Planner, CHAMPS, and Checking In

Hello there!

We just spent a week in Colorado with the youth department for church camp. I love our time there! There is no distractions--no cell service, no internet, etc.--truly time to focus on the Lord and have fun with the kids. The highlight this year (other than the AMAZING messages and seeing the Lord at work) was a camp-wide game of "Capture the Flag." :-)

I was thrilled to come home to my new Plum Paper planner! 

I spent the morning doing mounds of laundry (still mounds to do) and getting organized. 

I kept the planner setup (see this post for inside pics) the same this year, but I'm excited to try two of their new add-ons--my home planning and blog planning sections. 

This month is jam-packed and flying by for me. 

Not sure how I feel about that!

Next week, my daughter and I head to a basketball camp for a few days. Followed by a week of VBS at church. A CHAMPS two-day workshop. An online class on QR codes.

Slow down, summer!

Oh, and we do have a new first grade teacher! 

I'm really hoping she tackles teaching music next year. 

We'll see... :-/

P.S. Does anyone use CHAMPS? Thoughts?

New Planner - My birthday present to me!

I'm linking up with Barb for show-and-tell to show off my new planner, a birthday present to myself that actually arrived on my birthday (last Friday). You can't beat that timing!

It is the Family Planner from Plum Paper Designs on Etsy.

I'm so stinkin' excited about this thing! I'll give you a peek inside down below, but let me show you first why I wanted this planner.

Take a peek at the binder/planner I used last year:

I added these weekly planner pages to my binder because I wanted it all in one place. I didn't want a planner for home and one for school. The problem was that the binder was too big and bulky to take to and from school, so I left it at school every day.

I also had a blog planner. Take a look:

You can see that the blog planner slowly became a lot of wasted paper. The last picture is fuzzy because the only thing I write in there now is our income and expenses for our TPT and TN store.

Don't get me wrong. I think some people need a blog planner...like serious bloggers. Not someone like me.

Okay, now for the inside of my planner and why I am loving it!

First, it is small enough to fit in my purse so I will be able to take it back and forth to school in my school bag with no problems.

Second, it has stickers. ;-)

(I'm easy to please, ha!)

The Mondays are covered up because that is my bills and I'm sure that is boring to you.

I made a key of my color-coding stickers until I can remember what color is for each of us.

Okay, now for my favorite thing about this planner!

Custom sections on my weekly view! Hooray! You can customize seven sections. 

Notice I left the first one blank. I really wanted it to be free for my memory verses--the next few months, I'm working on Psalm 19.

My next sections are fitness, morning, afternoon, evening, blog, and meals.

I love being able to keep track of my workouts (especially now that I'm mixing it up on the BeFit channel with hubby's smart TV).

The morning, afternoon, evening, and meals sections are the easiest way for me to schedule my days.

Did you see the heart by the blog section? That's because I love just having a few lines to jot notes--instead of a whole separate planner. PERFECT!

Thanks for letting me show-and-tell! Check out Barb's linky party for more (hers is hilarious--so much like me I had to laugh and grab the poster).

Monday Made It - Blog Planner, READ letters, and Sight Words!!!

We're teaming up on this post this week, because we both have some Monday Made-Its to share!

 

Blog Planner!

 

I was inspired by The Eager Teacher to make my own blog planner. Now we're going to have to make one for Kristi too. :-)

Check it out:

 

Cover (and dividers - not pictured) from The Eager Teacher.

Weekly Blog Planning Sheet from here. Mine are black and white because I'm cheap - LOL! Sara at The Eager Teacher also had a monthly calendar, but I decided I didn't need that.

 

My planner has the weekly section (26 pages, front to back), followed by an idea section (10 pages, front to back) from here:

 

 

The last section I added was a products section. Sara at The Eager Teacher had a great printable for this, but I just wanted some blank note pages where I could scribble some notes (10 pages).

 

I took my planner to Office Max and had them bind it for about $4.00! Love it!

 

Next up, I finally got my READ letters done. I have the perfect place to hang these in my room. I was boring and used the same scrapbook paper on all the letters!

 

Turn your letter over and trace on the back of your scrapbook paper with a pencil.

Cut it out - I used a craft knife (super sharp).



Put mod podge on the wooden letters, lay your cut-outs on and press down. I didn't want to mod podge over mine...all done!



Inexpensive and cute! Four wooden letters at Wal-Mart ($1.77 each). I already had the scrapbook paper and the mod podge.

Sight Word Connect Four Pack!

Our class played a lot of connect four games last year.  I was worried that the kiddos would get tired of them.  We would play them at least once a week to review our words and sounds that we were working on.  I was very excited when at the end of the year, they were still begging me to play them. 

So, I was thinking of what I could make to play the first weeks of school with the kids.  I decided that we are always working on our sight words and this would be a great fun way for them to learn and practice all sight words.  I made up a sight word connect four pack that includes all 220 dolch sight words.  It includes 16 connect four games that cover the sight words from pre-primer to third grade.  I am very excited to use this game the first couple of weeks with the kiddos to practice up on our sight words. 
Click the picture to check it out!

 

Don't forget to link up with Tara for Monday Made-It!