I NEED your help!!

Okay all of you lovely, creative teachers out there! I need some decorating advice!! I have this HUGE, ugly air conditioner in my room and I am desperately trying to figure out a way to disguise it at least a little bit. My wonderful neighboring teacher's theme is owls, and this is what she came up with:

How CUTE is that?!!

This is what I have:

Isn't it sad? :(

My theme is Peace, Love, and First Grade and I would LOVE any ideas to make this cute and 3D!! Please let me know what you think!!

Thank you all!

Redone File Cabinet and Caddies!

I've been working on a few different things for my classroom this week! Mostly I've been looking at all of the wonderful things on Teachers Pay Teachers and downloading them like crazy! My next task will be putting them all into binders by subject so that I don't forget all of these cute activities.

I think my mom and I burnt ourselves out in my classroom by being up there for DAYS on end with no air! The air comes on Monday though, so I'll definitely be up there as much as possible! In the meantime, I made these super cute caddies that will hold my kids glue, pencils, crayons, markers, etc. 

I put the labels in clear holders so that I can switch them out every year!

Also, mom and I have been working on redoing my file cabinet. I'm sure you've seen this all over Pinterest.  I don't think I have a before picture of it, but just imagine an UGLY brown/gray, beat up cabinet. You can see it in the background of this picture:

We turned it into this:

I LOVE it! The hardest part to me was mod podging the paper on because I couldn't get all the wrinkles out! Mom to the rescue! Hopefully I'll have finished classroom pictures up SOON!

One Lovely Blog Award

Thank you SO much to Danielle at Scrappy Teaching in FL for awarding me the One Lovely Blog Award! 

1. Follow the person who gave you the award

2. Link back to the person that gave you the award

3. Pass the award on to 15 new bloggers.

In no order, here are the bloggers that I'd like to pass this on to!

1.

2.

3. 

4. 

5.  

6.  

7.  

8.  

9.  

10.  

11.  

12.  The First Grade Parade Sorry, I couldn't find your button!

13. 

14.  

15. Teaching Fabulous Firsties I couldn't get your button to work! :/ 

I love all of your blogs and it was hard to pick! :) More classroom pictures to come this week!

Newbie Blog Hop!

I came across this Newbie Blog Hop and wanted to join in! I'm very excited about seeing new blogs! Here are the questions and my answers:

 1.  What state you are in
 - Arkansas   

 2.  Your current teaching position 
- 1st grade    

 3.  Your teaching experience
 - First year teacher!   

 4.  When you started blogging
 - I started about a month ago when I got hired for my very first teaching job :)

 5.  Share a blogging tip / blogging resource - Pinterest, pinterest, pinterest! They will connect you to soooo many blogs!

Looking forward to reading more of your answers and checking out your blogs!

On another note, I met the teacher whose classroom connects to mine today and LOVE her already! We instantly hit it off and I'm so looking forward to working with her. I think we'll be a great pair! She sent me this text today:

Classroom Update!

WHEW! My mom and I have spent the last week getting my classroom started (with no air and only fans)! The hardest part is that the teacher before me hasn't come to get her stuff yet, so I'm trying to visualize my room while still having most of her things in and around the room. Not to worry though, we've made it work! Most of our time has been spent cleaning and lugging stuff back and forth. We finally got enough done so that I could start setting up my centers.

Mrs. A, who is a family friend of ours, a retired teacher/principal, AND one of my references, came up on Friday and she helped me tremendously. She has such an eye for setting up a classroom and with her help, we figured out exactly where all of my centers will be! So far, my favorite part is my reading corner. There is still SO much work to be done but here are some updates:

This is the playground right outside my room!

The door to my room!

Me in my room!

Those white cubbies will SOON be gone! They take up WAY too much space.

My future reading corner! We also added a lamp, rocking chair, and blanket in here:

So much to do!!

Getting to work!

This is the beginning to a few centers! In the far corner is the reading center, writing center in the middle and the next bookshelf will start the puzzle/games center.

I'm hoping to really start decorating this coming week! I have lots and lots of laminating to do!

On another note, here are a few things I saw in other rooms that I would LOVE in my room! I'm not sure if you all have seen or heard of these...

How cute and functional is this for a center/small group activity? Interview flip books (with a play microphone!), fluency building books, fluency sliders, and expression passages and spinners! So cute!

Love these wrap-around games. The kids really pay attention as everybody is reading their cards and they can't WAIT until it's their turn. 

Looks like I need to start figuring out how to spend my instructional money!

-Ms. Carney

Before Tour

Well, I finally was able to sneak a look at my classroom last week! I'm working at an open space school, but the Kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms have walls so I do actually have a room! My door is outside, and it's the absolute furthest classroom from the front of the building! Hey, extra steps everyday!  Here's the "before" tour of what I have to work with:

This is the view from the back left of the classroom.  That whiteboard is going to move somewhere so that this can be my reading corner.

This is looking at the front of the room. None of those pocket charts are mine, but calendar math will go somewhere up there. My SmartBoard!

Here's the front of the room. I have windows!

My computer area - there's two more under the other window.

This is the back of the room. I have a storage closet, cabinet, and a bathroom. The cabinet will probably move and I'm thinking about putting my desk there.

A sink and water fountain!

The door on the left leads to the other 1st grade classroom and the other door is my main door that leads to the building and the playground.

Tomorrow, the renovating begins! We're moving in bookshelves and posters and bulletin boards and hopefully getting a good start to my room. More pictures coming soon!

Peace Love and 1st Grade

I'm super excited to have chosen a theme for my classroom this year.  After spending some time at a teacher supply store today, my mom and I decided on Peace Love & First Grade! I bought a few things to get started with:

I toyed back and forth between this theme and a Dr. Seuss one.  Finally, I decided that for my Reading Center or Small Group Center, that's where I'll use my Dr. Seuss theme. I want to choose a different Dr. Seuss book every 6 weeks or so to design the reading center around. I can't wait to get a look at my classroom this week so I can really begin the whole makeover process! Looking at all of your blogs has me SO overwhelmed, but in the best way possible. I'm getting so many ideas and I'll definitely be updating with before pictures of my classroom as soon as possible! 

-Ms. Carney

First Year, First Grade

As I sit here writing my first entry on this blog, I can't help but reflect on the past few years. I have poured over hundreds of teacher blogs, bookmarked ideas that I loved, used what I could in student teaching, and just waited for the day that I could integrate these things into my classroom.

I am so proud to announce that I have accepted a 1st grade teaching position for the 2012-2013 school year! Now, I can officially put my ideas and YOUR ideas into action. My mind has not stopped racing since I found out about this job. What centers will I include? What will my classroom library look like? How many kids will be in my room? What activities can I use to get their minds engaged? What classroom management system will I use? EEEEK. So many decisions to make. The rest of my summer will consist of research on 1st grade and setting up my classroom.

I'm hoping to use this space to reflect on my first year as a teacher, share ideas that worked and ones that didn't, entertain you with funny 1st grade stories, and gain some insight on all of your ideas. For now, I have my first project to work on: upgrading and renovating this beautiful rocking chair for my reading circle (with the help of my lovely mom).

Before:

After pictures coming soon!

-Ms. Carney