Classroom Update and Kittens!

I've been a little MIA lately. We've had a whirlwind of a week! Two days ago, my husband and I rescued five little kittens from under my neighbor's deck. They are so sweet and cute! It was a task getting them out from under there. One of them was stuck and we had to cut part of the deck open to get her out. Poor baby! They are all doing well though.

We are looking for homes for them now. So far, 3 out of the 5 have been taken. We still have these two cuties. We'd love to keep them but we have a dog who is not so fond of kittens. I'm also almost 8 months pregnant and it's just not a good time for us!

Little Chaim

(named for our friend who helped catch her)

Little Prissy

We're still looking for homes for these two. If you're in San Antonio, let me know! :) So on top of herding kittens, I've also been back in my room getting things set up. I found my vocabulary cards all jumbled up in a pile (I clearly didn't take the time to organize them in May). I decided to start off on the right foot: I made packets for each subject's vocabulary cards, bagged them by unit or topic and put them in the packet to file away until I need them.

Pretty simple idea that will save me a ton of time later! I did this for math and science too.

I also gave some of my shelves a makeover. I'm horrible at remembering to take a before picture. Here's the best I could do:

I bought these white shelves from Target last year. They worked really well for what I wanted but seemed very plain. I purchased a blue and white gingham table cover from HEB for $1. Nice! I then used tacky glue to cover the top of the shelf and I trimmed the edges.

Here you will see the finished shelving. I also took out those aqua colored bins, they clashed with my darker blue. I'm still finishing creating labels for my library. The three bins on top are where I put "mentor texts" for students to use as needed (books that connect to topics I've taught in the classroom).

I also took some snapshots of my library. I am still finishing labels. The green shelf has nonfiction books, the shelf next to the green shelf has chapter books and the shelf on the opposite side is all fiction or favorite authors.

The labels are not as neat and pretty as I would like, but I had volunteers help make them and I cannot complain! Alright, I think I've rambled enough! My classroom is still in the making, back to work in the morning! :)