Five for Friday: jittery!

Hello all! Happy Friday to you! I know right now most of us are still on vacation so Friday doesn't mean what it usually means for us, but still--there is just something about Fridays that are awesome, right? For me, I know that I will get days off with my husband, that is exciting within itself! I'm linking up withDoodle Bugs Teaching for yet another Five for Friday! I will say this has been so exciting and each week I look forward to reading what you have been up to:)

You have no idea how long it took me to get this picture! Our secretary asked if we would send a passport like photo to her for school. She said they will be using them throughout the year.  Let's just say my face muscles were twitching by the time I snapped this one. I think this one turned out okay?

This was my welcome wall from last year. (Names were placed on the dots) I did a safari/jungle theme and tied it in with everything. I am looking into doing something similar, but obviously not jungle theme and I don't want to do "look who's been spotted in first grade" again. I loved this and I wish I was the type of person that would be okay with doing the same thing again, but I like to impress people with them! Still in the process of looking for an idea. Any thoughts? No theme this year, just bright colors!

How great is God? Seriously? I needed to pass this test before this upcoming school year but I was in a little bit of a time crunch. I was so so so nervous because I had heard what a doozy this test was. Don't get me wrong Texas teachers, this is still a doozy of a test! I just studied 15+ hours and read every single word in the handouts! I could not be more excited about this! God really had his hand over me while I was taking this! I guess teaching is where he wants me to be:)

I am so bummed because I took a picture of my empty classroom to show you all the before picture, but it has been deleted from my camera:/ Well, anyway, I was able to get into my classroom this past Monday and work for a couple of hours. Then we got news that we wouldn't be able to come at all the rest of the week because they were behind on waxing the floor. I was sad, but then I was also glad I came because not everyone got to work in their rooms. You can't be frustrated at the custodial staff because they don't get summer breaks, they work all the way through summer and are doing a very excellent job. So with that, I just used this week as another week to be lazy, relax, get things done at home, and of course, GO SHOPPING! :) 

Stay tuned for a classroom reveal coming your way soon! 

This was my very first sale to ever participate in! Although I am not in the big leagues, I did sell quite a bit! I was very proud of myself and I will celebrate mini milestones! I am still needing followers on my TpT store. If you click on the TpT tab at the top of my blog, it will bring you straight there to show my little store some love! I would greatly appreciate you! I have some awesome bundles and things in my mind to make as I approach them this school year! I think I have 12 followers right now whom I love, but they could use some friends:) Store Name : Kayla Coutouzis

Give you a hint, if you type Kayla COU my name will already pop up because who has a last name like that?! 

This is by far my best seller in case you were looking for something like this to add to your writing center focus wall. I'm very excited to use this in my own classroom. No pressure, just adding this in case you have been searching for something along these lines! :)

Thank you so much for stopping by and reading what I have been up to this week. I love having you here and sharing it with me! Have a great weekend:)

Monday Made it: Gearing up for the school year

Happy Monday to you! This week I have a lot in store for you and am excited to hear your feedback and share this with you! It has been a busy week, but it was also a lot of fun! I am excited to use these things in the classroom this year! Let's get down to business;) I'm linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics again for another Made it Monday. Prepare yourself, this will be a long post! My most favorite thing is at the end!

First up: reading center phones! These babies are great for students to read to themselves to hear the sounds and words they are pronouncing. This is a great speech therapy skill to use for students because they can hear themselves like they are talking in their own ear. Now, I must confess, although this was on my list to make this summer, a dear friend offered to make them for me. Isn't that so sweet? All I did was buy the DUCT tape for her and she put these together:] She did an awesome job and I am so grateful for her! Did I mention the DUCT tape is grape scented?! AWESOME.

She was able to make a set of 25

Also this week, I added Word Wall Headers with bright colors and chevron! These turned out so cute and I am very excited to add these to my word wall. This set also includes the letters "WORD WALL" for the top of your focus wall! These are now posted in my TpT store! Store name: Kayla Coutouzis

To match the word wall decor, I also added focus wall decor! These cover the subject areas for the tops of your bulletin boards. HOW CUTE RIGHT?! I am so happy with how these turned out! If you are interested, you can also find these in my store!

As I am gearing up for the new year, I realized I needed a welcome banner! I decided to make one to match my classroom decor. CHEVRON of course! Check this out:)

I am in love with this -at word family mini book bundle! At the beginning of the year, my students always review these and I love that I made them interactive! Super fun and just recently uploaded to my store! Here's a preview!

My vocabulary wall is going to be kickin' this year with these back to school emotions posters! There are lots of emotions with pictures which are perfect for visual learners, ESL students, and beginning writers! For more information, check my TpT store.

Last, but certainly not least..my favorite creation this week. One that took me longer than any of the others! I am so so so so excited to use this in my classroom! 

This is a set of word cards that are perfect for your writing center! Each card has a specific theme with matching pictures and words. You can put them in sheet protectors and place them in a binder or you could laminate them and put them on a ring. 

One thing that will help when having these is that my students won't have to come up to my reading table to ask how to spell a word. Most likely what they are trying to spell is in these sheets! More information about what is included is in my store!

