Room Reveal!

Last night was "Meet the teacher" night at my school and I met so many of new kiddos!  They seem like super sweet kids and one girl even said that my room was very "stylish." SCORE! Of course, many of my ideas in my room are from good ole pinterest for inspired from one of many blogs that I stalked visited over the summer.

My Uncle Tom built me that little chalkboard (the other side of the easel) when I was 8!  I had it in my 

"classroom" with my sister as my student!  He also cut the boards for my awesome crate seats!  I was so proud of this pinterest diy!

Small Group area 1

Small group area 2

View from the door! I don't really like the back left hand corner but my room doesn't have ANY closets, and only one small strip of cabinets (which I'm honestly afraid to open half the time- mice and bugs!) so I struggled with finding a place for my kids coat closets (one on either side) and my rolling cabinet.... sigh... it will work.... it does provide another little book nook area...

So here you see my small group tables, my CAFE board, our word catcher collection board, 36 words of praise, and other little things. (I have an American Graveyard above the CAFE board for all of those important dead guys!) Those neon bins are for collecting papers for different teachers, absent work, make up work, and the kids Wednesday Folders. (Graded work that goes home once a week) They're perfect and were for a perfect price at Big Lots!

The other side of my small group table, our writing process wall, Reading rotation bins (same ones at the ones in the previous photo, just standing up) our math games drawers, and our reading corner.

Another view of the reading corner and classroom library.  We use AR in our school but I try to keep the kids motivated with this "move it as you earn it" chart.

LOVE these posters. I love anything Disney and anything giraffe!

Another view of the back corner, small group area, and my VOICES writing curriculum board. Maybe that will get it's own post?

I used my old chalkboard to showcase "books in the spotlight." I plan on finding books that correlate with our Science/Social Studies unit for the kids to look at. I also can't stand the overhead lights so I have several lamps to brighten the room!

Computer area. I found the rules on TPT and added a few more posters :)

It's dark, but this is our content wall.  I put up vocabulary, graphs, pictures, and whatever else we are studying on the wall for the kids to look to during our lessons.  It was great anchor tool last year! 

Ugh...sigh... my room is awkward. I only have outlets on the two "real" walls so the IT department ran the computer chords into this only spot. So my computer is stuck. There are so many chords I tried to hide them with fabric but obviously, this section needs work.

Our schedule! I did make and design these! (And now I've noticed my times are out of order. DUH!)

I don't quite understand why my Smart Board is overlapping the white board (there is then a chalkboard under that!) but I'm thankful I have one! I made the alphabet strip with ribbon and cardboard letters.  I use sign language for informal assessments and HAD to add my whole brain teaching reminders! (From TPT of course!)

Birthday blooms, another lamp (stollen from my husband's college days), brain breaks, and a letter to the kiddos!

From the door (wish you could smell my scentsy online!) I have a "When you enter this room..." poster and the kids names in word cloud (from wordle) on the side.

Our team tubs. I found the team 3 button after this photo! The tubs have any supplies the kids might need during the day! Their Science or Social Studies binders will go on the bottom shelf once we start the year up!

Yesterday was our 2 month wedaversary. awww I know! What a great surprise these flowers were! We are both so busy in the evenings with coaching (me cheer, him football) but he still found a way to make me feel special! <3

Hope you enjoyed my tour!  Hopefully those green walls are growing on you?!

Some of my made-its!

So like most girls my age, I'm obsessed with pinterest.  It's seriously so great. But, I do admit that I sometimes struggle with the pinterest pressure.  I got married this summer and could. not. stop. pinterest planning my wedding. I put in so many little details to the wedding and while it was awesome (from what I remember) hardly anyone else noticed my super adorable wedding deets. Oh well. It was still beautiful and all about me and my boy so it was perfect. <3 Here's the link to my perfect day!

Okay, back to pinterest. (I really do think I missed out on the ADD diagnoses!) Here are some pictures of my classroom made-its! :)

Break Breaks- I LOVE being a whole brain teacher!

These aren't from Pinterest, I made these myself for my readers. The kids loved them!

Bravo board to show off super impressive work- I let the kids choose one thing a week!

Flower clock... my petals are too teeny though. Maybe I'll get around to fixing it up! 

Boggle and Math it up!

Reading comprehension fan cards.  I got these off TPT.

Last year in review...

It's still so hard to believe that last year was my first year teaching.  In a way it seems like just yesterday I was preparing for my first year while in a completely different way it seems like ages ago!  I was so blessed to have been hired a month after graduating from Bridgewater College.  I was so determined to be hired and make my dream of teaching came true!  I remember going school to school the Monday after graduation to introduce myself to every principal, while hand delivering my resume and personal portfolios.  Hey, I scored a lot of walk in interviews that way!  One Sunday after church, my pastor and I prayed for a job opportunity to come my way.  We prayed for the school, the kids, the administration, and for God's will to show up.  Well, when I went back to my pew to get my things, I had missed a phone call from my current principal! He called me on a SUNDAY during prime church time to schedule an interview.  Well, I rocked that interview, awkwardly, confidently bragged about myself, my teaching, my passion for connecting with kids and nailed it.  Now it's my second year at that school and I couldn't be more fortunate to work with such caring, passionate, and entertaining people.  Here's to another year with great people and awesome kids!

Speaking of kids, I LOVED my kids last year!  They were an entraining bunch with a LOT of things going on, but gosh did I love them!  Seeing them last night for Meet the Teacher Night, much more taller than last year, really took me back to my first few days with them.  I felt like a proud momma when they came in with giant smiles and big hugs as we remembered last year.

Okay anyway, back to my main idea of this post... 
My first classroom pictures.  From last year.  I have an interesting classroom.  I don't have real walls; I have two green folding partition walls.  One is magnetic and the other is cork board type.  While it's totally awesome because I can always throw things up on the wall, it's also a curse because I can hear every. single. word. being said next door.  But it's all good! It's a classroom, and it's my classroom. And I love(d) it! 

And what's even better is that my classroom this year looks NOTHING like this and I love it even MORE!

Well, here I am virtual world!  I'm off to join everyone in this online, blogging world!  I have my failed attempts... I did the photo blog for a while, but got lazy and overwhelmed with everything going on in life!  That blog is WAY outdated... oh, and then we were required to make a blog for a college class... but that has since been deserted as well.  Oops.  So after our last team meeting, my team leader nicely persuaded me to create something so I wouldn't be the only one without a webpage.  Well, unbeknownst to him and others, I actually LOVE stalking teaching blogs and have contemplated trying the blogging world out once again.  I also LOVE pinterest projects and using my imagination to create fun stuff, so maybe this won't be too bad.  Maybe I won't completely forget about this one... guess we'll see! :