Classroom Reveal 2013!

It's official! I have started my third year of teaching, in my third grade level change (this year I am teaching second grade) and I survived my first week with the kiddos! School started for me on Monday, but thanks to a little thing called Labor Day, I have a four-day weekend to break me into work slowly.

I am super excited to show you all around my new classroom! If you read my post last year about my classroom reveal, you will see a lot of similarities, but I think this is my BEST classroom design yet! I switched classrooms this year with a short move across the hallway, but I have a bigger room than before so I LOVE IT! I realize just how cramped my 22 third graders were at the end of last year, now that I see my little second graders moving around easily in our new room. So! Let the tour begin :)

This is the view as you come into my room. I have a huge carpet and Smarboard in the front of my room. My desk area is in the corner. If it wasn't DARK outside when I finally finished my room and took these pictures, you would see a nice view out those windows :) 

This is my small group reading table and my jungle library! My tree has grown a little in size since last year, but it was pretty much the same process to assemble it. I have had a lot of people ask how to make it and I actually remembered to take pictures as I made it this year, so that will be my next blogpost. This post is already going to be a marathon without including it!

Those READ letters were made by my mom and they are paper mache letters, painted and then fabric is decoupaged on top. I love them! They match my room theme perfectly!

Another view of the jungle library and back bulletin boards. You can also see the two shelves of math manipulatives in front of the writing process board. I LOVE that I have so much space to have the math manipulatives out for the kids to use as needed. 

This is looking at the other side of my room across from the window wall. My word wall is going to go on those cabinets on the left. We have bathrooms in our rooms (thank the lord, or my class would be out of the room all day long going to the hall bathrooms), so that is the door you see in the middle.

This is looking from the back of my room at the door you come in. Student cubbies wrap around on the left and I have storage in the front under the green and white polka dot fabric. I LOVE to hide things behind fabric. Fact.

Here is my teacher nook. I hate that there is that much space taken up in the room, but it is kind of dead space otherwise, it is between my reading table and my desk, and is too far over for the kids to sit and see the board. This is a close up of my "Teacher Shelf" from last year because I didn't take a close up this year, but it is pretty much the same:

I am FINALLY posting the labels for these drawers because so many people have asked me. You can download them {HERE}

Okay, now for some close ups!

This is our calendar and center rotations. I am going to write the students' names on the white spaces next to the colored monkeys and then their rotations are in the row next to each. I have to do a very modified version of the Daily Five to make it work with our required center schedule and timing, so I am crossing my fingers that all goes smoothly! It is pretty straight forward once they get in the the groove of things. 

I got those Daily Five rotation cards from this GREAT freebie from A Year of Many Firsts! The pack is huge and wonderful like all of her products! Snatch it up {HERE}!

This is my student work space, because if I didn't designate a specific spot in the room for it, I would surely lose it and use it for something else! Never enough wall space in a classroom!  I don't know about you, but I HATE tape loops- they are a pain to make, they ruin the students' work sometimes and I just vowed this year, I would avoid them at all costs. So, this board is entirely tape free! The little monkey faces that you see are hot glued to clothespins, which are then stuck to the wall with sticky tack. Now I just can clip the work up there and swap it out easily! Love! 

The monkey bunting is a freebie from my store that you can grab {HERE}

Next to my Super Star Work Wall are my Essential Questions wipe off boards. They are from Walmart. I made the chalkboard-themed labels for each one. 

Writing Process Board: These are dollar store pizza pans with flat thumbtacks hot glued to the back. The little bananas are some of my clipart that I printed and laminated. They have magnets on the back and students move their name through the writing process during writer's workshop. 

ALL MY MATH MANIPULATIVES!!!! Love me some organization! The bins are from the dollar store and the black bookcases are from Walmart (they are only like $17.00!). I am not ashamed to say that I have 8 (yes eight) bookshelves like this throughout my room. I really like shelves apparently! The labels on the bins are laminated and stuck on with velcro dots, so I can switch out the labels and manipulatives if I want. With the rate that I am switching grade levels each year, being able to change them is important! The cute little zebra frames around these labels are a freebie in my store so you can make your own! Check 'um out {HERE}!

Now take a walk on the wild side into my jungle library!

More bookcases, dollar store bins, and labels!!! I love children's books and I love seeing my kiddos get excited when they find a book in my library. I get a lot of my books from garage sales, Goodwill, and scholastic book order points. I was also super lucky to work at the Penn State Education Library when I was in college and was given a HUGE amount of almost-new picture books from my supervisor Karla. It was a great jumpstart to my classroom library and I've kept it going every since!

Here's the newest addition to my library: a huge panda! She doesn't have a name, but she does have a pretty stylish headband if I do say so myself! I have a feeling that headband will be changing with the seasons! I don't have any kids to dress up in those adorable, enormous flower headbands, so I must settle for oversized stuffed animals :) 

Close up! You can see more labels using my zebra borders. They are also attached with velcro.

Other side of my library and two more bookcases from Walmart :) On the back of these bookcases are the two math manipulative bookcases. 

Thanks to a shower curtain and suspension rod, I was also able to hide all my seasonal decorations and supplies in my jungle corner. I hide EVERYTHING behind curtains! I hate clutter and stacks anywhere in my classroom! Selective OCD...

Close up on my READ jumbo letters! Aren't those fabrics so cute! Thanks for making them Mom!

Students cubbies with dollar store bins. The table caddies on top of the cubbies are from Hobby Lobby. My other obsession with classroom decor this year was the "chalkboard look." So, when I found Hope King's classroom decor pack, I was in LOVE! Check it out {HERE}. The table labels are part of that pack! I also bought her Desire to Inspire Subway Art pack that I used in this cute little frame:

Frame: Michael's with a coupon! I took the glass out and laminated the subway art. I get nervous having anything glass in my room. I hot glued the ribbon decorations on it before I put the subway art in by just wrapping it around the sides of the frame. Did I mention I am also obsessed with gluing bows on EVERYTHING this year? Fact.

Another bow example :) This lamp was white when I bought it and I added the ribbon, bows and bead trim at the bottom. Doesn't have a lightbulb in it yet, but it looks cute!

This is a little 'monkey-themed' behavior incentive I made with my clipart. I spend so much time making clipart, I sometimes forget to use it to make things for my own classroom! The students sit in four tables, so they earn banana points for good behavior, being ready first, or positive behaviors I see them doing while working cooperatively. The kids love it! One of my kiddos said yesterday, "Wow! Table Four has a bunch of bananas!.......(pauses and thinks hard) Bunch of bananas.... Hey! That's funny Miss Wallden, cause bananas come in a bunch, get it?" It was adorable and he was utterly shocked he had "made a funny." :) 

If you are still reading- you are a champ, I'm almost done with my photo marathon post...

My big monkey :) If you haven't read my blog in the past to see this guy before- his clothes change with seasons and holidays, thanks to my mom who has now applied her Halloween costume sewing skills to make the outfits for my classroom stuffed animal :) 

Reading Group Bins: Courtesy of Big Lots sale section, zebra ribbon and number labels from Hope King's decor pack that I talked about before :) 

And we're back to the door, and you are on your way out! Check out my latest (and possibly only) successful pinterest craft! I have looked at those wire/mesh wreaths for so long and finally tried making one! It was a success and super easy! I didn't follow a tutorial, but I just went back some picture posts on pinterest. I know there are some great detailed tutorials if you do a search on Pinterest for mesh bubble wreaths- but I was too impatient to watch an entire one :)

Close up!

Alright folks! That's it! Happy Friday and have a good Labor Day weekend! To celebrate my first week of school being over, my entire store is 10% off!