Great Expectations: Organizing a Classroom, Educational Filler Links, and a Broken Budget!

    Smug: (V) The feeling of superiority the night before going into your classroom, knowing that you are going to 1.)Complete a room full of bulletin boards, 2.) Move furniture, 3.) Empty summer boxes, 4.) Create Open House letters, gifts, etc, 5.) Create a new curriculum map (because hey, you are feeling superior so why not reinvent the wheel), 6.) Send ALL the projects to graphics, 7.) Have everything completed for not just the first day, but for the first 2 weeks of school, and knowing that you will do it in just 5 hours, and a whole 3 weeks before school starts.
            (Jeez, that wasn't a long and grammatically incorrect sentence, was it?!?)

Uh Duh: (V) The reality check that you are absolutely crazy to think that said plan will actually happen.

   Yep, you would think after all these years, I would have a firm grasp on reality.  I obviously didn't; I'm blaming the lack of coffee that day.  However, I am very excited to post the pictures of what I did get accomplished.  Everyone needs to promise to not ask what I spent to make it happen...

Can you guess the colors I picked this year? First year doing a color theme...

Same location as the first picture, but what a difference! I know I would curl up and read a good book there.  If I wasn't afraid that I'd never get up, I just might!

Starting to look like a room.  Sigh, lots of bulletin boards left to go...

Umm, let's pretend that this was a before picture and not the one that I snapped before walking out of the room.

     Now I know I mentioned sharing some super tech links, but 3-6 Free Resources is having a great sharing linky that talks about brain breaks, or those educational time fillers, so I thought I'd share three of my favorite ideas. 
1.) We keep a Jenga game going in the corner of the room.  The Jenga pieces have division facts on them.  If the student gets the problem right, he or she gets to keep the piece for their team.  Game over when it topples or they draw the Gotcha piece. 

2.) Timed ball toss. 1 small ball or stuffed animal (we used an Angry Birds that I found in the dog toy section). Our rules are that it can't be dropped, can't be passed around the same table, everyone plays, and no overhand.  We do a baseline on our time, then the kids keep a graph with the times.  Once in a while we analyze performance, possible changes, teamwork, etc.  Fun and Math rolled into one!

3.) Logic Puzzles and Division Wraps- Kiddos ALWAY have access to either of those items.

Well, now that I am completely done not close to finishing my room, but still feeling smug that I went in several weeks before, I am going to go enjoy a quiet house. The hubby took our Little Man to watch his first mutton bustin' so I am going to have a glass bottle of wine and do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Good night all!