Linky Party-What Are You In Love With?

So Jennifer over at First Grade Blue Skies is hosting a linky party where we can post all of our loves.  What a great idea!

I need to be completely honest and tell you that I've been stalking these "Linky Parties" all summer and have yet to join one.  From what I've gathered linky parties seem to be a great way to share ideas and make connections with other teachers.
Well...today's the day!  I'm going to do it!  Even though I really have no idea what I'm doing...I'm going to try!  I already figured out how to type the name of Jennifer's blog in my post and have it work as a link back to her blog.  So far I'm pretty impressed with myself!  :)

So...a few of my favorite things!

1.  Our school mascot is a pirate so to instill school pride in my little friends, I have a lot of pirate themed decor in my classroom.  Our school colors are also red, black and white so I use these colors throughout my room.  I'd love to be able to show a picture of my finished classroom, but it looks like this as of today:

Trying not to panic....breathe in, breathe out...it will be finished before the kiddos arrive!  :)

2.  Daily  5!  If you haven't stumbled across these books by "The Sisters" you really need to give them a shot...they have totally changed the way I structure the way I teach reading and writing.  AND...I am going to their workshop next Tuesday, July 26 (Merry Christmas in July to me!) in Ann Arbor, Michigan!  I am so excited!

3.  Debbie Diller!  She is such a Rock Star!  These books are so awesome and her ideas mesh will with "The Sister's" ideas and tips!  Spaces and Places is a dream come true for those of us who love to be organized!

4.  Pinterest!  It's a social media tool where you can "pin" images from websites and also repin other people's pins.  There are some very helpful tutorials on You Tube if you're interested.  I have pinned tons of classroom ideas-posters, activities, classroom design, etc. as well as personal stuff!  I am officially a Pinterest addict.  I joined via the website and it took about a week to receive my official invitation to join.  Once I was a member, I invited others and they received their invitations immediately.  If you'd like an invite just leave me a comment or send me an email!

5.  Those Target dollar bins are pretty amazing too!  Check my blog to see some of the goodies I've found.

Oh...one more...I'm pretty excited about a tree that I'm building for a corner of my classroom...here's the first pictures:

I used 2 1/2 cement tubes from Home Depot.  We screwed them together and then reinforced them with Duct Tape.

We paper mache'd it twice.  The first time we kept it smooth, and the second coat was lumpy because I wanted some texture on it.  I'm hoping to start painting it this weekend.

Okay...so there's my favorite loves so far....now to make sure I finish this little party the right way!  :)

Thanks to Jennifer for hosting such a great bash!  Cheers!