Classroom Tour & Open House 2017

Tonight was open house!  I had way more time to prepare for this night and yet still felt completely unprepared!  Here's a peek at what my room looked like. :)

This is my library which is sorted by guided reading level.  I managed to score those Pidgeon and Knuffle Bunny stuffed animals from Khols this summer and am so excited to show them to my kiddos!  I made the Persevere wall decal with my cricut this summer and am so excited about how it looks!

These are my math shelves with all my student materials.  I have my stem bins, flash cards, privacy folders, etc all located on these shelves.  My lime green scissors container and my pink dry erase marker container can be seen on my instagram (@vkshappykampers). 

This awesome book shelf was from DonorsChoose.  A lot of the books were from the same donors choose projects.  On my very dim Promethean Board screen you can see the title page of my open house slide show. As you can see, I couldn't resist adding my little campers. :) 

My teacher area!  We don't have desks in our rooms, and I wouldn't have room for one even if I could have one.  The dots on my table are awesome for small group work and save SO much time of getting materials ready.  I used these last year and they lasted for the whole year so I bought another set for this year.  Click below to check them out: (affiliate link)

Close up of the flip book, trifold, and mints I gave out at the open house.  Parents loved the flip book because all the information was all in one place and they didn't have a stack of papers to carry.  I loved the mints because wintergreen is the best and anyone who says otherwise is wrong.  

My sign in sheet and parent volunteer sheet.  These can be found in my teachers pay teachers store as a back to school FREEBIE 😃 

Click here to be taken to this freebie :)

So there you have it.  My second home for the next ten months!  

Tiny House: Classroom Edition

Well, it finally happened, as I've been expecting for years.  Second grade has been moved to the tiniest rooms in our building.  UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.  Not only are these rooms way smaller than the other classrooms in the buildings, but they also have the added perk of being stacked on top of each other in a stairwell.

Guess who is in the top classroom...Yup, me!  Now, I actually picked this room.  It's out of the way of the foot traffic through the bathroom.  We're the only classroom on the third floor which means we don't have to worry about being too loud or being interrupted by other classes.

I got purged a lot of my classroom stuff, which was a great thing!  Stuff I'd been holding on to for years got sold or given away to a classroom that might use it.

But its on the third floor...You know what is located on the first floor?  All the student bathrooms.  😱😱😱 So twice a day, we wander down two flights of stairs to get to the bathroom and in between I cross my fingers that no one has an accident.

Every classroom comes with it's own challenges, and this classroom is better than a lot of other classrooms in other schools.  I have air conditioning, a smart board, and a lot of freedom when it comes to decorations.  Plus, we have a lot of natural lighting, and a really cool view.  My kids favorite spot to work is at desks right by the window.  It's my favorite spot to work too!

I guess it could be worse, two sets of stairs isn't that bad, and on the plus side, I should have calves of steel by the end of this year.

My Classroom, home to 23 second graders and myself :)

My view looking down the stairs