Mommy Monday: girls' hair elastics organization

Welcome back to Mommy Monday! Today I'm going to show you how I organize all those little hair elastics that I use for my girls' ponytails. But before I show you what I do, I should explain one thing- I am a big believer in giving toddlers as much agency in their own lives as possible. There are so many things in which they do not have a say- when they eat and sleep, when their parents go to work and when they stay home with them, when we run out of milk and now we can't have cereal for breakfast.... you get the idea. When they really start learning to do things for themselves and develop their sense of identity as an individual, it helps a lot to let them make choices for themselves when we can.

So, all that to say, since they were a little under 2 years old I have been asking them to pick what color hair elastic they want that day (when I do put their hair up). I had gotten this set of hair ties before they were even one I think (one of my girls has always had a lot of hair!):



Basically there are 3 sizes, with yellow, pink, blue, purple, green, and red colors in each size. The nice thing about this set is that is lasts a long time. When they were tiny I used the smallest size, and as their hair grew in more I have moved up to the medium ones. So I have at least only ever tried to keep up with one size at a time- the rest I keep in the back of the bathroom cabinet with other extra toiletries. But as you can imagine, these things are pretty small. And they get tangled up with each other pretty easily. Even detail-oriented me got a little crazy trying to pull out the ones I wanted.

Then I was at the dollar store for something else and saw this in the checkout lane:

It's a medicine pill box. Even though it had orange instead of pink I knew it was what I needed! So now I have this:

With the pinks in the red compartment and the reds in the orange one, they look like they are made for each other! This thing has made my life so much easier. And when I switched to the medium size elastics, I stuffed the rest of the tiny ones in the top (in case I ever decide to do some kind of fancy hairdo that would require the use of several smaller ponytails- hey a girl can dream...). Color coded, organized, and simplified: that's the stuff that makes my heart happy! :)

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Simple Stuff: duct tape!

Today I'm linking up with Yellow Brick Road's linky party to talk about a simple item that I use in my classroom. Don't forget to checkout the other entries in the party and check out her blog while you're there- she's got some great stuff!



So if you have been following me much at all it will come as no surprise to you that I am talking about duct tape! I have duct tape all over my classroom at this point. It's kindof ridiculous.


Because my room is carpeted, I can't use floor tape to mark lines on the floor, and although I tried the velcro idea one time I found that the students picked at them all the time and it was more distracting than helpful. But with duct tape, I'm able to get it down on the floor and for the most part, it stays all year! I know the custodians hate me for it but they did an awesome job cleaning it all up this past summer. Just so I could put more down again. Mwahaha... (Shout out to Joe and John. I'm truly sorry.)

The beauty of duct tape is that is comes in so many colors and patterns, and it is readily available for a relatively cheap price. Quick tip: don't buy the same color in multiple sizes just because you want some skinny pieces and some fat pieces. Just cut/tear the tape vertically. You will save so much money that way and it's really not hard to do.

If you haven't seen my post explaining how I use duct tape to color-code my seating, circle spots, and supplies, go check out this post:

I also shared some more ways I am using duct tape in my post in my classroom setup, including my incentive chart:

And my line guide, to show students where to line up at the end of class:

Click on the image below to see my entire post on my classroom setup for 2014-2015:

The possibilities are almost endless!

Have you used duct tape in your classroom? How? I'd love to hear more ideas! Leave me a comment! :)

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Teacher Tuesday: my classroom set-up 2014!

I'm linking up with Mrs. Miracle's Music Room for today's post- click on the picture below to go to her post and see all the awesome music rooms in the linky party (they are incredible!).

 

My classroom is definitely still a work-in-progress, so I will update this post when things change. But I just couldn't wait any longer to share my set-up this year- I'm so excited! Here is the view of my room as you first enter the door:

So yeah, my room is pretty big. I'm pretty sure I gasped out loud when I first saw it. I LOVE having enough space for movement without moving chairs out of the way all the time! So let's take a quick trip around the room, starting on the left hand side of the picture and going clockwise. 

First we have my dinosaur display (aka computer table) and behavior management posters:

The computers were here when I started last year, and I fiddled with trying to use them a bit last year, but they are SUPER slow and outdated (so I can't use any of my software with them). I'm getting 1 or 2 iPads this year (yay!) so I may gradually replace those computers with iPad stations. 

The two posters are from the district-wide emotional literacy program- one about taking time to think about your behavior, and one for charting your mood. I honestly don't use the "mood" one very much because my classes are too short to talk about everyone's mood each time, but I use the "thinking" one a LOT (more on that later) and they are both a good reference for the students since they discuss them extensively in their homerooms and other classes. 

