The Apple Basket Teacher: Too Much To Talk About Tuesday! I Made it Monday (late), The Binder Queen, Getting my Ducks in a Row...& MORE!

This week I think the word 'too' needs about 5 more o's! I had planned to post yesterday & linking up for the first time with Made it Monday....but...I was at our church's VBS and when I got home the power was out due to weather...we had a massive downpour. Where we live we have what used to be a pond/lake years ago, but I have never seen it filled...it had been my inlaws place YEARS ago and was vacant for years...anyway my daughter had a BLAST with our dog in the 'pond' :-) Awww the innocence and joy of childhood!

We didn't get the electricity back on until 8:30. At that point I had to focus on fulfilling a promise to the teacher I am working with at VBS. Our theme is Colossal Coaster World and I said I would make some signs for our room (we have 45 1st & 2nd graders!!) Here are pictures of what I created...

Boy do I love Lettering Delights!!! & my new FREE frames from...Peggy Pechacek

Here's a shot of the room

I had wanted to hook up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for Made it Monday for something that I had made before & planned to make again last night....but with no electricity, it wasn't an option...I saw that the linky doesn't close for several days...so here's my first time linking up, even though it is a day late:

My husband & I love poppers...you know the cheesy stuffed jalepenos...well, the 99 Cent Only stores have had these sweet mini peppers (the same kind that cost $3-$4 at the regular grocery store!)

We had some of this yummy Chipoltle White Cheddar cheese...I crumbled up about 4 slices, mixed it with a container of whipped cream cheese (also from 99 Cent Only store), minced up some jalepeno rings, threw in a couple handfuls of shredded cheddar jack cheese...

Cut the peppers in half, stuffed them, stuck them in the oven at 350...not sure how long they were in there, just kept checking how they looked...

The finished product! Modified Poppers!! YUMMY!!!

My next project is a biggie & I am still working on it, but getting oh so close! I purchased Ashleigh's Common Core Standards Posters....there are quite a few different ones out there, but I chose to purchase hers because of this in her description:

I thought that was pretty cool!

She didn't have a background style that worked for me, since my room is 'The Apple Basket', I created my own! I have been VERY busy printing the standards cards, laminating them (YES, I AM loving my new laminator!), trimming them & organizing them. This is how it looks:

I cut envelopes and made labels for each of the strands and have the standards clipped together.

I am using green for math & red for language arts.

Yep I think I do earn the title 'The Binder Queen'...yes...I do LOVE binders!!! A couple of years ago I blogged about my class Roadrunner binders...since that post I have purchased 1 1/2" binders to replace my old ones...no pictures now, all locked up in my classroom!

Now, these are definitely NOT the only binders I have!!! Let me start with our Language Arts/Reading program Excursions (Storytown in every other state than California!!!)

I have a 3" binder for each of our 6 themes

Here are the covers of the first two themes

I have a binder for all of our vocabulary words from each of our lessons

this is what is inside:

Our reading series includes leveled readers too, so here is where I keep all of the info for those:

These binders are for grading & all those cute pictures and note that students have given me

I think it is important to label the spines

Here are my binders for clip art (mostly Microsoft clipart organizer clip art) and my 'Good Readers' binders...I have 5 of these and the students may read them during 'may do' time

These are my library check out sheets for my classroom library & one of my math games binders (I have 4)

I keep a notebook for 'this week' & 'next week'...most of what is in here is from my giant language arts binders...right now 'this week' has all of my resources for Lesson 1...Ruby the Copycat & 'next week' has Lesson 2...The Day Eddie Met the Author

Now school is not the only place I have binders. One of my Pinterest boards is 'The Word' and it not only has scripture I like, it is done in a way that is visually appealing to me. I began printing out those scriptures and started with one binder but I had so many that I had to do one for the Old Testament & one for the New Testament.

I have three frames that I got at Target that are 8 1/2 x 11 and are really easy to switch what's in them. So, we have 3 verses up in our house & we will continue to switch them out every couple of weeks.

Before I show you the next set of binders let me say that right now...

I am working on getting all of my 'ducks in a row' to launch my TpT and TN stores. I created a binder for that and began with going through my graphics and starting to inventory what I have, who created it, and what the TOUs (terms of use) are.

Well....it was so thick from just that information

I had to make a separate binder just for that!

Each designer has their own page where I will list the sets that I own.

I had to go back to the different websites look at my account & see which ones I bought from which sites!

then...printing out TOUs that I can find!

Yes TOOOOO Much to Talk About...I don't have time for several things on my 'blogging list' but I will end on a very important note. A mom from my Sunday School Class has been missing since Thursday. If you pray please pray for Priscilla for a safe return, and for her husband Carl & her three children. Please take a look at her picture... she could be anywhere.