Teacher Week - Must Have Monday

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin for Teacher Week 2012. 

Today is Must-have Monday. So here are my current top 10 must haves. My favorite things change almost daily, so in a month or so this list would probably be completely different. 

1. Good ole' classic Coca-Cola. Oh yeah I'm obsessed. I actually did a decent job cutting back over the summer, but now that school is back in full swing, it's a soda a day for me! I've been to the world of Coca-Cola and I have Coca-Cola pajamas.

2. CHOCOLATE - Along with my ice cold can of Coca-Cola, I must have chocolate. The only downside is that since we are a peanut free school, I must satisfy this craving at home. (Since my favorite 25 candy bars all have nuts in them.) Except for twix. I was shocked when I found out twix were nut free. 

3. BOOKS - If I ever have a mid-life crises, my new career would be a librarian. I probably have around 400 books in my personal library. AND that's only counting my picture books. If you include my boxed up chapter books in storage, there's even more!!!!

4. LOCKER CRATES - These are a must for storing all my wonderful books in our classroom library. I only have one small bookshelf for our library. The crates are perfect for lining up against a wall. They give my students a large selection of books and keep them sorted. 

5. POST-ITS - Okay, maybe this one should have been number 1 on my list. I love post its. The dollar places I shop at keep an ever changing stock of colors, shapes, sizes, and awesome designs. I just can't pass them up. I have an entire stack of them in my drawer.

6. LABELS - My classroom HAS to be organized. It's the only thing that keeps me sane with all the other organized chaos that happens in the classroom. EVERYTHING (almost) in my room has a label. I even labeled the items on MY teaching shelf. (I might need an intervention.)

7. GIMP - Isn't my new blog header awesome? (If I may say so myself . . . ) I designed it using GIMP. It's kind of like photoshop, but free. The learning curve is a little high, but you can do so much with it.

8. CLIP-ART - This is a new must have for me. I've caught the clip-art bug. I love KPM Doodles. I have quite a few of her clip-art sets. I opened up my TPT store just to pay for my clip-art obsession. :)

9. COLORED PENS - I love colored pens. You should see my lesson plans. I think I have an unspoken three color minimum. 

10. SKITTLES - I'm not a huge fan of skittles, but my kiddos go bonkers over them! They are great for bribing rewarding my students who are following directions. (They don't melt in little hands like m&m's) I reach for my skittle jar and it's amazing how fast all the little bodies sit down on the carpet. :)

That's it for today. Head back to Blog Hoppin for more Monday Must-Haves. Check back tomorrow for my tech tip.