Finishing Touches

I put all of the finishing touches on my room and I am *think* I am ready for the students!  I thought I would share the final touches with you.

#1 - The closet:
My husband came in and put in the wooden pieces to hold up those pesky shelves that kept falling, so I was able to get that all organized.

I have the shelves organized in a way that works really well for me!
The left side (top to bottom):
The top shelf is the "random" shelf. 
The next shelf is my writing shelf.  Everything in the two tubs is writing related.
Underneath that shelf is my unit shelf.  The bin on the left side holds kits and activities.  The bin on the right side has hanging folders that are organized by standard.  There are corresponding worksheets and books in each folder.
Next is my math shelf.  This is where I keep all of my math kits.
I keep my big books on the next shelf and the bottom shelf holds the blue tubs of my 'teacher books'.

The right side (top to bottom):
The top shelf has extra notebooks and folders.
The next shelf holds my construction paper and handwriting paper.
Underneath that is the shelf that holds two tubs.  The tub on the left has the materials that correspond with the Journeys reading series that we use and the tub on the left has student information.
Next is the shelf that holds my posters and the bottom shelf has the blue tubs of 'teacher books'.

#2 - The word wall:
I couldn't find any alphabet posters that matched my color scheme so I made my own!  The consonants are purple and the vowels are orange. 

I used my clipart that I got earlier this summer from the Pink Cat Studio (:  I had them printed at Kinko's and then laminated at my school.  I just finished hanging them up this morning!

I will put the students' names on the wall before Back to School Night.  Then, we add high frequency words each week.

#3 - Team points:
Last year I kept a tally of 'team points' on the whiteboard.  This encouraged students to work together as a team.  My coworker had a much cuter idea that I borrowed this year (:  I hung a poster above each group.  Instead of earning team points, the students can work together as a team to earn clothespins on their poster.  When a team reaches 10 clothespins, they earn 2 Bear Bucks (the positive reinforcement program that my school uses).  Then, I take the 10 clothespins off and the team starts over.

A few years ago, whichever team had the most points at the end of the week would get 2 Bear Bucks and I would erase all of the points and each team would start over fresh the next week.  I found teams would 'give up' or stop working together.  So now, if a team reaches 10 points, they start back over at 0, but the other teams still continue working towards their 10 points.  It works much better for student motivation!

#4 - My reading area:
This has been my catch all disaster area while I have been putting my room back together.  I finally got it cleaned off and ready!

 #5 - A shelf for my binders:
My husband was supposed to build a shelf for me.  Then he got kidney stones.  He has been miserable for the past few days so I had to come up with a different option.  And I found one!

I bought four crates from Wal-Mart and found that they are made to connect now.  I also used zip-ties to make sure they don't move.  Then, I cut boards to put on the bottom of each crate (that's right - I cut the boards!!).  The binders fit perfectly!

Yay!  I love how everything turned out.  The very last (frivolous) thing that I want to do for my room is to find some orange fabric to  make curtains for my windows.  I'm loving these so far.  I'm headed to Hobby Lobby this weekend to look for some fabric.  Hopefully I can find something!        

**Update - I found fabric and made some curtains today.  I love how they turned out! 

How are your rooms coming along?  Leave me a comment with a link to your classroom pictures.  I would love to check them out!