Classroom Reveal!

It feels SO good to be done with my classroom! My little firsties will be coming Thursday night for back to school night, and I'm pumped! Before I reveal my room, did you hear that TPT is having ANOTHER back to school sale? I'll be discounting my entire store to join in the fun!

Without further ado, I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' to show off my room! Link up to show off yours, too!

Here's the view from the moment you walk in my door. Not sure who decided that those cabinets should be placed in the MIDDLE of the classroom, but we make the best of it. Good news is that the kids' stuff is ALWAYS out of sight. I have a set of mailboxes, so I use their cubbies for their Daily 5 book box. I will pre-load them with a handful of books after back to school night, because I'm starting Daily 5 Boot Camp on day 2! The posters above my sink are all book jackets, and the chalkboard posters are by A Year of Many Firsts... LOVE them.

Here's a closer look at my classroom library... I finally bit the bullet and bought that IKEA leaf I've been eyeing up for YEARS. Luckily, there's a metal contraption in the corner that holds all sorts of wires and such, so I used some UBER strong magnets and hung it. The rug is also from IKEA. Since I only have 19 students this year and about a billion cubbies, I put pillows in the few right by the library so they can sit in there. I also put out some stuffed animals if they want to read with a buddy.

Listening center for Daily 5. Got the chairs from Wal-Mart a few years ago, and the carpet from IKEA. On my closet door, I post what stories are in the listening center, and what track number they are (I make my own CD's for the listening center... read all about it HERE!) Also, our entire district is implementing a new anti-bullying curriculum, so the primary grades are all using Have You Filled a Bucket Today as a starting point. I'll keep you posted on how I use it in my classroom. Do you use bucket fillers? Please share your ideas!!

Thar she blows. A bunch of teachers in my building have fun frog themes or fun pirate themes... My theme is "borderline sensory overload" and I love it. So there.

This is supposed to be the teacher desk... In the middle of the room. I'm not using it this year, and I've started a trend in our hallway!! We're getting 2 more laptops for each room, hence the 4 stools, which are from... wait for it... IKEA! Legit $4.99 a pop. Bare cabinets will soon be sporting writing goals and anchor charts.

Also bit the bullet and got rid of my rocking chair... I'm still a little sad about it. For back to school night, I always have the kids write their name on the chart paper. It's an eye-opening experience and helps me remember that my kiddos are kindergarteners when I get them, which is still scary for me.

Starting left to right, the drawers are my writing center. Each drawer is a different option. Write a letter, post card, list, etc. Daily 5 i-charts and schedule, reading... I divided my board up into general comprehension strategies, nonfiction, and fiction. Underneath is just another spot to read and Jelly Bean, the world's fattest guinea pig in the world.

Since I got rid of my desk, this my command center. I have everything I need right behind me, and since I spend the majority of my day at my reading table, I decided to make it my home away from home.

Back to school night... I don't use newsletters, as you may have read, so I printed out directions on how to follow our class on Instagram, and the digital picture frame has Instagram pictures from the past year. I'm hoping the majority of parents just sign up that night.

I also set up a little giving tree and asked parents to take a leaf or two... Hoping the donations come flowing on the first day! The Giving Tree! Love. I can't take credit for it... Teacher friend, who has started referring to me as "Mr. Pinterest" came up with that all on her own and I stole it!

Is your room done? Link up! I want to see!!

Chevron Bulletin Boards (and Vacation Pictures!)

I'm a huge fan of covering bulletin boards with fabric as opposed to paper. All those little holes in the paper bug me, and the paper is also, well, boring. Last year as I was setting up my classroom, I went to the clearance rack to purchase fabric... One of the ones I got was great, the other was not a good idea... The monkeys seemed fun at the time, but they ended up being extremely distracting and I ripped them down halfway through the school year. This year, I was determined to find fun fabric that had patterns, NOT pictures. And find it, I did! JoAnn Fabrics is currently having a sale (which they almost always are) on some really cool fabrics. The whole wall was 40% off, plus the teacher discount of 15%, I essentially paid less than half-price for all the fabric I got. WIN. Here's what I got...

