Setting up a new classroom...again!

8 times!!!

That's the number of times I have changed classrooms in the 14 years I've been teaching.  

That's a lot!  

You would think that I would have it down to a science by now, but it still takes me forever to get things just the way I want them.  And inevitably, halfway through the year, once I've spent time moving throughout and living in the new room I want to change it ALL.  I clearly have problems.  ;)

So here are a few pictures of how my new room looks (so far).  

It's hard to see specifics in the pictures above, so I will try to take more detailed pictures for some future blog posts to explain my reasoning behind each part of my room.  But you can get a general idea of our space.  I try to create as many different areas in the room as I can including: a teacher desk area (for all my mess that will happen on busy days), guided reading/small group table, our whole group meeting area with smart board, and a some center areas you can't really see in these pictures.  I think the kids move better in a room with specific areas for different activities.  

Here is my calendar bulletin board below.  

This bulletin board always take me so long to create it just the way I want it.  I put this up and took it down at least 3 times before I settled on this arrangement.  This year I created some calendar ten frames for us to count our days of school each day along with the counting straws.  I felt like I needed another visual that the kiddies could see and use each day, because you can really never have enough visual teaching aides.  When I posted this picture on Instagram I had some sweet folks ask if I had these for sale.  I really just made them quick for myself so I decided to just post them here as a FREEBIE instead of putting them in my store.  If you'd like them, go ahead and download them below.

And here is my word wall.  

 A new classroom means adjusting what you might normally have on your walls to what space you now have.  Last year my word wall looked like this...

That classroom had zero wall space and only two small bulletin boards which needed to have my calendar/morning meeting items on them.  So I used the cabinets and I LOVED the way this word wall worked for us.  The colors helped visually separate the letters and students could easily locate words.  This year my cabinets were smaller and I needed to change the size, but I wanted to keep the same general idea.  I also plan on making it interactive....more on that to come.  

So there is just a little peak into my classroom for this year.  I don't know about you, but I LOVE looking into other people's classrooms.  In fact, I often pop into my colleagues' rooms in the summer to see how they've arranged things.  I love exploring Pinterest for this very reason too!  Every teacher has such a wonderful way of organizing things for their students and creating a fun learning environment.  If you have any links to some great classrooms to check out, leave a link in the comments so I can take a peek too!  It's kind of an addiction :)

On a different note, I just uploaded TWO new products too and they are on sale!  These are perfect to use during guided reading, as a center, or a fast finisher activity.  Your kids will love this Spot the Rule Breakers game!!!  Two versions are currently available with more to come.  I hope you'll check them out.  

Happy back to school to all of you!  I know we all love our summers, but there's something so exciting about getting ready for a new school year.  Soak it up!

Finally...Classroom Pictures with Freebies

Ok my dear friends!  I am FINALLY sharing my classroom pictures.  Oy vey!  This was a long time coming.  I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but my daughter Lauren started Kindergarten this year. I teach in the same district we live in, so I'm pretty close to home (about 25 minutes or so) but it is still further away than I would like to be.  Towards the end of the school year last year there was an opening in the school that is right down the street from our house, which is also the school that she would be going to.  How could I NOT try to get even more time with my little girl???   So of course, I went for it.  I did not switch districts, but I did change schools so that meant I had to pack up my classroom and then unpack in a new room.  Always a chore, but I know I am preaching to the choir because I know you ALL know what that is like.  

So that is ONE reason why my classroom pictures are so delayed.  The other reason is a pretty awesome one ---- I entered a contest on Instagram to win $200 to Creative Teaching Press and....

Can you believe that I WON!!!!  I was one of the 10 people who won!!!!  How exciting is that?!?!?

As you can imagine, I immediately jumped on the site to order some goodies.  I spent that $200 faster than you can say Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious (no idea how to spell that =).  There was SO much to choose from - not to mention it is super fun to spend someone else's money.  Am I right?

