Welcome to My Classroom!

Hey everyone!
After the craziness of the first few weeks of school, I have finally cleaned my classroom up enough to take some pictures.  So, I am linking up with Swimming Into Second for her Show Off Your Space linky party!

Welcome to our classroom!

 This is our "meeting area"/classroom library.  

I love to teach lessons in our meeting area.  I am able to get closer to their level and they seem to be more engaged there.  I can also easily refer to our math wall and the word wall from the meeting area.  In the middle is our calendar.  We are doing Everyday Math this year but I haven't set up my calendar with all of the Everyday Math supplies yet... they are not very cute and I am a little bitter about that ;).  I guess I will have to suck it up and display the not so cute calendar stuff.

 I LOVE my teacher chair in our meeting area... I just wish it wasn't brown.  It is so comfy and cozy.  I have random puppets perched all over my chair :).

This is the back of our meeting area/classroom library.  

On the middle shelf are the book bins for each table.  In each book bin, every member at the table has a book bag that contains 5 books they have picked out- 1 too hard book, 1 too easy book, 2 just right books, and 1 just for me book (that can be any book they want).

In the back corner of the room is my "teacher" area.  

Don't you LOVE the table!  This was the table I go through Donors Choose!  I am in love with this table.  It is so big and I can work with so many students... I'm going to have to put more crate seats around it.  Behind the table is a bit of a mess.  The green curtain is hiding a bunch of my teacher books.  The blue bins at the top are all of my mentor texts divided out by subject and strategy.  

 Here is the front of our classroom.  

I rarely stand up here to teach, so rather than putting our reflection desk in the back of the room where we have most of our lessons, I put it in the front of the room where it is actually out of the way.  

A closeup of our shelves in the front of our classroom.

All of the supplies students may need throughout the day are here.  Sharp pencils, a place for their dull ones, extra glue sticks, highlighters, extra erasers, post-it notes, index cards, dry erase markers, dry erase erasers, dry erase boards, clipboards, paper, writing notebooks, math notebooks, word work notebooks, and of course the CUPS cups!  I also have a little bucket of colored pencils for students to use when they edit their writing.

 This is the other side of the front of our classroom.  

My SMART Board was mounted in a very awkward place and my kiddos at the tables closest to the door can't see it.  So I put a little rug in front of it to provide a place for those students to sit when we have a lesson on the SMART Board.  My husband made the box for me last year so my kiddos could reach the SMART Board, I of course had to paint it :).  And it opens up so it has given me more storage space!  Next to the SMART Board I have our "I can..." statements... I love the zebra background.

Table cubbies!  

Each table has a space that has markers, crayons, a basket full of manipulatives we use, a supply basket with scissors and glue, and their extra work folder.  This makes it so easy to get supplies out!  The "Quiet Captains" at each table are in charge of getting whatever their table needs for a lesson from their cubbies.

Not the best picture, but this is our check-in station (on the left), Duck Buck pockets (on the door), voice level reminders (above the Duck Bucks), sanitizing station (on the right), and student folders (below the sanitizing station).

I love these bins from Big Lots for holding student folders!

Again, not the best picture.  :(  

These are our classroom jobs and my awesome barber chair another teacher gave me!  Students get to sit in it during read to self time... it goes up and down! :)  They love it.

I may be a tad OCD about student pencils!  

I hated having to touch the pencils when I'd sharpen them and they had to be sharped all the time, so last year I started using mechanical pencils.  I'm so surprised at how well my 2nd graders use these!  It makes their writing neater and they stay sharp for so long.  I didn't want students to fight over colors, so each table has a specific color of pencil.  It also helps them know where a pencil goes when they find it on the floor.  One of my classroom jobs is "pencils" and this person fills up all of our "dull" pencils with lead on Friday.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our classroom.  To see more amazing classrooms, head over to Swimming Into Second and check out all of the wonderful teachers that have linked up.  

Enjoy!

My Classroom...

Hey everyone,
I can't believe how much work it has been to get my classroom done!  I feel like I am in there 24/7 trying to get it finished.  Our Open House is right around the corner (Monday) and I am finally feeling a little bit better about how my classroom is coming together.  Here are some quick pictures of my progress!

My paintings are finally up in my classroom!

I'm so excited about how they turned out!  They fit perfectly above our reading area.  I love them!

Here is a collage of my classroom.  The top is our library/meeting area, the picture on the right is my teacher chair in our meeting area ( I LOVE how cozy it is... it is my favorite place to teach from because I can get down close to the kiddos and it makes me more relaxed :) ).  The picture at the bottom is my new teacher area (my teacher desk is not being used as a table for student computers and I will be working with kids in our round table)... the round table is just temporary until I get the kidney table!! Woo hoo!  And the last picture on the left is of the front of our classroom.

