Excited

Sometimes it's the little things in life that can make me really excited

Like eating an ice cream cone with a ginormous scoop of peanut butter and jelly ice cream and chocolate sprinkles on top (which I did today)

or getting a big hug from hubs when he gets home from work

or fitting into skinny jeans especially after devouring said ice cream

Does anyone else out there have skinny jeans? I don't mean the super tight kind of jeans that are trendy...I mean skinny jeans which are the opposite of fat pants.

jeans-the jeans you bought when you were in really good shape that you keep around and try on every once in awhile just to make sure you can still get the zipper up.

fat pants--the pants you wear when you just aren't at your fittest and you don't want to deal with a zipper struggle.

Anyone?

My skinny jeans are size 6 jeans from American Eagle that I got my junior year of college. The have huge holes in the knees and frayed hems. The summer after my HSBF dumped me, I got into really good revenge shape and they were my favorite jeans that fall. Hubs remembers seeing me for the first time that school year when I was wearing those jeans, a yellow T-shirt and sporting a nice tan. He was smitten.

Anyway, in addition to feeling pretty good that I can still get them on my body ::with just a smidge of sucking it in:: I am pretty psyched about this...

www.mpmschoolsupplies.com Fun with Phonics Carpet 8'4" X 13'4" $430.65

or possibly this...

Lakeshorelearning.com Learning Letters and Shapes Activity Carpet 9' X 12' $469

Both Mrs. Bee and I want to get new rugs for our classrooms. We both have big oval rugs that I use for my good morning greeting. There are letters around the border, so each kid technically has a letter to sit on, but even with only 22 kiddos, they didn't really have enough room. I desperately want a new rug for instruction. There are a few big reasons why...

• I want a bigger rug so the kids have more room to spread out. I particularly like the first one because there are 35 little squares so potentially I could stagger the kiddos and they would have their own defined space to sit on.

• I like how both of these rugs have specific spots, so I can assign carpet spots this year. I didn't do that last year because I do think kids should have the freedom to sit where they want to, yet I had a lot of kids who talked too much on the carpet and some kiddos who routinely sat by other kiddos and were a distraction to each other and the rest of the class. I think it would make transitions to the carpet easier if kids had a special spot. 

• Having the smaller squares to sit on makes it easier to put the kiddos in rows. I had them sit in rows when we used our math trays last year and it took a lot of time to get them organized in rows. Hopefully with one of these rugs, that would be easier to do. 

• I want to have two separate areas next year--one for morning meeting and a reading corner and another for reading and math instruction. Sometimes my kiddos had confusion about how to sit when I was teaching. I only wanted them on letters (in an oval) for our greeting, but often when they would transition to the carpet they would sit on letters during instruction time and clump together like a bunch of grapes. With two distinct areas, I think seating arrangements will be clearer. 

The drawback to getting a new rug is that they are SO spendy. Ugh! We do get a chunk of money from the district, so I have enough to pay for one, but it just takes up such a huge portion of that money, it leaves fewer funds for books and such ::sad face::

Mrs. Bee talked to Lakeshore and they said shipping is free and they could give us a small discount with our purchase.

I called MPM School Supply earlier today and the gentleman I spoke with said if we both buy a rug, he would give us a bit of a deal and we could pay $410 for each rug instead of $430 with free shipping. Not bad! Considering I prefer the rug from that store, it is a bonus that it would save us 59 dollars over the Lakeshore one. I have to check with Mrs. B, but I think we are going to go for it! It definitely makes a difference when a company is willing to work in a little extra discount for teachers!

Does anyone have either of those rugs? Are the little areas roomy enough for little Kinder bodies?

I am getting so excited to arrange my room for the new year. We had to put everything away at the end of the year, so I am loving the idea of starting from scratch and reorganizing my different classroom areas. I have decided to take out the little play kitchen that I had last year :: mean teacher:: in order to allow more space for a little book reading/library area. The kiddos LOVED the play kitchen but we barely ever had choice time during which they could use it and feelings were always hurt when a few kids got to play there on Friday and others had to make a different choice. Kindergarten just doesn't have a lot of play time included anymore (at least at my school with a half day schedule), so I feel like having a play area like that is more of a tease...yes, it does provide a great opportunity to build social skills and learn through play, but for 15 minutes once a week, I need that prime real estate for books and reading. I want my kiddos to love being in the reading area as much as they loved playing in the kitchen.

What are you excited for?

What have you been working on for the new school year?

P.S. Yearn to Learn has posted a fun Blog Mixer Linky Party to help spread the word about new teacher blogs, make new bloggy friends, and discover great teaching ideas. I am going to link up tomorrow, so stay tuned! In the meantime, check it out!