Spotted in First Grade

So, I've officially been back at the teaching game since August 6.  Can I just state that I AM EXHAUSTED!  Every year I seem to discount exactly how tiring the first of the school year can be. Between prepping your classroom , Meet the Teacher Night, actually teaching your new students, and managing your own household... I'm tired just typing that!  I have Curriculum Night in a few days and I'm hoping when that is history I will finish readjusting to teacher life.  I miss summer but I am excited for this school year.  I've got a great bunch of firsties that I get the honor of working with.  Sigh.  Smile. And now for a peek at the back to school board I showcased...

My teacher bud had a parent give her a stack of pre-cut circular scrapbook paper.  She came to me asking for an idea to use it.  I started bouncing around ideas and I came up with "SPOTTED... Great work".  She wanted an area to display her students' work you see.  Well, I then liked my thought so much that I created a bulletin board that read "SPOTTED in first grade".  I emailed my students' parents and requested that they send me a photo of their firstie.  I then displayed the photos inside the dots that I cut with my handy dandy Silhouette machine.  Anyway, I was proud of myself so I wanna show it all off.  Sometimes we all gotta give ourselves some props you know! ;). What will your back to school board look like?

In Bloom

My ninth year teaching first grade is in bloom. I have 26 darlings in my class and today is our fifth day together. I have been crazy busy, I know I'm preaching to the choir when I post that! Well, I've got the best first grade team to work with. Seriously, the three ladies I work with are amazing. Every year we do a welcome to first grade type of bulletin board. Each grade at our school has a cooperative board space they're in charge of filling to represent what is happening on their grade. We took our first grade photos and turned them in to a sort of circle map to introduce ourselves. They're so fun and our students get a kick out of seeing what we looked like when we were their age. Anyway, I hope your year starts off great and I hope your teaching yields many beautiful blooms this year.

Target, Tissues, and Teachers

So I ran into Target tonight for a few items. It was bliss because I was all by myself! If you're a momma of young children you know why that's a dream come true. Anyway, as I was meandering through the store, with me, myself, and I; I spotted boutique tissue boxes designed like wooden letter blocks. I couldn't resist examining them further and got a flutter of the back to school excitement as I imagined tissue boxes flooding into my classroom. Well, being a teacher, i could not resist imagining all the fun that could be had with these tissue boxes. I played with the tissue boxes, building words of course, for a good ten minutes. It was jubilant and I was probably a bit too into my tissue spelling game. You should've seen the looks I got. I'm sure I was labeled eccentric in a few minds! Have you spotted any back to school stuff yet?