I think my classroom is finished!

Well...I still have a few things to do:

• Name tags for the tables
• Name tags for students to wear (Our children wear a plastic name tag during the school day that has their first and last name, teacher name and room number.  It's also color coded to remind us of our zone when we do fire drills or have to evacuate.)
• Put names on our word wall
• Finish cutting the laminated take-home folders and other miscellaneous things (actually delegated this to mom...she calls it therapy)
• Birthday posters
• Bucket Filler Display
• Design, Copy and Organize Open House handouts
• Decide on one of the hundreds of "Welcome Back" treats I've seen through by blog stalking and make them for my kiddos
• Create my lesson plan template
• LESSON PLANS!
• Copies, prep for projects

Geesh!  Now that I see it in a list format, maybe I'm not finished!  

Staff Days are Wednesday-Friday this week.  Wednesday morning is our district "Welcome Back" and union meeting and our building faculty meeting is in the afternoon.  Thursday is "our day"...no meetings but we do have to be at school for a normal workday and our building's Open House is in the evening...well late afternoon for me.  Our Kindergarten families visit from 3:30-4:30; First Grade Families visit from 4:45-5:45; and Second Grade Families visit from 6:00-7:00.  On Friday we get to learn the new grade book software!

Anyhow...here are some updated pictures of my classroom!

This is my outside bulletin board.

I know...CRAZY long!  But somehow we don't have a hard time keeping it full and festive!

My "Welcome" letters from Oriental Trading...kind of wishing they sold the whole alphabet.

I saw, heard, or read about this idea from someone somewhere this summer! 

At the end of each year I ask my students to write a letter to my new batch of first graders.  I posted a few in the hall.

I'm not 100% sold on my door yet...it needs a little something (other than a paint job).  Maybe just some student artwork.  My "Arrr Matey!" came from Uppercase Living...LOVE IT!

This letter cracked me up..."She can be tough..."  Needed this one to be on the front door-ha! ha!

View from the door.

 I took these pictures from the center of my classroom and tried to give you a panoramic view!  :)

I'm so grateful for all of those teacher blogs out there!  I got tons of ideas, purchased lots from Teachers Pay Teachers and just loved spending part of my summer mornings blog stalking!  

I am in love with Scrappin' Doodles!  I received an email yesterday about their Terms of Use for Teachers so I'm just spreading the word.  If you use their clipart, you might want to take a peek at their Terms of Use.  I'm not sure if I really need it, but I purchased two of the "Educational Freebie License" to post on my website and on this blog just to cover myself.  I would never intentionally misuse anything I find online and I always try to give credit where credit is due but I want to make sure I'm following the rules!  As a new blogger I'm still learning! 

Time to get to work...kiddos come Monday and the craziness starts tomorrow!