Classroom Photos ... Finally

     We haven't had any internet in my home for almost 2 weeks (no cable tv either).  Actually, its been surprisingly nice  (and I do have my iphone to satisfy my Pinterest addiction :)  Anyway, our school finally started this week with 2 days of "Meet the Teachers."  I'm very excited about my new class.
      And here's my room...

I LOVE my tree that was inspired by the tree created by Denise at  Mrs. Picasso"s Art Room.  I put color copies of  the covers of favorite books on some of the circles.  

View from the door we usually come in (unfortunately I have 3 doors:)

This is where we have circle time each morning. We are in the process of adding pictures to each of our stars.  The yellow section on the right is for photos of our "Student Star." I will be the first "star" and so pictures of my family,  favorite places, when I was little and things I like to do are on the board when the kids first come to our "Meet the Teachers Open House" with their families.  I wrote about my cool letters here.

View from the other corner.  My table for meeting with small groups is in front of the blue cabinets  (they were beat up, horrible beige cabinets before this summer).

This bulletin board includes our playground and some of our favorite spots on the Swarthmore College campus that we frequently visit on our walks (including a red tree, a GIANT adirondack chair, a rose garden and a pond with gold fish...I know I am very lucky!!!)  We will add children to the board next week when we each decorate a little cutout of ourselves.

I forget where I saw this but I wanted to make sure that I had the children's names several places in our classroom when the kids first came to school so that there is something everyone can read.

We will do quite a bit of graphing during the first weeks as a way to get to know each other (and to allow me to do some informal evaluations).

Housekeeping corner

We use the big tables for snack and for lunch (if the kids stay for lunch bunch).  The colorful bins next to the near table always have art supplies (markers, paint, crayons, scissors, glue and paper -separated by color per Sandi at Rubberboots and Elf Shoes) and play dough with a bin of rotating items to use with the play dough.  There are small "table toys " and games on the shelves next to the other table.  These items will be rotated each month. This month there is a sand table in the far corner of our room.

      As you can see from my classroom photos,  I really tried to limit how much "stuff" is in my room and on the walls this year.  As I wrote about earlier, I love the idea of rotating toys on a monthly basis (and having far fewer toys in the room at any one time),  The walls will soon be filled with the kids art work.  The room always looks so empty without kids and their art....I can't wait till next week when it will be full.