Classroom Organization, Decor, and More!

As so many of you get ready for back to school, I figured now would be a good chance to show you pieces of my classroom. I technically do not get to set up my classroom until the end of August, and I am SO thankful for that! The pictures that I am going to showcase today are from last years set up since I never got to post the pictures last year (I didn't have a blog at that time). So many things will be remaining the same, but I definitely plan on changing things up a little bit too! This is the first year in the 5 years that I have been teaching at my school that I do not need to switch classrooms. All I know is that I am beyond thankful to know that I won't walk into a brand new classroom and want to cry!!!

Pretty much when I walked into my classroom last year ... it looked... like this...

Can you see why I wanted to cry?? How many of you have walked into painful situations like this? Worst. Feeling. Ever.!!

So much work went into this classroom - everything from taking down old fabric that was covering the bulletin boards to ripping staples out of the doors and closets to throwing out things I did not need. I also had to add more bulletin board space because hanging up graded student work in my school is HUGE. This meant that I had to buy lots of foam boards that I had to cut it with a razor to make new boards (torturous)!

After some anxiety, my classroom F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. started to shape up to my liking. It took lots of work - on all frontiers!! Creating, printing, cutting, laminating, rinse, dry, and repeat!! So some of these pictures were of me preparing, some will show you what it looks like in my room. Just bare with me! :)

And So It Begins...

Last year I decided that I would try to be a little crafty! I decided that I wanted to make a "Welcome Sign" for my classroom door. I of course, happily, made a trip to A.C. Moore... a local craft store near my house. I picked up:

a square wood picture frame
4 wood stars
yellow paint
black spray paint
scrapbook paper
black stickers

I started by measuring how much scrapbook paper I would need to fit neatly on the picture frame. (I used to picture frame as an outline and then I snipped, snipped, snipped).

Next I started spray painting the picture frame black. Ohhh boy!! First of all, I'm glad I had the brains to do this outside on newspaper. Second of all, you don't want to see what it did to my fingernails. ~~Thank goodness~~ I was due for a nail appointment anyhow!

Then, I painted the stars. And while all of this dried, I started sticking stickers onto the scrapbook paper. I'm a perfectionist so this was actually pretty tricky! So I carefully ... tired ... to ... line ... up ... each ... letter.

After that I used hot glue to glue the stars on.

Last, I used those sticky glue dots to attach the scrapbook paper to the picture frame. The beauty of this is that if I have to change grades or classrooms, I just have to created a new scrapbook paper without ruining the frame! See, that's some crafty thinking for ya!

The verrrryyyyy last thing that I did was attach it to my door by using velcro (hopefully the custodian doesn't get too upset when the day comes that I'm no longer in 209 ;)).

Hmm... let's try not to judge my nail color choice (at the time it seemed like a ~~cute choice~~). By the way, that spray paint was NOT coming off - so if you decide to do all kinds of crafty things with spray paint, I am strongly recommending GLOVES! ;)

Last summer I put together shape posters (3-D & 2-D). I prefer the shape posters with the cute-sy little faces. Seriously, how cute are they?!?

But I do have both 3-D shapes and 2-D shapes in my shop without faces as well.

Here is an example:

I put together Color Posters with Faces. (Lovin' those faces)!! But...

...... of course I offer the same color posters without the faces as well.

I put together Days of the Week in Polka Dots.

But I offer them in other themes like stripes, chevron, and black and white!

I put together Months of the Year in Polka Dots. Even though I sell these in chevron as well. And...

... This is what they look like. {I will admit that I need a better place for these next year).

See, that's the beauty of being in a classroom for more than 1 year! You can think through simple changes that flow a little better!

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This is what my Morning Corner board looks like.

Below, is I think... the neatest my desk was all year!! I'll be working on that this year though!

In this picture you will also see my Birthday Board, which is a {freebie!} in my store. Since this picture was taken before the beginning of school, I don't have my students pictures or birthday dates up yet.

Sorry about the annoying glare. Cell phone pictures + lamination = not a good mix!

This was my weekly organization center. Any photocopies I made, I would stick in here. I think I bought this for about $20.00 at A.C. Moore. It was such a steal. And yes... those are labels from my days of the week packet!