Main Wall

Hello smarter-than-average internet browser!

In this post you'll see the magical transformation of my main wall at the front of my classroom.  Let's jump right in.

 Step 1: leaf printed fabric as a base and inspirational chalkboard trim from Target.

 Step 2: Add pompoms, handwriting guides, and a cute bunting banner from Target.  Take my advice and don't make homemade pompoms.  In theory, they save you money.  But the the honeycomb ones just aren't worth your time.  Keep an eye out at The Dollar Tree or stores like Tuesday Morning for ones that are $1-2 a piece and save your sanity.

 Step 3: The "I Can" statement banner, charts for content statements to be posted, add a boggle board (that I made, sorry!), and a chalkboard to hang the helper of the day.

Finished product: functional and cute!  I also added a great number line that I found on Amazon (it has odd and even numbers in different colors and has the word forms of each number written above it.  I also added a hundred chart up above that I used translucent colored contact paper to show the multiples of 5 and 10 to help students with skip counting.  There's also a sneak peak of my calendar area on the right and the bus pages on the left.

Thank you for stopping in today!  I hope you saw a few things that sparked ideas for you.  What are some tips and tricks that you have for your front of the room must-haves?  Leave them in the comments below.

Stay tuned!

Ms. Frisch

First Look

Hello new readers!

Here's a little bit of information about myself.

I'm a 2nd grade teacher at a small elementary school in Ohio and this year (2016-2017) will be my second year of teaching.  My school has an ED unit that services students for the entire district, so we are both fortunate and very busy all the time!  There are two teachers per grade in my building so having students with severe emotional and behavioral outbursts is a given every year.  That being said, it has given me experiences that I know have made me a better teacher.  Instead of a transition into my first year of teaching it was a full-blown immediate drowning sensation at the start of the year.  I truly feel that my safe haven throughout all of it was based in my firm-rooted belief that a organization can fix everything.  Whether that's true or not, at least it helped me survive my first year and I already have a constantly evolving list of new teaching practices, centers, organization hacks, and crafts for next year.  I'm viewing this blog as a way to share all of the new projects I try out.  Think of it like a living Pinterest success vs. fail blog (haha!).  To get started, I'll share a few pictures of what my classroom looked like when I entered it for the first time.

The first view of my classroom.  I remember thinking it was... small, tall ceilings, TONS of bulletin boards, and that it had a huge non-magnetic slate blackboard along my entire side wall.  It needed COLOR!

My back wall - lots of natural light and the frames above would be great for posters, if only I was tall brave enough to reach them.  The two trapezoid tables were later taken by the district and replaced by a massive kidney table for small groups.  Completely unexpected! 

The BIGGEST BONUS of my room was that the previous teacher had retired and left tons of materials for me to use.  The saint-of-a-woman left her class library books behind for me underneath the purple butcher paper.

Behind 6 of the doors along the back wall there are hooks for the students.  This is actually a picture AFTER I used Goo-Gone to remove red and white name tag stickers that were on top of the Sharpie markers.  Someone wrote with Sharpie on top of beautiful hardwood.  It was blasphemous!  Needless to say I got that off as soon as I could and then later used a magic eraser to remove the Sharpie as well.

So, what did you think?  What did you see when you walked into your first classroom?  Leave your answers in the comments below.  Keep your eyes peeled for future posts of the transformation my classroom made throughout my first year of teaching.

Ms. Frisch