Welcome Back! And a Room Peek.

It's officially here! Back to school is in full swing and I am PLUM worn out. Good Lord I totally do not know how I did this last year PREGNANT. Whew! It's going to be a great year and I'm so excited to share some of the new things that we'll be doing.

I wanted to share some pics of my room to get this school year's posts kicked off. I love my room this year. I bought a bunch of faux flowers from the dollar store and it makes a huge difference! I made my FOCUS wall and used my fun science chevron labels and banner to spruce up the place, too. I kept my Wizard Challenge {click here to read all about that} but I had to improvise with my Scientific Method bulletin board. I lost a bulletin board (boo) but gained a whiteboard (yay!) when I moved rooms this summer, so my scientific method stuff is now on a wall in a smaller space. But it works! I also put tons of pics of my little cutie everywhere. Here's one so you can see how cute she is:

She's basically the cutest baby ever.

Anyway - here are some pics of my science room:

I'm so happy with the way it looks and it feels good to have a nice little space that's organized and fun. After all it is my home away from home. I hope everyone had a fantastic first day back. I'm so excited about this school year!!!

Monday Made It {Late, As Usual} and Last Call!

So I'm linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics - a day late. Having a kid + summertime + lazy me = late post. Sorry!

I'm super duper excited to be linking up this week because I am venturing out into the world of clipart and I cannot get enough of it! I'm obsessed. And I'm so happy to share my creations with the teaching world. My clipart is simple, no frills, and can be used commercially without the requirement of providing credit. I'm happy enough to have my clipart used! 

Before I went back to school to pursue teaching, I was a graphic designer {BrownCow Creatives was/is my brand that I "did" freelance under...if I ever did freelance. Ha!} . But I never had the confidence to draw clipart. This summer, however,I'm staying home with my newborn trying to find ways to occupy my time and I started doodling. Turns out I love it! I'm not so great at drawing people figures, but I'm sure with practice, I'll get there.

So far, I've created some Chevron backgrounds:

A Weather Pack:

A Back to School Pack:

And my favorite, a Halloween Bundle:

For the Halloween Bundle, I started playing around with different frames. I didn't think I could make frames, either! But I did it. Too much fun. I'm losing sleep {double time, since I also have a baby}, but I can't stop. I have a Christmas pack in the works, which I started last night. I turned on a little Christmas music to set the mood. Ha! Christmas music in July. What a nut I am! I'm also going to have a sweet shop pack, a space pack, and a few more choice holidays before the year is up. 

I'm giving away my first three creations, so make sure you enter! Last call, because it ends tomorrow!

I'm also getting ready for going back to school and I'm becoming more and more obsessed with getting organized. So, I made some binder covers and spines for my plethora of binders.  I'm getting very anxious for the school year to start!

So that's what I'm working on. Looks like lots of teachers out there are gearing up for the school year, too. Link up with Tara and show us whatcha got!

Bulletin Boards Galore!

I finished the three main bulletin boards that are in my classroom over the weekend! I am so happy with the way they turned out.

My first one is the Scientific Method bulletin board. I wanted to put something up that would remain permanent throughout at least the first half of the school year. This is something that the kids will use daily in my science classroom. I took some cardboard and cut out the shapes (well, my buddy Deanna did...) and then we painted them with just acrylic paint. I used t-pins to stick them up to the board to give them a 3D effect.

 

Next is my Let's Talk Science (Word Wall). Incidentally, I'm teaching The Scientific Method the first 2 weeks of school - so I've placed the unit title in the middle. I will change that page out as we go through our different units of study. I am going to pin up the words by just writing them on oversized index cards and using regular push pins. This way, I won't have to change out the background (unless I get tired of it halfway through the year.)

 

Finally, my Wizard Challenge Wall. It's missing the Challenge Rules there on the left where that black page is - but they will be posted soon. Then I will stick the challenges in those blue folders. I will be writing a whole post that will be devoted to explaining {and sharing the contents} of this challenge wall. I mentioned it in an earlier post, but it's similar to Heather Renz's "Mastery Club". 

 

Hope you find some inspiration in these!

 

 

Project Get Room Ready Part 2

Here I am on a Thursday afternoon. I feel like I have gotten NOTHING done and I've been in this office of mine ALL DAY. I never realized how involved getting a classroom together REALLY IS!!! I guess that's because I've never had my own classroom......

I have a long, long list of things to do/make/buy. This is what it looks like:

It seems like I have all of these great ideas and then when I start to create what I have in mind, it ends up being very stupid and not at all what I had envisioned in my brain. And unfortunately, because I am still a Graphic Designer at heart, I REFUSE to buy pre-made bulletin board letters and accents. I just have to make them myself. Silly me.

I DID manage to layout/design my first bulletin board. I can't get in my room until next week because they are waxing the floors. So, I'm improvising. I measured out the dimensions of one of my smaller boards and taped off an area on my floor in my home office to use as a guide so that I could set up all of my stuff. Here's a pic of it in the early, early stages: {VERY early. It will be much cuter once it's done.}

The idea came from Mrs. Heather Renz's Mastery Club. It's to curb the "I'm done" epidemic with something other than "Read a book!" I will post LOTS of details about it, including pictures of the completed wall once I get it up and running. Should be later next week.

I also created a set of posters that I am having printed at Vista Print for my cabinets:

Found this idea on Pinterest. Love.

And what lab is complete without Lab Rules? For my fifth graders, I had to make them less juvenile and more sarcastic. Maybe they will actually follow them!!

 So, okay. Maybe I actually have done a lot today. It just seems like I can't get out of this "I don't know where to start" rut. So much to do and definitely so little time!! August 20th will be here before I even know it!! Stay tuned. Lots more fun stuff to come!

Project Get Room Ready

Well, it has begun! And it's going to be a long process. I now have official access to my room and I am really, really excited about it! ..And a {teeny} bit overwhelmed. The room is filled with some really great stuff ---> but I have to go through it all. It's mostly science experiment materials, but I need to know what I have and I need to be able to organize it so that I can access the stuff when I need it. Here are a few pics of my room. It's a GREAT room!!!!

 

These are my fantastic windows. They have the blinds that are inside the window, so I don't have to worry about cleaning them or fuss with them. I just twist a knob to open them. Fancy!

 

 This is the view right outside the windows. It's a little science garden!

 

 Here are just some of my cabinets. They are all filled with materials that I need to organize. Yikes!

But a good yikes. I can't wait to see all of the stuff that I have!

I'm planning on taking some before and after pics of the entire room, so more to come of the whole thing later. I am just really excited about the windows. I was so worried I would get a classroom without windows, but it's just the complete opposite. I have a plethora of them!

I cannot wait to put up my displays. I have three bulletin boards; one large "standard" sized one and then two smaller ones. I really want to post "job openings" for my kiddos during the first weeks of school on one of the smaller ones. I am working on that and will definitely post something about it later. In the meantime, this is the first thing that I will be putting up in my room:

I found these on Scholastic.com. They were FREE. I love free. I think these are perfect for 5th graders, too. Nice and colorful, but definitely not too "kiddie". 

I am also planning on doing a periodic table display of some sort. I found this on a blog:

Finally, I will leave you with this. I was introduced to this today while I was meeting with my 5th grade teachers pals. I put together a Prezi {not quite finished, but almost} for our Parent Night (in August) and this is one of the first things they show the parents. This gives you an idea of who I am privileged to work with this upcoming school year. These ladies are fantastic and I am SUPER blessed to have been placed with them. Looking forward to a great year!