Slowly, But Surely My Classroom Takes Form...

As I continue to blog stalk hop, I am amazed at the creativity, energy, and SPEED with which you all put your rooms together!  There are so many beautiful classrooms in America being put together right now by dedicated teachers!  I just wish THAT kind of thing was what people thought about when they think of teachers -- dedicated teachers using their "time off" to create positive learning environments.  Let me be one who says, "I notice, I understand, I'm impressed, and THANK YOU!"

(This is me, stepping off my soap box now...)  Back to your "speed" -- I don't have that...  It seems to take me FOREVER to put a bulletin board together, much less my whole room - lol.  As usual, I have spent my summer "puttering" around town (and online), gathering supplies, dropping by the school to work in short bits (shorter because we don't have full "air" in the summer).  At least now I can say that some of my bulletin boards are up and ready to go and some of my "projects" are taking form.

My first few years of teaching were spent in Nebraska.  One of my team teachers, Mrs. Smith, had a section of her classroom wall with 20ish class pictures all hanging neatly and the title "Mrs. Smith's Reasons For Teaching."  I LOVED this and FINALLY have my own.  Mine are not as neatly placed, because they are not all the same size, but my husband (ladder helper) and I figured it out and I LOVE IT:

I have taught 6 years and the other frame is waiting for my current class.

Found these fun "frames" on sale at Michael's :)

Placed above our Helper Board and Family Board.

I've also gotten the "main idea" of my Student Writing board completed.  I'm sure this will need "tweeking" along the way, but it is presentable:  "Red Carpet Writing"

Placed above the Writing Center (not ready for photographing - lol)

I've updated my "Mrs. Cade Loves..." board - always a student favorite:

Here are just a few other parts of the room that are ready to go:

I'm going to try these for my daily materials this year.

We are departmentalized, so I color-code everything for my 3 classes:  Red is my color :)  This houses my birthday and celebration boxes (top rack), my baskets for turning in work (color coded, labeled baskets), and my tubs for "Friday Folders" and Materials to hand out (red bottom tubs, not yet labeled):

Finally, a "shout-out" to my beautiful, creative daughter who painted my teacher stool and author's chair (Love you, Sassy!):

More to come...Thanks again for all of your inspiration out there!  Happy Sunday!