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Sunday, October 21, 2012

Vistaprint & Classroom Decor. UPDATE!

I got my posters from Vistaprint and they look AWESOME!  For one, they are HUGE!  The large is way too big for my classroom, but I made room for them all over my classroom - inside and out.  I had them laminated so that I could hot glue them to the wall.  (The humidity in my room is unbelievable!  Everything peels and/or falls off the wall.)  

In addition to hanging my posters, my fun goodies arrived from Oriental Trading and I was able to hang the striped & polka dot banners as well as the apple shaped dry erase stickers.  My pencils turned out great too!  So, banners, tissue paper decorations, patterned Duck tape, and Dollar Tree wall stickers are helping me create the classroom environment I am striving for.  Next I plan to remove all of the hardware from the cabinets in the back of the classroom and cover the cabinets with black paper.

Above the cabinets, I have my character pillars and school required posters on bullying and our vision statement.  The posters had some water damage and I could not keep them on the wall, so I glued them to clean poster board, added colored Duck tape with a Chevron pattern, and had them laminated!  They look a lot better and stand out against the plain walls.  


Next, I had to decide on both a display for my Essential Questions and my tickets-out-the-door.  So, I laminated some white paper and made day-of-the-week signs with my Cricut for my EQ display.  It works really well, especially since I do not currently have a white board in my classroom.  For my ticket-out-the-door I turned the side of one of the cabinets near the door (with the fire extinguisher) into a Twitter display.  I have green and pink baskets at each table group with various supplies, including Post-it Notes.  The students will "tweet" a response to the EQ for the day and post it according to their class period.  I will be going over "tweeting" with the kids on Monday. 

Things are slowly coming together.  It is my first year in this position in a new school, so I am chugging along.  I am sure I will be putting in countless hours over the summer putting all of the finishing touches on my classroom.  My Word Wall is a little challenging to see, so I may be moving that to the cabinets after I cover them with black paper.  I am still torn on what to put where, so PLEASE share thoughts and ideas!!!



 

Friday, October 5, 2012

L.F.S. Training

Today I spent my day in Learning-Focused Training.  I have always been a foldable junkie, and now I am an officially trained foldable junkie.  Here is K.U.D. - Know Understand Do - chart I made during training.  My next unit is Green Architecture.  The kids will be redesigning our school using green building materials.  I am very excited to be starting this unit in a week and a half.  More to come...