a treasure.

My latest gem from a student. 

Apparently I should give birth to a bright pink monster with one eye and no nose.

If only I could be so lucky.

summer servin'

During the school year it's hard to help out with a lot of the church service opportunities.  So when summer comes around we usually jump at the opportunities to serve when we can and make up for the busy school year.

This week has been full of fun service opportunities and we're so grateful for those who let us serve!  

A close family friend passed away this week and I was so grateful that I have time to help with making food for the funeral and having time to help with the funeral itself.

Blessing.

{Cookies}

We also got to feed the missionaries this week!  What a blessing to have the missionaries in our home.  They're pretty terrific guys.  They're worth the struggle of moving the kitchen table out into the living so we can actually fit 4 people around it (because heaven knows our kitchen barely fits the two of us eating at the table!).

T is our Ward Mission Leader and is beginning to have a great relationship with the missionaries.  They all have a lot in common and it was fun sharing our love of homemade pizza with them.

They also talked music for a little while with T.  Among the many T played, he also played them the only song I know on the guitar-"Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam."  Classic.

One thing I absolutely love about the missionaries?

They always leave us with a scripture and a prayer.  Our home is better because of them.  We're better because of them.

Have a problem or question?  Ask the missionaries!  They can help you!  (Elder Oaks)

{T, Elder Laws, and Elder Johnson}

And for the first time ever, I got all of my class birthday monsters completed before the school year starts!  Hopefully three extra will be enough in case of move-ins/move-outs because I busted these out in three days this year.

Thanks to my mama who sewed the outside edges this year.  There was no way I was hand-sewing all of them again.  What was I thinking the past 2 years to hand sew all of these?!

{25 stuffed monsters}

Summer is still treating us well.  Except for the fact that T is super congested and tired and has been for the past couple of days.  Poor guy.  We're stuffing him full of Vitamin C.

And the weather!  The rainy weather has been a dream.  Our house is delightfully cool and wonderful.

We love summer.

paint, pizza, and monsters.

T spoiled me over the weekend.  I've had a couple of projects for school I've been itching to get done and he was happy enough to lend me a hand and teach me his handyman skills he picked up from working at Home Depot for 4 years.

First up was a nasty whiteboard easel that was in dire need of some paint.  The easel I've had in my classroom was a yard sale cast-off that my parents found for me the first year I started teaching.  It served its purpose for the past 2 years, but I really wanted something new for the upcoming year.  

Before spending a buttload of money on a new easel, I asked the school custodian if there were any hanging around the school that I could look at.  

She led the way to the storage on the stage and showed me the perfect easel.  Not too short and definitely not too tall.  Not too bulky and not too narrow.  The only problem?  It needed a little paint, which I was more than happy to fix!

We forgot to take a picture of it before taking it apart to be painted and primed, but it only needed a coat of primer before painting it.

{Easel taken apart and primed}

Project number dos was a bookcase display that stores book with the cover facing out.  I've been wanting one for my classroom library, but they are soo expensive!  Good thing my aunt retired from teaching this year and handed this one down to me.  What's even better is that my uncle made it out of quality wood that will stand the test of time with my 2nd graders.  

This one took a little more time to prime and cover the pen and pencil markings that were on the surface, but oh it was so worth it.

{T spray painting.  Without a mask.  Whoops.}

T primed both pieces as I sat in the shade and watched and tried to not complain about the terrible hot sun.  

Bytheway, what is with the 100+ weather in Provo these days?!  It's not a good sign that it's scalding in the sun at the beginning of July!  

Blech.  Hot weather and me do not mix.

Ever.

I digress.

T did awesome priming these beauties.  We painted them a lovely color that will go with my bright classroom perfectly.  The finished pictures will be up when I get the rest of my classroom organized and put together.   So excited for next year already.

{T looks like he's literally smokin' hot in this picture!  Mmm Hmm!}

We got brave and turned the oven on for exactly 30 minutes to bake 2 pizzas for Friday Night Pizza Night last week.  We did a regular old pepperoni pizza with this awesome and easy sauce.  But the highlight of the night was a new gourmet pizza we tried.  Can you say chicken, avocado, feta, and egg pizza?  We're loving Famous Dave's Sweet and Zesty BBQ sauce for the sauce on pizza's these days too.

Oh yum!

Add a husband who cleans up and does the dishes to the mix and you've got yourself a perfect date night.  Oh how I love this man of mine.

He makes a pretty great dishwasher too.

And the a/c window unit you see in the window?  I usually hate how nasty it makes my kitchen look and how I don't get any fresh sunshine through the kitchen window in the summer months.  This year, I love that thing.  It's saved us on more than one occasion the past week from passing out from the heat.

And the fun has begun with the birthday monster making once again.  This year, I have about 23 kids in my class as of right now.  That's almost 10 less than last year!  Whoo whoo!  Which means 10 less monsters to make.

They're cut and ready for some cute little faces and accessories.  I'm pretty stoked about the neon colors I found for them this year.  I'm crossing my fingers that my upcoming students will love them too.  

Because I was seriously close to not making monsters this year.  Until the neon colors caught my eye... blast my love for bright summer colors.

June was fantastic with vacations, hiking, and catching up on some much needed down time and housework.  July is here and it's time to kick it in gear for the new school year and start prepping and revamping!

Ode to Second Grade

Today I had approximately seven "tummyaches," two "hurt ankles," and one little girl that actually got hurt at recess.

