Fourth and Ten at Home: Winter Break Projects

Hello! Like many of you, I'm savoring my last few moments of Winter Break.  

My husband is at work today and I'm cuddled up on the couch marathon watching "The Office" like it's my job.  It is in one word, perfect. 

In a little bit, I'll get my teacher bag out of my office and organize the mess that it is.  I'll review this week's lesson plans, and grade a few papers.  Most of all, I'll savor the fact that the house is clean and the laundry is caught up because I know that after tomorrow it probably won't be until spring break.

Today, I want to share a few projects I tackled at home over break with you. Thus the reason for the post title "Fourth and Ten at Home." I used to have a home blog back in the day and I miss it a lot.  I don't have the time to keep with up with more than one blog right now, so I hope you don't mind me sharing an occasional recipe or home project from time to time with you to get my "fix".

I am not naturally a very organized person, and neither is my husband.  Thankfully there are blogs like I Heart Organizing and Two Twenty One to help a girl like me along. 

One project I wanted to tackle over Winter Break was organizing our catch all cabinet.  This cabinet holds our medicines, dog treats, serving platters, mail supplies, etc. 

I made some labels and shopped my house for some baskets/containers to organize everything in our catch all cabinet. 

There are still a few things in the cabinet that need a home but it's way better that what it was! :) 

I've also been using essential oils for the past few months.  They have helped my out my sinuses so much.  However, the only thing I have hated about using them was that I didn't have a great way to store them! Luckily I found some containers at The Container Store that were perfect! 

I used a lipstick holder for the 5ml bottles and a nail polish holder for the 15ml bottles and the glass bottles I put my carrier oils in. If you're interested in essential oils, feel free to email me. :) 

I also worked on adding some character to our kitchen.  We had our house painted a few years ago and hung some curtains, but many rooms are missing that "finishing" touch.  I hope to change that in 2015. 

One thing I wanted to add to our kitchen was a little coffee station.  

Luckily, Hobby Lobby was really good to me last week! I was able to get the metal basket and picture frame for half off.  The "But First, Coffee" print was purchased {here} and printed off at Walgreens.  This whole project cost a little more than $10 but added so much character, and much needed organization, to my kitchen.  I just love it!

We also have a ledge that separates our kitchen and our morning room, dinning area. I felt it needed a little TLC too and I love how it came together! I already had the green mason jar and the print was from Meijer of all places, and the frame was from Hobby Lobby.  The picture is one of my favorites from our wedding and I love looking over at it while I'm doing the dishes. 

We also had a blank wall that really needed a little something.  We've looked and looked but never really found anything we loved.  We went to Columbus over break and found this sign at a little shop called Celebrate Local and knew we had to have it.  I love looking at it every morning.  It has such a positive message. 

I paid a little attention to our entry way as well. 
I printed all the eighteen25 subway art prints off at Costco a few years go but for some reason, never switch them out.  I'm trying this year to actually keep them current because they do add a little "something" to our entry way. 

Yes, that is a turkey on my blog in January.  We have hosted Thanksgiving for the past two years.  I used the same core recipes both times but they weren't organized at all.  In fact, the printed copies were all over my cookbook basket.  So I made a cute cover, paper clipped them all together, and I'm already to go next year! 

I also picked up a little wicker tray at Hobby Lobby for our TV remotes.  It's literally been the best $5 I have spent lately. The hubs and I have actually done a good job at keeping our remotes inside it. Usually we have to spend a few minutes searching the family room and couch cousins before we can actually watch TV. 

 I also worked on thank you notes for my students. I have found that it's really hard for me to actually get them to my students before we go on break.  Call me crazy, but I just love to spend time with my kids that last day of school before break begins. Usually, I spend an hour or so over on my holiday thank you notes on day while I watch TV/bowl games etc.  This allows my notes to be a little bit more personalized. This template is one of many from my newest pack, Editable Winter Themed Homework Passes and Thank You Notes. 

