A new year and new classroom

This year, my music classroom moved into a smaller room. I'm ok with the loss of space though because last year I shared the room space with our church choir. So now it is a elementary music classroom only. So excited. So of course I had a ball decorating and reorganizing for this new school year.

Sir Learns-A-Lot Riser Rules

Teacher Domain...lol

Instrument Shelf

Craft Addiction

I ventured out to our local Hobby Lobby store today to just purchase some treat bags for the students end of the year party. Needless to say, I came home with more than just treat bags.  

I've been making several items I found on Pinterest that will work great for my music classroom or homeroom. My first endeavor was the "Tattle Monster" which you can find here at gigglesgalore. I think he came out pretty cute!

Next came the "Quiet Critters" which I think will work great for the girls I'll have in next years class. I found this idea at teachfromtheheart .

Then there was the "Baggie Quilt" made with all the neat duct tape you can find now adays and ziplock bags. Worked great! The kids liked writing and drawing about what they enjoyed learning most this year to go in their bag. This was found at 4thgradefrolics .

Last but not least, I finally made the treat bags! I love how popular the "Owl" graphics are right now. I remember my grandmother having a owl necklace from the 70's that I used to always wear for dress up when I was little. It had big tiger-eye stones for eyes. So I'm going along with the trend and created my own labels for their baggies. 

Inspiration

Recently, via the fabulous site "Pinterest" I have discovered many teacher blogs that have given me amazing ideas for projects and ideas for my classroom. I started this blog and didn't really do much with it. After seeing how helpful everyone else's blogs have been to me, I am going to try my hand at this again. I don't know if my idea's will help anyone else, but I love to blog and this will be my place to express my teacher related ideas. The past few years have been full of classroom antics. I'll just post a few of the things that have gone down in my neck of the woods at our school, Christ Church School in Temple, Texas.

Texas Regions Project, I was in awe of this students attention to detail with her poster.

At the end of their lessons on Castles and Medieval Fortifications, we play "Castle Catapult". Using plastic spoons and  puff balls, the students must choose countries and allies. The object is to knock down your adversaries Castle Keep and help defend your allies. 

What better way to celebrate Charlemagne's Christmas Coronation than recreating his crown and wearing it at our Christmas Parties.

The smell of excitement mingled with fried fish...

The smell of excitement mingled with fried fish yesterday afternoon when our school opened it doors for Open House so all the kids could visit their new teachers and then partake in our annual fish fry. The students and parents alike seemed thrilled to be coming back for another school year and all of their enthusiam rubbed off on me.  Our fish fry, which raises money for our school scholarship fund had our parish hall packed to the gills.


Get it...GILLS! Hahaha! Ok I know it was bad...moving on!

Lauren, the teacher I share a classroom with, and I worked hard to get our classroom up and running before all of this took place. I snapped some pictures with my phone to share with you. She and I are pretty proud of ourselves for having a functioning classroom considering we started from scratch last year. We have to thank people around the school too for providing desks and other elements needed to get us up and running. Here is the view from the door as you walk in.

Our Science and Math Center, along with extra supplies and homework trays. New bookshelves, generously provided by the school. You've gotta give Lauren lots of brownie points for putting those together.

New rug for our reading area, we encourage the kids to read as much as they can during quiet times. Plus it helps enable my book habit now that I can buy books for the students as well as myself.

The mural my mother bought for my classroom, and the plant dad provided me. Our ivy, named Isabella is our second classroom ivy. Last year we had one named Ferdinand, but Ferdi was dying in his little pot and I had to do an emergency transplant to the first big pot I could find with soil at my house. He's now HUGE, so we got a new one for this year.

DIY Classroom Decor

I love making my own classroom decor!
Here's what I've thrown together for my "Welcome Back to School" bulletin board. 
I'll post more pictures from the bulletin board after it is done and my other projects in another post. There will also be pictures of the classroom Lauren and I share. We are right proud of ourselves for throwing a room together. 

Encouragement, Blessings and Lunch

Yesterday, the administration and faculty of our little school had in-service with a wonderful speaker. She talked about positive attitudes towards our students and each other. I loved hearing what she had to say, it was like a refreshing reminder to keep your cool and be an example for what we want these kid's to grow up to be.

After our speaker was done, our rector joined us and we went around to bless all of our classrooms and he said a special prayer for each teachers and aid in our school. I loved this, our school community is small and to have all this special time and consideration taken for each individual in our group is wonderful. To feel the presence of the Lord in our work environments is not something everyone can attest to, but I will personally feel the Lord with me as I work with these people and our students. That is such a blessing to me and I've told many that I don't feel like I get up and go to work each day. This is the best job I've ever had, and I enjoy what I do immensely.

When we had finished with our classroom blessings, we were all treated to lunch at a local restaurant called Cheeves Bros. Steak House. While I have been very good on my diet lately, the combination of good company and happy atmosphere, I allowed myself to eat some "evil" carbs. I had a really yummy prime rib sandwich with au jus dipping sauce which was to die for. I ate too much of course and paid for it later, but I was happy at the moment.

The rest of my day will be spent painting, I haven't done much this summer, and now that my creative juices are flowing again, I'm ready to jump in again.

Céad Míle Failte! A Hundred Thousand Welcomes!

      

I am so excited to be teaching History and Bible to our 4th graders again this year. In our History class we'll be studying the fall of the Roman Empire up to the Reformation of the church.  Get ready for the Barbarians and discover how one group of these ruffians became the root for the word "Vandalism". 
Knights, castles, crusades, monks running away and going into hiding to translate the Bible.  Why did the "Black Death" kill off so many people? We'll find out in our class. 

In Bible we'll be studying the last half of the Old Testament and covering the major and minor prophets. You'll discover what Elijah did with those pesky prophets of Baal, so we'll be kicking it off with a big bang and lots of fire.