I saw this earlier in the week and meant to participate. My Google Reader Account is now full of Hall Passes! Such a great idea!
P- Product
My favorite product in my store is my (Math) Operation Snowball Fight.

My class still asks to play this as a review during math centers. I am a big fan of the self-checking QR codes!
A- Area
This corner of my room is my favorite. In fact I just moved the carpet over so that it faces that direction.
What I like about it:
The quilt on the chair was part of a service learning project I did as an undergrad for my honor’s thesis. The class voted to have me keep the quilt so I could repeat the project with future classes. Since then my future classes have donated quilts for media centers post-Katrina and raised $3,000 by auctioning quilts for Haitian Earthquake Relief.
The frog chalkboard was a class auction gift a couple of years ago. As I’ve mentioned before, the principal let me paint the rest of the door with the chalkboard paint. I post a question of the day for my students to answer. The kids still get a kick out of writing on the door and we’ve done it all year!
The curtain was one of my projects this summer. It is actually half a fitted bed sheet wrapped around a tension rod. (I got the idea from this pin.) I tied it up with two pieces of ribbon and had instant no-sew curtains. I used the flat sheet as the background on my bulletin board. (see below)
The flowers are a recent addition, but daffodils from my Irishman make me smile!
S – Signal
I was fortunate last year to take a slightly extended maternity leave. My sub started the year and I took over mid-December. For the most part it was great. There was one habit though that made me crazy.
My students had been trained to use the finger signals when they had to go to the bathroom. As in hold up one finger or two depending on….well….you know. I couldn’t handle it. To me that falls in the category of TMI.
Then I found this on Pinterest. The link here is for free printable classroom sign language posters. What I love most is that they are based on real sign language.
My students use sign language to ask to go to the restroom or to get a drink of water. When they raise their hands, they use the sign language to let me know if they have an answer, a question, or a comment.
They have small individual posters for each sign or the one page overview. I used the poster machine to enlarge the one pager, but I may go back to smaller signs and post only those we use regularly.
To transition between activities I try to incorporate a brain break. I posted about a few of my favorite websites for transitions last week in this post. Also pictured here are even more free brain break resources. (Link 1 and Link 2)
S – Sanity
I used to live for reading blogs during my lunch break. Everyone at my school takes a working lunch alone in their classroom. Now that I have a student teacher in my room with me, sitting at my desk reading blogs might be considered a *tad* antisocial!
Other sanity savers: audiobooks from the library on my phone and photos of my kids posted behind my desk.
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Now I’m off to read some of the other posts with a cup of tea and a cupcake from Costco. Yummy!