Orientation and Classroom Reveal

Today our school had Orientation and I was able to meet all but one of my students.  Tomorrow is the first day of school and I'm so excited!  I've heard great things about this group and I can't wait to get to know them. 

 

In this post I'll quickly share what my classroom looks like and then I'll have to get back to reading The First Days of School by Harry Wong.  I just love that book!  I read it every year before going back to school.

 

About a week and a half ago, I went back to my classroom and discovered it looking like this:



After many hours of work, this is what it looked like first thing this morning:

The yellow and blue balloons (our school colors) were put up just for fun; they were attached to a yummy snack of S'mores Trail Mix that I made for my students.  I put Golden Grahams cereal, mini marshmallows, and Hershey's chocolate chips in a Ziploc bag.  So good!  I printed the cute labels from Janis Noble's blog.    

I personalized a message for each child on a postcard and placed it on top of the general info for 5th grade.

 

I created a brochure of information for the parents because (if they are like me) they don't want to read through pages and pages of information--especially if they have more than one child.  I wanted to keep things short and sweet.  Here's my brochure that I made through Vista Print:

Okay, back to the classroom reveal.  In the corner just to the left as you walk in my room, you'll see this:

I love how my Dum-Dum sucker bouquet turned out:

On their birthday, the students will be able to choose a birthday balloon (attached to a silly straw) and select a couple of suckers.  They will also get to wear a birthday shirt (which I created through Vista Print):

If they don't want to wear the shirt, it can be placed on their chair:

Moving along...we are starting a new math program this year called Math in Focus (Singapore Math) and we will be using Every Day Counts Calendar Math to go along with it.  Here's my bulletin board for the month of August:

To the right of that is a student computer and the cubbies:

I edited labels from Kristen Doyle's TPT store and stuck them to my containers to keep things more organized:

I rearranged my room only slightly from last year--here's a small area where students can read:

Looking at the front of the room:

And facing the last wall (sorry if the balloons are distracting):

I did get a small book display this year so I can put informational texts there that relate to our units of study:

Finally, facing my classroom door:

 

I love the countertop space I have with this long bookcase.  For Orientation, I set out sign-up sheets for volunteers and I also placed "Helping Hands" along the edges.  These are things from my classroom wish list; I printed out items that I want/need and listed the approximate cost as well as where the item(s) could be purchased.  Parents could take a hand, if they wanted, and fulfill the wish list item.

Well, that's my classroom.  Gotta get back to reading now.  I'll let you know how the first day of school goes.