Setting Up My Classroom!

I have been anxiously awaiting the okay from our principal to get back in my room and set everything up.  I am not the type that can just throw things together in a day or two.  I need TIME and lots of it.  Well, that okay finally came and Monday I was allowed in my room.  I was lucky enough to have my grandma come in the whole week to help me.  Here are some before pictures.  My room did undergo some changes this summer.  I had a new sink/cabinet area put in the last week of school.  I requested a new white board and that my room be painted.  I had some awful paintings on the walls and bulletin boards last year.  They were enough to make me want to cry.  I like pretty things and they were far from it!  Anyways, I was lucky enough that all of the requests I made were granted.  Here are some pictures from before I got to work. 

From the doorway looking forward (Monday am)

From the doorway looking forward (Monday am)

From the doorway looking at the back of the room (Monday am)

From the front looking at the back of the room (Monday am)

From the front looking at the monstrous furniture pile in the back of the room (Monday am)

I couldn’t decide what to do first when I walked in on Monday morning.  I had my son Kevin with me which doesn’t always make things the easiest.  He loves to help when it’s good for him.  J  I started to rearrange furniture before my grandma came in.  I had decided that my teacher desk was going to a new location this year and moved that first.  Boy, oh boy, that thing is heavy even with my handy dandy furniture movers.  I got my desk and filing cabinets set along with my student desks.  I still had several tables, my small group table, and shelving to set.  I must have moved all of these items a dozen times.  I’m still not exactly sure I like where they are placed, but I do know that it looks more organized this year.  I went home on Monday physically exhausted!  Moving furniture is a big job and I didn’t get much else done.  Here’s some pictures, I took after I finished on Monday. 

From the doorway looking forward.  My teacher desk is now all the way at the front of the room and my computers are all set up.   (Monday pm)

From the doorway looking forward.  I have the desks set in groups of four and five right now, but only time will tell if I leave them this way.  (Monday pm)

From the doorway looking at the back of the room.  My small group table is now all the way over by the window.  Last year it was right next to the doorway which just didn't work well for me.  (Monday pm)

From the front looking at the back of the room.  The bookcases are set and I have set up a listening station. (Monday pm)

From the front looking at the back of the room.  (Monday pm)

From the front looking at the side of the classroom.  Oh, those cabinets are so pretty! (Monday pm)

Tuesday, I was ready to get things up on the walls.  I invested in some fabric last year for my bulletin boards because the paper we were provided faded so fast and I had to use more than one layer of it to cover the paintings that were on the bulletin boards.  I planned to reuse it this year but in different places.  This meant that I wouldn’t be able to reuse all the pieces I had bought last year because all of the boards are different sizes (SERIOUSLY, all 6 are different sizes).  I reused some and got it up.  Tuesday evenings are always busy in our house because my son has swim lessons, but we made time to stop at Wal-Mart on our way to swim lessons to try to find some fabric for those boards that were empty.  

I did find fabric for all of my boards and I LOVE LOTS OF COLOR!  I tried to tie them together with similar colors and my boards are just popping right out there now.  Wednesday, I hung things up and finished my bulletin boards.  My grandma got my Fancy Nancy Loves Fancy Words Bulletin Board back up.  We tweaked this a bit from last year.  Here's a few more pictures.  I am rather photo-obsessed! 

Here are my focus boards.  I still have to make a "T" for social studies.

Front of the room with my bulletin board and the math reference board.  (That's Kevin and I have no clue what he is doing!)

Front bulletin board.  Last year it was used for science, but I'm not sure what we will use it for this year.

Thursday brought forward the challenge of assembling my word wall.  Last year, I used a bulletin board behind my small group table and found that students would get up to look for a word while I was meeting with other students.  This year I have a ton of wall space that I was determined to use wisely.  I started assembling my word wall with the materials that I had created in my Super Hero Kids theme (available in my TPT store).  Now this may seem like a small job, but between cutting, laminating, cutting again, and then hot gluing to ribbon it was a HUGE job.  I managed to fill the entire wall with my word wall.  I’m hoping that my students are able to use this word wall with ease.  I can say that it’s not quite done because I ran out of poster putty (go figure!), but it was all hanging when I left.  I just need to provide some additional support when I can get back in.   Here's a sneak-peek at my word wall. 

I am in love with my word wall!  This isn't the best photo, but there will be more pictures to come later with my full classroom reveal.

So far, I am loving how my classroom is turning out.  I will have a big change in my classroom after school starts though.  I recently had a Donor’s Choose project fully funded and will be receiving a class set of balance balls to replace our chairs.  I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.  

For now, I am back to enjoying a few more days of summer vacation.  I can’t get in my room this upcoming week because our maintenance staff is doing the hallway floors in my building.   I have created a few new items for my TeachersPayTeachers store.  I uploaded a set of Super Hero Kids Alphabet Posters.  I also uploaded a freebie for all of you that are getting ready for back to school.  There are now Super Hero Kids desk name plates or name tags.  Whatever you call them, they are currently free in my store.  

Remember, August 4^th and 5^th are the Blast off Back to School sale days for TeachersPayTeachers.  My store will be 20% off regular prices.  Use the code BTS14 for an additional 10% off.  

Make sure you all enjoy those last few days of summer vacation!  I will most likely be headed to the beach.  

Jessica