Finally!

I'm sorry it has been two weeks since my last post (AGAIN)! Let me give you a little photo tour to explain how busy I have been during those two weeks:

This is my first grade classroom all packed up, with all of my things ready to move to third grade for next year:








Imagine packing all of that stuff up and moving it during the last (crazy) few weeks of school!

My parents, who are absolutely amazing and the best parents that have ever walked the earth, came in with Kevin on Thursday after the kids left for the summer and helped me move a bunch of furniture. Then they came to school with me on Friday during the staff development day to help me set up my new room. We actually got it ALL FINISHED and ready for August. When I go back, I will have very little to do :) Here are some pics of my new third grade room. I have decided to go with a red carpet movie theme:

This is my classroom library, some storage, and some of my movie theater decorations. The organizer boxes will be for fluency partners and centers organization.


My reading table


I love this new poster! It's a ketchup bottle that says "Catch-up on your work!" I'll clip work that absent students missed on the clothespins and they can take it when they come back to school.


Lights, Camera, Vocab! This bulletin board has "boring" words that the kids should try to get away from in their writing. When I go back in August, I'll hang words of synonyms on the pegs underneath the words. These words will be good for TAKS prep as well. On the bottom there is a yellow incentive chart where if the kids correctly use 10 of these words in their writing, in place of the boring words, they can get either a prize or a number of tickets.


This is my math wall. It's very full already!


This is my Focus Wall. It will be used to display all the information that goes along with each Reading theme and selction throughout the year. I have these printed and laminated already, and some very sweet first graders helped me cut and bag them by selection during the last week of school.


My word wall is across the alphabet strip above the white board. I will clip the words onto the ribbons under each letter as they're introduced. This was my parents' special project.


The next two pictures show the organization around my desk.




This is where I'll have my calendar, and down the left side I'll have announcements and reminders. The cart under the board is for students to turn in homework and notes from home. They'll clip a clothespin with their class number on their homework before placing it in the basket, making it easy for me to see who has not turned it in.


More organization. The closed in cabinet is where all the messy things go, lol.


I love my little cubbies! These will be packed full of math manipulatives and supplies, but I had to pack several boxes up to take to summer school.


Ah, summer school - my other stressor the last few weeks. Yesterday was my first official day of summer, and I spent it at my summer school location preparing my classroom and lesson plans for school, which starts on Monday. It will go through July 1st, and there are 17 struggling 1st graders in my room. I think it will be fun, though, an it pays really well!

I feel so much relief after ending this tough year, getting moved into my third grade room, and also preparing my summer school 1st grade room! Maybe life can go back to normal soon!

I hope you've had a wonderful week, and I wish all of the teachers a fantastic summer vacation - I know you deserve it!