Year 2 and Second Grade!

Today my summer vacation ended. Was it easy? No. Was I ready? No. Was I excited? Sorta. Was I anxious? Probably. Am I ready to help little minds grow? You bet! 

On Wednesday, my 20 something kids will walk into our room and begin all of our fun days! I can't wait to get to know this group of students and give them all the love I can give! We are going to have a great fun year together. 

Photography isn't my only passion. I have two. Who says you can't have more than one? I've always known for as long as I can remember that I wanted to be a teacher. And now I am about to adventure out on my second year of teaching. This will be my first year teaching second grade. I am so excited to find all the adventures we are about to go through, even the complicated ones! 

A few people have been asking for previews of my new classroom. It took me about 4-5 days to complete and to make perfect for my little ones! 

Welcome to our classroom!!

This area is our calendar area and will hold our award necklaces that follow us from Kindergarten to 5th grade! 

My desk area! 

I made a teacher toolbox over the summer! It has been a wonderful tool considering my desk does not have any drawers. 

Also, is the magazine holder I found at Regeneration Station in Asheville. I will be using this to hold files and important things.

The border on my board is finally being used after being a gift from my student teaching teacher! I call it my Appalachian Pride board :)

See the number line that appears to be from 1990! That will be replaced as soon my new number line gets here. It is from the Boho Bird collection! 

I saw on Pinterest these awesome filing cabinet redos and had to have one! This summer my mom and I found a cheap filing cabinet at Habitat of Humanity. 

We spray painted it white, modge podged scrapbook paper to the front, lined with zig zag tape and used a type of ribbon for the drawers. I am in love with it!

Next to that is the home for our classroom iPads. Last year I was lucky enough to win two grants that provided them to our classroom! They come in great use for our Daily Five! 

For the board, I used acid free washi tape to make boxes. 

I am also thinking about trying out the homework club. We're not too strict on homework, but it might be fun to give a monthly treat to the ones who do it daily or almost daily. 

I found those for free off a blog I found on Pinterest. 

Our Daily Five Board! 

Loved these free posters from Teachers Pay Teachers. 

My ebay chevron curtains!!! 

This is our classroom library. As you can see, I am very blessed as a second year teacher. My library is almost packed full. I owe thanks to my mentor and other fellow teachers who are allowing me to borrow their books. My collection is probably not even a fourth of what you see! 

Behind the library you will see our Go sign. The other side says Stop. This is what I use for the bathroom. A student is allowed to get up and go to the restroom as long as the sign says Go. If it says Stop then they need to remain in their seat until it is open. I owe my mentor for this one. She did this in her classroom. 

This shelf stores our math manipulatives, reading baskets, and my read aloud books. 

The baskets are my favorite!!! Instead of spending $100 on book boxes, I decided to do book baskets. These are from the Dollar Tree. Luckily, the Dollar Tree has my room colors this year!! For the numbers, I just printed out circle numbers from TPT (for free) and zip tied them to the baskets. 

Please ignore the mess above. I at least tried to make it appeal better with pretty colors!

This year (with the lack of bulletin boards), I decided to do our word wall on the closet doors. Let's just hope it last! 

This tank is empty of any live creatures. But not for long! A few weeks ago I decided to apply for a grant through Pets in the Classroom. Along with our guidance counselor and hopefully other teachers, we recieved a grant to cover an class pet of our choice. In a few weeks, we will be proud owners of a Crested Gecko! More pictures to come for that! 

If interested in this grant, just ask me! 

:)

This area will be our Daily Five area. Located here will be everything the students need for Word Work and Writing. 

My classroom jobs is magnetic this year! Clip charts use to be the best thing ever. But I learned quickly on how much I hated clip charts. I don't even do a behavior clip chart anymore. We use Class Dojo (don't know what that is... ask me!). Each week a student will have a different job or will be on vacation. They will rotate through the list. I love how this turned out. I found everything you see on TPT for free!!! I love that site! 

There are more pictures coming! I accidentally deleted the picture of our stool my mom made! It has to be the cutest stool ever! You may have seen some of the before and middle stage photos on Facebook. Also, be watching for photos of our Crested Gecko. The kids will be naming him/her. I am sure that will be amusing! 

:) 

A HUGE thank you to my mom for all her help on my classroom! It wouldn't had been as possible without her help and hard work! Also a thank you to my cousin Preslee. She had to spend the day with me one day and got to be the pro at the hot glue gun! 

Praying for all my teacher friends for the 2014-2015 school year! And all the students about to enjoy their new teachers and classroom! 

Ryleigh is Turning Three!

Oh Em Gee! That is all I can say about this adorable little girl! Her momma and I were silly BFF's in our early years! We use to say we were sisters... so this little one is special to me! She definitely "get's it from her momma....!" Beautiful, funny and full of personality! She kept us laughing all afternoon! She is a ham!

Here we are again at the NC Arboretum! I told you it was the best place for pictures... EVER! Ryleigh may be only three... but this little one can pose if she wants to! You can see for yourself.... 

^ Probably my most favorite of the night!

Look at the girl work it! 

^ What a ham! 

I LOVE her!!! 

^"Ugh... this modeling stuff is hard!" 

^Pretty pretty princess! 

"I Love YOU!" 

I could photograph this little one every day if she'd let me! 

She's fun, beautiful and full of spunk! 

Just like her momma!

:)

If you're ever wondering what my child would be like in front of a camera.. this is almost it! 

Sara & Nathan Maternity

Sara contacted me about doing her maternity session a few weeks ago. She was my last booking for the month of August. I have quiet a few people to thank for referring Sara to me. I am sure I smiled a lot when I got her email. Maternity sessions are one of my most favorite ones. There is just something about a glowing mom to be and her excitement about her baby bump! I hope one day I feel like have maternity pictures done. They always turn out to be such a beautiful memory! 

Sara choose the NC Arboretum. This has to be one of my most favorite locations to shoot. There are so many options and they keep the grounds looking so perfect year round! I always say you can never go wrong with this pick! You'll see why... 

Sara rocked this shot! 

One of my favorite poses for Maternity Sessions! 

This is the first time for a client to actually "ask" for this pose.

Sara knew what she was doing! 

:)

Isn't Sara a beautiful mom to be? That pretty baby girl will be here next month! Congratulations Sara & Nathan! I can't wait to see pictures of your sweet baby girl! 

<3