They fit, once trimmed, in standard No. 6 3/4 envelopes,which you can find at any retailer.  I like to mail them to my kiddos but that is totally up to you. :) 

My Buckeyes also played in the Sugar Bowl.  So January 1st's projects were all about the Buckeyes. We had some friends and family over. So I made buffalo chicken sliders. They were yummy and delicious. I used {this} recipe.

One of my sweet students got me those paper towels. I think they they brought good luck, so I'll have them out next Monday too.  I bought Cheryl's cookies for all the humans and homemade script Ohio treats for my dogs. We all had a great time eating and cheering for our Buckeyes together. 

I lost my voice during the game, I was a little excited, and I am now trying to think of ways to fit in my dad's luggage since he is going to the National Championship in Dallas.  #jealous

The best part of break though was just spending lots of time with my husband. He was actually on winter break from school too, he goes to college and works full time, which never happens. We had so much fun over break together.  It has been a stressful few months for both of us and carefree time together was just what we needed. 

I hope that you had a wonderful break, teacher friends.  May your coffee be strong tomorrow and your day feel short! 

Wordless Wednesday: Storing Extra Student Supplies

One year we did community supplies, a flop.  For many years they just kept the extras in their cubbies, desks, or backpacks, a mess.  Last year, they kept a few pencils, one highlighter, one glue stick, one Expo marker and their crayons in their supply pouch. Then the rest went in a large Ziploc bag with their name on it in the extra supply crate. 

When their supply pouch stash ran out, they went and got more from their Ziploc bag. Most of my kiddos were very respectful and didn't get in other students' bags. I only had to watch a few of them.


I hold onto my homeroom's extra supplies and my teaching partner holds on to her homeroom's extra supplies.  They can only ask to get in their extra supply bag when they are with their homeroom teacher.  

Here's my question for you: How do you organize your students' extra/surplus supplies? 

Wordless Wednesday: Book Club Organization

One of my favorite things about blogging is communicating with other teachers around the world.  I certainly love when other teachers comment on my blog, IG photos, FB page, etc.  I also love leaving them some love too, so I can't wait to hit publish on this post and link up with my dear friend, Christina at Sugar and Spice, for Wordless Wednesday.  

We just started book clubs this past week and I've finally found an organizational system that works for me! 

The yellow baskets are for my morning class and the green ones for my afternoon class.

So my question to you is this, how do you organize your students' materials for book clubs/book studies?  Tell me in a comment below! 

Visit all the blogs participating in this fun link up by going to Christina's blog via {this} link.  :)  

STAR Binders: Getting and Keeping Kids Organized

I'm not an organized person.  Organization just does not come easy to me.  I literally need to label every single drawer, every single shelf, and every single and basket to keep myself organized in my classroom and at home.  

My first year of teaching I labeled my kiddos folders and expected them to just organize themselves.  "Okay, let's get out our math folders," I'd call out, and ten minutes later would all finally have our math folders out.  I swear that desks eat folders, pencils, and crayons at night.  I really do.  Because even though I was blamed for it a lot, I never, ever, ever creeped in their desk at night and messed things around so my kiddos couldn't find things.

I knew something needed to change, so I did a STAR binder the next year, all their folders where in a binder and the binder went back and forth each day.  I got the idea from Mrs. Van Dyke, you can check out her informational page about STAR binders here. However, no matter how many times I begged, begged, and begged my parents that year to not empty their child's folders, they always did. Meaning daily little Susie and Tommy was missing the paper we started the day before because their momma cleaned out their binder's folders the night before.  Although I liked the organization the binder provided, the trip back and forth to school really caused a lot of additional wear and tear on the binders and I always had a few darlings that forgot their binders at home almost daily. 

With the struggles of the first year of STAR binders in mind, I changed my binder up a bit to something that worked best for me. :) Our binder was still named STAR (Students That Are Responsible), only the binder stayed at school.  I'm telling you friends, it makes such a difference having all of my students important papers all in one place in their desks. The cover for my STAR binder came from Mrs. Van Dyke, it's at the very bottom of this page.

