Hey friends! We've just finished up our second full week of school. I'm sure you totally get it, but I am LOVING the fact that we have a three day weekend! I changed a few things around this year. I don't have a particular theme, but I was trying to go for a more nature/natural look. As natural as a room could look with yellow cabinetry and fluorescent lighting...
This is the back wall of my room. Above the bulletin board it says #GatorRunRocks, which is kind of our unofficial motto. All of our tech stuff is on the back table under that board (laptops, printer, iPads). Then to the left is our Brain Builders board. I've blogged about that a few times. Here's one that explains it pretty well. I usually sit on that black ottoman for read alouds. Under the easel are some rolled up partner reading rugs for Daily 5 that I picked up from Really Good Stuff. The Fadeless brand paper on that board looks like wooden planks, which reminds me of a dock. Then we have the gator, the pussy willows, and tall grass. All very Everglades - fitting because our school skirts the edge of the actual Everglades! In my mind, the blue carpet is like a big lake.
I finally opened up my Silhouette Cameo after it sat untouched for a year! My first project was cutting the words Brain Builders for that gator I picked up from Hobby Lobby. At first it was a little frustrating, but eventually I got the hang of it. It's an awesome little machine. I really need to use it more.
This board used to be green. I always felt like it was like an old clinic green, so I was overjoyed when we actually painted it black! I keep my number of the day board here, so I was forever using a magic eraser to get the stray marker residue off the green bulletin board. Now that's not a problem at all. I got that chalkboard banner at Hobby Lobby (of course) and it was my second successful Cameo project to cut vinyl letters for it. The green pocket charts hold my spelling words. The copy/turn it in basket labels are in this freebie pack (along with my clip chart and trash tub labels)
Although not quite as obvious, the nature aspect is represented here as well with a rainbow!
I didn't get a good pic of this area last year. These are the two pieces of furniture I bought at Ikea when I decided to ditch my teacher desk and all my filing cabinets. These are both from the Kallax collection. This year I bought the drawer inserts for the longer piece. All my technology, document camera, printer, the laptop I use to connect to my projector are on top. Those black bins underneath are deep and hold a ton! The smaller piece under the black board holds most of my TE's and other things I need at my fingertips. I use the horseshoe table and the blue stools from Ikea when I meet with small groups.
This is the front of the room. Pretty standard stuff. You can kind of see the backpack hooks I hung under the board. BEST thing ever. Now I'm not tripping over them hanging off the chairs.
The front board holds some schedule cards from my friend Stephanie Stewart which you can find here. The clip chart is part of the freebie pack I mentioned above and the date cards are in my number of the day set. Squished in between is the amazing Word Superstars pack from Teacher's Clubhouse which you can find here. The specials signs above the board are just something I whipped up to match the rest of the stuff in that area last year, but to be honest, they eat up some serious printer ink. I need to revise them for this year, but I'm still playing around with a new format that will be a bit easier on the ink budget. Ounce for ounce, I'm pretty sure that stuff costs more than gold!
Not the best picture, but this board will be used to track my kids's AR points. It's from my Rock Star pack and it's editable so you can program it for your goals. This year instead of hanging it like a clip chart and using clothespins, I'm just going to use push pins to tack their name around the goal star for each kid. Once we get some name stars on the board, it will start looking a lot more fun. Can you guess where I got the painted canvases to the left? If you said Hobby Lobby, you are CORRECT!
This bookshelf was one of my first Donor's Choose projects. I filled it with these fabric boxes from Target. Perfect fit! Iv'e got all kinds of things in those boxes - math manipulatives, notebooks, supplies, etc. The extra crayon drawers are one of the most used pinterest finds ever! Read more about those here and grab a set of free labels.
My library! The smaller blue bins are from Lakeshore. They're great because depending on how you put the books in the box, you can use them for chapter books or picture books. The larger bins are from Really Good Stuff and have plastic dividers inside to keep the books standing up straight. The tree and branches are vinyl decals that I got from Target a few years ago. The burlap banner and owl are both from good ol' HL! Dang, I spend a ton of money in that place!
This is my new favorite area in the room. This is actually beautiful bulletin board paper from Fadeless. The leaf over the sink is from Ikea. Not sure where I spend the most money, there or HobLob. Which, by the way, is where I got the Zebra picture. There is also a monkey and giraffe in that series and I totally need them! The hermit crabs are in that tank. I've decided to keep some fresh flowers in the room and those beautiful sunflower from Whole Foods go perfectly in that spot.
In a small room, you use EVERY little nook and cranny. This little table from Ikea fit perfectly here. It's a perfect spot for a word work center. We also call this the "resource wall" and kids come here all the time to reference the part of speech posters, math vocabulary, coin chart, and some other stuff I have hanging there. I change out things as the year goes on. In my mind, I have a tpt product idea rolling around for this spot, but it's been rolling around for a couple of year and, well, it's still rolling with no sign of stopping.
So, that's about it. I didn't go crazy with new projects and decor, because I want things to be simple and uncomplicated. I mostly want lots of space for the kids to move around and work with groups or by themselves. I also really want them to feel like the room is theirs and they can easily access everything in it. My focus this year is making my curriculum meaningful and purposeful. My kids are raring to go and I want to keep them that way - engaged and motivated!
I have some more pictures and resources to share from Open House in the next few days.
Hope you all enjoy the long weekend! If you're anything like me, long days in pj's, coffee, and Netflix are on repeat around here!
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