Decorating My Classwork (Part 1)

Today, while my husband went on a fishing trip, I decided to go to my classroom and get some decorating done. I didn't think about it being on the weekend and the A/C not being on!! I had so much to do, so the heat didn't scare me away.  I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish in Google Keep and didn't even consult that list until I thought I was done.  Of the 15 things on my list, I completed 11 plus other things I noticed once I got in there.

For a few years now, my colors have been turquoise, teal and lime green.  Every year I buy new variations of those colors and freshen up the decor.  I found a new pattern of duct tape at Walmart the other day.  It's black geometric designs with turquoise and lime green!  After I added this new light turquoise fabric to a table, I used the duct tape to add pizzazz to the top of the fabric on this table and the lime green one.

Around Christmastime, I bought a whole bunch of pegboards from Target.  I gave my daughters enough to cross-stitch their kids' names and I had enough left over to stitch my new married name.  I chose to sew with 1/8" ribbon in the space around each letter.  I also didn't center the letters to add variety.  I used Command picture hanging strip to stick them to the wall.

This is a 'sketch' of my assignment board.  I wanted to switch up the layout of it this year.  In the past, I've used Washi tape to create the separations between the sections.  Last year I had bought lime chevron magnetic strips that I thought were cool.  I used those to lay out my design.  In doing that, I realized I didn't have enough, so as soon as I got home I looked them up online and ordered 2 pks of turquoise and 2 pks of magenta.  I got them here.  Once I have the three colors, I can finalize my design.  The reason I love the magnetic strips so much is that I can rearrange my board EVERYDAY if I wanted to!!  So much better than taping (that's never straight!) and having to buy more when I want to redo it!

This is a view from my door.  The table on the left under the bulletin board will be getting a tutu skirt around it on the next trip.  A sample of the tutu is shown below.

Because my teacher-neighbor won't be returning next year, I raided his classroom to get tables that matched mine.  I took my mismatched ones over to his old room!  I'm a little bit OCD and last year the tables drove me crazy!!  Now I have 14 2-person tables, which I set up into 7 4-person groups. There is so much room to walk around the tables so I shouldn't be tripping on backpacks all year!

Behind my GATOR flag was a huge mess of blue internet cables.  This was one of the things not on my list but needed to be cleaned up.  It took about 10 minutes to get them either pushed into the ceiling or tucked into the grey sleeves.  It was such an improvement.  I moved my flag into this spot to kinda hide the grey sleeves.  Now I have a huge blank space on that wall.  I look forward to creating something to fill it!

This is one of my MANY pocket charts.  This year I am pulling it back out for a Word Wall.  I have hundreds (no kidding) of sentence strips from Dollar Tree that I will be writing all the vocabulary words on, to place in the clear pockets.  This was another thing not on my list.

I haven't decided what I want to put on this bulletin board.  Last year, I titled it DATA CENTER and put grades (by lunch number) or my list of clicker numbers on there as needed.  Sometimes it contained a new seating chart when I got tired of the current one.  The table held all the handouts for that day, so students would picked them up as they walked in.  It saved time and disruptions by not having to pass papers out.

This board is actually a whiteboard whose surface has seen better days.  I can't even use it without having to spray cleaner on it to get marker off.  I hot glued black bulletin board paper over it to create a Growth Mindset bulletin board I purchased from Teachers Pay Teachers (link).

I'm contemplating whether or not I want to use this owl border for the Growth Mindset bulletin board.  I'll probably create the board then decide.  The colors do match perfectly though!

And finally, a panoramic photo right before I left for the day.  I truly hate the mauve and burgundy countertop and cabinets!  They seriously clash with my awesome blues and greens!!!  If I could cover or paint them, I certainly would!