Welcome Message in a Bottle

Every year, before school starts, I send each of my new students a postcard welcoming them to first grade. While I was searching Pinterest for pirate classroom ideas, I came across a post that mentioned sending messages in a bottle. I jumped on the idea and found out that you can actually mail a plastic bottle by just slapping a label on it. That was enough for me! I immediately began searching the web for plastic bottles and found these beauties at www.coloredsand.com. They were only 89 cents a piece (and that includes the cork)! That seemed fairly reasonable to me so I ordered 20 and got to work!

I typed my welcome letter (3 to a landscape style page due to the bottles being small) and rolled the individual pages tightly around a pencil. My wonderful husband helped me with this tedious task :). After rolling them up we applied a small piece of tape to secure them and tied around a piece of jute to give them a nautical touch.

Finally, I slid them in to their individual bottles and popped in a cork. I decided not to add any additional elements such as sand, etc. to save on shipping costs (I am a teacher on a budget after all). I'm in love with them just as they are! I can't wait to get my class list so that I can put these puppies in the mail!!! I hope the kids like them as much as I do! :)

The road to a 'ship shape' classroom: Day 1

Ahoy there, Mateys!

I'm so excited about transforming my first grade classroom over to a pirate theme!  I went to my room today for a few minutes to get started "swabbing the deck" and decided to take some before pictures so that I could share the step-by-step process with you!

Goal of the day: set up desks!

We'll start with these two pics....

These are just a couple views of the main seating area of my classroom before I got started. 

And after.....

I decided on an 'X marks the spot' formation. I felt that it fit my pirate theme and still allows for small group assignments so I'm pretty happy with it! :).  I'm love rearranging my desks as the year goes on to keep things fresh and discipline problems down (sometimes all kids need is a swapped seat). What are some desk arrangements that you guys like?

Putting Students in Charge!

Is it sad that I'm already thinking about action research projects when school hasn't started yet?  I know.  It's crazy. I just can't seem to help myself!!  Anyway, I've decided to center my action research project around student data binders. I keep seeing them on Pinterest and in blog posts so of course I couldn't resist making my own.  I'm decorating my classroom in a pirate theme this year (more about that later- prepare yourselves for some super cuteness!) so naturally I chose a pirate theme for my student data binders.  I packed every possible tracking device that I could think of into this binder creation and couldn't be happier with the outcome.

I'm so excited about putting the students in charge of their own learning!! I'm hoping that my students will enjoy charting their progress and competing against themselves.  I can't wait to get started!  

Keeping Jill Bean Busy! (keeping the kids busy & happy linky)

So this week marks the 4th week that we've been out on Summer Break!  WOO HOO! Summer break is awesome....until the cabin fever sets in....and you start to realize that you and your child have watched every bit of  "Mim-me" (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) and "Mel-Mo" (Elmo) that you can handle!

Luckily, I planned for this likelihood before we got out for summer break and I'm linking up with Teacher to the Core to share what I've been doing to keep my Jill Bean busy!

I decided to try my hand at making a summer advent-(ure) calendar and wound up using sticky notes on my dry erase kitchen calendar.  I found that this version allowed me to easily make changes if necessary.  I scoured Pinterest and compiled my own list to come up with the events I thought would be fitting for my 15 month old.  

Here are a few things we've done so far!

Salt Dough Footprint (going to try to do one each summer)

          

          

Water Exploration

Basically we just filled some bowls with water and threw in some toys and scoops.   She LOVED it!!!

visited a local splash park on a playdate (for FREE)

made and played with fingerpaint (recipe here)

I didn't get a picture of her playing it it...we were both a mess by the time it was all said and done. LOL!

collecting things of one color

                   

 

We used her shopping basket to collect everything.  This baby loves to "shop"!

Here are a few of the other things we've done to stay busy!

• dance party (cranked the music up and danced in the living room)
• Teddy Bear Tea Party: This is now her favorite game to play.  She walks around giving all her 'babies' some tea and makes the sipping sound for them.  SWEETEST THING EVER!  
• sidewalk chalk
• balloon badmitton (just blew up a balloon and tried to keep it up in the air)
• learned a few new songs and nursery rhymes
• went on walks
• played at the park
• painted the sidewalk (with water and a paintbrush)

So what are you guys doing to keep busy?  We still have a good bit of summer break left and I'd love hear some of your ideas!!!