Tell All Tuesday: My Dream Classroom

I am joining Teach Talk Inspire and My Day in K for another Tell All Tuesday. This week it's about your dream classroom. Of course I turn to the place where my life is most organized, my Pinterest board. I just assume that everyone else has the same problem as I do... and that's that we all have our classroom, home and everything else in our lives magically organized through their Pinterest with a long list of admiration and wishes.

 Duh... I am totally turning to my Classroom Decor & Organization Pinterest board for this one. Don't we all? I know I am not alone on this one. ;)

I will start off with the fact that I am sharing BOTH of my classrooms this year with another teacher Yeah, you heard me right. I have 2 classrooms. How does that work you ask? Well since here in Alberta, Canada or where I teach anyways kindergarten does not come to school every day all day like they do in the States. My kinders will come Monday, Wednesday & every other Friday. I taught this schedule last year. So that means that on Tuesdays, Thursday, & every other Friday that my class is not there that another teacher will be teaching kindergarten to a different set of kinders. Got it? Therefore I do not get 100% say on how I would love love love to decorate the classroom (insert sad face). Last year I had to do this for the 1st time and it was a real struggle for me. I like to be in control and do things my way. Now for my 2nd classroom situation... On the Tuesdays & Thursdays that I am off from teaching kindergarten I will be teaching grade 2. The other teacher who taught grade 2 full time last year wanted to work part time so that she could spend more time with her youngest son before he starts elementary school so I am basically coming into her classroom to teach Tuesdays & Thursdays. There ya go... now you know why I have 2 classrooms. In all honesty, while I LOVE to be in control & decorate my classroom with everything super matchy matchy and organized since I have my daughter that is not my biggest concern this year. I just want to survive my 1st year of juggling the whole mommy/teacher thing. I am letting the other teachers take the decorating reigns for the most part.

So if I could have total control of my classroom this year and I didn't have to share this is a taste of what it (or they) would look like.

I have done the jungle theme and ocean theme. This year I would love to go all out with a garden/bug theme. I am going to use a garden/bug theme with things like the students' name plates, name tags, cubby labels, etc. I would <3 to have a reading area set up with a green carpet & white fence. I know I have a photo some where on my Pinterest of Deanna Jump's old classroom set up with a white fence but I can't find it. 

I also think it would be fun to have a tree painted on the wall with 3D branches and leaves. Unfortunately we are not allowed to paint the walls at the school I am at now. 

I like how open this classroom is. It reminds me of my room. Oh and that it has tables. I love using tables.

I have been wanting this IKEA bookshelf to turn into a reading bench for 2 years now. I love the modern feel of this classroom and this amazing rug.

I just love everything about this classroom. The amazing rug, bright colors, how open and clean this room looks are all things that I have to have in a classroom.

That's just a glimpse of my dream classroom. Of course there are like 100 more photos on my Pinterest that inspire me to be the almighty teacher/classroom decorator. I can't wait to see what other ideas I can get from your dreamy classroom.

Oh, I almost forgot... I made these Bug'n Out Name Plates for my class that I figured I would share with you in case you could use them too. 

Teacher Week 14': Where

Today is all about showing where you spend the majority of your time.... the classroom or more like my home away from home. I am sure everyone's classroom is their 2nd home. If you're like me you often have your classroom more organized and cleaner than your own home. 

Here are some before & after photos of my classroom this year. 

School doesn't start for 2 more weeks so the classroom is not 100% ready. There are still a few more things I need to add. It's definitely different decorating a classroom for grade 4 instead of kindergarten. Well here is a glimpse at what's going on so far.

The classroom I moved into this year had 2 of those ugly green chalkboards. I painted it with black chalkboard paint & hot glued some cute light blue clothes pins to the board. This will be the Student Work Display area.

This classroom is part of the add-on from a few years back so they are portables. The awful cream walls in this room just kill me. :(  I wish we could paint them. I still have some more posters & things to put on the wall to try & cover these ugly walls up. I don't want to make the walls full of clutter either.

Here is a glimpse of the classroom from the door. I love having an exit door also in the room that leads to the playground. It's especially great to have in the summer and fall when you just want the door open for fresh air through out the day.

This area is for student work to be displayed. The computer & writing table is set in front of this area.

Eventually student work will hang from that brown pillar that runs in the middle of the ceiling in the classroom. 

Learning all about plants is a big part of the grade 4 curriculum so that white rack will have lots of plants on it eventually. The students will be in charge of caring for them through out the year.

The classroom colours are navy, lime green & turquoise. I still need to add lots more colour to the room & get some things to hang from the ceiling.

Here is the word wall display and cursive handwriting alphabet I made for my classroom.

There's that dreadful yucky wall again.

I had to get a close-up of the clothes pin for the students to put their work. You can't tell that they are chevron, polka dot & stripes from the photos.

Our school ordered book bins this year for every classroom for Daily 5 and we are so excited about that. My bins are of course lime green and turquoise. 

Well that's a glimpse of my classroom so far. I will have to post the finished product once it's done. I am not going all out for the room until I come back from maternity leave in January. I plan on buying a couch for the reading nook then along with a lamp & some stools. 

Stop by Blog Hoppin' to check out all the other classrooms.

Oh & don't forget the sale that is going on tomorrow at Teachers Pay Teachers. 

