My completed classroom.....

IT is finished..... my classroom set up that is.

I  have been working on this since early July.

My classroom design this year is Pinterest and teacher blogs inspired.

Thank you!!!! I wish I had "before" pictures of my classroom to show you.  

I LOVE how the new design turned out.

Take a peek.

This is one view from the doorway of my classroom.

Another view from the doorway of my classroom.

The library.....

Another partial view of the library...

The ladybug and dots calendar

The ladybug and dots cursive alphabet...

The math workshop board and my math word problem posters above the workshop board...

A view from my desk.. it's at the back of my classroom.

Another view from the back of the classroom..

Our meeting area is located in front of the Promethean board.  I forgot to take a close up of this area.

This is our "Bulldog Brag Tag" board.  I am out of bulletin board space so I used the door to

the front of the built in cabinet as a place for our "Brag Tags".  I just used the Contact hooks and numbered each one.  Students will be able to wear their brag tags on Fridays.  I purchased the necklaces from Image Stuff, but decided to make my own tags to go on them.  Below is a peek at the first tag each student will receive.  It has their name and our school mascot on them on one side. On the other side is the name of our school along with the  picture of our mascot.

This is a partial view of the writing center...

The CAFE board... I used the posters from  Ginger at  Ginger Snaps.

Just a little snapshot of a portion of my word wall that is below the CAFE board..

My Pinterest inspired bathroom passes and sign out sheets from the  Clutter Free Classroom.

My little classroom is ready and waiting for my new students ( 24 of them so far).

Back to School Night is Monday, and I can't wait  to meet  my students ( and their parents) the night before school begins. It's a great way to help students with those "first day jitters".

AND of course, with only a few days left before school begins, you have to have some time for fun. So my daughter and I did a little back to school shopping today.  She's SO totally not a shopper.   When I mentioned to her about having some mother/daughter time ( without brothers) to go school shopping, she says " Can we just pick something out online?" I just had to laugh.  I did manage to drag her into a few stores AND we had a lot of fun.

Since we are on the topic of shopping... did you hear about these fabulous back to school sales?

TPT is having a Back to School Sale on Sunday August 12-Monday August 13.

If you use the code below you will get an additional 10% off each item.

All items in my store will be 20% off for this sale.

Teacher Notebook is also having a Back To  Sale on August 11-13.  All items in my Teacher Notebook shop will be 30% off during this time.

I have already been filling my shopping cart with items that I want for my classroom.

Made It Monday.....

Woohoo!  I put the finishing touches on my classroom

today.  I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it stays as

neat and organized when I get 24 little darlings in my classroom.

Okay... I'm a little behind on my Made It Monday but here it is.  I'm linking up with 

the amazing Tara at 4th Grade Frolics.

 If you haven't had a chance yet to check out this linky, click on the picture above.  There are so many fabulous ideas and projects.

Now to my Made It Monday project.... a line display chart for computer time.  We have Accelerated Reader at our school which means my students take MANY tests on the computer.  We only have 2 computers in the classroom.  So my kiddos have to learn to be VERY patient for computer time. In the past, I would have a large dry erase board in which my students would sign their name in order and then wait patiently to take their A.R. tests.  I found this was an easy system for me, but was not good for many of my students.  I would find them erasing, writing, erasing, rewriting, drawing pretty flowers and etc around their names when signing up as a way to use up their reading time.  Some students would erase names that were still waiting to take a test and so forth.  I needed a new system that would be easy to manage. 

So I came up with a new system using numbered clothespins.  I created the hanging display below.  Students are assigned a number at the beginning of the year so they know which clothespin is theirs.   When they need to take a test, they simply clip their clothespin onto the numbered chart.  When finished, each student places their clothespin back at the bottom of the chart.  I'm hoping this will be a much faster way for students to sign up.  Here's a peek at it below.

I had a difficult time getting a good close up shot of this display.

This is the top part of the display chart.

This is the very bottom of the display chart.  Notice the clothespins with the numbers that have been attached to them.

This item is $2.00 in my TPT store.  To find out more information, please click on the picture below.

Currently.....

Is anyone else soaking in their last Sunday night of relaxation

before the school rush begins next week?

Sunday evenings are always a little crazy at our house once school begins.

It's a mad dash to get everything completed that is school related since we put it on the back burner all weekend.

I LOVE looking at all of your amazing pictures of your completed classrooms. They look AH-Mazing.  I'm putting the finishing touches on my class this week and will be posting pictures soon.   Have you seen the new "do" of Reagan's classroom from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits?  It is so FABULOUS!  If you haven't taken a peek at her classroom, click on her link below to check it out.

I'm a little behind with the August Currently, but I couldn't wait to link up with Farley from Oh Boy Foruth Grade for her August edition.  Click on the picture below to link up.

AND here is my August Currently....

