Simply SWEET TEAching: Top 10 Tuesday Linky Party

Well, I just got back from working in my classroom. My BFF (that just sounded really high school.....whatever :)) and fellow blogger Katie came down today to help me set things up. After 4 days of staring around the room wondering where to start, I figured in needed to call in back up! And Katie is the ONLY person I could have who wouldn't get totally aggravated with how long it takes me to do stuff because she's just as OCD as I am. I heart you Katie!! Thank you for all your help today!
Anyway, I got home from school and saw Courtney over at Swimming in 2nd's Top 10 Linky Party and decided I had to join since I'm new to the 2nd grade family, so here goes!! By the way...these are in no particular order!

1) My Silhouette Cameo

My fab husband got me this for Christmas, and I LOVE IT! It was a little pricey, but totally worth it. I have made all kinds of cute things for my classroom, and my hands don't have carpel tunnel from cutting things out with scissors all the time!! :) It is so much better than the Cricut, because you don't have to buy cartridges! It's all digital...

2) My Digital Clipart

I LOVE making new resources for my classroom, so having great digital clip art, borders, fonts, etc is a MUST! Some of my favorite digital clipart designers are MareeTrueLove, Print Candee, and KPM Doodles (all of their stores are on Etsy.)

(Click this picture to go to Print Candee's Etsy Store.)

3) My Scotch Thermal Laminator

Sometimes I just don't have time to wait for my stuff to get laminated at school (we aren't allowed to laminate our own stuff), so this is a LIFE SAVER!

4) My IKEA Shelves (no particular one...I have like 10)

My classroom would be one sad place if it weren't for my FABULOUS IKEA shelves. If I were to purchase stock in an product, it would be IKEA shelves. I heart them! Here are my two favorites... my classroom library shelves and my math manipulative organizers.

5) My Math Game Board Organizer (courtesy of The Container Store)

This picture below only shows it with a few insets, but if you look carefully at the sides you can see the tiny slits for LOTS of inserts. I have about 15 different drawers in this thing that hold my math game boards for our Everyday Math Games. It is the perfect solution because the space between each insert is really small so it holds a ton of different categories of stuff and doesn't take up a lot of space...

6) My Rotating Desk Organizre

I have reserve supplies of lots of stuff like paperclips, rubber bands, staples, etc. but when I just need one or two of something this is perfect! It holds just a small amount of everything...pens, pencils, scissors, white out, rubber bands, staples, sticky notes, my calculator, a ruler, and MUCH MORE! I just refill it every now and again.

7) My Hanging Reading Assessment Organizer

    This thing is large and in charge...but it works so well! After I finish a Dominie Reading Assesment with a child, I file it in the child's pocket, so I can easily see what level I did with them previously and if I have a RTI or IEP meeting on a child I can just grab their reading assessments and go. Because it hangs on the wall, this works so much better than filing them in a file cabinet, because they are visible and accessible.

( I cannot find a picture of this to save my life and I don't have a picture of it in my classroom..oh well!)

8) My Lesson/Paper/Printables Organizer (Black Storage Cubes)

   I have all my printables that I need for each subject organized into these spacious black storage cubes with drawers! It got them at Office Depot a couple of years ago. I also keep Box Tops, Reading Awards, Weekly Readers/Time for Kids, etc. in them. It keeps stuff organized and not visible to reduce clutter!

9) My Dymo Label Maker

I mean....it makes labels....'nuff said.

10) My Hallway Chalkboard

One of the teacher tasks I LOATHE ENTIRELY (anybody catch the Grinch reference here??) is cutting out letters with the di-cut machine in order to give my bulletin boards and/or student work displays a title. It takes entirely too long, and it's a waste of time because right after you put it up you practically have to take it down a few weeks later. I solved this problem this past school year by putting up my hallway chalkboard. I just erase it and write a title for my next hallway display. 1 minute tops!! :) I LOVE it!!