It's started...

I have all day math trainings on August 14, 17, and 18th.  I report back to my school on the 19th and get munchkins the 24th. I was a little nervous about how I would set up my classroom since I was originally told we couldn't get keys until the 14th and that overlapped with the training.  

My brain went into overdrive, thinking if I could go in on Saturday, but only if the air was turned on and which days I'd stay late next week...

But then I got a glorious email from my lovely administrators.  We get to get our keys on the 12th!  Problem solved!

I'd rather do a little bit each day (and since the air is only on 7-1, this helps!) and ease into the beginning of the school year.  I plan to set my alarm starting Monday and get adjusted to a more structured routine. 

This week I did start my back to school supply shopping.  Thanks to coupons and deals at Office Depot and Target, I feel I was able to stay within a reasonable budget.  

In years past, I stocked up on the expensive shower caddies from Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  

However, they were an expensive investment and were not treated well at all.  I ended up throwing all of them away at the end of the year because they were cracked from being stepped on.

Last year, I went the dollar tree route instead...and they're still in great shape, so I can reuse them!

However, by the end of the year, the materials in the bucket were very well used.  No group had a complete set of the ten markers, 24 colored pencils, pencil sharpener, and scissors by the end of the year.

I'm thinking that I'll use washi-tape to color code the supplies this year.  I tried doing colored star stickers and packing tape, but that wasn't very successful.  

I already have the baskets and the back pack hooks color coded with washi tape and that worked fairly well last year, so I'm excited to try to build on that organization system. 

I've got almost all my supplies, I know when I'm going back, I've just got to pack my stuff into my tote bags.

However, I don't know how many munchkins I'll have (I planned for 36) or a class list.

So I subtly tagged my lovely administrators as this on Facebook:

 We are a subtle bunch!

Happy back to school!