So. Much. Stuff.

This past week has contained a LOT. Paul has been busy with work, the kids have had swim lessons, Joseph had band camp, and I got to start setting up my classroom in between days that I had trainings and meetings. I even had a training today that I willingly signed up for (instead of choosing a weekday) because I knew it meant I wouldn’t need to try and find another sitter for the kids. Paul had Monday off, so he was able to help bring in all my classroom stuff. I did most of my set up on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and squeezed in one or two small tasks on Thursday and Friday. I still have more to do, but it’s getting closer! Joseph enjoyed band camp (he’s doing percussion) and both kids enjoyed swim lessons. Well, Abigail was really apprehensive at first, so we made a sticker chart with rewards built in at the end of each week. With that to help drive her, she was able to realize that it wasn’t as bad as she thought, really…and by the end of the last day, she didn’t want swim lessons to be over. I promised her we would sign her up next summer as well. Maybe just not at the same time as band camp and work PD days for me, haha. I did NOT do that on purpose. I signed them up for swim and paid the deposit. Then I found out that band camp was going to be happening during the second week of swim. Luckily the times matched up so that I could pick up Joseph from band camp and then we could go home for them to change before heading straight to swim. As for the PD days, those were determined by admin, so I got a sitter for those two days (who was able to take Joseph to and from band camp and take the kids to and from swim). Abigail loved her and even tried to get me to go back to work so that her sitter wouldn’t have to leave. Next week I have New Teacher Academy and then three last days to try and wrap up my room (in between getting the kids their back-to-school haircuts…and Abigail probably needs new tennis shoes before school starts, too). The week after that I’ve got work every day before the kids finally start back on the 28th. Then the REAL crazy begins!

I was excited to walk up to my classroom and see my sign. 🙂
This is what I walked into. It was pretty much a blank slate.
This is the first piece of decor I hung up. My sweet Tara made it for me and I absolutely love it!
She helped load stuff into my classroom, went to swim, and then played hard at home…she was exhausted!
Mid-day on Day 2 of decorating. I think I forgot to take a picture at the end of Day 1. I got a lot of the stuff up onto my walls and I got the kids’ name tags on their desks.
Abigail was super excited to see the lights go up around my board.
I probably would have cried in frustration had Joseph not been in my classroom to help me untangle the patio party lights and bring me paperclips to get them hung…and help me move my stepladder…Abigail was excited when these ones went up, too.
This is going to be fun to use in my classroom when I want those instant gratification pictures to put up somewhere in the room.
This is my chill zone where the kids can go if they become overwhelmed, angry, upset, frustrated, or sad. They can sit, reset, and then get back to work.
The full effect of the party lights and board lights…I also found out that I’m going to have fewer students than I originally anticipated, so I adjusted my desk set-up.
I also added the felt clouds a friend of mine passed along to me and the rest of my paper lanterns.
I was watering the pumpkin plant and decided to see how many pumpkins I could find. Here’s one…
…and two…
…and four! This one is actually the first one we found. There might be more growing, but this was what I found during my quick inspection.
Abigail drew Micky Mouse. Specifically the black and white version that is at the very beginning of the more recent Disney movies (I think it might be a tribute to Steamboat Willie) that is whistling. She made sure I knew which Mickey she was talking about. I thought this was pretty good! She got his gloves, the buttons on his pants, and the over-sized shoes. I think she also did pretty good with the whistling mouth pucker. 🙂
 

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