Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Classroom Makeover Day 2!

So I got myself up to school again today and actually spent 4 hours there! I still have some organizing to do but I feel good with where I am at! So I decided to link up with Kimberlee for Teacher Tour Tuesday!
Here are some pictures of it today!
Here is my Homework Club Board! Finally got it hung up! Yay! For the free numbers visit my TPT store!

 This is my library so far. I love my Boggle board for making words!
 
 This is something new I'm going to try this year. This board is right behind my guided reading table. I saw this idea on Pinterest but no one to credit! I made my own labels in my colors and plan to use sticky notes for each guided reading group! I'm hoping it will keep that time more structured! If you want to purchase this set check out my TPT store.

This is outside my door! Thanks to my Cricut it was easy to cut my states! 

View down the middle of my classroom! 
 
I want to use this as a math/reading center tower that I can switch around every 2 weeks. I want to differentiate the activities for my kiddos. Let me know if you have any great ideas!

AND FINALLY! I made a Teacher Toolbox for my desk! Love! I haven't found the perfect spot for it yet but I will.  I bought this lovely at Orscheln's, my husband's favorite store. I spray painted it pink. Thanks to Fun in Room 4B for the free template. I just changed to the words I wanted and printed it on my fun Chevron paper!

Woohoo! I think I am close to being done going in before I have too. Now to enjoy the last few days of summer before we are back next week!

Can't wait to see lots of rooms coming together!
 

Monday, July 29, 2013

Flea Market Finds!

Today, my mom and I decided to head out for a 45 minute drive to a huge flea market. And It was totally worth it!
 
Check out my awesome finds some for home and some for school!
 
I got these 2 awesome jars to put in my bathroom. I will post a picture when I figure out exactly what I am going to do with them! (notice my dog hanging in the background!)
 
3 Planters for less than $2 each? Score!! Next, spring these will look great on my deck!
 
I got this for my friend for her dog themed classroom! I can't wait to see what she puts in it!
 
Ok I didn't buy this but HOW FUNNY! I love the Big Bang Theory. We had this stuck in our head for the rest of the day! Thanks Sheldon!
 
Ok, last crazy thing I found! Blinged out boots! Can someone please tell me where you would wear these!? They were so heavy!
 
Ok, now on to the stuff I found for school! So excited!
 
First, a great book I did not have a copy of somehow!
 
Next, got to love those fractions! How awesome are these! My 5th graders are going to love them!
 
And the best purchase of the day! A rotating scrapbook scissor holder! WHAT! (This was the most expensive thing I bought, but so worth it!)
 
So excited to use these different cut design scissors in my room. I think I may paint the wooden part though. What do you think?
 
Does anyone else shop at Flea Markets? I feel like it is a treasure hunt!
 
 

My First Monday Made it! Better Late than Never!

This is my favorite linky of the week. I love seeing all the different ideas and so finally I can join for the first time! (I know I'm so late to the party!) Yay!

Hop over to Fourth Grade Frolics to join up!



Here is what I have been crazily working on to get ready for my classroom makeover and Monday Made its! Cutting and Laminating!! It seemed to be Never. Ending!



Once that was done I could actually create! 

 
 
I have finally finished my crate seats! I have been looking at these forever and I finally got myself to get with the program. It actually took less time that I thought it would!
 
First, I had to have my husband cut 4 pieces out of plywood to fit my crates. Oh, how he loves back to school!
 
 
Then I got my materials together. I bought 1 in foam from Joann's in a big piece and then cut it into fourths. I only bought a yard of fabric but it was enough to do all 4 crates!
 
Here is how I put them together:
Fabric right side down
foam
plywood
Then you just staple like you are reupholstering a chair. I did have to make sure to pull tight so that there were no creases!
 
One down! 3 to go!

 
Ta Da! 4 crate seats ready to go for my 5th graders! I can't wait to get them into my room!



 
I am going to try the Homework Club in my room this year from Lessons with Laughter. What a great idea!  Check out her original post here. So I had to make them my color scheme for my room!

