D.O.G.'s & Deals

I am really excited to be trying some things this year!!! I have heard SOOO many teachers comment on using binders instead of regular 'take-home' folders. I decided that I am obviously missing out on something! I have heard them called M.O.O.S.E folders, B.E.E. folders, etc... Well, our school mascot is a bulldog. So we are going to have D.O.G. folders. D.O.G. standing for Daily Organizational Guide. I will post all of my labels and print outs for the inside later this week (hopefully!)

I knew I would have to pay for these out of pocket. I bought the binders at Sam's Club (I think it was around $7.50 for 6 1-inch binders). I bought clear pencil pouches at Walmart ($0.76 each). My tabs came from the Dollar Tree- $1 for 10 tabs. I needed 4 per child- so... I bought 8 packs. I will be honest. I really should have spent the extra $5 on the tabs and bought them from Walmart. They will serve their purpose. Let's just hope they last a month. Ha! I think I did pretty good budgeting for the binders. I usually pay at least $0.50 each for the take-home folders and I think this will be a better system once the year gets going.

Here is my HUGE mess!





After a lot of clicking, sore finger tips, and a few puppy prints (I had to put my doggie out in the yard! He was trying to be a little TOO much help!), I had a finished product that I was more than proud of:





I hope my classroom parents are too!

I did a little bit of rearranging this summer. I am not really sure what the inspiration was behind it. This will be my fifth year teaching and I am in my 3rd classroom. I have taught Kindergarten all 5 years. Year 1- I started as the Tabs (our equivalent of in-school suspension) aid and was moved to Kindergarten six weeks after school started (when we added a 9th unit). That is definitely a story for another day- but that was my first (Tabs) classroom and then my (2nd) Kindergarten classroom. Our school is pretty new, but Kindergarten has 8 classroom in its 'pods' and my classroom was with first grade. I moved to another room when we dropped to 8 units and a room was available last summer. I think I just didn't know what to do because I wasn't moving rooms this summer! I had to move furniture instead. When I moved my shelves, I ended up with a huge wall without anything on it. I have been wanting one of the divided shelves to store some additional center manipulatives. I haven't been able to find one under about $80 though. (Yikes!)

At Walmart the other night, as I was making my last $100 trip... which is what I said last week... I found THIS shelf:



Price tag?????
$24.96!!!!!

I think I did one of those heel-clicking leprechaun jumps right there on the aisle!



It only came in black and most of my other shelves are white. But I have a lot of red and black in my room and I bought some red baskets to go on it. If I can talk my sweet husband into putting it together tonight- because for $25 you know it's in 647 pieces- then I might have pictures tomorrow!