Classroom pics and first day of school freebies

Monday is my first day of school...I have 25 new kiddos coming to my room tomorrow ready or not! I have just a few pics of my room to share:

My jobs chart wasn't completely done yet at this point but it shows perfectly the two themes I have going in my room this year. Polka dots everywhere mixed with some monsters (I am going to use Kathleen Pedersen's Monster Manners system)

Here's a shot of most of my calendar wall...I'm super excited about how it turned out :)

I covered my chalkboard this year to get some extra space. Here's a shot of what has turned into my focus wall, writing center and word wall.

Finally, my palm tree is back in action! Last year my AP dropped off two giant carpet rolls in our pod and said "I'm sure you can come up with something for this" and boom...giant palm trees appeared in our rooms :) When I got back to my room in July I found the leaf part crumbled up on the floor and I was so shocked and sad. I'm pretty sure it got moved near the ceiling fan during classroom cleaning and there was a terrible accident haha. But it has been resurrected and looks even better this year (I never actually got the "bark" up on the trunk last year - that was one of the projects that fell to the wayside when I broke my ankle).

I'm really really excited about the year. I threw together a few coloring sheets for tomorrow that I am going to share as freebies. I can't remember where I read this idea, but someone wrote in a blog post about how they like to give the kids a picture to color of how they get home. I thought it was a great idea and I good way to keep them occupied as I am putting colored stickers and bus tags on everyone at the end of the day. You can download the sheets below :)


First Day Stuff

5 days and counting

Oh my goodness I have been running nonstop for a week. I got back from vacation the night before returning to work. This was great planning because it forced me NOT to spend the last few weeks of summer fiddling around in my room but at the same time it was horrible because my "packing" job from May was a complete disaster and it has taken me FOREVER to get myself together. I have been so busy covering walls, rearranging furniture and sorting through my multiple pinterest boards from the past year haha. I thought I took pictures today but I must have imagined it. I'll post pics tomorrow of my progress :)

I also just finished a cute little mini-unit for The Kissing Hand. Here's a pic of what's included:

Click on the picture to find it in my store!!

Back in action!

Hello to all my friends (especially all my NEW friends!) I have been terrible about blogging for the last month... I've been traveling non-stop since the first week of July...a few last minute trips that all came together nicely. It's been so wonderful to just get away and let my brain rest!! I get back into town the night before going back to work so I'm starting to get revved up for school.

I just finished my latest set of interactive emergent readers based on Brown Bear, Brown Bear and decided to make it a freebie for all my lovely followers :) These little books worked great with my kiddos last year. There's two different books in the pack with a few options. Leave me a comment if you download...I love to read about people finding my things useful.

Here's the link to it on TPT or you can grab it below form Scribd

Brown Bear Books

Here's some links to some of my other emergent readers like this

And there's lots more in my store!