The beginnings of "Nothin Could be Finer..."

That first day back to work in my classroom is always full of many emotions and expectations! I am excited to get in and get things moved around,  stress about getting it all done and bittersweet as I think about the memories made and the memories that will be made. I always have high expectations and think I will get way more accomplished then I always do. (I always wonder where did all of this stuff come from?!) To me the room says a lot about the classroom. I work hard to make a fun classroom environment that does not look cookie cutter so my students can "claim" their room. I want them to walk in and feel happy and that they are at home. I also want to walk in my room for 180 days and feel happy! It is a win, win!

This year I was even more ready to get in my room. Last year, I started summer earlier than expected due to my little man making an early appearance. So I was stressing a little this summer thinking about where everything was placed. (I had a fabulous assistant and long term sub who really did a great job of putting things away!) I know things were placed in buckets but its just getting in there and finding it. Then our school's roof had some issues so we were even later getting in the room. And even today I still cannot arrange furniture in my room so instead I have been working on bulletin boards, taking down old decorations (I just had them keep it up to make it easy) and organizing cabinets. I apologize in advance for the long post!

Day 1

Believe it or not this photo was taken after I did some work in my room! I moved some of my tables to the tile so those are not in the picture. Our carpets are going to be shampooed and cleaned so all the furniture that is still on the carpet will actually be moved. Hopefully soon all that furniture in the middle of the room will find its place!  Thanks to two of my fabulous friends we all helped knock out each others' bulletin boards. I don't know about you but I love a good looking bulletin board but I do not enjoy the tedious work it involves. In the background, you can see a green bulletin board. There I will place theme words, writing stuff really just a bunch of words! On the top of the wall you can see my large alphabet set.  I am going back and forth if I am going to keep that set or create a new one. Then a little below is my word wall alphabet. That set will be replaced because I am over the popcorn buckets. Still working on exactly what I will put there. 

This is my outside bulletin board that I finished (or may still be  a work in progress.) Our theme this year is "Nothin could be finer.." (It is our state slogan.) So on this board is the "title" and then on the wall I am going to place stick kids holding pennant flags with the kids name. I think it will look really cute and a fun welcome. I am trying to make a South Carolina Theme, kinder friendly! I am actually still debating if I will place palmetto trees or something else on the board itself. What do you think?

This is an up close of the border I am using this year. I L-O-V-E it! It is a bright happy chevron pattern and then I doubled it with shiny blue border! (I also have the matching rugs for this border, woot woot!) I am using this border outside (just for BTS) and then all my boards inside to give a cohesive look!
I was pretty pleased with how much I accomplished on the first day back in! I am getting excited about how my room will look  this year!

Day 2

I spent my morning in a math workshop learning about our new math adoption, Envisions. (Do you use it? What do you think?) Afterwards,, I just dropped by the school to see what the room looked like once they moved all the furniture from the carpet to the tile and this is what I found...

Things are piled everywhere! So getting into my cabinets was not going to happen, obviously! And please ignore my missing "D" above the cabinets. That should read LOOK WHAT WE DID! (Hoping it just fell on top of the cabinets.) Yes, I have mismatched chairs that would be the reason I bought chair pockets to cover that ugliness up. :) They are hoping by Wednesday we can get in to move all the furniture back how it goes. That will give me 3 days before staff starts back. (We go back Monday  the 12th!) EEK!! I will repeat, It will get done, it will get done.... :)

I did hang my super duper cute door hanger on the door! In case you missed my last post I ordered this from Charlie D's. You can find her facebook page here! Or visit her etsy store here! She has many different ideas and you can customize! Way cheaper than other etsy stores I found and the quality is fabulous!










Since I could not get in my cabinets I began hanging my paper lanterns.. As you can tell my main colors are blue, aqua (that color does not show well in my picture) and lime green.  I will finish hanging them once my tables get arranged. I also took down  a lot of my wall decorations. Still trying to decide about the pennant banner above my Promethean board.  (What do you think?) I will pull other bright colors through accents in the room. But this year it is about the blue/greens in room 117. :) I found these at the fabulous Party City! The board to the left that you see will be my Daily 5/CAFE board. (I am super excited about implementing this with my kinders!


On another side note while I was attending my math workshop I found out a great group of friends/donors rallied together to help fund my 7th project! (4th this summer) I am beyond blessed, overwhelmed and still speechless. I am excited about receiving playdoh and alphabet stampers to add to my word work choice for Daily 5! Plus, I know my kinders are going to LOVE IT! To pay it forward, it I am giving  away a $10 donation to DonorsChoose. If you are interested please visit my facebook page! If you have not visited yet please do. I love to give away flash freebies!!