You can see a bunch of birthday goodies, stickers, pockets, bulletin board borders, days of the week set, large letters, and some awesome letter stickers (for those of us who don't have a Cameo Silhouette - these are AWESOME!!!).  I also got a couple bulletin board sets and some classroom/learning music CD's (not pictured).  

When these goodies came in the mail can you believe that CTP actually gave me even MORE than what I ordered?!?!?  I couldn't believe it!  They doubled much of what was shown above AND threw in the all of this too ....

They were so incredible to work with and made everything so easy!  I couldn't wait to start decorating (once all my other boxes were unpacked that is).  

So without further ado, here is my NEW classroom!

This first picture is standing in the doorway and looking towards the front of the classroom.

Now focusing in on certain parts...My Word Wall and student mailboxes.

Behind my Teacher Desk. 

On the wall are our classroom rules and these chalkboard prints from CTP.

From this view you can see (kind of) the polka dot alphabet above the board, a couple more chalkboard prints under the board, and the carpet area.

The shelf below sits right in front of my desk.  I LOVE it ... but I didn't love it so much before.  Keep scrolling to see why.

Here it is --- YIKES!  

And here it is after my little makeover.

So much better!  

Back to the front of the classroom.  Here is my easel, which is currently set up for our What's in a Name activities.  

 

Under the easel you can see some whiteboards that I found at the Dollar Tree.  They are flimsy, but they are better than nothing.  

I also scored these adorable chevron bags from JoAnn's to hold our reading buddies and big books. 

Moving up to the wall.  Here is part of my birthday bulletin board pack I got from CTP.

Next to that is our Morning Meeting board with calendar, days of the week from CTP, months are from their birthday pack, number chart, number line, and number posters.  

I made new numbers for my pocket chart because I needed to go past 100 and I wanted them to all look the same.  I used them for this and also to label our snack pockets.  

You can get the number cards for FREE too!

This will be our writing center and I will also store my iPads in the paper organizer.  

Now moving to the other side of the room.  I have 22 students so I have 4 circle tables of 4 kids and then a rectangle table with 6.  In the back I have one more circle table to use for a center.  

On this wall is our Amazing Sight Word Race bulletin board all revved up and ready to race!  That chevron border is once again from CTP.  And YES it's really dark outside - it may have been past my bedtime when I was taking these photos.  

This is the back of the classroom.  Nothing much to look at from this angle.  

Here is our lunch clip chart (which you can get for free if you are a Facebook fan - just click on the link for Fan Freebies.  There are more choice options also.)

This are next to the sink became a small supply center.  The drawers have color labels on them (sorry I didn't get a closer picture).  Any lost crayons go in here and kids can grab a color whenever they need it.

You can also get these labels for FREE.

The next picture is of an orange leather chair that was in my new classroom and I did not want to get rid of it.  

I had big plans to recover this chair, but somehow time got away from me.  Not like that ever happens, right?  So instead, I grabbed a super soft blanket and fun pillow.  I have since clipped and pinned the blanket a little tighter around the chair, but you get the idea.  It's a little better.  I plan on using this chair as a special reading chair and using it as a reward.

The last part of my room is the reading table.  Behind the table I have all my supplies: leveled readers, centers, letter tiles, flashcards, reading pointers, SCENTOS, and much, much more!  

The bulletin boards all have the super fun borders from CTP.  The two bulletin boards that will stay as is are my Beanie Baby reading strategies and my Smart Cookie math board from Lucky to be in First. The other two will eventually hold anchor charts, but for now they have these great posters from CTP and a couple small pocket charts from Target's Dollar Spot.  

So I think that's about it.  I hope you like it!  We have now started school and I am loving how much space I have this year with my 22 kiddos.  

One more thing...

Before I go, I just wanted to share a few more goodies I got from Creative Teaching Press.  I put together these awesome Birthday Bags for my kiddos.  We had our first birthday on Friday and the little boy was super excited to open his gift.  

 The bookmarks, bracelets, and cootie catchers are from CTP.  I got the bucket of pencils with erasers at BJ's and the bubbles and balloons from Target.  I also will give each kid a birthday certificate and a crown to wear from CTP.  

Thanks so much for stopping by!  

