Bulletin Boards Complete!

I finished my bulletin boards today! I try to keep my walls pretty empty until students arrive, so that we can make our anchor charts together. I also don't create very many student management boards. For example, some teachers have library check-out systems, math workshop boards, behavior management boards, Daily 5 choice boards, etc. I'm huge proponent of student choice, and keeping things as simple as possible. My classroom seems to run more smoothly when my students have choice, and are more responsible for their own learning.

Here is the wall above my classroom library:

This is my PBIS board (our school colors are purple and yellow). The charts to the right, and the big purple paw are documents that were made by my school to display student expectations. Our "point menu" will be on the bottom left of the board. Instead of student of the week or star student, we have a "Top Dog." The Top Dog's all about me poster will be displayed underneath the dog bones.

Here is a close-up of my classroom jobs. I don't create classroom jobs just for the sake of having jobs. They all exist to make my life easier! :) I simply rotate jobs by moving the dogs from pocket to pocket each week.

This board is going to be used for various ELA anchor charts.

Here is close-up of my word collector. It is actually a plain white large calendar chart that I trimmed down. I then added bulletin board trimmer to the outside.

Here are my genre charts. I put them up with just one push pin, so that I can take them down when teaching the genres. I purchased them from Amanda Nickerson's store on Teachers Pay Teachers (One Extra Degree). My students loved these posters last year, and referred to them quite often.

Here is my calendar board, which I actually re-did twice! I was going to use a calendar chart with velcro, but I just couldn't part with my pocket chart. It's just so easy to move the cards from pocket to pocket each month. I'm really excited about the Fascinating Facts pad that I just purchased from Really Good Stuff!

This my writing board, which will contain both writing anchor charts, and choices for Work on Writing. I originally wanted to use pennants for the board title, but they took up way too much room and looked too "girly cute," so I cut them down to circles.

Finally, this is my social studies and science board, which will contain anchor charts and vocabulary for the units we are studying.

Here is a close-up of the letters. I purchase the black letters from Frog Street Press, and taped them to scrapbook paper.

Time spent at school this week: 11.5 hours
Cumulative Hours: 102.5

Bulletin Boards (Finally!)

After buying bulletin board fabric yesterday, I was very eager to start putting it up, even though all of my trimmer hasn't come in yet. In the past, I used different colored fabric on my bulletin boards. Then I saw pictures online of a classroom with all black bulletin boards, and I fell in love with the idea. The black background is simple, and really makes the things on the bulletin board "pop." The inspiration for my borders came from Schoolgirl Style's bird theme. I love the way Melanie layered the corrugated border with Teacher Created Resource's mini polka-dot border. The boards without border are going to be lime green.

The white calendar in the middle of this board is actually going to be my word collector. I am going to add a thin layer of trimmer to the outside. It is covering up a hole I cut in the fabric on accident.

My order from Really Good Stuff arrived today while I was at school! I ordered this book display, which I plan on using for author study books. I love it!

I am very excited about these Daily 5 templates  (FREE on TPT!). They were made to be printed on legal-sized paper, but I had them blown up at a local print shop. I love that they provide a (cute) template/design for making the anchor charts. My only complaint is that they don't contain the "I" that is so important to the Daily 5 structure. (I plan on drawing a line along the bottom to make an I.)

Finally, I labeled my cupboards. I use a label-maker for the cupboards that contain my teaching materials. I then use a different label for cupboards and drawers that contain student materials:

What a long day!!! TGIF

Time spent working on room today: 6.5 hours (It felt more like 10. :)
Cumulative hours: 91

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