Back to School 2012-2013 Classroom Tour

Hi Everyone! It seems my week of teacher workdays and our first week of school (last week) knocked me off the bloggy-face-of-the-earth. I have had so many ideas to share that have been spinning around in my head this week, but I must say, after making it through the day, my bed has been my favorite place to be this week. I'm hoping that this weekend I can get ahead enough for next week (and dare I wish to get ahead for the NEXT week?) that I won't be so exhausted during our second week of school. And, I looped this year, so who am I to be tired?!?!

Maybe it's the classroom makeover or all of the new ideas I am planning to implement this year, but I'm super excited to get every thing going.

Here's a few pics of the classroom makeover I worked on over the summer. I wanted to do the aqua and black theme, but finding black bulletin board paper was impossible (or too costly), so I compromised with brown and I LOVE it.

This is my wall where I hold picturebooks that we have read or will be reading for the units we are studying. You can see some of my beginning of the year read alouds in the picture (Fly Eagle, Fly; Riding the Tiger; Hooray for Wodney Wat; Oh, the Places You Will Go).

 Here's a closeup of the nifty inspirational poster I put together to decorate the top of the shelf wall area. I LOVE this quote.

Oh, by the way. Did you notice that FABULOUS wall color? I painted it aqua-fabulous-beachy-blue this summer. It only took four excruciating days (had to get around the smartboard, whiteboard, and some crazy phone lines, wires, and other weird wall thingies to get it all done). But, it was so worth it. I loved seeing the kids faces when they saw the room for the first time.

Remember the Clutter-Free Classroom I started creating at the end of last year? Here are my subject storage containers. My upcoming copy needs for each subject area go in the bins. I have felt a lot more organized so far this year because what I'm looking for is in one of these. I still end up with a messy desk at the end of the day, but I'll try to figure out a way to alleviate that eventually.

Remember that fabulous contact paper I bought? Here's the file cabinet that got a superb makeover. Everyone notices it as soon as they walk in the room and it's so much more handsome than it used to be. I am using the side of this file cabinet for our Morning Meeting notes. Currently, we also have three goals written on note cards that are posted (walking down the hall silently, cleaning up after ourselves in the lunchroom, and making sure everyone feels like they belong). I'll talk more about our morning meetings in another post! :)

I hope you tune in later this week to see more of my classroom makeover, ideas, and back to school happenings! :)