Revamp 2012

My classroom revamp is going very well. It's been lots of work, but I definitely LOVE my new classroom. It's not completely done yet. Here are some of my new boards, hopefully the room will be done tomorrow!

Here is my word wall before.

Here is the after (although I don't have words up yet because I put them up as we learn them).

Putting that up was a PAIN, I now remember why I had the other one up so long!

A close up...

My new Focus Wall...

I LOVE it!!! I included all as much of the Common Core as I could. The plan is to talk with my Kinders on Monday about our goals for the week and refer to it throughout the week. On Friday's, we will talk about how we did and what we still need to work on. :0)

A close up...

I put magnetic tape on the back of my Ten Frame Number posters, so the kiddos can manipulate them. Thanks to Barb for that little nugget!

I use to keep my Table Groups in a pocket chart on the wall; however, the Smartboard resides there now. So, I put them on the dry erase board, as well. Thanks Pam!

Calendar Wall... missing the Partner Chart.

I love it all so far! I've still got some things to do. I'm looking forward to sharing it with you :0) I hope you are all either enjoying your time back with your students or enjoying the process of prepping as much as I am. I get to meet 22 smiling faces on Thursday, and I CAN'T wait!!!!

Progress

 I've never needed a ton of sleep, even through my pregnancy I could get by with about 5 hours a night. Lately, I'm averaging about 3 hours per night. Seriously, I don't know how I am functioning at all. But, here I am...10PM just finished cleaning bottles, working on math assessments and rubrics, oh, and the all too important blogging :0)

I had some focus today. I unpacked, unpacked, and unpacked all my math and literacy centers, hung up my long weird bulletin board in the hall, labeled cubbies, typed out and printed my welcome letters, organized 3 big ole boxes of books into Fountas and Pinnell levels, and walked to the office a zillion times looking for supplies that once I got there (after seeing and talking to people in the hall) had forgotten what I needed, over and over and over. All in all a pretty good day.

Here are some pics...

The famous Pinterest inspired crate chairs, which will more than
likely get me into hot water with Scary Maintenance Guy...
"Are these flammable?"

My fire chairs filled with highly flammable leveled readers.
Took FOREVER to organize by level, but I felt soooo good afterward!

I've had some questions about how I organize my library for my classroom. When I got into my room, there was no rhyme or reason to the organization of the books, so the first thing I did was take an inventory, then I wanted to determine what the purpose was...did I want them all organized by level or theme. I chose theme. These are books that students have access to everyday. I wanted them to find the books/characters they love, quickly.

The next thing I did was create book bin labels with matching labels. Each book has a label that is displayed on the front cover. This allows students to just match the pictures. My bins are EL Cheapo! I bought ice cube bins from walmart. They work perfectly for my ick shelving. The bins that have LOTS of books are rhyming-repition-song/fiction animals/non fiction animals, and insects and spiders. These books are in dishwashing tubs again from the store that I loathe....Walmart.

The next picture is mainly literacy centers. These are the first centers that I teach. They are my "staples." They include Read the Room, font sort, magnetic word building, stamp the alphabet, do a dot letters, chalkboards....there are TONS of them. I teach them throughout September. Then when we start doing Stations, students work on more thematic centers, if and when they finish, each group has a choice of 4 staple centers to work on. This prevents I'm done, I'm done, I'm done.

These are math centers.

Every bin has a picture on it. There is also a picture on the shelf where the bin goes. I just got tired of my kiddos putting things away wherever they could find space. It made me crazy!

Alright, I am officially tired. Here's hoping I catch some Zzzzz's tonight! I haven't decided if I am going in tomorrow or not, guess you'll have to check back tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Shannon

Chaos in the Classroom

Today was the first day back in my classroom, it was my futile attempt at several things...

1- Make it look like a classroom.

2- Revamp it

Fail. So, I haven't been shy about how things are going in my life, things ultimately have just fallen apart. I am not fishing for any woe is me, it is what it is. I am trying hard to find my way through some beyond murky waters. Anywho, I have very little control of my personal life, so it an attempt to have major control somewhere, I decided to redo my room and try to feel really good while I'm at school.

Clearly I have too many projects....personal things are causing my brain to lack the capacity to organize or at least complete more than one task to completion. I am in need of a life coach.

Here is my classroom my pigsty today.

From the door...straight across

From the door...diagonally

Opposite side of the room

You can see that my room is one HOT mess! And, holy cow, I could not get my mind together. I lacked focus :0) Hopefully, things will get better.

Guess what? The 7 coats of magnetic primer actually hold little letters. Worth it...probably not, but live it, learn it! I decided to paint my cabinets green. The green I chose seemed like a good choice at the time, I'm pretty sure you can see it from space ;-)

Before...

They were U.G.L.Y and chipped. So, last year I asked my principal if I could paint and she said yes! First I used magnetic primer on 4 of them. Then I painted them this crazy green...

Ohhlala...see the little magnetic letter :0)

Seriously, they are BRIGHT! I love 'em; however, I nearly got in trouble from our Scary Head Maintenance guy. Who said the problem is that it might be flammable and that now all the rooms aren't uniform. Scary. Truly, I am an avid rule follower. I was freaking. All worked out, here's the full pic.

That's pretty much all I got done. Then I flit, flit, flit, couldn't keep my eye on the prize at all. Speaking of prizes, here are all of my goodies that were awaiting me (please keep in mind that all of this is grant money and school purchases)...

Lakeshore ob.sess.ed

These are Smartboard Centers for my room and my partner in crime!

LOVE stickers and Carson Dellosa cutsie stuff.

More tomorrow, maybe :) Thanks for reading!

Shannon