My room is complete! Finally!

Well today was the first official day back to school for teachers. Students come on Wednesday. I have been working in my classroom for a week now, cleaning out cupboards, re-organizing, pitching old things, and so much more! I felt so rushed to get everything done because I wanted my room to be put together before students or parents came in and today, we had our district wide meetings until 11:15am and then had beginning of the year conferences with parents starting at noon. We have these parent conferences to get out some important information that they will need to know prior to their child's first day. I also got a chance to meet the kiddos today! I can't wait to spend the day with them Wednesday! They seem like a great group of kinders!

So as I promised, I will show you pictures from my classroom! The finished product! 

 Enjoy the tour of my kindergarten classroom!

 

My theme this year is NIU Huskies! My Alma mater and a team that my husband and I follow to home and away games each year! (Looking forward to September 1, the first game of the season vs. Iowa Hawkeyes.)

But I don't stop at my favorite college team, I have to represent a few of my favorite teams! The Chicago Cubs, Buffalo Bills, and of course Team USA! 

Below you will see some of my centers. Top-left is my writing center. (You may notice the table is low to the ground so students can sit on the floor with carpet squares). They love it! Top-right is my poetry center. Bottom-left you will see my manipulative/toy shelves for choice time and math centers. And bottom-right is my library center.

Our school rules are Be Ready, Be Safe, and Be Kind. So, I have worker Bee's to help us to follow those rules and complete class jobs. Hanging on the file cabinet is our lunch count pocket chart. You also see our class computers and my guided reading table.

 Below you will find our "Bee Buck" can, decorated by previous students. When students are seen or heard being ready, safe, or kind, they receive a Bee Buck. They write their name on it and put it in the can. At the end of each week a winner is randomly drawn out. Their name is announced during Friday morning announcements and they get to go chose a prize from the office. The Beanie Babies that you see there, are actually my bathroom passes. Monkey is for the girls and Tiger is for the boys. when a child has to go to the bathroom, they put the pass at their seat and go. This way, I can see who is gone and know where they are. After the first few weeks of school, everyone is very good about only using the passes when they need them!

Here are some more views of my classroom and how it is set up! (Yes, those are my shoes...had to take them off after school today because my feet were killing me) :) 

Last but not least, I had to share my favorite tape! The tape that holds everything up! It's our ACE Hardware tape! For the last few years, each masking tape that our school has bought has not held anything. We would tape up our locker tags or art projects and the next morning everything would be on the floor! But with this wonderful tape, I never have that problem! 

I hope you enjoyed your tour of my classroom and maybe it even gave you some new ideas! To see a little bit more of my classroom and some of my organizing tips check out my post at Pre-K and K Sharing from this month! 

Happy Beginning of the School year!