More New Classroom Pics (and a special thanks to the hubby)

Seriously after all the work...I really hope I don't have to move for at LEAST ten years.
My heart is in third grade, I enjoy my school, and wellllllllll I don't want to have to box everything up AGAIN.

Last year I used fadeless paper (see above). This year I took the advice of my new teammate and went and got felt for my boards. SO GLAD THAT I DID. Thanks to my awesome hubby my boards look incredible and the backgrounds will hold up for years to come.

My new favorite addition (as far as bulletin boards go) is my "Instabooks" bulletin board.

#keepcalm & #readon (spelled out in Lilly Pulitzer patterns of course!)

I actually created an instagram account (@mrsnpartyka) to photo and filter pictures of the books we have read. As the year goes on I will post pictures of the books on the board. This way students have a remind of all the books we have read. PLUS since I use many of the same read alouds from year-to-year I can save them to put back up next year. In my opinion it is way more fun (and current) than having a long list of titles and authors. 

(PS found the cute Surf's up sign at my favorite teacher place--Dollar Tree!)

This picture above shows one of the areas I am MOST excited about--above my cubbies and cabinets.  Once the hubby finished putting my felt on the large bulletin board I measured it out and realized I had enough to cover the ugly ugly dirty looking walls above my cabinet.  Fortunately my incredible hubby is over six feet tall (he's an entire foot taller than my practically legal midget status) so we were able to staple all the left over felt up there. (Years ago the entire wall was a bulletin board). Afterwards while I continued to organize and set-up my awesome hubby added some underwater cutouts and bordette for me. Then he places all the super cute stuffed animals of book characters my former first grade teacher grandmother had given me. 

It is incredible how much brighter and cleaner my classroom looks with this little touch. Plus it will keep me from getting lazy and throwing old materials up there. I hate how cluttered some classrooms look because of that!

So another great reason NOT to move...I don't want to have to make the hubby redo his incredible bulletin board! <3

Another New Classroom, Another New Set of Pics

This past summer was a whirlwind of packing and unpacking...and more packing...and more unpacking...

As we moved from 5 team members down to four I had to move my classroom down the hall. 

While it is nice to be in a quad with my team members instead of down the hall on my own it is definitely a double edged sword. I love the social aspect (and having three teachers and two aids in the quad who can keep an extra eye or ear out if need be) buttttttt I am having trouble getting more work done since I am near everyone else.

While I have an AC (that somewhat works and by somewhat might take some staleness out of the air...) I ended up further from the bathroom and the printer/copier...two seriously important items during the school day.

Overall I love my new classroom (and I cannot thank my incredible husband enough for all of his help) but it was made that much more difficult by the fact that I also moved in (and out) of my summer school classroom. Needless to say at the current moment I am very much looking forward to Christmas Break where I'll have more days off than I did all summer!

Check out a few new pics below! 

I'll be following up with some more posts about each one...

Small Group Table

(Top New Room, Bottom Old Room)                                                       

This is one of my FAVORITE upgrades in my new room. 

Check back soon for some tips on integrating stability balls in your classroom.

Rocking Chair/Morning Meeting Area

(Top New Room, Bottom Old Room)

I was lucky enough to stumble across this awesome blue and white flowered fabric while cleaning out the cabinets in my new classroom. My husband had picked out the shiny blue fabric for my last year. Somewhere in the course of the year it came away slightly stained and tattered. 

Both wall hangings actually came from Dollar Tree. I was nervous that I would damage the whale when I took it down so I bought the palm trees as well. I absolutely love the way it brightens up the whole back corner. I even used it for a backdrop for some first day of school pictures. 

Last year my door was fairly boring. I had fish labels on the door and eventually added cards and letter to/from my students. This year the hubby (super handy with a straight edged razor) helped me to wrap the door in blue fadeless paper. Check back for future posts and my super cute Captain Mickey and Sailor Minnie name tags! 

Updated job chart! This time I (and by me again the hubby) used felt as the background for all of my bulletin boards. Check out last year's post about my job chart (http://mrsnpartyka.blogspot.com/2013/10/all-hands-on-deck-pirate-job-chart.html) for information on the jobs and where to get your copy!

Last year I hated how dingy, dirty, and scratched my desk was. There just never seemed to be enough hours in the day to do something about it. This year it was a priority and my wonderful husband and his straight edged razor again saved the day. We (and by we again I really mean he) wrapped the desk in fadeless green paper. I use the bottom half of my old whale wall hanging from my last classroom to spruce up the side. I then decorated the front with magnets I made myself using Lilly Pulitzer 5x5 designs and some of my favorite designs from Lilly. (I hope to share some of my magnet templates in a future blog post so make sure to check back!)

Another dingy metal area I spruced up (this time on my own!!) with fadeless paper and Lilly magnets!

Plenty more ideas, freebies, and TPT ideas to come. Make sure to check back for more posts in the next few weeks as I get back into the posting routine. 

For now enjoy this freebie 

Click here to get these numbers!