Most areas of my room are now cleaned off and ready to go... just have to add some small finishing touches and get all the kiddo's names on stuff.  I'm hoping I can do that in the few hours between our Opening Day and Open House.

I just wanted to update you all on the progress in my classroom.  I will definitely get some more (easier to see) pictures of my classroom and post them soon.  I know it is very bright and some people may think a little too bright, but I love that it is a bright, inviting, fun place to learn.

Enjoy!

Getting my classroom ready...

Hey everyone!

I cannot believe school for us starts one week from tomorrow?!?! I am so not ready for this.  I've been working in my classroom like crazy and it still looks like this...

I'm just a tad stressed out!  

Instead of focusing on the huge task of this mess of a room, I've been doing little projects to make my room cute... Haha I may need someone to come in and intervene.  Here is what I've done the last few days...

Made my new CUPS editing cups!! This will be where we keep the highlighters that students will use to edit.  The highlighters will match the cups (colors) so they'll easily remember where they go.  

Next...

A new library basket for my kiddos to take our books back to the library in.  I'm really mad that I didn't make the sign say "Library Book Basket"... Oh well.  I love bows, they just make everything cuter!

Look at what I scored yesterday!!!

I've been eyeing this old barber chair that one of my teammates has had for years. Yesterday she was wanting to throw it out so I snatched it up... Yea like I need MORE stuff in my room.  But what a fun place for students to read.  Just needs to be cutified and it'll be great!

I got some bulletin boards done the other day... And I am in love with tulle!  Last year I had black bulletin boards to help tone down the brightness in my room.  This year I'm just going all out with color. I was getting worried about the crazy colors and zebra... I was in tears the other day talking to my husband about all these cute rooms with themes and my room is just a hodgepodge of color.  Then one of my teammates pointed out that I have lots of green, pink, and blue with a touch of zebra... So that could be my "theme" colors.  That started making me feel better about my room.

And lastly... Look what I finally finished and am ready to hang up in my classroom...

I'm so excited to finally get these put up in my room!  Those Berenstain Bears took forever!  I'll be sure to post a picture when I've got them hanging up!

That's how my classroom cleaning is going so far... How's yours?  :). The beginning of the year stress is starting to hit me so I need to crack down today and get this room done... No more cute projects until its finished... Maybe...

Enjoy!

More Classroom Pictures!

Hey everyone,

I haven't really been able to post any good classroom pictures for a while because my classroom always seems to be such a mess.  Finally, I cleaned up a few areas and snapped a few pictures :).  Here are a few snapshots of my classroom...

First... I finally got my SMART Board mounted!! I'm so excited. But, my students couldn't use it because it was too high for them to reach.  Enter my wonderful husband! :)  He's so amazing!  I told him I needed something for my students to stand on so they could use the SMART Board and I would like something I could store all of our t-shirt pillows in... In just one night he made this wonderful step/storage box.  Of course I had to paint it before I put it in my classroom :).  We just put it in my classroom so my students haven't seen it in person yet... they've just seen pictures that I took while I was painting it.

Here is my mounted SMART Board with seat crates under it... before my wonderful husband made our step/storage box.

My step/storage box under the SMART Board!  I know I shouldn't have spent so long painting it because it is just going to be walked on... but I think I put enough coats of clear spray paint to protect it! :)  Don't you just love it!!!  AND not only is it cute... it also is holding all of our t-shirt pillows that used to end up all over the room! :)

Our Meeting Area/Classroom Library...

I love my big, comfy chair... it is my favorite spot to teach lessons from. :)

 The little tape spots on the floor are assigned seats for my kiddos.  They just couldn't seem to make good choices about where they sat or who they sat next to... so I had to assign them seats.  But... the good thing is that now it is a HUGE reward for them to be able to pick their own seats. :)  So I just added another class reward to my list, haha! 

...I also painted the book shelves :)

A back view of our Meeting Area/Classroom Library.  I love our tree... I put Christmas lights in it and we light it up when we are doing our Read-to-Self time... (we always turn off all the lights and turn on all the lamps during that time... it makes it cozy and I heard that lamp lights are better on their little eyes than the classroom lights are).

Our cute sharp and dull pencil cups.

This is our Word Wall...

 These are students' mailboxes.  I used to have big, bulky mailboxes but then found this space saving solution! :)  I love them... even though they are a bit of a mess.

Here is a picture of our Word Wall and mailboxes together.