FIVE for Friday

 It's been a good while since I have linked up but I am getting back on the ball. I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching today to share what I have been up to. I know everyone has been busy setting up their classrooms and some even already starting back at school. WHAT?! I could not imagine starting school already. This summer is just flying by. Since we don't get out until the end of June we aren't starting back until September 2nd. I have still been spending some time in the classroom & setting it up now in case this little girl decides to make an early appearance. Even though the teacher who is taking my place from Sept.-Dec. could technically set it all up I am just a bit to bossy to not have a say in it. lol. But mainly because I want us to be on the same page & not have to go in the room in December over X-mas break & change it all.

 

I got another carpet for the classroom. It's just a plain grey carpet & not what I originally wanted but hey it was on sale for only $30 so I couldn't pass up on that. And the carpets I wanted were not in stock at the store. (Sad face) Ya know... those carpets with the diamond or quatrefoil design. But I will be keeping my eyes open for a carpet with a design & make sure I grab it next time.

  The classroom is still missing a few tables & chairs that are still in the gym from when the floors got waxed. I was only successful at bringing in 1 table because those suckers are heavy.
The school ordered book boxes for the classes that wanted them for Daily 5 so I have turquoise & lime green.

I just had to share these adorable & useful posters I recently purchased, printed & posted on the bulletin boards around the room. You can look at the photo above to see where our Math Word Wall will go. As we cover a math term we will add that word to the math word wall. I love the images that Blair uses for the math word wall cards. Who doesn't LOVE LOVE LOVE Melonheadz clipart?! This Writer's Workshop pack includes some pretty awesome posters that I think are perfect for our writing bulletin board. Lyndsey @ A Year of Many Firsts created this pack & while it is aimed more towards a k through 3 grade level I think it will still be a good fit for my 4th graders.
 

What do you do with an ugly green chalkboard? Most would probably just paint it with whiteboard paint but I already have 2 whiteboards in the classroom so I didn't really need another one. So... I painted those ugly green chalkboards black using black chalkboard paint. I purchased some awesome turquoise clothes pins from Michaels. I wish I would have taken a close-up photo of them so you could see the chevron, stripes & polka dot designs on them. Now that they are hot glued to the chalkboard I can just have the kiddos switch out their student work instead of stapling 22 writing displays. They can even get crafty& draw with chalk around their work.

I have been so jealous of all the posts I see on my Instagram of everyone's Erin Condren planner. I had one last year & absolutely l-o-v-e it! I really really wanted to purchase one again this year but since I will be on maternity leave until January & it costs $40.00 to ship to Canada I just could not see myself paying $100.00 for a planner that I would get to use for school for 6 months. Is that me just being cheap? Maybe. But since we are having a baby girl I'd just rather use that $100.00 for bows & pretty dresses. lol. So.... I created my own teacher planner which will only cost me $30 to have printed & binded together @ our local print shop. This planner doesn't have the fancy stuff of a pocket folder & labels but I'm okay with that.

 

I created some different options....

Here is the option of a Planner: navy-blue-lime-green

 

Planner: navy-blue-orange-brown

 

Planner: pink, blue, gold

 

 

I cannot wait for this sale to start. I have already began adding lots of goodies to my wish list.

YAY for TPT Sales!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Subway Art freebies

Are you thinking about decorating your classroom for the next school year like I am? Tonight I was in search of some subway art to print, put in cute frames & place around my classroom. In case you were in search of some of these I decided to share what I found.
Some of these fabulous free subway art printables are school related and some are just awesome.

 

via Sweet Coconut Lime

 

via eighteen25

 

via Restless Risa

 

via Bitsy Creations

 

These two below are super cute summer subway art printables. 

via Two Yellow Birds Décor

 

via Remarkable Home

 

 

 

Fab Classroom Set-Up

I think this classroom set up is absolutely fabulous!!! You have got to check out Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits to check out her photos of her January classroom set up. Super cute!

Check out the adorable ways she uses white and grey chevron pattern in her room.

Classroom Set-Up

My second classroom, but first year teaching kindergarten. My class is decorated in my favorite colors, pink & green along with a jungle theme. In the photo above on the left side you'll see my green, yellow, & red monkey faces- These are the student's behavior clip.

The Word Tree board has each student's name on a monkey & on the board for the 1st full 2 weeks of school. As we focus on a different letter each week I post words/pictures that focus on our letter of the week on our Word Tree Word. After we have focused on every letter in the alphabet we focus on our short & long vowels.

Do you have a Star of the Week?

Each Friday I choose a student to be the Star of the Week, sending home a letter Friday. Monday that student brings in a few photos of themselves to display all week on the Star of the Week board. Then on Friday the Star of the Week brings a favorite book to read or have read to the class by their parent, sibling, or me. The kids love this!

My 2nd year of teaching kindergarten I got to move into a larger room.

Little reading areas are my favorite.

Can you tell I like bright colors?

I linked up with Swimming into Second

Inspiring Children

I absolutely love teachers who can inspire children simply by their creative classroom. I have two teacher friends who were wonderful to work with & their personalities could light up a room! Brandie brightened up her kindergarten classroom with an insect theme & bright colors. Kindergarten can be scary for many children, but I bet this room got all the children excited about the school year!

Lyanne went from teaching 4th grade to the school counselor this year & boy did she do a fabulous job basically flipping her room!!! Hot pink & lime green are my favorite colors & really liven up the room. This room just makes you feel all warm & fuzzy inside. :)