Grand total for one large bulletin board and 2 small ones? $14. And all the borders were found at the Dollar Tree. Yes, even the awesome owl one! I'm excited to start filling them up with all my new Daily 5 stuff and my "I Can" Statements. 

If you like to cover your boards with fabric (and if you don't, I recommend it) go check out the stuff that's on sale at JoAnn Fabrics... There's chevron in practically every color, as well as TONS of other really cool stuff. It was definitely hard to narrow my choices down to only 3!!

AND, here's a few of my favorite pictures from our little European getaway :-)

Climbed up this ridiculously tall bell tower in Split, Croatia... terrifying.

Our hotel in Venice, right on the canal... 

I was more than a little excited to be riding a gondola, if you can't tell... That's the bridge of sighs in the background, connecting the doge's palace to the prison.

At the temple of Zeus

The Parthenon

 Mykonos, Greece. Other than Venice, this was my favorite stop.

We were bending down to get our picture with Petros the pelican, and he stuck his neck up into my face and we screamed and this picture perfectly captures our surprise :-)

Anybody else go somewhere fun this summer?

Classroom Set-up Pack

Well, school's out for summer! Yesterday was our last day, and I woke up feeling like my sinuses had been run over by a train. I popped some sudafed, which wore off as my kiddos walked out the door. Couldn't have asked for better timing. However, now I have to go back Monday to finish cleaning my room, since I got nothing done yesterday afternoon...

In other news, I've been VERY busy creating some new posters and other goodies for my room that I'd love to share!! Check out my first Classroom Set-up Pack.  This is hopefully the first of multiple sets to be made. This one is all stripe themed.

*UPDATE* I just finished CHEVRON, too!! 

It includes all of the following:

-BLANK LABELS IN EACH PATTERN
-Alphabet posters with pictures (26)
-Number posters with ten frames (1 thru 20)
-Word wall letter headers (26)
-Clock numbers (every 5 minutes)
-Table numbers (1 thru 6)
-Group numbers (1 thru 6)
-Name plates (4 patterns)
-Student numbers (1 thru 30)
-Supply labels: crayons, markers, scissors, highlighters, glue, glue sticks, glue bottles, colored pencils, pencils, dull pencils, sharp pencils, stencils, notebook paper, construction paper, dry erase markers, paper, games, recess games, puzzles, erasers, folders, homework, homework folders, mailboxes, chalk, rulers, tape, timers, whisper phones, calculators, paper clips, rubber bands, post-it notes, notebooks, paint, play-doh, pipe cleaners, stapler, pens, stamps, ink pads, stickers, counters, counting bears, clocks, money, place value blocks, ones, tens, hundreds, plane shapes, tangrams, solid figures, fractions, dice, number tiles, spinners, uni-fix cubes, white boards, chalk boards.

Wanna win a copy? Enter using my FIRST RAFFLECOPTER!!  Winner will have their choice of stripes or chevron (or something else if I finish more!!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I can't wait to print them out and use them in my room next year!!

This one time...

So, this one time, I went into school on Saturday to work on report cards... On the way, I made the mistake of stopping at Wal-Mart. Never again. I bought lots of things and instead of working on report cards, I ended up rearranging my entire classroom. Granted, I'm very pleased with the way it turned out, but I am NOWHERE near having my report cards done by Tuesday!

ANYWHO, check out some of the fun things I found! These little Adirondack chairs were less than $5 a pop! So clearly, I bought 6. The matching tables were around $6, I believe, but I couldn't pass them up. I mean, look at them.

You know those little foam rectangles that you can find in any craft section? Well, I've been wanting to make some bunting for my windows, and found the perfect supplies! I took those tricky little buggers and snipped them down to triangles on the paper cutter. A few hole punches, some twine and a few command hooks, and VOILA! I especially like how sturdy the foam pieces are! Fun and easy.

My favorite part is our new reading area...

Have a happy Monday!