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!!

Snow Day!

So. My morning went a little like this... Woke up, roads were bad-ish, but had no call from the school. Went to school. Walked in the door, principal said "hey, don't you know we have a 2-hour delay?" Then my phone rang. I was there, so I got some work done. Then they cancelled school. BLAH.

BUT. The best part? High school and middle school had already gotten to school by the time ours was cancelled, so they put in a whole day even though we didn't go at all, which means we don't have to make the day up!! Woot! So, I went home, played in the snow with my pup, and finished up me 3 hours of video training on how to recognize and report child abuse. We even had to take a quiz. I passed. Hooray?

Anywho, here's some of what we've been up to in first grade the past few days... I finished my Christmas door, which if you remember from last year, we all tend to go a little over the top. Well, this year we're not going QUITE as over the top, since there's literally like 2 days of school in December. Hard to be motivated to put up door decorations that will be ripped down the next week. I know, I'm a Scrooge. We had to pick songs, so I went with "We Are Santa's Elves" from Rudolph, and turned my door into Santa's workshop.

It looked REALLY lame and boring, so I added a nice list with all my kiddos' names, and a Christmas countdown. Super low key, but it's still fun. I'll try to take some pictures of other doors in the building this week!

If you follow me on instagram (@mrfirstgrade) you've seen what our elf, Mistletoe has been up to! Here's what he's done the past few days...

Hope you're enjoying December with your kiddos!

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?