The zipper pouch held our classroom currency, and I kept their reading response questions for self selected reading in the clear sleeve in the front, as well as a clear sleeve for games we learned to play throughout the year.  Having this math sleeve is great! When my students finished a math activity early, they would play game with a partner in their sleeve with a dry erase marker.  My kiddos would also take their binders with them to small groups in reading and math, or for partner work.  This worked great, because they could refer back to previously completed work on a topic. 

Each subject had a folder, along with a work folder, for random odds and ends that just didn't fit in a subject folder, that somehow was not included in this sample.  We'd go through our folders about every two weeks and I'd list on the Smartboard what they needed to keep in their folders.  

In my back to school letter, I asked each family to send in a 1" binder, I always purchased several extra at Wal Mart before school started just in case, a zipper pouch, and five folders without brads/fasteners.  Some sent in paper folders, that I hole punched with a three hole punch, and other sent in decorative folders with the holes already on the folder.  My kiddos certainly loved picking out fun folders and binder colors! :) 

Setting up the binders DOES take up a chunk of time at the beginning of the year, but it's so worth it! I've tried it many different ways, having parents assembling them at open house, putting them together as a whole class, and putting them together in small groups.  I prefer putting them together in small groups.  While the class is working on their time capsules and other beginning of the year getting to know you activities, I pull tables up one at a time and assemble the binders.  It goes pretty quickly, if you involve your kiddos.  I let them put their own labels on their folders, they won't look perfect but that's okay, and put every thing in their binders themselves.

Using STAR binders made such a difference in my classroom, and they really helped keep my students organized.  My kiddos desks were certainly neater too, and they felt like such big kids because of their binders.  I changed schools/grade levels this past year a week before school started, and didn't do my STAR binders this year due to craziness that is packing and unpacking a classroom days before school starts.  Let me tell you, I HATED not having them.  My kiddos desks were so, so, so messy and I felt like we wasted so much time looking for the proper folder.  I always had my students keep their folders in a certain order in the STAR binder and they were all labeled, so my kiddos certainly had "NO EXCUSES" for not having papers in the right place.  The fourth grade team at my school already does organizational binders, so I'm so, so, so excited to be reunited with my beloved STAR binders again! :) Hooray! 

What do you do to keep your students organized? I'd love to hear what works for you! Next week, I'll be posting about my home to school folders, the iPod! :)

Also, don't forget to like Fourth and Ten on Facebook! :)

Book Organization for Special Books

I have lots of books in my library, lots.  I've spent hours analyzing Scholastic book orders to figure out what to spend my points on, and may or may not have taken my grandmother to Goodwill to buy books with me to get the senior citizen discount on more than one occasion. :) My library looks like this.  It's my pride and joy.  I figure the best way to get a child to fall in love with reading is to have lots of books available for them to read.  :)

However, even though I love putting as many books as possible in the hands of my students, there are some books I consider special, and I keep out of my library. 

I have two of the plastic file folder tubs above that I fill with my "special" books.  I put all of my seasonal books in gallon sized Ziploc bags inside one of the tubs, along with all my grammar/writing conventions books.  I keep books for lessons throughout the year, such as 9/11, Constitution Day, and the books I use for my first week of school that are oversized and don't fit in baggies in another.  
However, when fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hanukkah,  and Easter roll around, I do keep those seasonal books out for a little awhile, but it's easier to put them back in their special tub when the season is over, so I know right where they are for next year, rather than digging in all my book bins or asking, "Has anybody seen _____?"  

I keep my scared book bins in one of my closets, they're easily accessible for me, and easy to find!

I love this system, because it keeps my special books I need safe, and I know right where to find them.  For example, when I review nouns, I know exactly where Chicken in the City is, it's in the grammar baggie in my special book bin! :)

Thank you so much for the sweet birthday messages! I had a wonderful day with my family and sweet husband.  We went to my favorite cooking store, Penzeys, and to my favorite local pizza place.  It was a perfect day! It got even better when we drove by our lot, and saw this!

The rough framing of our house is almost finished! It rained today, so our crew didn't work, but fingers crossed that the framing is finished this week, so we can get a roof soon! :) That way the rain can't prevent work from happening, our projected closing date is already too close to the start of school!

Also, the blog resign process has began! So, so, so excited to share the final product with you! :)