Next Year's Classroom Theme & Blog Name

Ok.  So, if you missed my post yesterday, I revealed that I got a new job, in a new district, teaching a new grade, and a new subject.  So, pretty much, everything about what I'll be doing next school year is new.  I'm SO excited.  (If you did miss it- I'll be teaching 3rd grade ELA... which I looooove!)

I went in today to see my new room!

It currently looks like this:

So, I'm itching to get in and make it positively Bainbridge! I LOOOOOOVE the "X" of wire across the room.  In my current room, I have run a length of YARN, yes YARN, across my windows that is "securely" fastened at either side of the windows!  So far, there have been no catastrophes but I'm super jazzed about the security of the wire!

I bought two of these on ebay just now... not realizing I was ordering from a seller in the UK... so, after the conversion to US dollars... they cost a pretty penny.  BUT... I think I'm going to do less of a "thing" theme and more of a color theme in my new room.

I'm really digging all of this "Poppin' Patterns" stuff from Creative Teaching Press and I think it would match well with my new buntings.  What do you think?

 

What do you think?  Can I enter my own "rename my blog" contest?  Not that I don't love everyone's suggestions... BUT... the name "Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge" hit me last night.  And now I've bought those buntings... and my blog has buntings... and my last name is Bainbridge... and I'll be teaching ELA which, you know, requires books!

Could that work?  Is it stupid?  Tell me what to do!

If you all do approve the name change, I'll select one of the entrants at random on Friday to still win the $25.00 worth of products from my TpT store.  And if you do not approve the name change because there's something you like better, keep sending names my way!

My Announcement, a TN giveaway, and a contest!

Ok- here's the whole picture I gave you a snippet of yesterday:

Now, you all are astute!  Someone even noticed the cupcake wrappers haphazardly stuffed in the colored bins and wondered if I was doing a cupcake theme!  Um... no.  I just found them and shoved them in the nearest container!

So, I'm packing up.  This is everything from my closets that I'm taking with me as I...

I just can't wait anymore and want to shout it from the rooftops... I have just accepted a new job, in a new district, teaching 3rd grade english language arts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love my current school and my colleagues, but reading is my absolute passion and I am sooooooooo excited to be joining an amazing new staff to teach reading all day long to 3rd graders!

Some of you figured out I was moving to a new job after seeing some of my recent pins on Pinterest dealing with different grade levels... you clever people!  :)

So...

I'm going out of order from my blog title...

I want to change the name of my blog.  Something about 3rd grade maybe?  Or reading?  It has to be super cute.  Feel free to work my name into it too if need be... or the bunting theme of my blog.  My brain is fried after days of keeping this exciting news from you!

If you leave a comment with a suggestion and I choose yours, you will get to choose $25.00 worth of products from my TpT store!!!!!!!!!!!!  Feel free to give me suggestions for 3rd graders too!  What classroom theme would they like?!  I've been wanting to switch from cowboys for a while and this is the perfect opportunity.

I'd like to have my new name picked out by Friday so Alicia at Dreamlike Magic Designs can work on my new header.

AND... Mackenzie became my 2000th blog follower last night, which is AH-MAZING!

So, thanks to her, I am giving away ALL of my *tiny* ELA packs (for grades 1-3)... since I'll be an ELA teacher!  When you enter, it says it's just for my Silent Letter pack, but you'll download that from Teacher's Notebook.  Then I will e-mail you my Marshmallow adjective pack, One Wonderful Night prefix and suffix pack, Polar Opposites antonym pack, and Surf's Up for synonyms pack!!!!!!!  AND... all of those things are 20% off at my two shops, in case you can't wait to win and need them now!  :)

Click the picture to enter the giveaway and don't forget to submit a potential blog name in the comments to win $25.00 worth of your choice of my stuff!

Just Showing Off, Sale, and Sneak Peek!

Just showing off:

Ignore the hideous background I laid this on.  I've seen tons of things like this on Pinterest and wanted to share the one I made.  I made this particular one a few years ago- bought a big "B" from Hobby Lobby, added scrapbooking paper, chipboard M and B and then sticker letters... the finishing touches... the letters, ribbons, and brads in the M and the B.  I LOVE THIS!  It was inexpensive to make and makes a good gift too!

Sale:

 TpT          Teacher's Notebook

It's heading on the end of the quarter at TpT and so I'm offering 20% off at TpT... and decided to toss in my Teacher's Notebook store as well!  So you can get theme packs for only $8.00!

Last... a sneak peek...

I've been saying for a few days that a blog change and a contest are coming.  Now, I'm not going to reveal either just yet... though I'm DYING to.  BUT... I'll show you a sneak peek of what is going on with me professionally and you can use your powers of predicting and inferring to see if you can figure it out!

Hmmm... a box and a stack of containers.  I'm hoping I can fill you in tomorrow!  Make your guesses below!

I *heart* This Weekend!

This is what I did this weekend:

Friday- summer school until noon, "Rock of Ages" movie with the hubs at night
Saturday- coffee, Golden Girls, and english muffin, then grocery shopping, then chilling with my BFF(afaltat!), then chilling with the hubby... ice cream too!
Sunday- read, read, read... just finished my 23rd book since March 2nd, played Words and Scramble with Friends... and *don't tell anyone* ice cream again tonight!

We NEVER have quiet, relaxing weekends.

EVER.

And I'm usually one who gets panics and cold sweats if I don't leave the house every 12.5 hours or so.  And I went no where today.  Except out to the deck to read.  And in to the house to eat.  And back to the deck.  It was AWESOME!

