! 

I have bins at school for papers in, papers out, sharpened pencils, un-sharpened pencils, dry erase markers....you name it I have a bin for it! 

Since school has been out for the summer, my bin obsession has {gasp} followed me home!!

I recently BIN-ified my linen closet....complete with tiny laminated labels.

WHERE WILL IT END you ask? 

Maybe when I run out of $ Washingtons $ to spend at Dollar Tree!! 

Sweet Tea Wishes and Cowboy Dreams!

Freshly Baked Friday 6/12/15

This Freshly Baked Friday is hotter than June in Oklahoma!!

So after I was told that I was going back to 5th grade from a year teaching 6th grade Science I was thrilled and it got me started thinking about what holes were in my 5th grade Social Studies lesson plans. 

I really loved teaching the unit on Roanoke and knew that would be a great place to start re-vamping my lesson plans.  Which leads me to this weeks Freshly Baked Friday! 

Roanoke is such a mystery and that makes it such an engaging lesson on its own, I love to do Social Studies Centers with each of my units and soooooo I made a fresh new one just for teaching about Roanoke. 

I also like to begin the Roanoke unit by reading this wonderful book.  

Roanoke: The Lost Colony--An Unsolved Mystery from History

written by Heidi E. Y. Stemple & Jane Yolen

illustrated by Roger Roth

I also always love to incorporate some sort of technology into each of my units. Here is an online quiz that I created!  Students can use the classroom computers or iPads to test their knowledge of Roanoke. It is FREE so try your luck at it! 

Roanoke Quiz 

100 follower Giveaway for Kovescence of the Mind

Hop on over to Kovescence of the Mind to enter to win lots of free stuff including

MY Colonial Jobs Reader Bundle! 

 

I am so happy to be part of this fun celebration! 

Happy 100 followers! 

Sweet tea wishes and Cowboy dreams. 

Freshly Baked Friday

Mmmmmm.... What is better than a Freshly Baked Friday post??
A Freshly Baked Friday FREEBIE post!! I have been working on another Colonial Jobs Bundle this week and I thought I should give my followers a little special surprise!

I have been playing with the idea of QR codes for my classroom. I recently received an iPad grant from my schools Educational Foundation. So these QR codes will be perfect for my Colonial Unit Centers. Each Spring and Fall we can apply for grants for anything from technology to classroom supplies! My most recent grant I will share on a future post when they are shipped to me....but just think ROBOTS!!

So back to my surprise for YOU!

Just click on the link below and hop on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store to download this little lovely! It is FREE and with the QR Codes your students get instant feedback!

QR Code Colonial Jobs Question Card Set FREEBIE

 Sweet tea wishes and Cowboy dreams! 

Freshly Baked Friday

So for my first Freshly Baked Friday I will be featuring my newest product!

Each Friday I will feature either one of my fresh out of the oven products 
or ideas or one from another TPT seller.

Colonial Jobs: Mini-Reader Bundle 

Although the bundle is aimed at 2nd - 4th grades, I plan on using it in my own 5th grade classroom for students that may struggle reading more advanced texts. It comes with an 18 page book with descriptions of different colonial jobs, a quiz, two writing prompts, a foldable and answer keys. 

Bloglovin!

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Just an Okie Teacher and her blog

I have decided that I am just going to jump right in, as I do with most things, and start blogging. I am a 6th grade teacher in Oklahoma, and I will hereby and forever refer to myself as

the okie teacher.  

I am starting this blog to share classroom projects, ideas, materials, struggles and truimphs.

So grab a glass of sweet tea and stay a while!