First, I noticed that many of you have mentioned that a laminator is one of your B2S must haves.  I purchased the Scotch Laminator a few weeks ago ,AND I LOVE it.  It was only $27 at Wal-mart.  We have a laminator at school that was out of film.  I was getting so impatient so I went out and bought one for myself.  I like it better than our large laminator at school ,and it's so much more convenient.

Another one of my B2S must haves is the life planner from Erin Condren.  I am a bit old fashioned in that I still like to write things down rather than enter them in one of my electronic gadgets.  I like to make lists and cross things off my list. I got the Erin Condren life planner for my birthday last month.  It's fabulous!

Finally, I purchased this smaller version of the Cricut last summer.  JoAnn's was having a huge sale, and this was at a low price.  I didn't really get into using it until this past spring, but now I couldn't do without it.  I LOVE the things I can cut out with the vinyl.  I have used it for home and in my classroom.

Don't forget to Link up with Farley..

For those of you starting back this week, "Best wishes on a fabulous first week of school."

Stay tuned for Made It Monday....

Stress, Flash Sale, and Sea Lions

It is FINALLY finished!

My classroom library makeover that is.

Can I tell you I have spent many HOURS and sleepless nights over this little makeover?

( Yes, I lost sleep over my classroom library.  Sad, I know.)

Once upon a time, I was quite happy with my library.  It was simple and easy for my students to put away books when they were finished.  I had it organized according to Accelerated Reader reading levels.  I had book baskets that were labeled with levels such as 3.1-3.6 or 4.1-4.5.  There were colored stickers on the basket labels and matching ones on the books.  I was happy with this system until I read the Daily 5.  It made me rethink my whole classroom library.  I wanted a way for my students to easily find books they were interested in AND books that were at their reading level.  

So, I came up with a new little system that created  some more work for me.  

My husband would literally find me making supper with my laptop pulled up at the kitchen counter entering a pile of my classroom books into www.librarything.com. 

If you haven't taken a peek at this website, I recommend it.  I easily entered all

700 of my classroom books into this program.  I now can easily see my book categories and what books I have.  It's also great for categorizing your books.  I haven't read all the books in my library so I am uncertain as to what category some of them might fall into.  Once a book is entered into Library Thing, a list of categories this book falls into will appear towards the bottom of the page.

Here's a snapshot of my old library.

And here's a little peek at my new library... I LOVE the book baskets from Dollar Tree and my new categories.  This will make selecting a book so much easier for my students.

I created 44 different categories for my classroom books.  I included pictures to go along with each book basket label.  Then I created labels to put on my books that include the same pictures as the book basket label.  This will make it easy for my students to know which book basket to return the book when they are finished reading it.  Finally, I didn't want to lose my reading level on the books so I created color coded labels that go on each book so that students know the reading level of each book.  Then I created the poster below  to hang in my library about the color coded reading levels.

I just loaded this " Label It" Classroom Library Kit onto my TPT store.  It is $5.00.  This item is made specifically for grades 3-6.  If you purchase this item and find there is a category that you would like added, please e-mail me or leave a comment below.  I can't make any promises, but I will try my best to create a new category.  ( It's a busy time of year right now.)  Here's a sneak peek below.  Simply click on any picture below to be find out more about this item in my TPT store.

 

Book basket labels

Labels created using Avery 5160 format for the books.

Labels created using the form Avery 5160 for the book levels

I just had to share a few pics of our trip to the St. Louis Zoo yesterday.  I woke my kids up bright and early to get there before the 100 degree heat set in (It was great practice for getting back into the school mode.)  I really wanted to check out the new Sea Lion Sound exhibit ,but we also visited a few favorites too..

 

The outside view of Sea Lion Sound

One section of the underwater viewing tunnel... the sea lions loved to show off for their guests.

My "gang" (minus the one in yellow ,who is my daughter's friend)

Touching the stingrays at Caribbean Cove

And of course, no trip to the zoo is complete without the train ride.

Do you notice my daughter's less than happy expression about the train ride in the background.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Workin' The Word Wall....

Oh my goodness!

It's August 1st.... a day that always makes me panic.

Why?

I realize just how few days are left for me to prepare for my new crop of third graders.

While watching the Olympics last night, I worked on my word wall.

I had been putting it off ALL summer long.

( On a side note.... does anyone actually turn their head the other way when the announcements are made on the news about the Olympic results BEFORE the events are ever broadcast later that evening?  I try, but I just can't.  I have to find out... then I am able to watch the events a little more stress free because I already know what's going to happen.  I often do that with books too.  After reading only a few chapters, I often skip to the last chapter just to see how it ends before reading the rest.   Sigh!! )

I am embarrassed to admit that I actually took down my word wall last winter as I was doing some classroom redecorating.  The word wall was  plain. It was just a blue background in which words could be added to this background using velcro.  ( It was so BLAH and did not match my classroom colors.)  My new word wall will be located on the wall below my bulletin boards.  This is generally empty space, and a great new place for the word wall.

This " Working the Word Wall" is $1.50 in my TPT store.  Simply click on the picture below to find out more information.