Classroom Setup, Tour and Organization 2014

Wow!  It has been a crazy beginning of the school year!  My first day back to school with students was on September 4th and boy have I felt like I've been in full speed since then.  Actually.. probably even since before then!  I've been working on s-l-o-w-l-y revamping my classroom all while trying to enjoy the last remainders of gorgeous summer-like weather.  

On today's post I'm going to share parts of my classroom with you.  I will continue to share additional parts of my classroom this week as things transform and take more shape.  I have so many different projects and ideas and products to share and I can't wait!

This year I decided to entirely go for the bright, colorful, vibrant look.  I have had so much fun organizing and setting up my room.

Here is an example of what the majority of my bulletin boards look like.  (No student work yet).  I love the colors that I chose ... especially the lime green border and turquoise paper!  I love the way it all pops!

One thing that I decided to do this year was paint my clothespins.  I used acrylic paint of various colors.  Pink... yellow... green... orange...blue.  The pink and blue clothespins I used for my student behavior chart.  The yellow, green, and orange pins are being used for my writer's board.  I spent a lot of time painting, making a mess, and hot glueing pushpins on the back of clothes pins for my writers board.  

I was actually informed of a little trick from Hadar of Miss Kindergarten via Instagram ... So now I'm going to share this with you in case you think it's a cool, neurotic, thing to paint your clothespins like me... The advice is this: Put clothespins on a sturdy box (i.e., a shoebox) and then you can paint the sides of the clothespin without making a mess!  Sheesh.. I wish I  knew this before painting clothespins on 3 separate occasions!!  :)

This was a beginning of the school year writing piece that we did.  It was a great way to quickly assess if students knew how to write their names, letter formation, and overall familiarity with writing.  As you can see, it is hanging up on my Writer's Board and I am using the clothespins to make my life a little bit easier and well thought out this year! :)

Isn't Kindergarten work seriously the cutest?!  It's just so innocent!

Here is one of my behavior management systems that I use in my classroom.  Although now that I was introduced to DoJo - Thank you Erica Bohrer for HIGHLY recommending it - I will be focusing on a combination of behavior management modifications... but that's a whole other topic for a whole other post at a whole other time! :)  Don't mind the blurred out names on the painted clothespins! ;)

I used Carson Dellosa's amazing bunting for my Focus Wall!  What do you think of the bunting?  I personally LOVE it!  I found it in the teachers store and knew I had to have it!  I used this same pack of bunting and bulletin board letters to make a "Library" sign as well.

I made those Literacy/Reading/Writing/Math/S.S./Science focus wall headers.  Do you like them??  I will be adding these to my store ASAP!!  I'm having some trouble right now with my Adobe!  (Grr)!!  Anyways, this product is completely black and white and I simply printed it onto color card stock.  

I set up the schedule pocket chart.  My little tip for extra pieces (calendar pieces, schedule pieces, where are we now pieces, is to keep them in a brightly colored pocket envelope.  It keeps everything neat and organized.  Also find this schedule set in my store for free!!

I kind of really enjoyed using Washi Tape for my special project that I can't wait to share with you!

This special project is another form of Behavior Management that I got for free from A Cupcake for the Teacher.  Check out Are You a Secret Star here.  

I used washi tape on woodsy sticks.  I put one color on one side of the stick and another color on the opposite side of the stick.  I hand wrote numbers onto the sticks.  I still haven't introduced this to my students and I might give it a little bit more time before I do.. but seriously I adore it!!  

Here's how it works... I used 2 kinds of washi tape so that when I pick a stick, I can flip it over so that I know I already picked that stick.

I also put some washi tape around my picture frame.  (Did I mention I bought this frame at A.C. Moore for $5.00?! - This girl loves a good deal! :))

Here is my 2D Shape Wall.  Right under there is my behavior management ladder and underneath that are an additional 2 shape posters.  I have my 3D shape posters on the other side of this large column.

I hope you enjoyed part 1 of my classroom tour!  I'm hoping to come back with EVEN more photos later this week of things like my classroom door... My classroom library... different back to school projects and hopefully some new products coming your way!!  

Don't forget to follow me on Bloglovin' so you can get my latest posts! 

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Back to School Classroom Prep

Okay ... it's official!  I am officially in "oh my goodness there are so many projects to finish to prepare for Back to School 2014" mode!  That means it's time to finish all of my latest back to school packets so I can have them printed and laminated and ready for the beginning of the school year.  It also means, hurry and print and cut and laminate so I can make everything look good in my classroom!!  My first official day with students isn't technically until September 4th, but I will be going in next week to start setting up.  

The funny thing about being TpT obsessed is that I constantly feel the need to improve ... improve my products for buyers and improve my classroom by constantly creating and finding better things to add or use for the most current school year.  Does anyone else have this problem?

I am excited to get my hands in there and try to make this my prettiest, nicest, most organized classroom yet!  Combine a little OCD and a little perfectionistic tendencies and you have a girl on a mission!!

In case you are a tad bit curious, these are some of the items that I have been working on.  Click on the pictures or headers to bring you to links.

Beginning Sounds Center {Freebie}

{ The bright colored alphabet cards will be coming to my store soon in a handwriting packet I am putting together.  Stay tuned!!  :) }

Criss-Cross Applesauce Rules and Rhymes {Freebie}

Here is a new rules freebie that I posted!  I absolutely ADORE it for the primary grades!!  I haven't decided if I will use this in addition to my adapted Whole Brain Teaching rules or not.  They are so different that I just might decide to use them both!

Here are some Schedule Cards, an editable freebie.  There are so many more cards than this but this is all I could get in my picture!

Finally today I got my "Where We Are" Poster Set uploaded that I've been meaning to do for quite a few days!  I spent a long weekend away with my boyfriend so I haven't had the time!  I love this one because there are so many choices (polka dot, sunburst, and chevron - with 3 different font choices).   It's SO cute!

I made that heart out of lime green and hot pink glitter polka dot ribbon!!!

Meanwhile ... I have been working on cutting all of this while ... **** Wait for it ... and drum roll please **** working beach and poolside!  

Those are Fry's sight word wall word cards from my TpT shop.

Here are product covers to go along with the above pictures:

I promise that a new blog post with more classroom preparations will be coming soon!!  I have so much more to prepare and share! :)

P.S. - That handwriting packet will be finished SOON!  I promise!

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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!

Finally, here's a print out of adapted WBT classroom rules.  I really like these a lot!

You Can Find These Packets Here...

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