I cut and laminated all the numbers and attached them with Velcro for easy take off. I seem to have trouble with magnets falling off so I thought this would be easier!


I also got this cute little magnetic container to hang by it for kiddos who have to take their number off the board. My teammates and I are going to do a Homework Club Prize monthly and then a big one at the end of the year for those students who have made it all year. I still need to think about how to track these each month so let you know if you have any ideas!

To get your own freebie of these numbers visit my TPT store!

 
 
 

I am trying out the Donors Choose site to get my students some great binders for Reading/Writing. I am going to try all of these awesome interactive notebooks this year! Click the picture of my cute kiddos if you want to check it out!


Have a wonderful Monday!
 

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Classroom Makeover Day 1!

Wow, I can't believe that I have only 2 weeks left before I am back to work. AHH!! So I decided to join Kimberlee for her Teacher Tour Tuesday, which is great because it forced me to get up to my classroom and get busy! My Instagram video is a little rough, need more practice with it! :) Hop over to her blog and check it out!



Here is a look at what I came back to. Everything put away and white walls everywhere! Yuck!


For the last 2 years, I have gone with a beach theme. This year, since I am looping with my class I decided that we needed a change and my new theme is.... ROAD TRIP!! I've become so excited about this theme! There are some ideas out there for this theme but not a ton, so I hope my post will help anyone wanting to try it out!

The first thing I wanted to get done was covering my bulletin boards with fabric. I bought fabric last summer from JoAnn's in a few different colors, you'll see soon that I like everything BRIGHT!

 
This is the wall right behind my small group table. I created a "bulletin board" here so I can show things we are working on in guided reading and math.

 
Now, we are looking at the board right above my carpet/meeting area. This is where my student work will be displayed. I found this great border with exciting places all over the country! Come back to see the cute name plates we will be making for each kid!


 
Check out this adorable Road Trip fabric I found at JoAnn's. I'm in love with it! Get your kicks on Route 66!

 
Lunch Count! I created these suitcases on my handy, dandy, Cricut! (Best present ever, Thanks Mom!) I am using numbered sticks for the kids to pick their lunches. All they have to do it put it in the correct fry box! What kid doesn't love McDonald's!

 

Here is my window to our pod! I cut out these Chevron pennants on my Cricut and then put 2 hole punches in the corner and strung it up with ribbon! The road border came from a bulletin board set that I purchased!

If you want some printable pennants/bunting check out my TPT store.



 
Front door of classroom! I made license plates for each one of my students for the year! See the picture below to see what they look like!

 
 
Here is where I will be putting my Learning Targets for the day/week. I love how these license plates turned out. Check out my TPT store to purchase the editable template!
 


 
 I also got my word wall put up today! See my word wall post here.
 

Here is my attempt at uploading a video to my blog! I couldn't get Instagram to work for me! I will try that again later! Any suggestions are welcome!

Here is a 360 of my room in the middle of my day today!

Hope you enjoyed my tour for today! Hopefully, I will have more next week!



Chevron Movable Word Wall

I'm so addicted to Pinterest! As I was looking for new things to add to my classroom I found this great word wall idea over at Run! Ms. Nelson's Got the Camera! Check out her blog post here.
 
So I decided to make my own to go with my new classroom theme! Chevron is great for my theme! I love these papers by Ashley Hughes! She is amazing!  If you would like to purchase these word wall cards click here.


I printed these out, laminated, and punched a hole in the corners. I got some 1 in book rings, you could get larger ones if you want more space, and put them on each card.

Then, I purchased some small command hooks from Walmart. There were like 40 in a pack so I had plenty! I thought they would fit perfectly under my white board.
 
Here is a close up!
 
 
 
Finished! Now, once we start school and vocabulary lessons we can clip our index cards to their appropriate letter. I am planning on having the vocab. word on the front and the definition on the back. I'm hoping to use these for writing purposes as well as reviewing our new words.  
 
 
Hopefully, once school starts I will be able to tell you how wonderful this word wall is! Thanks again to Ms. Nelson at Run! Ms. Nelson's Got the Camera for this great idea!