Keep smiling! =)

Decorating My Classroom

This Welcome banner is free in my TpT store.

I have been suuuuuuuper busy getting my classroom decorated and "almost" ready for my little firsties to show up.  Those of you who have been here for a little bit know that this is only my 2nd year in first grade and my previous experience was in 3rd and 4th grades.  At the start of the year last year I had no idea how my teaching would be SO different in 1st grade and therefore my room also need to be different.  

My classroom last year worked, but I knew all year long that it wasn't as good as it could be. So I rearranged about 25 different times - no joke!  I am so not one of those people who can just visualize and it all turns out ok.  I need to physically move things to new places to SEE how they will look.  Often times I end up moving them right back where they were, too.  Believe me, the custodians just shake their heads and smile when I come asking questions like: Can I borrow the dolly?  How about those roller thingies that you put under the shelves?  It's an adventure - that's for sure!

I will be posting more pictures of my whole classroom soon (once I get it all spic-and-span for my kiddos), but I wanted to start by sharing a few of the ways I've tried to makeover some ugly  slightly less attractive parts of it.   =)

First up - this file cabinet!  YUCK!!  

At some point, probably 50 years ago, someone attempted to help this poor thing along with some blue contact paper on the top, or at least I think that's what it is.  I have had it in my room for almost 10 years and I just couldn't take the blue anymore so I finally did something about it.  It was super simple - just some chevron wrapping paper from Target and some black border from JoAnns.  Nothing too fancy, but a HUGE upgrade.

Next up were these untreated wooden bookshelves.  Everyone in our school has these in their rooms.  I've been told that many years ago these were built by someone in the district and given to everyone.  They aren't awful, but since I placed them in the middle of my room to divide my rug area from the students' tables I NEEDED to do something about it.  Again - nothing too fancy (and not permanent like paint because that was a no-no).  I covered the backs with fabric from JoAnns and the same black border.  Then I found matching contact paper for the tops.    

I definitely like this WAY better than just the wood and it gave me the perfect place to hang my rules.  I had planned on just using tacks or something like that to keep my rules on the back of these bookshelves until my AMAZING colleague next door came over with these cubicle clips.  They were PERFECT for using on fabric because they have two sharp metal pins on the back and plastic clips on the front.  It was so awesome of her to just pop over with these treasures and now I can take my rules down those first few days as we are going over them and just clip them right back up when I'm done.  I love the people I work with!  

 I had a little fabric leftover so I used it to cover this little cork board I keep next to my desk.  Then I used black duct tape to go around the wooden frame.  

 I finally hung up my Lunch clip chart.  This is available as a fan freebie on my Facebook page.  

 I made and hung up my polka-dot number posters.  (When I get around to it, I will be posting these along with my rules and the nametags below that all match.  I know it is too late for this year for most people, but maybe next year).  

I had to make my own nametags because I was not loving the ones I had and I really wanted to have a 120 chart on them along with an alphabet and number line.  I also needed them to be smaller than those huge ones they sell because of the room I have on my tables.  I printed these on card stock and laminated them.  They are just waiting for my little ones' names.  

Then we move out into the hall - well first my door.  

This year I plan on using this cute little chalkboard sticker from Target as a place to put a daily password.  Each morning, students will have to read the password and tell me what it is before entering the room.  I will use this for our spelling words and sight words.  And since it's a chalkboard, it is easy to change.  I wrote the Today's password is . . . with a silver sharpie, but I will use chalk for the words. I need to actually go buy some chalk now - all I had was sidewalk chalk which doesn't work so well. 

Here are my hallway bulletin boards.  I will be writing the kids' names on the ladybugs, but I'm waiting because I keep getting more kids added to my list.  

 And finally, this is the wall outside my room where I will hang student work.  This banner is from my Welcome Back Pack.  I will be hanging up our All About Me banners when they are finished.  

I am still working on the finishing touches, but I'll be back soon with some more pictures.  In fact, I might even do a quick little post tomorrow to tell you about something I've been working on.  We'll see how that goes =)