Home Away From Home

When I'm not decorating the house, cooking up something delish in the kitchen, and/or eating that somethin' delicious...I'm teaching!

This will be my fourth year teaching third grade and I've gotta say, I adore third grade. I love almost everything about it. I love the maturity level of the kiddos, I love their honesty, I love the fun activities I get to do on a daily basis. But most importantly, I love that I spend my day with a bunch of 8-9 year old love muffins who make me laugh seven hours a day. I can't imagine a more fulfilling or fun job.

One of the perks of teaching is grading papers long after you've gone home for the day decorating your classroom to your heart's content. I get so excited the first week of school before all the kiddos show up with smiling faces and fresh new backpacks. That first week is a blank canvas. My classroom hasn't been touched since I packed it up in June.

Each year, one thing in my room stays constant-bright, cheery colors. Now, I've never claimed to be a girl who can rock the primary colors. I just can't do it. Crayola-crayon red makes me twitch, green makes my shudder, yellow makes me groan, and blue is just blah. I need pizazz! My goal is always to make my classroom an inviting learning area for not only the kids, but also for me. I try to decorate in a way that makes me WANT to be there. So far, I've been pretty successful :)

I went with an owl theme of sorts this year. You'll see owls, chevron, and neon colors as I take you on a tours of my home away from home, my classroom! :)

Right outside my door is a very free form (work with me) tree branch and an owl for each student. I'm a little flighty and forgot to take a picture of that!

 

Snazzy backpack hooks as you walk in.

 

 

After the backpacks, we've got the student desks.

 

 

Each table has individual garbage cans and crates to store materials in :)

 

 

And my desk area. Ignore the mess. My life is always about 5 steps away from organized.

 

 

Classroom library. I have this amazing aunt who makes me the BEST pillows for my classroom. Kind of obsessed with those R-E-A-D pillows.

 

Next to the library, we have the gathering area...or where we all sit to do most of our learning. Don't you love my $10 neon green patio chair?! My rocking chair was a casualty of last school year and I wasn't about to spend $100 on a new one right now. This one is working perfectly!

 

 

The front of classroom has this snazzy chevron rug ($20 at Walmart, what what!) and the SMART Board.

 

And also the whiteboard and the classroom schedule.

 

We follow a "levels of conversation" plan at school. I had to cutesy up the plan :)

 

 

The back of the classroom boasts the word wall (Wise Words... get it?!) and the computer table. The Word Wall is a little sad at this point in the year.

 

As well as my group table (where I work with my sweet third graders in smaller groups)

 

 

And the behavior chart! I'm pretty happy with the neon cardstock I found at JoAnn Fabrics this summer to make up this beauty.

 

So, there she is-live and in living color. I hope you enjoyed the tour. I'll be back tomorrow with my revamp of a table D found on garbage day! Yes, my life is just that glamorous.

 

-L