New Calendar & My TPT cart!

One of my favorite things about each new school year is getting a new monthly calendar.  A few years ago I volunteered to order some for our entire staff from Amsterdam Printing.  We got great red vinyl covers with an image of a husky (our mascot) and they were refillable!  Only problem... I put the year on the cover, so no one, myself included, wanted to use them the following year.  It's been three years since I ordered, but Amsterdam continues to send me calendars and pens in the mail every year.  EVERY YEAR.  Sounds good, but without the cover, I'm not very excited to use them.

It's a great little calendar, but I'm pretty tough on mine.  I like to have a protective cover, and I like it to be a bit bigger so that I can find it easily if it gets covered with work on my desk.

Last year, I found this polkadotty calendar at Target for under $10.  I was just beginning my "Top Dog" theme, so I added an insert to identify it as my own.  Loved it!  Couldn't wait for Target to get them in this year!  I've been school shopping since the sales started right after July 4th, but I couldn't find them.  

It was so hard to wait.  I checked for them EVERY time I went to Target without luck.  UNTIL TODAY!  Those sneaky Target people put them in the aisle with the collegiate items, like hangars and laundry baskets.  I never thought to look there before, and honestly, had finally chosen a different one from another spot.  What a relief to see them, and there weren't many left, either.  The one I didn't choose had bold yellow horizontal stripes.  When I printed out a new insert for the cover (had to change the year), I had a slight problem.

I solved it quite simply by cutting a small piece from the inside "title" page, if you will. Used it to cover up that blue date banner.  Go me!  Here is why I love this calendar:

Another thing I love about this calendar is that it is three hole punched, so I can keep it in a binder.  Awwww yeah!

Stopped in to my classroom to drop off all the supplies I've been buying, and NOTHING has been cleaned since summer school ended one week ago.  I am very envious of teachers who can set their room up waaaaay before they actually HAVE to go back to work.  All that setting up takes time, and I need to work on lesson plans and collaboration with my team when we go back.  I wish I could get the decorating done sooner.  Oh, well. 

Our school is doing a wild west theme this year.  I'm going to put bandannas and dolly straw hats on my stuffed husky, Clifford, and Little Critter (at Kohl's NOW $5).  If you have any simple ideas for a first grade wild west classroom, let me know!  I'm planning to get a few things from TPT tomorrow.  Woo hoo for a big sale!  Click each pic to see the product on TPT.  (Hope I did the links correctly).

Click each pic to see item on TPT!

What's in your TPT cart?