Wow, what a great start to the new school year! It's hard to believe that we've already been in school for three weeks! This year has definitely been an exciting transition for me. I've taught middle school ELA for me entire 10 year teaching career. The last 6 years have been 7th and 8th grade Gifted ELA. I got my elementary certification 4 years ago and have just been waiting on the right opportunity. Our school system Rif'd 120 teachers at the end of the school year and then transferred probably that many more to other schools to fill needed openings. I was blessed to be one of those people. I have landed in the perfect school. So, now I am a first grade teacher. Yep, you heard that right! All the way down to first grade....and I couldn't be happier! Naturally I worked all summer studying the first grade standards, reading about topics that pertained to first grade management, gathering ideas and designing things for my classroom. I still have a few things that I plan to add over the next couple of weeks, but here is my room in all of it's bright chevron, polka dot glory. I did not purchase any of my posters, bulletin board letters, etc from a store this year. After not being able to find what I wanted, I made them all. I know it took a little more time, but I love the results and I think I probably saved money in the long run. I love my classroom and my students and their parents seem to really enjoy it, too! We all know what it's like to go into a new classroom. It all bland, white and packed up. Here is mine the first day I could go in, which was one week before preplanning started. Here is my temporary door hanger. I'm working on a bigger canvas picture, but for now this helps my firsties know which room is ours. It was an unfinished wood piece that I purchased from Michael's earlier this summer. A little paint, vinyl, bottle caps, flowers and voila...a door hanger. Here is the view outside of my door. I made the chevron WELCOME banner. You can find it in my TPT store HERE. Here is the view you get as you walk in my door. I've added a few things to the bulletin board behind my desk since I took these pictures. Here is my computer center. I made the posters on the wall and you can find them in my TPT store HERE, HERE, and HERE. Here is a closer look at the posters. My classroom library has been a big hit! I tried to go to Goodwill at least once per week this summer to begin my first grade book collection and when I visited my parents beach house this summer, I ran by the Goodwill there at least once each trip. A retiring teacher gifted me with about 200 additional books. I love, love, LOVE books, so this made me one happy girl! I found my chairs at Lowe's for about $12 each and my bright colored baskets are from Big Lots. Here's a closer look at my book basket labels. Here is my focus wall. I made all of the signs and letter for this board as well. I just love this Chevron behavior chart that I found for FREE on TPT. HERE is the link to the free file from A Cupcake for the Teacher. I use clothes pins with my students' names on them. For each day that they reach "Super Student" level they get a gem on their clip. After they get 5 gems on their clip, they move it to the wall of fame (a picture that says "wall of fame" that has a ribbon hanging down to attach the clips to) and get a new clip. Here in my calendar/morning math board. At some point I think I will do all of this on the Promethian board and after Christmas I might make each student a sheet and laminate it so that it is dry erase and encourages more independent work. Here is a closer look at my 120 chart. This is a bad picture. The colors are very bright, as you can see above. I searched high and low for a 120 chart that I liked, but couldn't find one that was just right. So, I decided to make my own. I then used www.shortrunposters.com and had it printed into a 18x24 for only $2.97. You can find my 120 chart HERE in my TPT store. You get both the white center and the turquoise center with the file. Here is looking at the front of my classroom. I have a new bright colored rug that has been ordered and will hopefully be here this week. I wanted a class set of dry erase boards, but they are at least $3 each. So, off I went to Lowe's. I found a huge sheet (4x8) of shower board for right at $11. They were able to cut down the board into 12x12 pieces for me for free. (LOVE this about Lowe's!!) I then used duck tape around the ragged edges. My students LOVE them. This is my Word Wall. I used paper plates for the Word Wall sign. I found them at the Dollar Store. I cut the letters out using my Silhouette Cameo and attached them inside the plates. I made the letters for the board and found some cute polka dot ribbon at Wal-Mart that matched the colors of my room perfectly. I clip the words to the ribbon each week. Here's a closer view of the word wall. One of my absolute favorite parts of my classroom - my curtains. I bought 2 yards of the fabric at Hobby Lobby and used half for each window. I hot glued all around the edges, hot glued the ball trim on and hung them on a tension rod. I then used black ribbon to tie them up on each side. My birthday poster that I made. I then sent it to www.shortrunposters.com and had an 18x24 made of it for only $2.97. You can find it in my TPT store HERE. I made this light to indicate when work should be quiet work. When the light is on, we work silently. These are my seat labels. I decided that this would be an easy way to move students after the year got started. I made the labels, laminated them, hole punched them and used a round book clip to attach them to the back of all of the chairs. I also have name tags on their desk for the first few weeks, but this will not get as dirty or give students something to pick at like the desk labels do. My desk. I just glued wrapping paper from Party City to the front and trimmed it with grosgrain ribbon. I cut the letters out using my Cameo and then attached an owl that I made to add a little more decoration. Easiest way ever to keep up with papers for the week. I like to make all of my copies before I leave on Friday for the following week. As I make copies throughout the week, I can store them in my "Next Week" drawer. Here is where we are hanging work in the hall. I made the owls with their names preprinted on them. I laminated them and glued them to clothes pins. I think hot glued the clothes pins to push pins so that they could hang from the corkboard strip outside of my door. My daughter helped me model the frame that I made so that I could take pictures of all of my firsties. I just used a piece of foam board from the Dollar Store and hot glued ribbon and decorations to make it cute. Treats for the first day of school! Finally, one of what I consider to be the best positive behavior management tools that I am using - behavior necklaces. I made them, laminated them, hole punched them and then tied a piece of yarn into a necklace. My students LOVE them and it can turn a misbehaving student around quickly. I have about 100 made up, so there are enough for every student to get one throughout the day. I have everything from "I lost a tooth", "I was a good friend", "Number Talk Whiz", to "Superstar in the Hall". I'm thinking about adding these to my TPT store as well. Well, there you have it. I hope I haven't bored you to death. Personally, I really enjoy looking at pictures of other teachers' classrooms. I find that it gives me a ton of inspiration. And who doesn't need a little inspiration from time to time?
