Ready, Set, Go!!

My room is all set! Lesson plans are prepared and I'm ready for my sweet little ones to come to Open House! This is one of the first years that I actually feel relaxed to start school... maybe it was the six month break that has helped or switching to pre-k. Anyhow, I'm really excited!!

Here's some pictures of my room and the hallway. My room looks very much the same as last year, with the exception of tables instead of desks, an extra carpet area, and no more tiny swing (it was all used up). To see more pictures of the inside of my room from last year, click here.

I made this sign from a foam piece from the Dollar Store last year.

Chicka, chicka, boom, boom, look who's in our classroom.

Artwork display for the hallway... as I was putting it up I said to my teacher neighbor and friend, Mrs. LaMarche, "Does it look good or too gaudy?" Then I chuckled, because my room is a little overly bright!! I bought the colored pom poms here.

Here's an example of my bright and cheery classroom style, this is nothing like how my house is decorated... click here to see that! I got the little birds on the fans from School Girl Style, the pennant banner from Walmart's birthday section, and paper fans from Dollar Tree.

Love this Dr. Seuss quote. I made this last year with fancy letter stickers and a mixture of printed words on the computer.

Here's an example of our locker name tags. I printed 6 sets of these for my 21 kiddos. 3 large and 3 small... it looks great and I hope my littles like seeing their name everywhere!!

Here's a view from the doorway looking into my room. It just makes me feel happy. I LOVE my room!!

Finally, here's station 1 for Open House night all ready to go! If you are one of my sweet families reading this, I can't wait to see you!! 

Welcome to my classroom 2013-2014

Here's a peek inside my room...

View from the door, LOVE it!

These are several shots from around the room. It's bright and polka dottie! I really think it makes for a fun environment for me and the kids.

This is the kids favorite part and younger siblings love it too... the best part is that my brother-in-law and sister-in-law gave it to me. I painted it last year to spruce it up a bit.

My desk area is my absolutely favorite spot. I really only sit there when there are no kids in the room or when I am pulling students over, so I didn't want a desk. This baby was originally the standard brown, so I painted the top and edged it with fun ABC letters from the Dollar Tree. I covered it with strips of clear contact paper for protection and finished the edges with black electrical tape. I think it turned out fabulous!! The canopy and chairs came from Ebay. The rainbow storage drawers are where I keep my desk supplies. I also think it lets the kids know that I am there to work with them!! When parents come in for a meeting it makes it hard to only have kids size chairs, but everyone has been real great about it so far!!

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Saw that bouquet at Michaels this summer and had to have it!!

I got this awesome book shelf from Ashley furniture 2 years ago when they had a tent sale. It came from an office there and I got it for a sweet 20 bucks!! Last year I added some paint and ribbon on the edge. I love how it turned out and all my teaching picture books are in the drawers below. It's very handy and I know my resources won't get mixed in with the books for Daily 5. The side has one of my favorite sayings "Bloom where you are planted."

I just added this shelf this summer and it fits perfectly below my whiteboard. It holds Daily 5 book bins, the writing center fabric bins, and behind the curtains on either side have board games for inside recess. I am really happy that it was already painted light blue. It matched terrifically!

Here's a close up of my whiteboard where I have put up the Daily 5 center choices and Math BUILD center choices. On each sign there are colored dot stickers with a number for the amount of students that can be at that station 1-6. The students will take turns marking their clothespins, when it is time, during reading or math to make their choice. I got a free spreadsheet from TPT that I can use to track their choices as well and monitor that they are getting to everything.

This is also on the whiteboard and is where I will be showcasing our "All About Me" student of the week. Do you like the picture of me in 1st grade? This actually didn't photograph well, I think it's cuter in person. Special thanks to my mom for shortening the curtains and helping hang the fabric on the front of my new shelf. The magnetic curtain rod can be found at Walmart.

This bulletin board will hold learning objectives, vocabulary, and spelling words. I am loving the lime green.

This is on the other end of the whiteboard and as you can guess is our calendar math area. I created a Math journal page that matches all the components for September. I am really excited for my students to start their jobs, because it is so fun to see how important the students make that calendar/weather one.

Speaking of jobs... here's how my classroom job board looks. It says "Oh The Places You'll Go" on the top and as a former VW bug owner, I just had to use those cute little cars. The best part is that I get people sticks to mark the students' names, so it looks like they are hanging out the window!!

My word wall this year will have reading and math vocabulary. It is a great reference for the students.

I redid this shelf last year as well, painted and added the polka dot ribbon on the front. It holds the baskets for our math BUILD centers. What no D you say, that's because D is Doing math on Computers!!

I hope you enjoyed your little tour. I realized just now that I basically missed one side of my room. Don't worry, there'll be plenty more pictures throughout the year!!