Back to School Prepping in July

Happy July! I personally look forward to July since it is my twins' birthday month as well as the month when we usually take our family vacay. However, there is a little moment of panic that sets in immediately following July 4th. You know, the voice in the back of your head that says summer break is already halfway over.  The stores don't help, already advertizing back to school sales on supplies.

So, while I have already been busy in June doing some long term planning and picking up a few things for my classroom, July is when I like to kick it into high-gear. My building has awesome custodians who work very hard and can usually have our classrooms finished sometime in July. So I take advantage of these quiet days in the building to perfect my classroom setup.  I find that doing so helps alleviate stress in August. Also, if I am being honest, I am more productive when no one else is around! When everyone starts to come back from summer break, I find myself busy socializing with my school pals instead of being productive in the classroom. Which is great, but not so much when you have only 2 days left to get a room ready!

So, looking at the calendar for this month, I have about 2.5 weeks that I will be in town and I plan to make the most of them! I am setting the following goals for myself:

1. Get my classroom ready (furniture in place, wall space organized and set up, materials/manipulatives organized)

2.Get the first two weeks of school plans finished will copies made and put in my drawers.

3. Set up my welcome to second grade hallway bulletin board

4. Reorganize math materials to facilitate math workshop

I will post my progress here on the blog, since it will hopefully help me to make sure I accomplish these goals (which will leave me time in August to snuggle with my girls and pretend that summer really isn't coming to an end!)

I will leave you with a picture of some sweet deals I found yesterday at Michael's for my classroom.