OK, a week into school, and I'm already exhausted beyond belief. I got up with the baby at 5:00, but he took some milk and went back to sleep. My hubs got up with him when he woke up and let me sleep till 10:30, God bless his soul. Then, after doing dishes and cleaning the kitchen, I took a NAP during baby's naptime, too! I'm not sure how long it's going to take me to recover from this week.
Monday and Friday were full days, but Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday the K-2 kiddos went home at noon while we did one-on-one assessments all afternoon. We had no planning time and no duty-free lunch. Monday & Friday I worked almost 12 hours. So yeah. Exhausted. Not to mention my class...it's definitely going to be an interesting year. I'll leave it at that. :)
So anyway, I've been meaning to post a classroom tour all week, but you know...it just wasn't gonna happen. ;)
Here we go.
I've since added white strips under the A and E on my CAFE board. :)
Do you see the adorable Math Alphabet? I got it from someone's blog but can't remember whose! If it's yours, please tell me so I can give credit! Sorry!
Book Boxes. Got these at Hobby Lobby for 1.99 each, but they didn't have enough, so I have 6 of the cheap cardboard ones on the bottom shelf. :(
The buckets are numbered and are inside an old pocket cd holder. This way, the kids can slide their notes behind each bucket for their classmates.
Daily 5 storage. Need to make a couple more labels.
The colored bins on top hold my weekly papers.
Made the black vinyl letters on my Cricut. LOVE.
I intended this to say "Spotted: Super 2nd Graders," but I didn't have enough letters. And those glitter letters were $7.99/pack, so I gave up. LOL. Oh well. I am planning (in all my spare time) to cut out a big peace sign from my black and white polka dot wrapping paper so the bottom of the door doesn't look so empty. :)
View from my door.
Front of room. We do whole group lessons here.
Read alouds are done by the rocking chair over by my CAFE board.
Behavior chart I made for my team this year. Love the clip chart, and even our 1st and 3rd grade teams decided to use my chart this year! They felt that their system of "strikes" wasn't working that well, so they decided to try something new! I think it's nice for the kiddos to have continuity like that.
Part of my library. Love the bright neon bins from Really Good Stuff.
My school bought these for me last year, and they work great to hold picture books!
Another view of the library. Love my new black baskets and my green polka dotted cushions!
New black bins to hold math manipulatives! My labels were inspired by the AMAZING Kristin over at Ladybug Teacher Files. I loved her "flipped" labels, but I wanted to include one of my colors. She is AWESOME.
Close up of the labels.
Vocabulary pocket chart for when we start "Text Talk" and our Must do/May do board. Started that last year (saw the idea on Pinterest, of course), and when a kiddo says "what should I do now?" I just point at the board. LOVE.
To the left of my desk: printer, newborn pic of baby boy, and my cute new Pop Top jar.
LOVE THE POUFS. It's like a party every day, LOL.
Pencil area. I put the "Quietest Classroom Sharpener" on my wish list, so I'm hoping and praying one of my parents will get it for our room!! :)
Spotlight on board. This will change out with the specific skills we're working on in reading/grammar.
Storage and Turn in basket with the ever popular "highlight your name" poster. I found this on Pinterest last year and have told everyone at my school about it. It literally CHANGED MY LIFE last year. If you have not implemented the "highlight your name" procedure, do it. Do it NOW. You will thank me, I swear. :D
I read Work Hard, Be Nice this summer (about the guys who started KIPP schools). Great book, very inspiring. These are 2 of our class rules this year. (Gotta re-route that pesky cord.)
Well, that's all for now! Hope you enjoyed my tour!
I missed some of the linky parties, but I'm linking up with:
