Like many other teachers, my classroom doesn’t have a typical “rug area” for a gathering place.  My whole classroom is carpeted, and we have a “well” with mini-stadium-like seating.  In past years I’ve had to make do without a traditional “classroom carpet.”  Those things are so expensive!

I started out the year allowing the kiddos to sit wherever they’d like in our gathering spot.  What can I say?  Incorporating choice is important to me.  I quickly learned that this didn’t work when I needed a side to be clear for easy viewing of the board.  Even when I tried to make one side “off-limits,” I had friends sitting in spots that were just plain awkward for teaching/learning.  Without a visual, many students had difficulty remembering where a good spot to sit was.

I had finally had enough and decided to tape down some spots so the children knew exactly where they could sit for the best learning experience.  I still didn’t have any assigned seating because I wanted them to choose where to sit (within the newly defined parameters).

This worked like a charm – for about 2 days.  That’s when the novelty wore off and the kiddos started to pick at the tape that was holding the dots down.  They weren’t trying to rip them up, but who can resist picking at tape when it’s so close and convenient?  Not many 5 and 6 year olds that I know…

That led to this.

Gross.

Not only were the spots unappealing to look at, but they quickly lost functionality as they begin to peel off the carpet.

During my search for a solution, I learned about a product called [SitSpots].  I was skeptical at first because I didn’t there there was any way that they would truly “stick” to the carpet.  After searching for a few more days (with no luck), I decided to take the plunge and order a set of Sit Spots for the classroom.  The wide variety of shapes, sizes, and colors was a pleasant surprise.  I decided to go with circles in red and blue.

I patiently eagerly waited for my first set of SitSpots to arrive.  When they came in I was so excited because it meant I could peel up the last few taped down dots that had somehow survived and toss them!

I followed the instructions for installation to a T.  I placed them textured side up (velcro) first in the spots I wanted them to make sure the layout was right, then went back and flipped them over.  I stepped on each one to firmly set them in place.

Let me tell you what, it’s been over a month and not a single SitSpot has come off.  Victory!  Not only have they stayed put, but the kiddos have so much more pride in these and resist picking at them to keep them nice.  I suspect that even if they did pick at them some that they would easily reattach to the carpet.

I’ve got my eye on another set to use for lining up.  I’m thinking of writing a sight word on each one, then when we line up I can give each kiddo a sight word to line up on.  What class couldn’t use more sight word practice as a reinforcer?!

I am so thrilled with my SitSpots that I want to offer you a chance to win your own set!  Use the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win $50 to spend on the SitSpots [website]!*

Inservice week is officially OVER!

We had a full week of PD and making final preparations in the classroom.  Thursday night was also Meet the Teacher night!  This means that my classroom is finally done (well almost)!  So it’s time to share some pics of my new home away from home.  I hope you are ready for tons of pictures!

Let’s start off with what I saw the first time I walked into my new classroom.

As you can see, the former teacher left many of the bulletin boards up, alphabet strip, etc.  So I had to start by getting rid of all of her decorations.  The bookshelves were also completely packed with 3rd grade materials – so I had to get all of those materials off the shelves as well.

Before we head into my revamped classroom, I have to share this college flag!  This year my school has placed a college flag outside of every classroom.  Unfortunately someone snagged the SMU flag before I could get it – but that’s ok because I have an SMU one hanging in my room.  So I went with the next best thing!  A Florida flag because it represents where I’m from!  You can also see my anchor wreath that I made.  You can check out how I made it [here].

In we go!

Fortunately I didn’t need to move the furniture around too much.  Ok, to be completely honest I moved it around several times and finally settled on a layout that was fairly similar to how the room was when I first came in.

You can grab the alphabet poster set [here].

Don’t mind the calendar area, it’s not finished yet.

Here’s what I did with that HUGE green-wall length bulletin board.

This board was a TON of work because it is so big.  But… it was the perfect space for [Homeworkopoly], a math board, word wall, student work wall, and college board (this one may end up with something else on it!).  Most of them are blank because I am saving them for anchor charts, students work, etc. that will be created once the kiddos arrive.

Here’s a close up of some of the boards on this wall.

