Bragging a little about our AMAZING Parents!

So I want to being by saying we have VERY strong parent and community involvement at our school. It truly is what makes our school such a gem and known as the best kept secret in the city ( in addition to the spectacular teachers :)  Anyways, our PTA and foundation are so wonderful.  We get a very generous classroom budget for ANYTHING we need for the classroom, which is more than I could ever ask for.  But today I got an amazing surprise.  Near the end of the year we filled out forms for classroom wish lists in case they had extra money.  I was thinking nothing would come of it, so I put that I would like 20 really useful boxes for classroom storage.  I don't know if you have heard of these, you ususally see them at Office Depot.  They are virtually indestructible and come in a variety of really useful sizes, hence the name :), They are very pricey and I would never purchase them on my own...I just dream of them.  Anyways, today all 20 boxes were delivered to my room.  I don't think I have been that happy since we bought our house 2 years ago!

I am so fortunate to have such wonderful support!

Thanks for reading.   I just had to share this glow!

Preplanning begins!!

So I don't know about y'all, but summer went wayyy too fast! I cannot believe preplanning began Monday, in July in my district. In a nearby district the kids went back this past Monday, once again in July! It is so early! What happened to going back after labor day? Haha
Anyways, after finally getting organized, my room is nearly done, keyword nearly. Here are some pics of my progress:

Here is the back corner of my room that has narrow open shelving that can look very cluttered as you can see by the opening in the curtains.  I put my old Kindergarten stuff, teachers manuals not in use, and other things I do not use often, in this area.  Then I bought a full bed flat sheet from Wal-Mart for $6 (way cheaper than any curtain!) and used a no sew iron on adhesive to add the ribbon loops at the top.  Then used a tension rod t hold it up.  This makes a word of difference.  The boxes and things on the floor still need to find a home:)

This is right by where you enter the room.  I took the idea from here on pinterest and instead of a teacher box, I made a student supply box.  This is a place where they can independently get a color crayon they are missing or new glue sticks, etc.  Next to it is a cute sign found here.  Then the owl cork board I painted for reminders.  Then the blue and yellow are school required.  I am not pleased with the appearance of this area...too cluttered.  I will rearrange it tomorrow.

Dull and sharp pencil bins.  I've got my work cut out with those new pencils!

My hallway bulletin board.  The rockets my kids made last year about the joys of first grade.  Then I will put little astronauts with the new kids names on them at the bottom or next to each rocket.

My great ikea find...my chair cushion was only $2.99.  It makes it so much more comfy and is a cute color!

One wall of my classroom library.  It has the ways we cn partner talk sign, found here.  

Bulletin board on the side of the cabinet in my teacher corner.  I am going to use this to display star student work.

My chart tablet is help up by these wonderful suction hooks from Dollar Tree.  You get 9 for $1.  These are awesome!!

Here is a close up of the little suction hooks.  Such a great investment, I need to get more!

My teacher area.  These cabinets will be used for info for me.  I love covering cabinet doors with paper and border...it just makes everything nicer!

Word Wall.

Bookshelf by the door.  Not sure what I am going to put here yet.

Curtains I made.  Brown with white polka dots.  No sew and fabric from Hobby Lobby...my favorite place!!

One view of the room.  As you can see, still a lot to do!

Objective and teacher question area.  Frames from Dollar Tree

No name sign.  I am so excited about this!!!  This has always been a problem.  It will be nice to post the no name work and have the students claim it when they get a chance.  Inspiration found here.

Close up of transportation signs.

How we get home.  I will use clothespins with students names to track their transportation.

Books we love area is above the bookshelves in the library.  This is a culmination of a few ideas I have seen in the blogging world.  I put a box with post its and pens for the students to write their favorites.   I need to fix the line, I ran out of staples.

Birthday wall.  Inspiration found here.  I will take photos of kids and place next to their birthday month.

Another proud moment.  I made these wall shelves out of wood.  They mount on the wall and turned out really nicely!

My classroom library. Still a work in progress.  I ordered the colored bins from really good stuff.  I ordered 2 kinds and didnt like the other type I ordered, so I sent them back for more of the kind you see above.  I am waiting for them to come in so my library matches!

Another library view.

Outside the door to display student names.

One of my organizational notebooks.

My door.  I made the wreath and the sign below is a poem I found on another blog that I cannot remember.



I will post more tomorrow as I finish up as well as some back to school items!

Cute owl cork board craft!

So I am partially obsessed with the target dollar section... I am sure I am not alone on that one! Anyways a recent adventure led me to these adorable owl quark boards. So I decided to paint them. And not to toot my own horn, but I think they turned out really cute! I also found the cute little ceramic owl for my desk!

What a mess!!

So, it didn't end up working out for me to move to the larger room, so I am back in the carpet room for one more year. We start renovations in the fall of 2013 and will be moving campuses while the renovations take place.
I had to move my things back in the carpet room and I did so quickly... below is the result. I didnt have time to put anything away. I don't think my kids could have made a bigger mess if I would have given them permission to do whatever they wanted with the classroom! I have been working on it a lot over the past week and it looks much better now! I will post more pictures soon.