Personalized Notebooks

I love all things paper, especially things I can personalize. My fabulous sister ordered me a set of these May Designs notebooks for Christmas last year.

I just happened to go to their website today (maydesigns.com) and noticed the entire site is 40% off through August 10th!  It may be time for a few more... (After all, a girl can never have too many notebooks or too much stationary.)

Bulletin Board Borders

I love using a double border on my bulletin boards, with white on the inside and another color on the outside. It takes a little more time to put up though, especially since my teacher-OCD forces me to use a ruler to measure the spacing between each border so it's even.

 

After you've measured, you can put up the inside-border. (I really like using white for all my inside-borders.)

Here's a close-up:

Then staple up the outer border, simply following the edge of the bulletin board. 

Here's another close-up:

And voila!  You're done!

Common Core Reading Literature Assessment

I finally finished my new Reading Literature Assessment!  It uses the story "The Kite" by Arnold Lobel, from Days with Frog and Toad, which is part of the Imagine It! reading program we use at our school.  Unfortunately, Imagine It is not Common Core aligned, so it's up to the teachers to create our own Common Core assessments.  

It will be on sale on Teachers Pay Teachers for a limited time, so if you grab a copy please leave feedback and a rating! 

I'm having a TPT Sale!

I'm having a TPT sale!  Click the "My Products" link above to see my store! (I've added a few new products this week!)

I'm a Top Pinner!

So, I just got an email from Pinterest, telling me I'm one of their most active Pinners. . . I don't know if I should be flattered, or embarrassed that I spend so much time on Pinterest!  Nonetheless, I'm going to click the link to join their "exclusive preview" for a new feature, and we'll see how it goes! Anyone else out there get one of these emails too?  (I wouldn't be surprised if most of their most active Pinners were elementary school teachers!)

Screenshot of an email from Pinterest

Summer's Finally Here!

Summer is finally here!  I had to put everything in my classroom either in my cabinets, or on the bookcase behind butcher paper.  It was like a giant game of Tetris, getting every book, every basket, every manipulative, and every miscellaneous piece of teaching material into those cabinets.  But I did it!  Nothing but the furniture, the rug, and printer has been left out.  We'll see how organized I really packed everything when it comes time to take it all back out in August. . .

New TPT Product

I've added a new product to my TPT store!  This is a mini-unit on the Act of Contrition, getting students ready for First Reconciliation.  

The Facebook page is finally LIVE!

Sorry, folks, that it's taken so long, but the Facebook link is now up and running!  You can now "Like" First Grade Menagerie on Facebook to receive news and updates as they're posted.