A little bit of this...a little bit of that...

It's been a busy week! I've been leaving the confines of the city and venturing out to the suburbs for meetings... that means one thing, August 15th is coming way too soon!   I did take some time out to meet some fabulous other Chicago area bloggers this week. I met some amazing women and teachers. Thank you to Nicole and Melissa from Lesson Plan SOS and Becky from Dots-n-Spots for hosting. Look at these adorable cookies Nicole made us!

Aren't these soooo adorable! Love!

I recently found these ABC alphabet cards on TPT.  Jessica is so sweet, they were originally Zaner-Bloser but made them D'Nealian for me. They are going to look adorable with my Wild About Learning theme.

Thank you Jessica!

Do you have a color day schedule?  Our building is on color day rotation... specials are on a color day rather than day of the week. To help my students and I organized, I color code a monthly calendar. I love this one from The Chalkboard. It's $5 and it's big enough to write birthdays and days off on it. The students love that they can see what day it is going to be in advance.  Yes, they're on their way to being self-directed!

I seriously could not get the picture to rotate properly. Ugh!!

Do you see that first color day? August 15th, yes, August 15th is when the students start. It's coming up so soon! All you need are some markers to get you started.

I also went to Lakeshore Learning. LOVE that store. Seriously. Slight obsession. I've had my eyes on these student work displays for 6 months and finally got them.  I can't wait to hang them up with all my little one's work! I'm now debating whether I should put them in my room or in the hallway!

I also found all these books for less than $2 while I was there. I think I'll be going back for even more!

My mom found me this pillow at Hobby Lobby for $1. She couldn't pass it up, and frankly, I wouldn't have been able to either. My dog is lovin it though... she keeps trying to pull it out of the bag!

I've also busy making my pattern block alphabet cards. I think these cards would be perfect for centers or even indoor recess. I am a firm believer students need hands on materials, and this looks perfect for my firsties. I know my fourth graders could never get enough with using pattern blocks.  I found them at Making Learning Fun. I just printed them out, cut them, put them on black construction paper, and they'll be ready to laminate when I go back to school next week. My teammate and I checked.... they match the standard pattern blocks. If you have older ones, you could have them make their own letters or shapes. This is a great geometry concept lesson. I've done this many times.  

I found these at the Dollar Store, but they don't go with my theme, so I just took a picture... super cute if you are doing bright colors!

And of course, I had to buy new shoes for work for myself. I couldn't pass up the first day of the Nordstrom's Sale!  I love boots, and I couldn't leave without getting myself a pair of these beauties!

I hope you've been having a great week.. and done a lot of shopping too!