A Look at My (polka dotty) Classroom

It's a Linky Party

                                                  

All the themed classrooms I've seen on other blogs have inspired me to try a little change in my classroom this summer.  It first started with the book barn that my husband built for me last summer.

I liked the splash of red, so I looked for some red valances to replace the shabby old ones I've had for 8 years.  Here's what caught my eye on ebay.

Now I was on a roll.  I saw some polka dotted curtains covering shelves on Pinterest, so I made some to cover my toy shelf -- not only because it looks pretty, but it covers the distraction of toys.  That will help keep the little brothers and sisters from pulling them all out and making a mess at open house.

I found the red baskets at Dollar Tree, so sorted my special books by monthly theme and put them on top of the shelf. I need some labels -- and luckily I found some red polka dotty ones on TeachersPayTeachers, but haven't added them yet.
Then I found more red baskets at Dollar Tree and Family Dollar, so I decided to replace my mismatched library baskets

And a few more red baskets at Dollar Tree!

The middle basket has some little tiny composition books that I plan to use for math journals for the first month of school.
By now, every time I went in a store, I was looking for red/polka dots, and look what I found at Hobby Lobby!

While I was taking pictures, I thought I'd add some of my other favorite things, like my rug from Donor's Choose.

And the ice cube tray that holds my white board markers so the lids don't get lost...

And from Deanna Jump and The Cafe' Book and the Daily 5, here's my leftover bulletin board from last year.  I have new polka dotted border to add this year.

My math stations go here, but this is still a jumble from the end of the year -- it's my next project to work on.  I will try to have 10 - 12 stations when I figure out how to merge Investigations, Common Core, and Math Stations.

Another new addition is this big wall unit that I was lucky enough to get when our principal wanted to get it out of her office -- and I was the closest room that had space for it.  All my professional books finally have a home, and there's room in the bottom for all the extra math and literacy stuff.

Finally, here are two more places that I find help...

                                                              TeachersPayTeachers

and my wonderful assistant -- who is taking a much deserved vacation this summer!