INSPIRED: Writing Goals Bulletin Board

Have you been following The Clutter Free Classroom's INSPIRED series? I am so excited to see the big reveal!

After seeing the Writing Goals Bulletin board, I knew I had to make my own. I am trying really hard this year to make my bulletin boards extra useful. It was hard to get going at first, but now that I'm rolling, I need more bulletin board and wall space! To make my statements (for conventions, grammar, etc), I looked through the common core standards all the way down to 1st grade and created "I can statements." The one on the board says "Use end sentence punctuation." I placed the rest in a slipcover and attached it to the board so that I don't lose them. I want to post each one as I talk about them in writer's workshop. Then, I am going to have students look at their writing samples from last year to decide which two statements they need to prioritize as personal goals and post their name beside of those two goals. I'm going to also place the cards in order of importance (end sentence punctuation and paragraphing will go first--can you believe some 5th graders still want to add paragraphs and punctuation after writing their whole piece...?!) I hope that having this board up (with another card beside of each statement) with student names attached to the goals will help them build independence. I love the "Without a reminder from my teacher" part :)

If you would like this file, I have uploaded it FREE on TPT.

Summer Shopping Linky Party--Cool Stuff for School

Yes, I too LOOOOOVE shopping for school supplies. I find myself going to walmart and target, ending up in the school supply aisles, just staring, not sure if I need anything, trying to wrack my brain to figure out if their is something I can justify buying, and then trying to make myself walk away because I am also trying to create a "clutter-free" classroom.  Then there's the dollar store and the temptation of all of those colorful plastic baskets!

Well, in the spirit of de-cluttering and organizing my classroom, I finally broke down and purchased this desktop beauty. I procrastinated for a couple of months because I thought it was a little expensive, but also didn't want to pay shipping. Well, I found it on overstock.com and they had a free shipping promo! YIPPEE!!! Who knew overstock was a good place to buy school stuff? I only bought this because I knew I wanted it and didn't look at anything else, but it looks like overstock.com's school/office supply section needs further inspection! :)


Do you love this design as much as I do? I found contact paper at Carolina Pottery for 5.99. It's from a company called themacbethcollection . What did I use it for? OMG, swoon. I contact-papered my one and only file cabinet. It was such a huge makeover. I'm just going to love looking at it this year. (I'll upload real pictures in a few weeks when I return to school and have time to snap some of my makeovers). Well, this weekend I was at TJ Max, and they also have contact paper from the Macbeth Collection. I was kind of in "this stuff is going to run out if  I don't grab it...If you liked it once, buy it twice" mode, so I picked up this other cutesy design to use on my storage cabinet, again, a cheap 5.99 for visual pleasure.

Now, to write this post and find the designs I bought, I went to their website (which is on the product, enticing you to go check it out). Okay, be careful if you head over there... I almost passed out. This stuff is so beautiful...what else can I contact paper? They also have cute metal tubs, office supplies, and more. If I had visited the website, I probably would have sprung for some of the chevron designs. <3

My next purchase will be these lovely magnetic border strips for my extra whiteboard that I use as a bulletin board. So excited to put up this black border that will help section things off. It's at learning resources for $9.99. They have a few other designs to choose from. These things seem to be ALL THE RAVE looking at other teachers' summer purchases :)

Have you been summer shopping for back to school time? Head on over to Ladybug's Teacher Files to check out everyone's summer purchases and join Kristen's Summer Shopping Linky!