I Have Returned!! A Reintroduction and a Classroom Tour

Holy smokes, Folks!! It has been a long time since my last post here. Between life, school, and a toddler who is wide open pretty much 24 hours a day, there hasn't been an inkling of time for me to get in here and start sharing again.

As an update, many of you know that I made the move two years ago to middle school. While I really enjoyed the kids, and the fun literature that I got to teach to my 6, 7, and 8th grade kids, the environment that I walked into was not a good one. I stayed for two years, and couldn't do it anymore. I loved my kids, my coworkers, and my curriculum. However, administration made it very difficult to love my job.  So this year... I was lucky enough to voyage my way back into elementary school!!

I left the middle school, and walked right back into the same elementary school that I left two years ago. This time, I was happy to accept a fifth grade position that specialized in Mathematics. So currently, I am teaching three segments of Math each day, one Advanced Content Reading Block, and a Block of Language arts. So far, I'm really enjoying it! The math is brutal, and has a huge learning curve...but I'm readjusting once again. I feel like I am back where I needed to be, and I couldn't be more happy. 

So as a reintroduction, I am sharing my classroom this year. I'm two doors down from my old classroom, and the layout is pretty much the same. But my love for Harry Potter reared its head and made its way into my classroom. Below are all of the photos of my Harry Potter Classroom this year! Hope you enjoy them!

The far wall of my room. Bookshelves hold my materials.. Students are allowed to sit in the black chairs. I brought in my personal collection of Harry Potter stuff to decorate this space. The Hogwarts banners are from Amazon, and the rules posters are free ones that I found online and printed!

Red bins are file crates that my students use to store their interactive notebooks and other materials in. Each bin is labeled with a class period. Place value line is one that I made, along with the math alphabet line at the top. Classroom library is down on the end in the multicolored crates. 

Another shot of that back corner. Class rules poster is one that I made and had printed on Vistaprint. File hanger on bulletin board is for absent work.  There are also flying keys hanging from the ceiling as well!

Monday Made It! Classroom Reveal!

Hello everyone!! This week I'm linking up once again with Fourth Grade Frolics for Monday Made It! And since I'm all finished with my classroom, I thought I would share my classroom reveal at the same time! All of my decor this year was made by me and I can't be more excited about how it all turned out!! Get ready, because this might be a lengthy post!!

First off, my outdoor bulletin board is all Minion-ized. Since I don't have a Cameo or anything, all of those minions and lettering were printed and hand-cut by yours truly.. I have a blister to prove it! I love the way it turned out and can't wait for the kiddoes to come in and see them!

Inside the classroom, I only have one bulletin board--but it runs the entire length of the room. That big thing gets split into all sorts of configurations, and it ended up looking like this!

Our daily schedule is on the far end, and the larger section is where I will post all of our learning objectives. The white sheets are just laminated posterboard. All of the headers and such were printed on cardstock and laminated with my handy at-home laminator.

This is where my students will chart the number of A.R. Points that they earn. Each time they meet a level, they will move their nametag down the wall. Each level earns a small prize until they get to 100 points--and that's when they get to pick the big prize! A free book from the book order!

Our math fact wall--The kids have buttons with their names on them that they will move to the different levels as they pass them. At the end of the year, if they pass them all, they get to have a Fun Day!

And our class rules take up a little space on this display.

Next up are two bulletin boards that we use daily for Flex Math and Guided Reading. I didn't necessarily MAKE these, but I did put them up!

To learn a bit more about how I run my math groups...click HERE.

 Almost done! Here are just a couple more things that I made for my classroom. LABELS! I love organized materials, so I label things for my kids and for myself to keep us in order. First up is my math carts. These carts store the things we need for math stations. Fact cards, our timed tests, and any manipulatives or sheets we need are in this cart. The kids will be responsible for getting their own things ready for the period and it all comes out of this cart.

And all of our folders needed minion labels too, so I made those as well! 

And I was finally able to hang up some of my TPT goodies, like these  Subway Art Synonym Posters that I got from The Brown Bag Teacher.

And that's about it... I also made some yellow curtains for my room as well, but I forgot to take a picture of them... I'm not very proud of those since I used my stapler to make them!! But you can't even tell because they hang at the top of about a 10 foot tall window.  I've got a couple more things in store, but right now I'm going to enjoy being home with my husband and my girls...because work starts again on Tuesday. Where did my summer go??

See you next week!

Click here to head back to Fourth Grade Frolics for more Monday Made Its!