Welcome to Room 5

Here's the grand introduction of my monster inspired room.  A lot of it is the same as last year, but there are some new things I'm excited to share with you!

My paper lanterns are new and I LOVE them.  They look a little lame-o in this picture because of the "natural" school lighting, but they are little balls of happiness to my eyes.

My monster door with a "Welcome" bunting.

The calendar wall.  This will hopefully be changed soon to include money and time (due to the fact I'm not supposed to teach money and time during my regular math instruction time anymore).

This is the extent of my calendar money section.  My little monsters put a penny in the bank for each day we're in school.  They have to exchange money when needed to make the least amount of coins in the bank, but keep the same amount (i.e. 5 pennies get exchanged for 1 nickel).

A couple of pictures back you'll see targets on my whiteboard.  I put the objective for the lesson on the board for each major lesson and my students need to be able to hit the "bullseye" at the end of the lesson (meaning they can say the "I can" statement and have learned the objective).  

Monster Jobs wall.  Each students has their name on a monster and they get moved in and out of jobs on a weekly basis.

Close-up.

I kept my clip chart the same, but decided to dye the clips this year!  I used R.I.T die from Michaels to die 3 sets of clothespins.  I have a purple, orange, and blue set for when my monsters retire their clips.

Another close-up.

Basic schedule of daily activities.

"Words to Scream About" Word Wall

Inside the closet are where my monsters hang up their personal items.  The magazine boxes on top are for the new Daily 5 program I'm starting in place of centers.  They'll hold books on the independent reading level of my students.

How adorable are these cute number labels?  I adore them.

Gumball Math for math facts.  Each student has their own gumball machine and will receive a paper gumball for each math facts test they pass off.

Giant gumball machine!

Birthday Wall.  

Once school gets started, I'll take pictures of the students who have birthdays in each month and put them on the board.

One of my favorites!  I love this green monster.  

Computer Area.  

I've attempted to clean it up a little this year.  If only the district tech guys could keep is this way.  

Sadly, in some ways they're worse than my students.

Cords are the bane of my existence so command hooks to the rescue!  

Now each set of headphones has its own hook and hopefully (cross your fingers) cords won't get so tangled!

The main attraction in the classroom is our clubhouse.  

T designed it and we created it together.   

I love how it makes my room welcoming and bright.

Attached to the roof of the clubhouse are these adorable monster flower lights my aunt and cousin taught me to make.  

The cupcake liners are from one of my students last year and her amazing mother. 

I think they'll be fun for Meet the Teacher night!

Inside the clubhouse.  This is the biggest physical change of my classroom this year.  

My library has been moved out into the classroom and the guided reading table took it's place!  

I think I'll enjoy this set-up even more.

This year I've tackled the Accelerated Reader (otherwise known as AR) reading program.  

It took a full week to label every book in my classroom and get them organized in bins.  

This creation is my baby of the summer.  

With the help of a giant oil pan from Walmart, I made this goal tracker for my students reading.  

Here's a close-up of the monsters going down the left side that have the AR points on them.  

The smaller monsters below are the individual pieces that students will move up as they receive more points throughout the AR program.  

These large monsters will eventually hold the rewards for each term that my students can earn if they reach their term goal for reading.

Here's our classroom library!  

It's cozy, cute, and ready for little bodies to read cozily in the corner.

This sign is from the student teaching phase of my life made by one of my incredible mentor teachers.  I love it!  

The orange monster next to the sign was the first monster I made and was named after Tikki Tikki Tembo by my class last year.  

The crocheted monsters were made by my utterly creative and talented sister, Misty.  

She loves me.

A close-up of my AR book bins.  

I was pretty pleased with how they turned out.

Here's a few monsters from this years batch of birthday monsters!  These three are my favorites and this year I've added the star design to the monsters.  The kids eat these little guys up!  They get so excited for their birthdays so they can pick their favorite one.  

I'll admit, it's one of my favorite things about my monster theme too!

We'll also be starting an Estimation Jar in my class this year.  I fill up the jar the first week and then it gets sent home with each student during the year.  They refill it with a wrapped treat or small toy (i.e. erasers) and return it to school.  We'll spend the rest of the week estimating how many items are in the jar.  The person with the closest estimation takes it home the next week!

Close-up of the Estimation Jar label I created.  

It's one of my favorite things I made this summer.

This will be the writing station that is included in the Daily 5.  The whiteboard will be filled with writing tips, signs, editing posters, etc. as the year goes on.

(stools and tables from IKEA)

A cute monster journal cover I found online.  The journal pages inside are progressive and start with a few lines and progressively get longer and longer.

This is the set up for Meet the Teacher Night.  The bare spot on the desk will hold the chocolate covered Oreo treat I'll make the night before.

Of course it's Pinterest inspired and I got the idea from here.

IKEA (of course!) rug and my Promethean board.  I love my Promethean Board.  So much.  I couldn't go back to teaching without it. 

EVER.

Tubs from last year.  They need to be reorganized, but for now, they're fine by me!

And one little random picture... Due to the fact that I HATE cords and how they get tangled, I have to be a little creative.    Can you tell how these cords are organized and ready to be plugged in?  I love my clips!

I can't wait to meet my new batch of 31 cute little monsters on Monday!