Getting Ready for BACK TO SCHOOL!!!

Hi everyone...........crickets.......crickets.....
Well I have been MIA for awhile, with in-service training starting next week, I have been BUSY!!! I've been trying to finish my summer to-do list, as well as cleaning, organizing, and decorating my classroom. So I'm finally going to show you somethings I have been working on for my classroom.
I always find myself scrambling for certain things, like birthday crowns, my monthly calendar markers, and I find myself looking on the net for ideas for a certain theme or holiday, trying to remember what I did the year before or what idea I loved, but lost the website or sample....

Well I had this pink crate.. I bought three a few  years ago at Wal-Mart- this pink one, a lime green, and a blue... I love them!! They are durable and so useful. I slipped in some hanging folders that my hubby had- one for each month that we are in school. I then put in my calendar markers in to plastic ziplock bags and placed them according to month. I also put in activities for themes and holidays and put them according to month. For example.. I know that the back to school theme is the first 2 weeks of school, so I put activities with that theme in the August folder, along with first day of school projects, a supply list and Student info sheets- which I have the the parents fill out during open house. The birthday crowns are in the back, along with other important forms. My plan is to slip a birthday crown for each child according to month.

I used some Martha Stewart labels to label each folder.. I'm loving it and it will HOPEFULLY, FINGERS AND TOES CROSSED, keep me organized. If I happen to see an idea I love, I just slip it in the folder to use when I need to. I also worked on something that I've had on my to-do list for as long as I've been teaching. When my aunt Mary retired after 30 + years of teaching, I inherited some of her stuff.... one of them was this thrift store find. She used this box to hold prizes for the kids. It's octagon shape was perfect to make a treasure box.....

So I got a can of gold spray paint and got to work... I used this....

After the box dried I added some jewels I had from a Christmas project AAAANND..... 

thrift store box becomes treasure box!!

Seriously.. why did I take so long to do this- it was so easy. I couldn't wait to add all the great prizes, awaiting some very lucky, well behaved children, Well let's hope so... lol :)

Oh, I also downloaded these cute letter cards for my letter wall.  They are cute..I'm cutting them and laminating them as I speak type. 

You can find them here and they are F-R-E-E!!!!. I finished a lot this summer and I will share soon, along with my classroom and other back-to-school stuff when I get done. Just please bear with me!! Thanks!!

Michelle