Let's just say it's been a long week.

With a day to go still.

But I think I have fallen in love with every single of my 2nd graders though.

Especially one little boy that everyone has dubbed the "Troublemaker" by all of his other teachers. He's stolen my heart and keeps me smiling all day long.

He's adorable.

There's also a little girl that has her two front teeth missing and can't for the life of her say any of her S's.

She's adorable.

Remember how I once said my heart belonged to the 4th grade? It's slowly being stolen away by my short little 2nd grade monsters.

Oh second graders how I love you all!

Coat Closet

Are you all sick of classroom posts yet?

Too bad!

Inside the coat closet in my room are hooks for my little monsters to hang their coats and backpacks on. My mom, sister, and I spent a good half hour scraping and scrubbing off at least three types of labels (that were layered on top of each other!) with the nasty goo-gone product (but which also works LOVELY on stubborn sticky labels that won't get off). After finally getting down to the wood, I was bound and determined to not put anymore labels in this closet. There was no way I was going to spend next year scraping and scrubbing if I didn't have to.

So I came up with this idea...

Zip ties! The extra still needs to be cut off, but these babies are just as good as labels (better, I think) and won't come off! They're sturdy and perfect. I spent a couple of minutes tossing backpacks on them and attempting to get them off.

And the result was... they refused to come off! They won't come off until I actually cut them off if I want to change them out next year.

I'll leave you with a close up of the handmade monsters my sister made for my classroom! She has quite the talent for crocheting and I'm lucky to benefit from it!


(There are still two monsters on the way... my sister is awesome)

P.s. The lamp was only 4 big ones at IKEA. 4 dollars!

Can't go wrong at IKEA.

The Monster Tour

I've been gone from blogging for almost a month.
So I decided to show you what I've been doing with all that time...
(drumroll please)

This is the view you see once you walk into Room 5 at Rock Canyon Elementary.
My room is HUGE.

My classroom Word Wall. The cool thing about these doors that look like storage doors is that they actually open up to wall hooks for the students to put their backpacks and coats in! Then I close them and WALLAH! I don't have to look at all of their stuff all day long.

Front corner of the classroom. This whiteboard is actually chalkboard turned whiteboard from a garage sale. We pulled off the chalkboards and cut the whiteboard at Home Depot, drilled some holes and we got a whiteboard easel!


This is T's pride and joy of my classroom. He designed and put the structure together and I "shingled" the roof. It will eventually have a sign that says "Kussee's Klubhouse." Eventually.


I made these puppies. Yarn balls! Just like paper mache, but instead of newspaper you use yarn!


The library inside the clubhouse! Are these bins just not the coolest?


A closer look at the bins... I organized them according to topic, although next year once I have more books they'll probably be sorted according to the AR level reading.


The awesome pillows my Grandma surprised me with. They match my book bins! The rug is from IKEA.


My desk. The monsters hanging from the ceiling were all handmade by yours truly and are for my students birthdays. I made 10 extra in case of new students, secretaries birthdays, etc.

A close up of one of my favorite monsters...


Journals for the kiddos. They're just composition books covered with cardstock using modge podge (which is my new best friend).


I'm going to attempt the clip chart management. I've done research into different behavior management systems and to my personal preference, I enjoy the clip chart system. It's similar to pull cards in the classroom with the exception of the fact that students can work their way back up the chart if they do poorly during the day! You can read more about it and find your own preference by going here.


The birthday bulletin board and Mon "star" of the week board!


Monster jobs!


The calendar area right when you walk in the door. The writing steps are on the board next to it. I'll take my students pictures the first week, print them, and laminate them so the students can move their picture depending on where they are at in the writing process.


Colorful bins! These were in the Target dollar section and hold my wooden pattern blocks along with supplies I don't know what to do with yet.


I made these magnets by ordering pins without the pins on the back from an Etsy store. Then I attached some magnets and got personalized monster magnets!


More bins for storing math manipulatives. I'm OCD and have to label and number everything...

The front of the classroom. Do you see my sweet awesome promethean board?! It's an interactive whiteboard that enhances learning by leaps and bounds. What a blessing to have one in my own classroom!I could keep going on and on about my classroom and showing more pictures... but I'll stop now.

Now onto lesson planning!

Oh Fleece How I Love You.

Because you can help me make these...

Which will be in the process of being made next week for birthday gifts for the little munchkins.

Adorable.

Period.

Overboard: Monster Style

Today I went shopping. Not just any shopping though.

I went shopping: Monster Style.

That can only mean one thing- Danger to the bank account (!).

Good thing graduation happened and so did graduation money.

Good thing being a new teacher means a little more money to begin with also.

And so, I thought I'd share my "Monster" haul with you!

And for those of you wondering, yes, my theme went from sports to monsters. Apparently the sports theme is outdated and you can't find ANYTHING team-related except for odds and ends here and there that look terrible together. After a little lot of deliberation, I decided the monster theme is the theme to liven up my classroom and is perfect for my little 2nd grade kiddo's (If I had ended up teaching an upper grade {like I thought I would!!} I would've stuck with the team theme, but the monster theme fit too perfectly for 2nd grade...).

The whole stash...


Closer....


Name tags for the first day!


Incredibly awesome monster stickers...


I actually got incredibly lucky- I have one of the most fabulous classrooms in the school. Pictures will come once everything is up and ready! My head is reeling with ideas and wonderfulness!

I may lose sleep at night because of lessons and decorating ideas.