Blogust Fail and Recovery

Well, yesterday was the first day of our Blogust Challenge...and I failed. On my previous post I mentioned that my sister and I, both beginner bloggers, wanted to amp up our new blogs by posting EVERY.DAY. in August.

BLOGUST!

So my post today, August 7th, is going to be about what has been consuming my LIFE for the last few weeks or so...my first grade classroom.
If there are any teachers reading this post, you all know that you could work on your classroom for hours, on end, and never feel content or ready for a new school year. I kind of re-vamped my classroom theme so that may be part of my problem.
I am obsessed with my rug that I bought during my first year teaching. So, I kind of went with a nature/forest theme. My classroom was already painted green with brown trim so that worked out, as well.

Word Wall

In the past, the word wall in my classroom was just a space saver. It was hard for me to keep up with posting the words and I felt like it was inaccessible for the students. This year, I bought a new white board ("shower board" from Home Depot for SUPER cheap) and I really needed my old word wall space for the brand new white board.  I had this open space below my screen/old white board, so up my new word wall went!! It is completely assessable for all students. When looking for words to use in their writing, they think about the first sound, grab the whole ring of words that begin with that sound, and flip through to find the word they are looking for. I had yet to add all of our sight words for the year. 5 days in I love this word wall...ask me again on the 100th day! :) 

Pirates are our first grade hallway theme! Arrrrr you ready for 1st???

This is my reading area. I found those brown bucket chairs on craigslist a few years ago...perfect for my Reading Nest. This year I would really like to get my books organized! Hopefully, I will be able to post a before and after blog about book organization. Oh! and I had to have that amazing rug from IKEA.

The tree!! :)  Ignore the mess...its the 5th day of school!

The Birthday Bug Jars came from a teacherspayteachers purchase called Forest and Woodland Classroom Decor. They are super cute! Then of course, I have space to display all of my students' TREEmendous Work. I bought a few leafy garlands from the dollar tree. I was able to use the leaves all over the room. In the picture below, I simply cut the leafy garland apart and hot glued a leaf to a clothespin - clothespins to hold student-work. 

Phew...todays blog was way longer than anticipated!

Until tomorrow #blogust

Newly in Nashville (teacher edition)