This Year's Classroom

Last year I was fortunate enough to realize how important it was to make a room you LOVE. You spend so much time in your classroom that you need to make sure it is some place that you like spending time in. I was also presented an additional challenge this year, I get a half classroom. Thankfully it turned into a cozy little nook. I can honestly say that although we are almost done with the school year, I still enjoy being in it!  Take a peek!

The view of my room from the window. I love having fabric cover my desk, I feel like it makes the whole room come together more! The hanging talk bubbles are Accountable Talk Stems from Miss Sampson over at TPT. I love them! The Wonder Wall is an idea that I got after looking at many other teacher bloggers. Didn't get to use it as much as I liked this year, but next year it'll be in full swing!

 In this picture you can see my reading and math word walls, "Help Yourself Center" full of manipulatives, calculators, and other resources students may need, and our super cute bunting! It's hard to believe that a coworker got that bunting super cheap at a yard sale!

Finally, a place for homework to be recorded and to hold all of our "Productive Thinking" more to come about that soon! This picture is also Pre-Smartboard. I love my SmartBoard, but I can't help but miss all of that extra whiteboard space!

Hard to believe that in five weeks all of this hard work will be coming down for summertime cleaning. It took so long to put up! I thought that was supposed to be a benefit of staying at the same school? ;)

Happy Teaching!

Classroom Set-Up Days One and Two

Hey!

It has been absolutely CRAZY around here! Last Thursday I was finally able to get in my classroom and deal with the chaos. One of my Math and Science Institute training sessions was cancelled so I was able to go work! I got rid of all of the extra stuff and got my room settled.

Here are some pictures of what I have got done so far.  It definitely needs a lot of work, but it's getting there!

This is where I am going to work with my small groups.  I thought I had measured correctly, but my fabric was too short! I ended up triple layering my borders to cover it! (Oh and the fabric is much cuter in person)

This is my reading nook/ class library.  I will be putting something on the back of the bookcase for my kiddos to look at :) Oh and my Redskins bear is housed here... they are coming back this year!

This is quite possibly the part of my room that I am the most excited about! Got this idea from Pinterest, I think the original was geared towards older kids with smart phones so I changed it a bit.  They are going to love it!!!

The two pictures above are the front of my classroom so far.

And lastly, my sign in the hallway! I'm official.

So excited to get a lot more done tomorrow!  Just hoping that I don't get stuck in two hour traffic like I did today from the picture below.  Luckily, everyone involved in the accident was okay!

Hope everyone is having a good first few days of school too!  

Classroom Catastrophe and the Too Long To-Do List

This morning I woke up and all I could think was, "Yay! I finally get to start moving stuff in my classroom today!"  Got ready, drove all the way to school and entered my room ready to get it all started.... but it didn't work out exactly how I planned.

Now I had already known that there were a few bookshelves in my room that needed to be moved to another room.  But as I started to take stock of things I realized that I had...

42 Desks (If I have 42 students I think I need a pay raise) along with a bunch of other stuff that isn't mine :(

 I attempted to move everything that wasn't mine out of the middle of the floor.  I figured that I could at least move the desks.... not really.  It's kind of hard to visualize where everything goes when you have stuff lining the room that isn't yours... and a bunch of extra desks. My fingers are crossed that tomorrow I can talk to someone to help me figure this all out :) 

The other day I decided that I should put all of my plans on a to-do list to help me get organized.  My to do list is a bit longer than expected...

And I'm having a hard time doing any of it.  I'm so excited for my classroom, but there is so much on that list! I think I'm going to try to chunk into manageable pieces.  I just can't wait to get it all done and for the kiddos to arrive!

Hope y'all are having a more successful beginning of the year than I am!

Birthday Display... Check!

Yesterday I took the time to make my to-do list. It is MASSIVE. There is so much to do before school starts and combining this with another project i'm working on is turning out to be a lot of work. Luckily I had some time last night to try out two of the things that I found on pinterest ( have I mentioned how obsessed I am with pinterest? )

I've been looking out for a cute birthday display for a while, I decided to make the one that I found on the blog Bulletin Board Ideas.  The templates made it super easy! Now all I'm waiting to do is get my class list so I can add the candles.  She has a lot of other great ideas on her blog so check it out!

I also took the time to make some really cute DIY dry erase boards that I found on the blog Peace, Love, Pre-K. They were really easy to make and gave me the chance to use some of the new duct tape that's out!

Now I just have to try and tackle this never ending to-do list before I start soon!

Moving on Up

After going to my first job interview this summer (at a school that I fell in LOVE with) I was hired as a fourth grade teacher.  I was beyond excited, I could not wait to start! Then I received an email... I had been moved to fifth.  Now to say I didn't have any problems with teaching fifth grade would be a lie. My overdramatic self had constantly said I would teach ANYTHING except for fifth grade. When I was student teaching I had the most amazing cooperating teacher but a very challenging class.  I loved the kids, but they stressed me out... A LOT. I didn't really want to work with fifth graders again... but it's all in God's hands and I'm guessing he wants me to get back on the horse. So that's what I'm doing.

My nervousness is gone.  I'm sure that this will be a great class and a wonderful experience. I'll probably end up loving it and teach it forever. But now onto challenge number one, what am I supposed to do with room 17?

I guess I'll have to figure it out soon enough. Now it's time to go paint some of the goodies I bought yesterday!  I'll post pictures soon!