2014-15 Classroom

Well, it is hard to believe, but it is August. School will be starting in just a few short weeks. I have been busy vacationing, but I put the final touches on my classroom today. I am so excited to reveal my new bee themed classroom, inspired by Melanie at School Girl Style. 

Classroom door

This is the bulletin board outside my door. I had the cute yellow and white flowers ordered from Etsy. 

Custom made sign

I placed my cute custom made sign in the window. It is from Celebrate Homes and Families.

The kitchen and my "bee-havior" posters

Art table

I used the cute buckets from Target Dollar Zone to house supplies such as sharpened/dull pencils, staples, paperclips and birthday prizes.

Calendar in classroom library

Here is the calendar area in my classroom library. I found great poms at Walmart.com. Thanks to my daughter and her friend for fluffing and hanging the poms. The bee Pillow Pets were adorable and only $5 at AC Moore. The hamper has all of my big books.

Swanky reading chair with pillows
I tried to create a comfy reading area. I have a plush rug and this amazing chair from Walmart. I also covered a bunch of old throw pillows with some coordinating fabric. The area also features a bean bag chair that I purchased at a yard sale. I am calling this pillows and the others "BB" pillows: for bottoms and backsides only!

book baskets and shelves from Home Depot

My classroom library was so much work. I repainted the baskets and created the basket labels myself. I spent hours leveling the books to Fountas and Pinnell. The white and black baskets turned out okay, but the yellow baskets will need to be replaced when I can find some new ones. The  yellow paint did not cover  well.

Here are more book baskets....I had so many books I wasn't able to safely put the entire library on the Home Depot shelves. I love the curtains that my sister helped me make. Notice the yellow accents like the basket and the bee watering can...so adorable! I also picked up this Lego table and some games at a garage sale. 

In the front of the room, I created displays on both sides of my Promethean board. I hope it never breaks, because I didn't save a single chalkboard. I covered the boards with fade less black paper from Pacon. My word wall is on both the chalkboard and a bulletin board, so I will use magnets and push pins to display the words as needed. Notice the cute bulletin board for "BEE-utiful Work." I glued thumb tacks onto clothes pins to make displaying work a snap!
Beside the computers, there are yellow and white baskets from Target's dollar zone. I have labeled one from each table. These containers will house folders and such. Also, each table has a cute yellow caddy loaded with pencils, erasers,  crayons, scissors and glue ready to rock on day one.

word wall from TPT

The math board has three great products from Really Good Stuff that I purchased so long ago, but never really used: the 100 day gumball machine, the gator poster for inequalities, and the graphing question of the day set.

My friend Stephanie hooked me up with this cool hanging file organizer. I just added some yellow hanging files and cute labels. This will house centers for math, phonics, and reading. I also have an adorable basket with magnetic numbers stored here.  I used the small bulletin board to hang my Kid Crowns.

If you recall from the tour before, my room really doesn't have much wall space. I used the cupboards as displays. Here (sorry it is blurry) I have my worker bees helper chart, my WOW chart (words of the week), and a transportation chart. 

Inside the WOW cupboard, I have my brag tags. The kids will get to wear their necklaces every Friday! I am so excited to try this method of classroom management in conjunction with Class Do-Jo. 

guided reading/math table Here I have used the built in storage for my mailboxes and my guided reading and math area. My friend Laura gave my the mailboxes and my husband spray painted them black. I picked up the white organizer on clearance at AC Moore. 

The remaining cabinets have short vowel families and reading strategies. This picture is also too blurry to note, but the yellow and white labels are the students' names for their cubby spot. 

My listening center slides into the cupboard, when not in use! I love my open space!

 I made these cute book bees based on a Pinterest idea. Kids will place their bees in the basket that the book they want to read belongs. They simply return the  book to their bee and voila. I also have labels on books and baskets as a back up plan.

If you looked at my earlier photos, there was a huge closet that the former teacher used for storage. I decided to make it my office. Look at how cute it is!

Here is the great bulletin board that my daughter covered with pillow scraps and awesome duct tape.

I purchased this awesome hanging file folder from Mardel.

It was featured on a popular post on Pinterest. The black desk accents were a gift from the teacher who took my former job! Thanks, Tricia!

Probably, the most unattractive items in my new space were the filing cabinet and the lone free standing shelf! I covered both with fade less black and border. They look cute now!

I couldn't resist buying the giant black and white letters. 

I hope you enjoyed looking at my classroom. I worked very hard to make the space bright, colorful, and attractive. I tried to apply the lesson learned from School Girl Style. I can't wait for my students to come back from vacation and begin our learning adventure.