Well, I'm back to school. I've been going in for about half a day all week. This is what greeted me on Monday. LOTS of work to do! My room looks so big until the desks, tables, and kiva get put in place. That reminds me, I've had requests for more pictures of my kiva. About 28 firsties can sit comfortably. Any more and it's crowded. I forgot to take a picture of the back. But it's a shelf where I put my genre book baskets and then there is storage on the floor. I found this cool tape at Wal-Mart. It's like a cross between painters/masking tape and washi tape by Scotch. I've seen the cute duct tape patterns but was afraid to use them because duct tape doesn't come off easily. But this stuff is suppose to peel off easily (I hope!). I put it around my boards, mirror, and windows. It comes in tons of colors and patterns. I was reading Holly's blog- Crisscross Applesauce In First Grade a few days ago and she had a post about Planbook.com. Click HERE to read Holly's wonderful post. I've always made and printed my own plan book. I hated writing everything each week and thought it easier to make it on my computer. Here's what mine looks like. I put them in a binder and print them back to back. But after reading Holly's post about Planbook I did some investigating. You have a 30 day free trial and then if you like it, it only costs $12 for the whole year. Pretty cheap. So I signed up and I'm going to try it out. All ready I'm loving it! I can access my plan book from home on my iPad or home computer. That will be nice when I wake up sick and need to write sub plans. I can also work on my plans at home without bringing my binder home. It has lots of features and is very easy to use with GREAT tutorials. You can link documents & homework to a lesson, share with teammates, bump your lesson to the next day because you didn't get to it with one click of a button (no more erasing), reuse your lessons for the next year, link to the Common Core, send you lesson plan to your administrator if he/she wants it, and more. So I'm going to try it and I'll let you know what happens. I told you this was RANDOM-NESS and now for the freebie. Here's a fun game we like to play in math stations. It helps reinforce number order. Click on the picture to grab a copy of the game. You have to be careful when you buy your sand timers. There are some out there that aren't accurate. My team found these at EAI Education. They were reasonably priced and accurate. They are 10 for $5.75 We got the 3-minute ones. Click HERE for a link to the website. Sorry for such a LOOOONG post. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you found something useful for your teaching and classroom. I'd LOVE to hear your comments!

I have been keeping this project a secret for far too long, and now that it is up on Buzz Feed I can finally share the reveal with you all! You may remember when I asked you all to vote on whether I should make a Narwhal Whale or a Loch Ness monster. Guess which