Take a peek inside my classroom

The back to school rush, is finally slowing down. It's Labor Day weekend and I finally have a free moment to download some of the pictures of my classroom. The last 3 weeks have been a whirlwind!   Pre-school week consisted of meetings upon meetings upon trainings, getting my room to be presentable again after summer school and open house. School actually started 2 weeks ago; and it's been plan, plan, plan, train, train and train some more in my first grade classroom. How do you sit in your seat? How do we sit on the rug? How do you get a pencil? etc., etc., etc..... After school is a different story, it's homework (with my 3rd and 5th grader), dinner and dance (for my daughter)...soon soccer will start for my son and then every evening will be full! So here is what's been going on over the last month... in pictures and music:0)
I've embedded a little piano and cello version of The story of my Life for you to listen while you look :0)
(I'm so sorry about the sideways pictures--I rotated all of the pictures, but they still seem to upload sideways, argh!  If you happen to know a fix to this little problem, please let me know!)

This is how I begin. I used the graph paper in my Erin Condren Lesson Plan book to create 2 possible floor plans. I ended up going with the floor to the right #1.

I began planning my first week, I love the colored days in the EC Lesson planner. I am a visual person, so the little hint of color is just the perfect way for me to go through my day.

I used some Scotch Expressions Tape to mark the teacher workdays and holidays in my plan book.

Every EC Life planner and Lesson Plan book comes with stickers. I decided to write out my subjects and use those as my headers in my plan book.

My new school bag--truthfully I love the look of it, but it's already ripped inside :0( There is an inner zipper compartment, where the lining has ripped from the zipper--I don't think this tote was meant for files and plan books--but so far, I'm still using it.

I purchased this Ultimate writing station from Mel. D. at Seusstastic! The cover page is form my Editable school binders.

My new theme is birdies! These are the Tweeting birds from Creative Teaching Press.

I saw on a buzzfeed that you can dye clothes pins with Easter egg dye. Well I tried it and you can!  You have to leave it sit for a good long time if you want the color to be nice and bright. I had to flip mine over, because my glasses were shorter than my clothes pins. But they cam out nice!

This was my gift for my team!

I had the students sign their names at Open House, during the little room scavenger hunt.

This was our first grade bulletin board out in the hallway. We don't have a typical hallway with a bulletin board for each teacher, so we share this bulletin board as a team. I mustache you to find your teacher! is from Creative Teaching Press.

So the balloons look good in this picture, we got a helium tank from our local party store and did them ourselves.  We had a note hanging on the balloon, to pop it the next day so a little note would come out.  However, our helium did not last sadly. Most of the balloons were hitting the desks, by the time the kids came to meet us. Next year, I will be getting them blown up at the store and spending a few extra dollars.

My Word wall and meeting area!  Find the Chevron Chic Alphabet and Word Wall HERE.
Find the coordinating Blends and Digraphs unit HERE.

My cute little birds on a wire to hold student work. I used my dyed clothes pins on the yarn. Now I can avoid a million holes from staples in my bulletin board paper! Thank you for the birdies and border Creative Teaching press.

Again sorry for the sideways picture. but here is my little book nook. I purchased the rug from Wal-mart, and the baskets are from Really Good Stuff.

I found these coordinating poufs on clearance at Target! Can you tell I love turquoise?

Thanks for taking a peek in side my classroom. Have a great school year!