Five more days of summer school and then the summer has officially begun for me!!!!!!

I promise to be back next week with informative or interesting or posts more exciting than this one!  Hope ya'll are having a fab June!

Mrs. Lamb's GIVEAWAY!

Want a chance to win your choice of any of my classroom theme sets?

Head over to Mrs. Lamb's 500 follower giveaway/bloggy birthday for your chance to win... there are lots of other great items to win too... like every single item in her TpT store!  Click the pic to enter!

Thank you!

Thanks for the blog birthday wishes!  You all made my bloggy birthday so special... and your happy words made a crazy week feel not so terrible!

The free birthday flippy book and birthday sale-a-bration are now over... but I'll be running an "end of the quarter" sale at TpT next week!

Remember... blog change announcement coming soon... and a contest to go with it!  Thanks for the idea, Patty!

Happy Birthday... to... My Blog!

My little blog is growing up!  Today is my 1 year bloggy birthday!

To celebrate, I'm giving away my birthday flippy book for free at my TpT store today only & my TpT and Teacher's Notebook shops are at 20% off until the end of the night... that means classroom theme sets are only $8.00... and flippy books are only $0.80!

And, my friends at Marygrove College have wished me a special birthday greeting on their blog... seeing that was the perfect finish to a hot, crazy day!  I hope you'll check it out- the post is full of links to other topics- they are always striving to bring new information we can use in our classrooms!

Thanks for all of your b-day wishes!  I'm counting down the seconds until I can officially reveal the need for my blog change, which I briefly mentioned the other day... so stay tuned!

WAIT!  One more thing!

My sweet friend Sandy is having a birthday celebration for her blog too!  Click the pic to enter to win some fabulous prizes!

Almost 10,000 Entries Later... We Have a Winner!

Hey bloggy friends!

I know my blog birthday giveaway was supposed to end on Wednesday... BUT... a week is too long to do a giveaway... I've been dying to pick a winner for all of the awesome prizes!

First of all, thank you everyone for all of your entries and bloggy b-day wishes!  I hope you found some amazing new blogs to follow through this giveaway.

So... drum roll please...

I can't hear you!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations Carol Ann!  I'll be sending you an e-mail right now!

My TpT and TN stores are still having a sale until Wednesday for my blog's b-day!

 

Today was a GREAT day!  I have some blog changes to share with you soon... a biggie!

CHRISTMAS TOWN & Patty's Awesome Freebie!

Tomorrow my girl crew and I are going to Frankenmuth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


It's a little town in Michigan that is all Bavarian and the world's largest Christmas store is housed there!  We go every year in November and decided to do a mid-year trip this year.

I'm so excited!

Patty from Second in Line posted her freebie for my blog's b-day giveaway... if you haven't seen it, head over there!

And, don't forget to enter my blog's b-day giveaway if you haven't!  So many entries so far and bloggy b-day wishes!

Click on the picture to head over... you can get info on my birthday sale-a-bration too!

Guess Who's Turning ONE?

...my blog!

Next Thursday, June 20, is my blog's first birthday!

To celebrate, some amazing bloggy friends are helping me with a giveaway so I can shower a lucky winner with gifts on my blog's birthday!

Here's what you can win...

I'm doing my One Wonderful Night prefix & suffix pack... it's one of my best sellers!

Holly from Crisscross Applesauce is giving away a $5.00 TpT gift certificate.


Courtney from Swimming into Second is sharing her Common Core State Standards pack for your grade level.

Kelley from Teacher Idea Factory is giving away her Wild West math reading pack.

Ginger at Ginger Snaps is also giving away a Common Core pack for your grade level.

Patty, the new grandma, at Second in Line promised to share a new freebie!

Ashley at Just Reed is sharing her best selling Kevin Henkes author study.

Sandy at Ms. Fiorini's Stadium is giving away her fiction and non-fiction "Walk and Talks" and bookmarks.  I have both the fiction and non-fiction "Walk and Talk" sets and my students LOVE LOVE LOVE doing them!

Hadar over at Miss Kindergarten is offering two great items... her "Cooking Up a Great Year" craftivity AND super cute "Garden Buddies" template!

Elisabeth from The Adventures of Miss Elisabeth is sharing her Charlotte's Web Companion Pack.

Lori from Teaching with Love and Laughter is giving away Writing Topics Cards.

Tammy from Primary Paradise is giving away her sweet Smore 10 Frame game.

Hope over at Second Grade Shenanigans has offered her "Go for the Gold" back to school pack... it will work for any grade level!  

  From Janaye at Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes you can win an awesome tangram pack!

  Mel D. of Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations is giving away FOUR of her awesome Candy Land games- subtraction, addition, numbers 50-100, and next number.

Sara from Smiling in Second is giving away her Writing Mini-Offices!
 

 
And Jen over at the Teacher's Cauldron is sharing her best selling Habitat for Sale activity pack.

You can enter on Rafflecopter and can earn 1 entry for liking my blog on FB, leaving a comment, and following each of our blogs and TpT stores.  I also think this is a great way to discover new blogs!

AND... for my blog's birthday, I am making my birthday flippy book free at TpT... so be sure you check back here to get the link on the 20th!

And... I've got everything in my two shops at 20% off until my little blog's birthday is over- the Teacher's Notebook sale is on today and TpT starts on Saturday!

 TpT     Teacher's Notebook

Enter below... good luck... lots of ways to enter! :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway