Summertime prep work

Ah, summertime.  The time when teachers have nothing to do except sip coffee or diet coke and catch up on their soaps.

LOL!

More like the time when teachers are busily and frantically gathering supplies to decorate, searching for new plans to coordinate with new standards, reading books about how to be a better teacher, slaving away in the classroom stapling, cutting, tying and taping!

This summer I have tried to keep to the former.  I am only now getting into the swing of things to prep for the year.

I took my first trip to Hobby Lobby and the Dollar Tree today.  I tried to limit myself to >$20 at each store.  I did quite well.  Here are some things I picked up that I am thinking will be useful...

1.  Baskets - I can never have enough baskets.  Here are 5 sturdy guys with handles.  I plan to use these for word work stations or other center-type materials.  I will add some ribbon to dress them up.  These were $1 each at Dollar Tree.

2.  Stackable plastic bins - for things like post-its, stickers, dye-cuts, letters, numbers, etc.  (I swear I would NEVER put my chocolate stash in here ;-)  Also $1 each at dollar tree.

3.  Mini-trash can guys....  I have no clue what to use these for yet, but I think they'll go with the balls below.  Again, $1 a piece at Dollar Tree.

4. Balls!  I bought 2 bags, with 10 balls each.  They're not bouncy type balls, just plastic.  I may write brain breaks on them, or student names.  Maybe I'll write different categories on them for word work and let the kids make a list of words for that category...  for example: long a words... $1 per bag

5.  Princess Crown!  I pinned something on pinterest this past year where a teacher wore a crown when she was busy with a group or student and could not be bothered.  I tried something similar with a chicken hat I had, but I'm sure you can imagine how funny a teacher is in a chicken hat.  The ids cracked up all the time, and visitors thought I was nuts. Clearly, I will look more sane in a crown!  Ignore my make-up-less face please!  $1 at Dollar Tree (score!)

6.  Cute notebook and coordinating folders...  You know, for taking notes!  $1 each!

7.  I saw a tutorial for making a fabric bunting banner.  I think I can do it.  Here are my supplies!  I'll post a pic when done if it comes out decent...  From Hobby Lobby

 That's all from my shopping excursion today!!  Will post pics later of my finished products.