Classroom Reveal 2014!

  Moving from first grade to Kindergarten was difficult for me, maybe even more difficult than moving from Kindergarten to first grade 3 years ago.  I simply didn't want to go, and I was so apathetic about moving.  When I moved from K to 1st, I did a complete overhaul of my classroom decor- mostly because Kindergarten was the "bees" and I didn't feel like I could be a "bee" anymore.  But when I moved back to K, I didn't feel like putting in the time or energy to change my classroom decor and theme.  

Luckily, once I started working in my room, I got excited about setting up my classroom.  And now I have an absolutely beautiful classroom.  I can't WAIT to show it to you!  I don't think I've ever been so excited to share a classroom with you!

Unfortunately, I took a TON of pictures, and I don't want to overload you, so I'm going to show you half of the room, and I'll post the rest later. :-)

WARNING:  This is image heavy and a little bit text heavy!  View at your own risk. :-)

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This is the view when you walk into the room and turn to the right.  Our doors are at an angle, so you walk in, and then you have to turn into the room.  

The wall on the back is my word wall.  The book nook is in the back right corner.  On the right wall, I have my computers and my math manipulative shelf, which you can see the corner of.

This is my unofficial "focus" wall area.  If you have ever seen any of my other classroom photos, you may recognize the fence below.  It used to be on the back of my bookshelves for my book nook.  This year, I used it for a different purpose.  

 The left bulletin board will hold student work.  I'm going to hang our self-portraits there, which is why it has the little banner that says "Say Cheese!"

The fabric on this bulletin board is actually a "coverlet" or something like that.  I purchased it at Old Time Pottery, but it originally came from Walmart.  It was a 90x78" piece of fabric, with finished edges.  It was $7 and I figured it would come in handy.  It totally did, because all the fabric I had wasn't big enough! :-(

Another BIG deal about this picture?  The pink borders!  I actually despise the color pink, so it's a huge deal that I used the color pink on these borders.  HUGE.  
 

More pink borders.  The right board is a dry erase board.  I have my "I Can" Statements hanging there, as well as my job chart.  I'm thinking about making new headers for my "I Can" Statements, because I feel like these don't match!

Above these boards are my colors and shapes posters for student reference.  Above that is my alphabet chart.  I love the aqua and green polka dots- they match my room perfectly!  The alphabet chart is available in my store in a few different colors, if you're interested.
 

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If you were to walk straight into my room, you would actually walk into the bookshelf that you see to the left in this picture.  This is my Guided Reading area and desk area.  I don't actually have a desk, so this entire area is where I keep everything. 

The buckets in the bottom of this picture are about to get a makeover.  I found some awesome laminated fabric from Hobby Lobby, so I am going to recover them.  I love the polka dots, but they are starting to look a little dirty.  I knew they would, but originally I had plastic to put over them and it didn't look right.  I made these buckets last year.  They hold extra student supplies like glue, crayons, markers, etc...  

 You may recognize the curtains as well.  They were a part of my vocabulary wall in my classroom last year.  This was the perfect place for it in this classroom.  So I made this my own little space, complete with inspirational posters, favorite books, colorful pom poms, and photographs.

The shelf to the right holds my personal book collection (the ones students can't borrow!), teacher books, my stapler, tape, etc..., and a few other things.  The shelf behind my table holds my guided reading books.  I feel like I need something in that space above the curtains, but I'm not sure yet.  Maybe smaller sized posters of my reading buddies to reference when I'm teaching?

One problem I have is clutter.  If there is a horizontal surface to cover, I will cover it.  Usually with paper.  So this year, I did myself a favor and made the shelf behind my table "pretty."  I figured, if it were pretty, I wouldn't move this stuff out of the way to clutter it with stacks of paper.  That's an organizational tip there, people!

This is the same area from a different angle.  I really think I need something on the other side of that toolbox.  I made that 2 years ago, I think.  I love it.  Most of those drawers are full, but I need to go back and label some of them. 

The wooden frames are from Michaels, and I painted them with spray paint.  I made the wooden B myself using supplies from Hobby Lobby.

