DONUT STRESS, Just Do Your Best

Hey, friends - happy July!  We have a busy week ahead as we head out to a conference in Nashville.  Before we take off, though, we wanted to throw out this little freebie for you.  As we head into BTS season next month, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to get things perfect.  Just remember to take care of yourself and DONUT stress!  We hope the NOTES AND QUOTES freebie we're sending to our subscribers will help a bit!

Not an email subscriber or follower yet, DONUT worry - just click the link to the right to sign up!  You can also click this link to be an It All Started with Flubber follower to receive discounts on all new products.  You will find this DONUT Classroom Decor Notes and Quotes as a freebie in our store as a thank you for following us!  Post pictures on our blog or any social media platform to show us how you used these in your classroom!

Here are some easy classroom set up ideas and self-preservation tips to help:

• keep a list and check off what gets done
• start with a task that has you really excited, or one that gives you the biggest bang for your buck (time) - arranging desks is the one for me!
• tackle a task that's a bit daunting, then flip back to an easy one as you build momentum for completing your checklist
• don't stress if nothing gets checked off once in awhile - you are on summer break, you know!
• let your students do some of the classroom set up and decorating so they have ownership in it
• harness the help of former students if possible, they'll love helping with classroom set up
• take some time for yourself each day - read, watch a funny TV show, or just do what makes you happy
• labels, labels, labels - we print SO MANY classroom things on labels, from workbook or folder labels for each student to a strip of student names in fun fonts for each child, use those labels!
• take pictures as you go so you can see tangible evidence of progress, but remember that sometimes you have to make a mess to clean up a mess - case in point, my art supply cabinet
• try having students get supplies from stations on the first day or two - this way they aren't overwhelmed with a huge stack of things on their desks from the first moment they walk in, and it saves you loads of time
• don't strive for perfect - do your best and let it go

We hope you have MANY more days before you have to think about BTS, but if you are like us and already have begun to think about getting organized, take it small in little bites and it's not nearly such a monstrous task!  

Happy July - now go click that subscribe button so you DONUT miss out on our Notes and Quotes FREEBIE!  (And if DONUTS are really your thing, we are launching a classroom décor product line you might enjoy checking out!)