Deck the Walls!

I am waiting on my bulletin board materials (trimmers, letters, alphabet line) that I ordered to arrive, and I am getting very anxious to put some things up on my walls! They are pretty bare at the beginning of the year until my students arrive, but there are some basic things that go up ahead of time. We do not have to remove anything from our walls in the summer, but, since I moved classrooms, I'm starting with a clean slate.

I put my number line and doubles posters up today (ignore the blue paint-I still have to paint over it):

I love my number line, because it contains the number names. My students use this feature all the time. The number line is by Teacher's Friend. The doubles posters are from Edsen. To get everything to stay up on my beautiful white, cinder-block walls, I use Stikki Wax. I love this stuff! My things stay up on the walls for years when I use it.

I love the fact that my classroom has an entire wall of built-in cabinets. However, that takes away a lot of wall space that could be used to display things. Most teachers put things up on their cupboards, which can sometimes looks messy. I use some simple charts by Frog Street Press (LOVE their stuff!) to create some continuity on my cupboards (kind of like a mini bulletin board). I am going to use my cupboards as a math wall this year. Each chart is going to display a certain subject area (time, money, geometry, etc.). I still have to add the headers, but I'm very happy with how it looks so far!

I also started putting some things up in the hallway. I always stick with the same "theme" inside my classroom (blue, green, and yellow), but I like to do something a little more fun in the hallway. This year I decided to use Carson Dellosa's new Funky Frogs. I'm usually not a huge fan of the frog theme, but these guys are just too cute! The log is above my doorway and says "Welcome!" and the big frog is right next to my door and contains my name and room number. The little frogs are going by student hooks.

I might go into school today for a bit, otherwise I won't make it in until next Wednesday. I can honestly say that it's hard for me to stay away for an entire week, so we'll see!

Time spent working on room today: 6 hours
Cumulative hours: 39.5