Classroom Setup, A Potty Trick, and A New Family Member!

So I promised a little review through pictures of my year so far. So let's start at the beginning shall we? This is what my room looked like right before open house this year. I went with a fairy tale theme at the request of my daughter. She wanted a princess room. We compromised, and I have to say I love it! It's fairly simple, my room is super teeny tiny and I don't have a lot of room so I have to make it count! :)

This is my little guided reading corner. The 3 drawer carts hold my guided readers. The bookshelf is holding all of my teacher editions, odds and ends, treasure box, etc. next to that is my mini fridge, a girl's gotta have her diet coke ;), and my reading strategy board. I got those posters from Cara at the First Grade Parade for free on her blog. I love free :). Not to mention they are effective and adorable!
This is my computer area. This is my computer as well as my only student computer. My birthday board is over the computer it just needs my kiddos sweet pictures to complete that. Filing cabinet, and that little cart with the chevron baskets (that I got for $1.97 from Wal-Mart each AND they are fabric!) is my listening center. Tissues, germ-x, and calendar books are on top of that. 
This area is not pretty, but it's the hub for my day. That bookshelf is the only one I have that the school furnishes. It holds all of my math manipulatives, community supplies, centers, math books, counting collections, and a few random things that I just have no other place for. The drawers are my monthly drawers. I'm working on organizing all of my stuff this year a little better. 
Now don't be jealous, but this unit is the only bit of closed storage I have. In it I have my monthly read alouds, art supplies, extra curriculum stuff, science lab things, etc. It holds a lot, but it's super messy. This is a project this year in itself. 
Open house sign. Not an artist :).
Calendar area, number line (below board), alphabet posters (above board).Alphabet posters are from Miss Nelson at http://missnelsonsgotthecamera.blogspot.com/
Whole group carpet area. My word wall is to the left of the board. 
Writing Center, in desperate need of a paint job, but I ran out of summer. :) I got the writer's eye board from Cara Carroll at The First Grade Parade. Also free off of her blog!
The huge pieces of paper are going to be my focus walls for math, units, and reading. I will be hanging my anchor charts, vocabulary words, etc on them throughout the year. You also see my schedule cards, objective boards, copy/file/grade drawers, and baskets for turning in assignments. 
View from the door. 
Another door view...
And another....


Back there is my reading corner. The bulletin board is suppose to look like a beanstalk from Jack in the Beanstalk. Not an artist remember ;). My daughter asked me why I had a stem in my room. Oh me. 



So that's pretty much my room. It's a little more put together as far as pictures and student work goes, but a lot messier now that the kids have gotten in it! I made almost all of my own posters and decor this year. You can find it all in my TpT store.  Ya know, for next year..



Now, for the potty trick! We have automatic flushers in our bathroom. I usually have one child freak out every year. Every. Year. And every year I have to make deals with them so that they will pee, and not have an accident. This year the child to freak out was none other than my own personal daughter. I knew this was going to be an issue. We worked on it all summer to no avail. So I started wheeling and dealing with her like I've done with so many before her. But, one day my aid gave her a post-it note to hang over the sensor so it won't flush until she removes the post it. Hallelujah!!!It has totally saved my life! And my sanity! See my daughter is a control freak like her mom, and the only problem that she has with them is that she cannot control the flush. So you see how this is the perfect fix for her! Hopefully this will help some of you as well! :)


And finally, if you made it this far, our new family member. You may have read this summer that we had to put down our beloved german shepherd. It has been so hard on us, mainly my husband who took him to work everyday. The weekend after we lost him, a good friend of ours told us that she was expecting a litter of puppies in August. We were thrilled as we were looking for a new puppy anyway since my husband uses the dog at work and we weren't expecting a gap between dogs. So anyway, we said yes! Our friend did a temperament test on the puppies this weekend to match us up with the best puppy for us and here she is!





Meet Saige! We are thrilled and she will be coming home to us on September 30th! We can't wait!

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