The giant magnet board is my big project this year- it is replacing my sticker chart as my behavior management chart this year. I am resisting the urge to go into great detail about it because if I do this post will never end, but I will write a separate post on it later. You can probably guess where I'm going with it though ;)

Moving along that wall, we come to my teacher desk:

On the left are my objectives. I have a dollar store frame with colored paper for each grade, and a dry erase marker. That space is hopefully getting an upgrade soon with a new "title sign"- we'll see. My teacher desk has my "teacher toolkit" organizer and a tray for any papers from each grade level. Next to my desk is my piano, which helps hide my teacher area from the main seating area we use ;)

So now we've come to the front board on the far side of the room:

I have my solfege ladder, then my MUSIC letters (see this post for the explanation) with my class charter underneath, my DIY interactive whiteboard with my three class rules posted above (see this post), and then a couple of "music quote" posters next to that. 

As we turn the corner you'll see my windows:

I have a minion poster with the quote, "Don't judge me. I was born to be awesome not perfect" that I created after I saw a similar idea somewhere. Under that is a small table where I keep my teacher laptop and stereo speakers. I run most of my tracks through my computer and my projector connects to my laptop as well. Above the windows I have the sign language alphabet. I like to incorporate sign language into singing as much as I can. In the middle are these awesome anchor charts from Sara Bibee. They are seriously the best ones I've seen and the students LOVE them.

Going around the corner, I have my instrument family wall behind the student chairs:

I have extra chairs and stands stacked along that wall as well because the band rehearses in my room once a week as well. 

Next we have the giant-and-awkward-blue-chalkboard-wall:

I have a plan for this wall, I promise, but for now I have my rolling whiteboard and giant stereo system (which I mostly kept for when I have a sub) sitting in front of it. I also have my recorder karate area (with these fingering charts from Marti Chandler) on the left and a music history timeline above it. 

Next to that is my closet. No, I am not under any circumstances going to show you the inside, but here is the outside, where I am storing my boomwhackers:

I got the idea to stick them on the doors with velcro from this post by Yellow Brick Road. Just to the left of the closet is a small desk with a "rest" sign above it. This is where students go, either by choice or at my request, to think about their behavior and try to make better choices. It has been a very helpful tool and it also fits right in with our district's emotional literacy curriculum.

When you turn the corner, you come to the most awesome part of my room. Behold, my Wall of Shelves:

These are obviously still a work in progress too, but my-oh-my aren't they wonderful? I have manipulatives, writing supplies, mallets, and extra xylophone bars on the far left. In the middle are the Orff instruments, then the drums, then on the far right are all the other unpitched percussion instruments. I try to keep the most commonly-used items near the bottom. The goal is always for students to be able to get things out and put things back by themselves. 

That white line on the floor is actually minion duct tape (squeee!!). I got it to go with my minion poster, and put it down on the floor leading to the front door to provide a guide for where students should line up at the end of class:

It's not the most aesthetically pleasing part of the room, but I like the idea that they are the minions- awesome, not perfect- and it's a lot easier than constantly trying to tell them to move away from the shelves when they line up. 

So now we've come full-circle! Here's a picture of the room from the far side, looking towards the front door where we started:

Did you see the different colored tape on the floor in front of each row of chairs? If you missed my post on my new color-coding system for seating, go check it out here:

And there you have it! Don't forget to go check out the other music classrooms in Mrs. Miracle's linky party, and check back for updates on my classroom. School starts in 2 weeks so it's time to kick it into high gear!

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Mommy Monday: reusable pouches

So you know those pouches? Yeah you do. Those super-overpriced-but-somehow-I-keep-buying-them ones.

                                   

It's amazing how the combination of  organic produce and convenient packaging can lure us in... am I right? While I am pretty certain that all parents with children under the age of 3 have heard of these pouches, you may or may not have heard about the reusable ones. There are quite a few options out there, but this is the one I have:

                     
Basically the bottom of the pouch is like a ziploc bag so you can fill it up with whatever you want! When I first bought these almost 2 years ago I had high aspirations of creating smoothie concoctions equally delicious and healthy to the store-bought ones. In reality, I mostly fill them with yogurt or apple sauce straight out of the giant container. BUT they are still really awesome. It's another way to save money and save the planet by using less packaging! (Also as a sidenote: they came in really handy when one of my girls needed to take powdered medicine for a while- mixed it with applesauce, put it in the pouch, and she chugged it!)

My main problem? Keeping up with all the pouches and caps. At first I was just throwing them in one of the kitchen cabinets, but it's really hard to get what you need because the pouches are flat and floppy, and the little caps have a way of disappearing.

My solution: a jewelry organizer.

I have the pouches in the two side-by-side compartments in the back, and all my caps in the drawer. It works perfectly! Since the pouches stand upright I can find what I need and pull it out quickly, and the caps all stay contained in their little drawer. And if I am being super-mom and making a bunch ahead of time, I can pull out the whole thing and set it on the counter so I can fill and go.

Have you used reusable pouches? Where do you keep them?

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