The word wall is one of my favorites!  So bright and cheery.  I used fabric to keep the background bold throughout the year, and added the rope and [anchor] accents for a bit of fun.

Check out how I made my word wall card box [here].  You can also grab the EDITABLE word wall labels/words [here].

I can’t wait to get some work added to these boards!

Working our way around to the white board, you can see where I will post our Learning Objectives (LOs) and Demonstrations of Learning (DOLs).  These were a find from the fabulous Learning in Wonderland, and you can grab a set [here].  I glued the subject label to a piece of scrapbook paper then had the whole thing laminated.  To finish them off I hot glued a page protector onto each so that I can easily slide the LOs and DOLs in.  I plan to print them off weekly so that they are ready to go each morning!

Here’s a view of my semi-finished library.  I still need to add a rug and get labels printed off for the leveled section.  The lefthand side (red and blue boxes) are leveled by DRA level.  The center and righthand side book boxes are separated by genre.  I’ll be writing a post soon about my rationale for organizing my library this way.

Fortunately the carpet at the front of my room is HUGE and can seat 30 something students.  Being that I only have 22 students this year that left the perfect space for the listening center.  I also had to place it here because our building is old (built in 50s) and there are only outlets on 2 walls of the room.

To be honest I hit a bit of a road block while decorating.  My previous school did not have any cinder block walls so I was able to staple my heart out when hanging things!  My new classroom is ALL cinderblock besides the bulletin boards.  *sigh*

So I had to do some problem solving to make hanging up all of my decorations work.  Here’s my remedy.

I first placed painters tape where I wanted each poster to hang.  This is a little tedious, but well worth it because it sticks well to the wall but is also removed easily without damaging the paint.  Then I used a hot glue gun to place a thin line on each piece of tape before placing the poster on.  The reason I chose to put painters tape on the wall first is because it makes removal EASY!  You just peel the tape off to get all of the hot glue removed.  No worrying about having the glue stuck to the wall!  These have been up for 2 weeks now and I haven’t had a single issue!

You can also add painters tape to the backside of your posters which will increase clean up when you removed the posters because no glue will be stuck to the poster or wall!

You can grab this Nautical 10-Frame set [here].

After I had my classroom in order and almost completely finished, what was next??

For some reason I was quite a bit more nervous for MTT Night than I was last year despite the fact that my classroom this year is more organized and presentable.

When thinking about what I wanted to do special for my first meeting with my new students and parents I decided to make up some quick gifts that are totally Pinterest inspired.

I set up my small group table with a sign-in sheet to make sure I had record of who came, parent names/e-mails, and how students would be getting home the first day.

I also placed a copy of the school calendar for each family.

Had I been even MORE organized I would have printed some nice looking signs for this table, but hand-written had to do for this year!

Each parent got one of these!  The tags read “Parents like you are so refreshing!”

I placed a baggie of Goldfish on each student’s desk as a welcome gift.  The tag reads “You are o”fish”ally in first grade!”  This is a common idea on Pinterest, but it just fit so well with my Nautical theme!

Inside each folder I placed a student information sheet, Donors Choose release form, daily schedule, Daily 5 letter with breakdown of reading levels, explanation of grading policy, and another copy of the school supply list.  All of these forms are separate from the enrollment packet the school will send home.

Now I’m off to enjoy my last Saturday before school begins!

I started out by marking 2 lines in the middle of the circle.  This made it easy to know where to start one color and stop the previous color.

Then, I used the hot glue gun to get a good hold between the end of the yarn and the circle.

FYI, when I started I kept the yarn attached to the whole bundle.  This got tedious because you have to feed the bundle through the circle each time you wrap another bit of yarn around the circle.  I started cutting large pieces of yarn – it was a lot easier to manage! If you glue the end of one yarn piece down and start the beginning of the next piece right on top of the other one you can’t even see where it ends/begins.

After MUCH patience, I got the whole thing wrapped in yarn!  Phew!  I used a lot of hot glue (probably more than necessary) to get the yarn to stay exactly where I wrapped it.

I added some red ribbon as an accent in between each color.

I used the same red ribbon to create a hook for hanging the wreath.  I just wrapped it around, added some hot glue and stuck the end of the ribbon back into the glue to create the loop.

Next, I added the finished anchor to the wreath using hot glue.