Show Off Your Space Linky

Hi everyone! This week has been crazy with training and preparing my classroom for the new school year, but now it is ready! Well, I guess it better be ready, since my kiddos come tomorrow. Now that all of the clutter is out of the way, I have some pics of my classroom, and I thought that I would share them by linking up with Swimming into Second's "Show Off Your Space" linky party.

Okay, first thing that I want children to see is my door. My students know that each and every day I am happy to see them, even if they had a rough day before. Having a welcoming sign that they see every morning when they first walk in is huge!

On my whiteboard, I have the directions for where to put all of their supplies when they come into the room. As you can see, some of the baskets for supplies are on my desk.

Remember when I mentioned starting up the "Look Book" and the "Reminder Binder"? Here they are, all ready to go. I will definitely let you know how this new system of behavior management goes!

Here is a view of my room when you first walk in. I am in a bungalow, so it is not very big. I have to be very creative with the space; it can definitely be tricky trying to figure out where to fit everything! 

This is my reading corner by the door (all nice and clean now). I also have some of my baskets that I use for centers over here. On my "Awesome Authors" board, I store all of their writing throughout the year. When parents come help out in the classroom, they like to flip through and see their child's progress.

Here is another view of my room. The light blue baskets are for the computer headphones, and I used fabric to cover up a bookcase that stores a bunch of games. It was an eyesore before, and I think that it looks much cuter now!

This is my "Emergency Cards" chart. These cards are used for bathroom breaks. Students get five free chances a week to use the bathroom. Each time they go during class, they have to move that card to the back of their stack. If they use up all five before the end of the week, and they still have to use the bathroom, then they owe me a penny of their class money. I am trying to teach them to be responsible to use the bathroom during their breaks, but there are still chances for them to go in case of an emergency. 

Well, that's it for today. I will post tomorrow about my first day! I am so excited to meet all of my new second graders!

A Classroom Makeover

Well, it has been very difficult to find time for blogging with all this relaxing! I taught summer school during the month of July, and now I have had a few weeks of rest before school starts up again. Since I only taught until 11:00 everyday, that meant I had a little extra time in the afternoons to redecorate my classroom. I do think that having a well-organized, bright, and cheerful classroom does lend itself to students who are engaged in learning.

This first picture is my Language Arts bulletin board. We use the Open Court curriculum, so every week I have the story, genre, comprehension strategy, spelling words, and vocabulary words posted on this board. We refer to it a lot, so I thought that it needed a little makeover. Doesn't it look so much brighter and happier now?

I don't know how many of you have bucket slip boards in your classroom, but I love mine! When I first put it up last year, I had thought I would only keep it up for the first half of the year. By the end of the year, it was still there. I couldn't take it down because it was so sweet to see how much the students enjoyed writing encouraging notes to their classmates. Once summer hit, I realized that my board was starting to fall apart, so here it is now, fresh and new, ready to go for the beginning of the year.

I was picky about the color of the pockets, so I took apart an old pocket from last year, traced it, copied it onto construction paper, and then cut out and glued together each pocket myself. I also designed the labels and the Bucket Filler sign. After I got them laminated, I put them up on the board. Hopefully this will bring many more smiles of happiness this year.

Last classroom makeover that I wanted to share for now is my student work bulletin boards. I don't know about you, but I spend a lot of time putting up new artwork. I literally get out a ruler and measure to make sure that I am spacing everything correctly. If I don't do that, it ends up driving me crazy. I decided that it would be adorable to put up some twine and mini clothespins for student work. This will save me a lot of time in measuring, and my hope is that it will look really cute once it has student work on it. Here is one of my boards.

That is it for now. I will probably post more once school is ready to start. I did recently make this new addition to my Teachers Pay Teachers store, and I want to make sure that you see it in time for your first week of school. It is a booklet that you can use to review your classroom guidelines during the first week of school. I have found that the first week is the time to drill those guidelines into their brains. It makes for a much smoother year. You can buy this product here!

Well, that is it for today! I hope that this was helpful, and that you are able to get your classroom all cute and ready for the beginning of the year! Happy decorating!