Teacher Tuesday: Back to School

Thanks to all the supportive bloggers who encourage me to keep trucking on throughout this stressful glorious back-to-school time of the year!

I know it will all get done, and my room will look cute and organized just before my second grade babies come in and destroy it all. ;)

Like I mentioned in the last post, I have all these projects I've been working on the last few weeks, and it's really just putting them together and finding spots in the room that will work well for my kids. 

As much as I love Pinterest (and I REALLY do), it almost seems like a double-edged sword. Of course I've found amazing ideas and projects through pins and boards, but at the same time, I feel like it can also be very disheartening. 

To think my room will look like this:

Is COMPLETELY UNREALISTIC.

And not just because we can't hang anything from the ceiling - thanks fire marshal.

But through it all, I've found some cute ideas from Pinterest that I'm going to try and use to prepare and decorate for the start of the year.
 

One

 

Hope King over at Second Grade Shenanigans is simply incredible.

That's where I got this idea for the hanging paper wreaths. 

 I plan on hanging mine in my classroom library.

Hope gives a quick little tutorial on how to make it, and so far it's been super easy!

They're cute, colorful and fun.

Two

Clutter-Free Classroom has a TON of genius ideas! 

Like this one for example.

Twin-bed flat sheets for bulletin boards!

My school paints their bulletin boards navy, so if you don't want to put fabric or paper up, you really don't have to. And I didn't last year in fifth.

But this year, I wanted some extra pizazz!

For less than $10 a sheet, you can pick and choose what colors work best for your room.

They were a little difficult to put up, because of the size, but I have a ton left over that I can use around the rest of the room. 

Worth it!

Three

Thinking of a theme for my room this year was impossible.

I couldn't pick one for the life of me.

I knew if I picked a theme for the entire year, I'd get bored by October.

So I plan on picking a theme to start the year, and whenever I get bored or the season changes, I'll change it again.

But when I saw this cute little idea, I knew I wanted to run with it. 

Preparing for Open House, I wanted to create a cute hallway bulletin board that gets my little babes pumped up to start this school year!
My bulletin board will be an underwater theme, with my kids as a school of fish (HA! get it? "school" of fish!) and me as the BIG fish. Each desk during Open House will have a baggie of goldfish with that saying above. (And of course some extra baggies for any brothers or sisters that tag along!) 

Of course I have many more projects to work on, gearing more towards academics and classroom management. But it's a start and it'll all come in time and hard work.
No meltdown yet. :)