Creating a 'Love Notes' Board in Your Classroom

My students love to write me 'love notes' and draw me pictures (as I am sure all of yours do).  By the end of the day I have a small pile on my desk and I have no idea what to do with them!! So, I decided to create a 'love notes' board. 

 I love our classroom 'love notes' board and it is simple to make! I bought 4 cork boards from Jo-Ann's Fabric (they are also magnetic) and put them onto my wall using double sided sticky tape.  Yep, I said it!  Double sided sticky tape.  And it stayed up all year!  We aren't allowed to staple or nail into our walls so this solution worked perfectly. 

My students love this board just as much as I do.  I love displaying their 'love notes' and pictures on the wall for everyone to see and they love seeing their artwork displayed as well!  It makes them feel special just as they make me feel everyday!! 

You can find lots of other 'Bright Ideas' by clicking on any of the links below.

An InLinkz Link-up

Get Ready for Back to School

I can't believe I am going to start talking about back to school! I feel like summer just started and I am SO not ready to start a new year! But with that said, I get a lot of emails asking me what 'themes' I teach and how I can still teach in 'themes' with all of the standards we have to meet.  These were my themes last year.  They were slightly changed as the year went on and I'm sure they will change again a little this year.
 I am always flexible and open to new ideas!

This year I know I am going to tie my All About Me unit in with the Five Senses unit and make that 3 weeks.  I've also cut back on the Gingerbread Unit to create more time for Holidays Around the World.  I'm also considering doing 2 weeks on just penguins and then spending the next 2 weeks on animals to make time for group research projects!! You can find some of my detailed plans on these thematic units by clicking on the image below. Hope this helps you see how I incorporate theme with the standards, science, and social studies!!

I also get a lot of questions regarding the beginning of the school year.  What do I do that first week of school? How do I start introducing centers? Etc. Last year I documented EVERYTHING I did the first two days of school and wrote about it HERE. 

This year I am keeping a lot of the same decor (found in the pack below) 

For some reason this past year I never took any pictures of my classroom set up!! But, you can definitely see some of the black and white decor pack in the background of my pictures! Here you can see the number posters hanging :)

Five For Friday!

I have been SO lucky this summer to get to travel all over the world!! I went to Ireland first with my family.  Then, my next stop was China. Below you can see some pictures of me in Hong Kong.  I learned how to use chopsticks and walked around the markets...wasn't brave enough to eat street meat! Haha!

I just left Vietnam on Friday and had a blast!! I had the opportunity to learn all about the farming and fishing life!

I am currently in Thailand.  I just got back from a day spent taking care of rescued elephants! AMAZING! 

Believe it or not, I have been trying to get some work done during my travels!  I had a couple requests to make my decor pack in other colors.  The first color scheme I made was gray.  I love it because it can be used in any classroom with any color scheme!!  You can add your 'pop' of color along with this gray pack by adding colored book bins, pom-poms, etc. You can find the gray pack HERE. 

I will be making the same decor pack in bright colors and primary colors. Be on the look out!

I am currently reading Redeeming Love.  I am honestly not a reader at all, but this book is definitely one to check out. I am loving it!

A bunch of the Freebielicious girls will be I Teach K and we would LOVE for you to stop by our booth between July 7th and July 10th to enter to win an iPad Mini! 

I wish I was able to be there to meet you all!!

I am ABSOLUTELY in LOVE with these new classroom quotes I found on Etsy!! I may need to redo my classroom quote wall before school starts this year! SO cute!! (Just click on an image below to view them on Etsy)

Hope you all are enjoying your summer!!