Five for Friday - a classroom peek

OH. MY. WORD.  I spent the last three day in my classroom and I am exhausted!  I cannot imagine what I am going to feel like when I have to really be teaching in a week... I hope all of you who are already back are reading this with your feet up n the couch... or are already in bed...

I'm linking up with Doodlebug's Five for Friday to share a sneak peek into my classroom.  I have a couple other specific classroom set up posts planned, but right now I'm just sharing a quick looksie.

Here is the before picture.  Well, not really before.  I had come in once already and started reorganizing my books and then had to stop because time got way from me... obviously no one came in and cleaned and put things away for me...  And just so you know the way my day started - it was POURING and I had a ton of stuff to haul in to school.  I parked in front, unloaded everything (in the rain) and then realized the floors were waxed and I couldn't get to my room from that end of the building... everything went BACK in the car, drove around and unloaded in the rain AGAIN (did I mention it was pouring?) and brought everything upstairs... ugh...

Yeah!  These are two areas I really like.  I purged a TON of stuff from those shelves - resource books I never used, file folders... on one hand it felt really good to throw things out, but I keep thinking I might need them someday...  I went on a labeling binge this year and stuck a label on just about anything that wasn't nailed down... and maybe a few things that weren't...  I saw a picture of a classroom where ALL the resource books and such were in those magazine bins.  Seemed like a good idea until I realized I need to be able to pull OUT the books to use them and if they're in the bins it's going to be a pain.  So I just put things I didn't us all the time in them.

The clear plastic containers are gong to hold my centers, games and activities for each math strand.  You would be able to see that, except I made the labels too big and they don't fit.  Put that on my to-do list.

The workbox area got new baskets.  The old ones were cracked and faded and really needed to be replaced.  I love the bright colors now!  The only issue is there is no way to stick on a name label.  I'm going to hole punch the labels I made and use yarn to tie them on the baskets.

Speaking of labels, I decided to use the printer to put the names on nametags this year.  (I only use them for workboxes and mailboxes.)  I did get it to work and they look great.  Just so you don't think I'm a genius, I included the picture of the one I messed up... ONE of the ones I messed up... You realy can't be multi-tasking when you do this...

Here are my finished book boxes in my "library."  I'm going to do a post on why I decided not to level them, how I organized them and why there are not a billion containers.  Suffice it to say, I do have PLENTY of books for my students to read - the books behind the curtain are series, authors, themes we do... and on top of the workboxes (and on one side display) I have books out for themes we're working on (now there are books for "school," "be yourself," "Froggy" and a couple more).  Those will change as we go through the year.  The label holders are from Really Good Stuff and they are SO worth it!  I made my own labels, but you get "labels for life" when you purchase the holders.

I was SOOOO excited t get home today and find that my new teacher tote had arrived!  It's a Vera Bradley and I am just ecstatic over the pattern - AND.. did you see??? - it is SCALLOPED on the top!  Now, I have to say, it is not a very heavy bag and I'm a little worried about it holding up with all the stuff I carry around... BUT, I m trying very hard this year to only take home what I really will look at... no more "taking my bag for a ride," as a few of us say!

Be sure to head on over to Doodlebugs to check out more happenings.  I'm going to put on my lounge pants and a sweatshirt and crash on the couch.  One week left of summer!