READY FOR SCHOOL

My room is finally ready (ok, maybe 95% ready, as I thought of some more things to do this evening...but it'll be just fine on Monday!)

 Look Whooo!

 I saw about 2/3 of my students at our Meet the Teacher.  Only one brought school supplies.  HOWEVER, a very awesome company called Textron donated an incredible amount of supplies to our school.  Check out my new favorite blog, Sunshine and Giggles, for pictures and details! http://sunshineandgigglesinsecondgrade.blogspot.com/2013/08/textron-is-awesome.html

 The alphabet at the top is a MATH alphabet!  Very cool!

 I used magnets to hold my Math posters up, that way I can change them out quickly and easily!

 My cute owl word wall!

 I love my sink curtain!  These cabinets will be a great place to display student work.

 My new behavior management chart and Math Center Rotations.

 Up close with the owls.

A snack for the first day!  We're ready!  Bring on the third graders!

DYEING CLOTHESPINS

I use clothespins around the classroom for many things, especially my behavior management chart.  Since I will have two different groups of students, I wanted to color code their clothespins.  The idea came to me from pinterest!  Here is how I did mine:

Gather bowls, clothespins, and Rit dye

 I chose Aquamarine (my birthstone color) and yellow.  My chair footies are light blue and yellow, so this will match nicely with my classroom colors.

 I mixed about 1/4 cup of the Rit dye with hot water, and added the clothespins.

  I let them soak for 20-30 minutes.

This is what they look like wet.

Here is what the clothespins look like after drying for awhile (though not fully dry yet).  The color looks better after drying! Although if I do this again, I would let the blue soak for a little bit longer.  However, I think they both turned out great!  I'm looking forward to using them this year!

DAY 4

Day 4 was the last of the upacking!  Everything is pretty much put away.  Once the school year gets going, I will probably rearrange a few things, but for now, it's good!

 The last of the boxes are unpacked!  Yay!

We just got new bulletin boards for the hallway.  I have something super cute in mind for this board!  Stay tuned!

 Number line hung, and yes Mr. Fire Marshall, it's not touching the ceiling.  

I put the trapezoid tables together for a Math Center area.  

Setting up the class library took a great deal of time today, but it's finished!

Computer Center set up!  

And now on to the fun part!  Decorating!  

Last year I had 3 different alphabets on various walls- Handwriting, Phonics, and Word Wall.  This year I decided to just have one.  I found a really cute owl cursive set on Teachers Pay Teachers that I will use as my word wall letters and cursive example!

(click the picture to visit TPT)

I printed the cards and then made a very important purchase!  I bought my very own paper cutter!  While I do have access to one at school, my school is closed on the weekends.  I would like to have my letter cards ready to laminate and hang asap!

I found this at Staples and used a coupon for a great deal!

(click picture for details)

Next week starts Staff Development, but I will have one and a half days in my classroom to decorate.  I still have plenty to do! 

DAY 3

Day 3 had a little trouble getting started!  I knew how much work I wanted to accomplish today (a lot!!), so instead, I went to visit a fellow teacher down the hall, and then down to the office to chit-chat and see what was new.  It's always nice to catch up with friends after a long break!

Fortified with a cold can of tea from the soda machine in the Teacher's Lounge (a new and welcome addition to the soda machine!), I headed back to my room and WORKED!!!

13 boxes and 2 totes (not pictured) unpacked and put away!  I always like to see the pile of empty boxes when I unpack- it really shows progress!

Getting better.....the pile on the back counter is almost gone!

 I have plans to rearrange the various tables and the computer center, but the student desks need to be clustered around the Promethean Board.

 Wow!  This was a big improvement from yesterday!!!  Just a bit more to finish and then I can decorate!

Here is the view of the other corner- my Library will be in the same place as it was in my previous room (next door) last year- but the backing came off of the bookshelf and needs to be put back on with a staple gun before books can be put on it.  Let's hope I don't staple my fingers in the process!

I look forward to finishing up the unpacking and setting up so I can get to the fun part: DECORATING!

DAY 2

Day 2 was exhausting!  I brought my work crew (husband and kids) to help out, and I was really glad to have the help!  My daughter enjoyed putting the Chair Footies on, but then we realized that we only had 12 chairs in the room.  So, I need to request more chairs, and then the Chair Footie project can continue.

 I love having so many cabinets in the room!  These top cabinets were about 75% full of someone else's things, so we emptied them out.  I need to dust them and then can start putting my things in.

See the Chair Footies!  

We also cleaned out the back lower cabinets- those were completely full! 

These cabinets were also full.  Now they are cleaned out and ready for my things! 

 The desks were moved around today, just so we could access the back cabinets.  I haven't decided how to arrange the desks yet, though I will probably end up starting in my favorite way of groups of four.  We'll see!

DAY 1

Day 1 of the 2013-2014 school year was off to a very slow start!!

This is what the room looked like when I walked in this morning:

And that's pretty much how the room looked when I left today!  I did move a few pieces of furniture around (like the bookcase in the middle of the room and the rocking chair).  But that's about it.  Most of my things are stacked up on the back counter.  I had hoped to start unpacking today, but first I have to clean out all the cabinets.  So tomorrow I will clean out the cabinets and put the "Chair Footies" on the student chairs.  It's going to be a busy morning!

Some readers might note that this room looks very similar to my room last year- good observation!  I moved to the classroom right next door!  There are some small differences between the rooms, such as the placement of the Promethean Board, but I like it!