I have spent the whole summer planning, sewing, cutting things on my cricut, reading Math Work Stations, Spaces and Places, re-reading The Daily5, drawing out a room arrangement, planning my teaching walls and guided reading area, and much more! Here are my beginning pics…there is much more to do…

The first thing I did when I arrived was place furniture where it will be all year (except for tables where students sit–they will be moved from time to time–right now, they are in a diagonal pattern to make it easy to reach the teaching area from the door.  There are so many phone calls and interruptions during the first few weeks, and I have nearly done myself in in the past trying to get to the phone which is by the classroom entry door 🙂 

The teaching walls are the south and east walls of my room–we will begin on the left and progress to the right every day, ending up with nursery rhyme chants, songs, and movements! I will add photos of it when it is ready.

The following picture are of my wonderful chair pockets (which will house journals and a pencil), and the ocean color chalkboard which will be our “Ocean of Words” wall.  The Treasure Chest will host vocabulary words we need in our writing, such as mom, dad, sister, brother, pet, dog, cat, house, teacher, etc. Treasure Words will be near the computer station on the plain chalkboard.  The table skirt
with Winkin, Blinkin, and Nod came out great! It is attached with velcro every 8″ (I sewed the hook tabs on the skirt itself, and the loop tabs are self adhesive).  The velcro tape is at Walmart in their crafting section. 

Today is “paint the name bracket” day (holders for name tags).  Better get busy!