Back to School Planning & Upcoming FLASH Sale

So much to plan, so little time! That's my current motto for the summer (even though I have until August 5th, but still!). I'm currently working on a huge Back to School pack for my TPT store that will include a week's worth of academic activities, organization tools, and ice breaker activities. I hope to have it done by the end of next week (no promises)!

Until then, for all you supreme planners and organizers out there looking for new themes, organization tools, Back to School forms, and classroom management ideas, I have something for you! I just added a few items to my TPT that I cannot wait to use in my room this year. Yes, I am totally hooked on the current Chevron and Bunting trend and my classroom will be too! Click on each picture below to view the items in my TPT store.

My birthday is this weekend, 25, yikes! So in honor of that and my first official month of blogging and creating I will be hosting a **FLASH SALE** Friday, June 28th and Saturday, June 29th.

Classroom Organization & Back to School Packs

 

Classroom Management Ideas

 

Enjoy!

Organize, Inventory, and LOVE your classroom library in 90 minutes

Ah, my first summer classroom project is {almost} complete! I'm going to start moving into my new classroom at my new school this week and am extremely excited. I wanted to complete a few projects first and organizing my classroom library was one of them.

Now if you're anything like me you obviously cannot memorize your (400+) books in your classroom library and are constantly searching for books you can't remember if you have or not for lessons, read alouds, reading groups, etc. Don't worry people, I found your lifesaver!

Now this Books App 2 for your SmartPhone lets you inventory your books so no more, "Do I have that book?" Oh ya, and it's FREE! Phew! I scanned in all my books (well, almost all my books) in about an hour. The App is really user-friendly, you can just can the barcode on the back of your books or type in the ISBN number for those books without barcodes (any you get directly from Scholastic) and it adds them to your inventory. 

If you want step-by-step directions on how to use this App to inventory and organize your library click HERE! 

I just have to show my favorite feature about the App, the "Friends" feature.

The "Friends" feature lets you keep track of which books you loan out to people. GENIUS! No more, "Who did I let borrow that book???". I'm really excited to try that out this year.

Now once all my books were scanned in and inventoried I wanted to organize them. I taught third grade for the last two years and am now starting my first grade adventure so I needed to reorganize them in a first grade friendly way.

First I organized all my books my various topics; Arthur Books, Nonfiction, Fiction (which I leveled into 5 groups), Animals, Seasons, Holidays, Alphabet, Numbers & Counting, Junie B. Jones Books, Magic Tree House Books, Clifford Books, etc.

I organize my books in clear plastic bins which I got from Big Lots for about $1.00 each. You can find them at any store with a storage section.

Then I printed off my library bin labels which can be found at my TPT store! My classroom is safari themed (I am slightly obsessed with giraffes) so my labels fit right in. 

Then admire!

I can't wait to get my classroom library (or "Reading Hut" as I call it in my room) all set up this week.

If you have 90 extra minutes on your hands (HA!) get at it!

Enjoy!

Summertime with Key Lime Pie

Since I'm on summer vacation and not currently teaching (however I am working on school things daily of course. Teachers are crazy like that.) I thought I would dedicate my first post to a lovely baking concoction I whipped up a few days ago, Key Lime Pie. I saw Key Lime Pie at the store last week and it reminded me of one of my favorite restaurants here in Phoenix, Chelsea's Kitchen, that has the best Key Lime Pie and had been craving it ever since. So, I found this delicious recipe from Hummingbird High and decided to give it a try.

Mind you, this was my first attempt at baking Key Lime Pie and it will not be my last! I've made pies before but this one was quite a treat.

I started with baking the homemade graham cracker crust which is traditional for Key Lime Pie. This recipe is amazing! I will definitely be making this again not just for graham cracker crust!

 While the dough was refrigerating I whipped up the key lime filling. Now since Arizona does not have real Key Limes I cheated and used half Key Lime juice and half fresh lime juice from plain ol' limes.

 Once the filling was made, I put that in the refrigerator to cool and then rolled out and baked the graham crackers. Once those were baked I crumbled them up in the food processor to create the crust to bake.

The crust had to bake for about 10 minutes and while watching it bake I wish I would have added in a bit more graham cracker crumbs to make it more sturdy but it still turned out great. Then I added in the filling, put it back in the oven for it's final bake, and crossed my fingers!

While that was baking I whipped up (literally) one of my most favorite homemade treats, whipped cream. It is so easy to make and so delicious. Not even comparable to store bought whipped cream. Yes, it is THAT good.

 Yum!

And now I have been enjoying Key Lime Pie for days and am not complaining about that one bit. 

The life of a "Teacher Baker"

Hi everyone! My name is Bethany. I am a first grade teacher and an amateur baker! I've been teaching for two years and am ready to start my third year with a new grade level and a new school. I've spent the last two years teaching third grade. Along with my teaching career I love to bake. Cupcakes, pies, cookies, pastries, muffins, you name it, I bake it (and eat it too!). With that being said I took on the name "The Teacher Baker". Follow along in my journey of teaching first grade and baking new concoctions along the way.