Sunday, September 2, 2012

a finished room still in progress

Here's a peek inside my finished room, which isn't really finished after all. We are really never finished with our classrooms because there's always something to add or change. 

But this is how it looked when I snapped a few quick pictures after our Meet the Teacher night the week before school started. 



My door gives the kids a colorful welcome. I forgot to take a picture of the owls just outside my classroom. Too bad because they are pretty adorable.



For years, I have had only three rules. Simple. Easy to remember. Just about any behavior you can think of, good or bad, can fall into these three categories. I saw this idea for the rules in frames on Pinterest (can't remember where) and knew it was perfect for making my room a little more homey. These are just dollar store frames that I painted the colors I wanted to match my class.



This is the view from the door. See that brown paper on the pink bulletin board that's totally buckling? I'm not that sloppy! It's very humid around these parts in August and everything in the classroom buckles and waves. It will straighten out as soon as the air dries up. 

Most of my bulletin boards are bare because either student work or anchor charts we make in class will be put up soon.



See that wavy border?

I'm completely in love with the paper lanterns! Funny story ~ I ordered those over the summer online. I was having a really hard time imagining how big they would be, even with the measurements given, so I ordered many sizes of each color. Many. Then I only used three of the smaller ones. Hmpf. Stephanie and Heather are excited about that, though, because they both want one in their bedrooms.



This is our "carpet" area. It's not really big enough and some kids spill into my library.



I didn't get a chance to get name tags on the desk before the Open House. Gotta keep them wondering for the first day, right?



Now that school has started, I'm really glad I ditched the kidney table in favor of the rectangular table. It gives me more room in the class. This week we had our grade level meeting there and it was plenty large enough for five adults, so it should be fine for a reading group of small people.



This is the view from the sink. I caught my favorite visitors coming in at the end of the night.



I saw this on Pinterest too, and made one to match my class ~ again with a dollar store frame. I created the print on the computer and had a photo printed at Costco.

My first week of school was a good one. I have some very noisy boys who will learn this year the value of keeping your random, off-topic thoughts to yourself. Either that or I will become very acquainted with each of their parents. BFFs if I have to talk to them too much.

Remember we were getting a new principal ~ and assistant principal ~ and office manager? That feeling of the unknown is never comfortable. Thankfully that feeling is over and a breath of fresh air has been released into our school. With the addition of three new people in our office, the morale of the school has improved drastically in the matter of weeks. So far, this change has turned out to be just what we needed.

This is going to be a great year!

Next week I have a fun project from our apple unit to share with you when the small people are done with it. We've been painting and it's turning out so cute.

         

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