This is my flag that is out in the hallway (this picture was before I hung it) and it matches my curtains and desk skirt.  A wonderful woman made this for me along with the curtains and desk skirt.  She has now made about 90% of the flags outside teacher's doors at our school... she's just so talented!

My students really love our classroom and how bright and cheery it is.  I always tell people, I spend most of my day here, so I want it to be a room that I enjoy being in :).  My students always say I'm "crafty" (I think that's their favorite word) and should be an art teacher AND their teacher, lol... they are the sweetest.  There is nothing like showing something you work so hard on to a group of kids and having them just go nuts over it!  It's probably one of the best feelings ever!!  I have such a sweet group of kiddos!!! :)

Here are a few things I have painted for other teachers at my school... 

This was the first chair I painted... I painted it for a teacher on my team for her birthday.

This is a very special chair that I painted for the most amazing woman!  She has battled more cancer than anyone ever should yet still came to school each day with a smile on her face and ask how I was doing... I painted this chair for her in shades of pink for breast cancer awareness.  This chair sits up high so she wouldn't have to get up and down much... and it spun all the way around so she could sit in front of the board and just spin to write on it :).  This wonderful teacher continues her fight with cancer... She has had to leave school for awhile to continue fighting, but we know she is strong!  With all of our prayers being sent her way, we know God will take care of her and help her fight against cancer.

You know... maybe I should start going in to the painted furniture business...  :)  I absolutely love painting things fun colors with random, cute designs.  

Well... that's all of my pictures for now... I'm sure there will be more soon :)!

Enjoy!

Classroom Pictures...

Hey everyone,

I always love exploring other blogs that I love to see different things they are doing in their classroom.  I also love getting ideas from something cute I see on Pinterest and then "tweaking" them my own way.  I've decided to post a few pictures of my classroom to hopefully inspire others.  If any of these were your original ideas please let know so I can give you proper recognition!  Whoever came up with these ideas has been a life saver for me and my classroom and deserves recognition!  Enjoy!

Book Nooks

Our book nooks.  Each round label has a book nook spot on it (t-shirt pillow, reading buddy, whisper phone, crate seat, etc.) and each clothespin has a student's name on it.  Every other day I rotate the book nooks and the students look where their clothespin is to see where they will sit for read-to-self time.  They really enjoy reading in the book nooks!

Crate Seats

The most wonderful (and cutest) storage solution!  Not only can you store things but you also get more seats for your classroom :)... double bonus!  I love these and so do my kiddos.  I think every adult that has come into our classroom has also commented on them.  If you don't have any, make some ASAP! You will be so happy you did!

Where Are We? Board

Great idea for keeping track of where your students are throughout the day.  I always have kids coming in and out of the room and people pulling my kids for different thing.  I saw a board like this on Pinterest and decided to make one to help me keep track of where each kid is throughout the day.  It is just a while board with zebra sticky paper and vinyl letters.  The magnets are made from clear decorative rocks from the Dollar Tree, cute paper, mod-podge, and thick magnets.  Each one has a student's name on it and the kids move them to the appropriate box before they leave the room.

Calendar Area

In our calendar area we have the usual calendar things: calendar (I made mine on a white board so I could put little magnets on the backs of the dates), day of the week chart, hundreds, tens, and ones char, weather chart, etc.  My two favorite things in this area are... 

1. Our attendance chart.  Each day that we have every student there they earn a puzzle piece.  WHen they fill in their puzzle the class gets a special reward.  I made this puzzle to look like my little dog Paisley! :)

2. Our target behavior board.  Another wonderful Pinterest behavior management idea.  In our meeting area we pick a target behavior such as "shouting out".  Then each time someone "shouts out" I take one flower down (they start with 5).  The more flowers they keep at the end of a lesson, the more points they get toward a class reward.

Classroom Library

Our classroom library.  The books are organized by DRA and Lexile level.  I love how colorful it is and I love the tubs!  I found them at the Dollar General last year.  They come is large size and small size.  Books fit perfectly in them and students don't have to pull them off the shelves to look through the books.

My Desk... sorry about the mess!

Cute desk skirt made by a friend and they match the curtains she made for me too!  I then made some book shelf covers to match.

My new favorite hobby... painting furniture!  I just started painting furniture last year and loved it.  So I decided to make a few things for my classroom.  I made this little reflection chair, and I just love it :).  I also painted a chair for myself, one for Ms. Fretwell on my 2nd grade team, and a special pink chair for Ms. Ross who is the bravest breast cancer survivor I've ever met!

My pretty painted chair :).

I'll post some more pictures of my classroom later... and I promise next time it will be more pictures and less words :).

Enjoy!