On a side note--I guess you could add this as a "made it" because I MADE IT into the store…..These are some smokin' hot deals this week! Look!

SHARPIES. MY FAV. Pretty much can make any teacher go crazy, right? 0.25 cents AGAIN at Office Max/Office Depot! Hurry in to get your deal because last time this sale went on, they were wiped clean in a couple of days! Sale just started yesterday!

This is the sale I had been waiting for all summer long! .10 composition notebooks! I was so happy the other morning when I saw this. I have 2 sets of Language Arts classes because we are blocked (yes, even in first grade!) I teach reading/writing/spelling-(the language arts) to 2 different sets of classes while my partner does math/science. Last year their writing journals (spirals) completely fell apart with the perforation. I told myself composition was the way to go. Because I needed 50 of them, I still thought .50 was a steep price to pay. When I saw this deal, my husband thought I was crazy. He drove all around town to different locations with me just to get my 50 notebooks:) Of course he did a separate transaction to help me reach this. BOOM all of these for $5.00. WHAT A STEAL! Isn't my hubby so sweet? I think I'll keep him;)

Don't Forget: Today starts the Back to School Sale on TpT! Using Code BTS14 you can get up to 28% off:) My whole store is on sale just for you! Have fun!:)

WHEW. Thank you for letting me share all of my hard work and excitements with you! Let me know what you think. Sorry for such a long post, it has definitely been a busy week for me and I have been a creating MACHINE! I am sorry for the overwhelming TpT items, I know this linkup is not to advertise, but if you are not following my store and because it is such an awesome sale day, I wanted to make you aware of what has been added to my store just in time for the big sale! Have a great week!:)

Check out what other teachers are making back up at the linkup!

Paper Storage & Writing Center Ideas

Happy Monday to you! I have seen some already going back to work and some still enjoying there summer! I still have until August 25th to get my new kiddies! Now, I know that many days will be spent preparing my classroom and lots of hours will be used doing that! For now, I create and prepare at home while I watch reality TV. Which brings me to show you my newest Monday Made Its! I am linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made it for yet another week of projects! Here we go!

If you read my post for Five For Friday, I mentioned how I would be making something with Post Office boxes. This was such a fun project because it was essentially FREE! I went to the Post Office and picked up these free boxes, used paint I already had on hand, and WAA LA!  Free Paper Storage for your classroom that is completely customized! :)

Here is the first step. What I found most easy is to fold only 3 flaps on each side and leave the 4th flap up, creating one full panel you can cut off. Doing it this way saves cutting time. )I taped the box temporarily for it to stay down.

The next step is to cut the entire panel that is not folded on each side until it leaves an open side of the box.

Your box should look like this when your panel has been completely cut off from the box. Like I said, I used tape temporarily because I could not find my hot glue gun at the time. I would recommend using a hot glue gun and glueing the box from the inside so you do not have any bubbles on the outside of the box.  I repeated this step with 3 separate boxes and attached them with tape. If I were doing this again, I would definitely look harder for my glue gun since it will allow you to create a more "clean" look on the outside of your box. 

The last step is to paint your box any pattern that you like! Of course I had to go with bright colored chevron:) Like I mentioned before, there is a little bubble with the tape I used because I couldn't find my glue gun, but if you use a glue gun, it will look much better! I am still working on the inside of the box, but you get the idea! Add paint or fun scrapbook paper on the inside of the box and you have yourself a free paper storage space, cubbies, or whatever you want to use it for! P.s-These are Large Flat Rate Boxes from the Post Office, if you want your compartments thinner, use Medium Flat Rate Boxes. My Post Office was out of the Mediums but I thought this would do for now:)

This week, I also made my BIGGEST TpT product yet! a whopping 30-some pages of writing center joy! Last year, I wished I had an example of each type of writing that students could do posted up on the wall to remind students their writing choices at their writing centers. I also was looking for different writing templates that would correlate with the examples! So what else to do but to make it!

This Writing Center bundle is equipped with 11 wall posters for your students to see an example of what they can produce at the writing center. Posters include:

1.) List
2.) Poem
3.) Recipe
4.) Post Card
5.) Story
6.) Book
7.) Joke
8.) Song
9.) Letter
10.) Card
11.) How To

In addition to the example posters, this bundle includes the 11 headers that go with each poster.

Writing Center Title, "I can write a..", and "writers…" posters are also included!

This kit incorporates some writing templates that match the example posters. Templates included are: 
1.) One half sheet writing template with the top blank for drawing and bottom with lined paper
2.) 4 letter templates (one boy, one girl, one without dotted lines, and one shortened letter template)
3.) A Card Template
4.) A Post Card Template
5.) A How-To Graphic Organizer
6.) A List Template

I'm not one to toot my own horn, but I am very pleased with how this turned out! It is exactly what I was looking for to incorporate into my classroom! Stop by my Teachers Pay Teachers Store and check it out! (Store Name: Kayla Coutouzis) More importantly, follow me for more freebies and products such as this:) I think I am up to 9 followers? Whoop Whoop! Show my lonely store some love! 

Thank you so much for stopping by! Stay tuned for my next Monday Made Its, I've got my ideas churning:) Check out what other teachers have been making back at the link up and have a great week:)