A Dead Computer and Now Learning All Over Again

My home computer has been on its last legs for a while now.  I had gotten to the point where I was afraid to turn it off because I was not sure if it would boot up when I attempted to turn it back on.  Fortunately, I managed to upload the important family photos from its hard drive before the latest crash.  I did not get all of my teacher files from it, though.  I am sure I will be figuring out what is lost over time and  perhaps when things quiet down here for my husband he will be able to get it up and running long enough to offload some files.

In the meantime, I was blessed by my boss with a laptop.  I have been busily trying to figure out everything about it since it uses Windows and I have been using a Linux based desktop for as long as I can remember.  I was able to download some of the programs I used in Linus, like GIMP and LibreOffice, but they are newer versions so I even have to figure them out.

What's with the photo of the dog in the snow above?  He is in my latest product.  I am madly working on a new Question of the Day set, which will include winter theme questions.  I hope to finish it up before Monday, since that will be the day I have to take my oldest to camp.

Organizing My Classroom In My Head

Since my classroom still smells interesting (and not in a good way), I have continued working on some projects that will get printed and put up in my classroom later this summer.

As I cleaned my classroom at the end of the school year I realised that my centers signs were a bit rough looking.  In addition, they really were not what I wanted in the first place, but I had made them work while I searched for the perfect set.

That perfect set never appeared, so I decided to work on a few sets of my own and then I will decide which one to print out for myself once I can get in my room to finalize which centers signs I will be using.

I found some cute graphics from Educlips to use with one of the sets of centers.

I also made a set with graphics from MyCuteGraphics.

Now I just have to decide which set to use for myself and which signs I will use this year.  Which would you choose?

My Preschool Classroom Smells Like Tricycle Tires

We had quite a storm a few weeks ago, which resulted in our preschool playground shed exploding.  The roof landed on the sandbox, several walls sailed over the fence, but the doors stayed locked to each other and landed on the tricycle path.  As a result, all of the playground supplies are now in my classroom until we get a new shed put up in the playground.

Tricycle tires have quite a strong smell when closed up in a preschool classroom.  This is keeping me out of the room more than the fact that the room is quite crowded with tricycles and other ride ons as well as quite a variety of other outdoor play equipment.

The good news for this is that I need a break from my room to feel refreshed and ready for the new school year.  It also gives me time to play around on the computer and create new things for my classroom.

My latest project is Ocean theme decor items since I am switching up my classroom from a frog theme that I have enjoyed the last two years to something new.  I found some great clip art from Pixel Paper Prints that inspired me to start creating.  So far I have made some calendar numbers and months of the year.

Click above to see bundle in my shop

Question of the Day Summer Fun

 Question of the Day Summer Fun Set

I really enjoy using a Question of the Day in my preschool classroom.  I make it simple, so it is normally a yes/no or a two choice question.  I place the students names out on a table and each student finds his or her name upon entering the room for some name recognition practice.  Then the student brings the name card to the pocket chart near the door where I post my question of the day.  Generally I read the question aloud to the student, running my finger along the text and showing the two answer choices.  Then the student places the name card in the pocket chart under the appropriate response.

Later in the day, during circle time one student is assigned to tally the responses for some counting practice.  The chosen student gives us the tally and we discuss which number is more or less, most or least, and whether we have a unanimous response to gain some familiarity with those math terms.

One of my goals for the summer is to make up sets of Question of the Day to use for the entire year.  This past year I would sometimes have the questions already thought out and in my lesson plans, but occasionally I would suddenly realize as the first child came in the door that I needed a new question and so they would not always be as well thought out as they should be.

I just completed creating my first set of 20 Question of the Day cards and added them to my shops so that you could use them as well.  The set in the TeachersPayTeachers shop has a preview so that you can print one of the questions to see how they would work in your classroom.  I like my questions to be big, but if you want to save paper you could print two sets to a page which should still be readable.

Laura's Lily Pad Hops On Board

I have started my summer with a new project, to open a preschool printables shop at Teacher's Notebook. I am currently scurrying around, updating ancient blogs, starting new ones, and working on some products for the shop. I am anxiously awaiting my first freebie going live in my shop. Here is a little preview for you:

Once it is live in my shop, you will be able to click over into my shop from the shop button on the right hand side of the blog. This school theme word wall will be free. I am currently working on two more word wall sets for the shop. I plan to upload them once I see that the first set uploads without any errors and I make sure there are no "bugs" for my customers. If you happen to download the freebie, please let me know that it downloads and prints correctly for you; I don't want to keep making the same mistake if I missed something with my first set. I plan to work my way through all of the preschool themes that I teach so that I can have fresh word walls for the whole year. I am carefully choosing my photos so that I have no copyright restrictions that would keep me from sharing them with other teachers who are looking for what I wanted for my classroom as well.

I Love Fiber!

Thanks so much for making this awesome collection of fiber arts creations! I love looking at them all for inspiration and to make a list of items to purchase for special friends and relatives.

Checked In Today - Fiber, Wool and Yarn

Curated By: dogwoodrose

ArtFire.com

Handmade Soap

The Gang's All Here Collection of Blues, Greens, and a Splash of Purple

The Gangs All Here

Curated By: LaurasLeftHook

ArtFire.com

Craft Tutorials

I just joined a new guild on ArtFire and found a bunch of new shops that have some lovely items that I wanted to share. (A few I did not want to share because I wanted to keep them all to myself until I could buy them, but I gave in and shared them with you.)

I love to wander around ArtFire when I have the time because there are all kinds of crafts and arts that I don't know how to do that I can gaze upon and wish I had all the money in the world to spend. I do have at least one item in this collection in mind as a gift for a special family member; I did check to see that there was more than one available in case you liked it as well.