Finally - Classroom Pics!! (Freebie!)

Whew! We had a great day, followed by a great Open House tonight! I got to meet with 5 parents (which out of 24 isn't great, but I'll take 5 interested parents over 0 any day!) I love talking with parents and letting them see what we're doing and how I plan on teaching their kiddos. I always get valuable feedback and info about the kids too - like the fact that one of my daddys is deploying next month and he's only been home since January. Now I know to be extra supportive of this precious little girl and I won't be wondering if her behavior/academic performance suddenly changes!

We are on day 8 of the school year and are still working on procedures. I have one word to describe this group - CHATTY! Oh my WORD! They could talk all day. I've tried giving them time to talk, letting them talk in whispers, doing talk and teach etc. They still aren't managing to keep the talking a) to acceptable times only and b) to acceptable volumes during the allowed times. It's getting better, but I am switching table/carpet assignments again tomorrow to see if that helps lol!

I took a few pictures before Open House that I'm going to share. My room is still not 100% complete. I add a little every day or so. This way the kiddos aren't overwhelmed with too much "stuff" on the walls/cabinets and I get to actually involve them in putting things up which means they might actually remember where it is and thus use it! I was going to wait until everything was "finished" but I realized it will always be a work in progress, so I'll share what's going on now, and then more as I add it :)

 Here's the view to the right of the door. I tried to get all matching chairs but had to settle for mostly greens with a few random yellow and red ones thrown in - so annoying to my perfectionist side! I have the one desk for a little guy who is having trouble keeping his hands and feet to himself :(  hopefully we will be able to move him back to a table soon!

This is the back wall, to the left of the door - here's our art cart, 4-person easel (rolls out when in use), our computer desk (one ball chair deflated, it's in my garage awaiting my husband's expert care) and my computer desk.

Here's a close-up of my teacher area, can you tell I love ladybugs?!

Also to the right of the door is our sink area:

The kids loved the apple Tagxedo!

This is our cubby wall - lots of empty space still! Our clip chart is up as are our 8 Expectations. Ignore the wet spot on the floor - one of my sons spilled soda right before this pic was taken. Soda that was bought for him by his former teacher who should know better lol! She's forever feeding or watering this kiddo and he definitely does not need any more snacks! He loves food and she loves him though, so I think I'm fighting a losing battle on that front!

Next up is my tease of a Smartboard - it got installed on Friday but we still don't have the projector so it's just a big tease for now. My Lakeshore Calendar is my favorite part of my morning - I also love that its up all day to refer to. Here's a close-up of my alphabet boats:

This is my front desk area - where I'll put the laptop for the Smartboard and where I sit to read aloud. The bulletin board above the desk will hold our BragTags once I get them started later this week! My classroom tree got a fresh coat of paint and a garland, but no further decorations - yet!

 It's in back of our Listening Center and should soon be an apple tree for September!

It was really hard to get the next few pictures as the afternoon sun was pouring in:

 Here's our puppets, some still-living plants (amazing!) and our hermit crabs! The two boxes with polka dot ribbons are where we store our math and writing journals.

 Here's our reading center - tucked into the corner next to my desk at the back - and the addendum to the reading center is in the middle of the room with two comfy pillows for overflow readers:

I hope you enjoyed that mini-tour of our classroom! As I said, I'll share more later on down the road as I add things!

Now for the freebie! I got a very sweet comment on TPT asking for some of my Roll & Cover Addition & Subtraction Games to be made into Number Recognition games! She particularly wanted the Nursery Rhyme, Fairy Tale and Zoo ones, so I got to work right away. I finished up the Nursery Rhyme one tonight and decided to share it as a freebie :)  Click on the picture below to grab it - and please let me know what you think if you do - I love receiving feedback and requests!

Another new thing in my store is my "Classroom Helper" sets! They were also the result of a request! Someone wanted a set to match the Center Signs she had purchased - I made them up in Bright colors pattern and Animal print for now - I will get around to making them with backgrounds to match all of my Center Signs soon! There are twenty-five different classroom jobs represented, plus a choice of two different "Classroom Helpers" signs. They are on sale for $3.50 in my store :)

Alright, it's time for me to go watch Face-Off with my oldest (a reality show about movie make-up artists) and give my youngest some snuggle time. Have a great night, and as always, I'd love it if you'd Rustle Up a Response below!