I cut out my little basket full of notepads and pretty post it notes, but they are to the left of the picture frame.   The picture frames came in a pack of 3 from Target.  They were $5.  I made the little sayings postersposters that are in all the frames myself.  Beside that is my Tool Turn About from Pampered Chef.  You may recognize it from my Monday Made It post awhile back.  Now it's full of pens, markers, and pencils, and I LOVE IT!  Everything is so organized and easily within reach!
 

I love love love this thing!

I have a drawer unit on wheels that I have guided reading materials in, such as dry erase boards, assessment materials, and stuff like that.  On top is my standing pocket chart that I use to display words, "I Can" Statements, etc...  It rolls, so I thought it would be great to roll to my table when I need it, and roll out of the way when I don't.  

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I am so excited to show you what is probably my favorite part of my classroom!  I love my book nook area!

I have actually had 2 sets of these crate seats in my classroom.  One set is green, and the other is turquoise.  I made them 3 years ago.  I use these for buddy reading.  Inside, I store supplies like notebooks, markers, etc... to help weigh them down so students don't move them!  

My mom helped me out and recovered them when she was here this summer, since I was busy working on other things in the classroom.  I LOVE this fabric.  It makes me so excited.  I love the colors and chevron.  It's laminated too, so it's easy to clean!  It's from Hobby Lobby.

I am probably going to completely overload you with pictures of my library, so I'm going to apologize now.  I just love this space so much!

The green and turquoise shelves are from my old classroom.  Somehow, when moving rooms, I lost 2 of my short shelves, so I found another tall shelf and moved it into my room.  I painted it pink, which if you know me, is absolutely shocking!  I hate pink, but I thought a pink shelf would look great with the other shelves.  

These are 3 of my shelves that I painted over the last few years. 

I love all the fun places for students to sit and read.  


I made these READ letters for my classroom over the summer.  My old ones kept falling off the wall.  These have magnets on the back, and so far they have stayed up quite well! 

I also updated my book basket labels.  My old ones were looking rather faded and shabby, and it was time for something new.

I am so in love with these labels.  Who knew something so small could make such a huge impact?  I spent a lot of time on these, and I am so glad I did!  You can find them in various colors in my store

I just need to show them off a little more.  I love seeing such an organized, beautiful classroom library!  I hope it will stay that way, but I'm not holding my breath!


I also bought some new book boxes for some of my books.  I love the size of these.  They are compact but hold a ton of books, so they fit on a shelf quite nicely.  They are also very sturdy, so I am not worried they will tip over or break.  They are actually Sterilite ice bins from Target.  They were an investment, because I needed about 20 of them, but they were so worth it!  My other Sterilite baskets are 7 years old and not one of them has cracked, so I'm sure these will hold up just as well.  

You may have noticed the tree in the corner of my library.  This may be my absolute favorite part of my room.  I used a giant cardboard tube from when I received my classroom rug a few years ago.  I saw that tube and said "That's going to be a tree."  3 years later (yes, 3), it finally became a tree!  I duct taped it to the wall, then added limbs, bark, and finally some leaves.  I am going to add some more leaves to the top to make my canopy a little more fluffy, but I'm waiting until the fire marshal comes next week. :-)  The paper for the bark actually is the packaging from my boxes of Pampered Chef.  They pack all their boxes with this brown paper, and it was absolutely perfect- and free!

In the first 2 pictures, you saw my word wall board.  I brought the tree and sign from my old classroom.  It took 4 of us to get this tree up!  The bottom part is held by magnets, while the top is heavy-duty stapled into the board.  I have my Chalkboard Ten Frame posters hanging above the word wall for students to reference. 

I also made new word wall headers that I love.  I glued them to some flowers I cut out with my Cricut.  I'll include more about this in my next post.  

So there you go!  Part one of my classroom reveal!  What do you think?  Is there something you really liked?  Something you hated?  Please share your thoughts! 

Thanks for reading!

8 comments:

  1. So much work! This is beautiful - enjoy every minute!

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  2. So cute!! Your room looks so inviting!

    - Katy
    First Grade Kate

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  3. LOVE LOVE LOVE the trees in your room. And fabric...laminated!!! Some ideas are forming for me now :)
    Em
    Curious Firsties

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