'Twas the Night Before ...

'Twas the night before school,

if you listen you may,

hear a plea from all teachers,

I need ONE MORE DAY!!!

Okay .... so three baths taken, three haircuts given, three lunches made, three backpacks packed, and three outfits laid out.  For the first time, all three of my little girls will be in school - needless to say, it's been an exciting and emotional day.  I think my girls are ready for back-to-school ... but I'm exhausted!!!  In between all of this today, I managed to slip out to my school and spent another 5 hours getting ready.

I've got a lot of last minute things to prepare tonight, so this will be short and sweet.  I took some pics just as I finished in the classroom today.  (I would've stayed a bit longer to get some photocopying done, but there was a severe thunderstorm warning on the radio, and I was advised to head to an inner room in my house and stay away from all windows ... I took that as a sign to go home).

This is my back-to-school board just outside my classroom.  Each soccer has a student name on it.  Tomorrow, the students will take down their balls and write their goals on the spaces provided.  These soccer balls and the goal activity is from a pack of Goal-Setting Activities from Teaching in Room 6.  I LOVE all the goal-setting activities, and will probably use a few more throughout the year.  You can view her activity package HERE.  The sports-theme bunting is from my TPT store.  You can see it HERE.

This is my classroom library area - my favourite place in the class.  The bulletin boards are empty for now, but they will soon be filled with students work.  (I think I may need a few more bookshelves - running out of room too quickly - I think I may be able to squeeze one more into the corner ...)  It's hard to see in the picture, but each shelf is labelled by either genre or author.  I put a few of the new books I purchased over the summer on display on top of the shelves.

My CAFE (CRAFT) and Daily 4 board.  After our book study this summer, I think I'm ready.  I got the CRAFT letters from Kristen at Ladybug's Teacher Files.  I think I'm in love with them - they're perfect!  You can download your own set HERE.  I'm going to be doing Daily 4 this year (I'm leaving out "Read to Someone".  The four signs are laminated, and I can write the daily task on each one with a dry erase marker.  Work for "Word Work" and "Work on Writing" will be in files beside the board, so students can independently get what they need.  These posters were part of a package I got from Faith Wheeler.  You can download your own copy HERE.

You can see some of my math manipulatives in the shelf under the bulletin board.  I have many many more stuffed into cupboards somewhere in my room.

These are my new art boards - I didn't cover the blackboards this year - SO.MUCH.EASIER!  I made magnet buttons to hang our art work by glue-gunning a round circle magnet to the back of a button.  SO cute, and so much easier to use than tape.

These next pics are just classroom pics from different points in the classroom.  A few are from my classroom door looking to the front of the room.  The others are from my desk area, looking to the back of the room.  I'm always amazed by how large my room looks in pictures - it really isn't a very large space ... and it's trapezoid-shaped ... so very weird.

It's not perfect, but it's close enough to done that it won't keep me awake all night (other work may, though).    To those of you who start back tomorrow, I hope you have a WONDERFUL first week back.  And to those of you who are already in the full swing of things, I hope you have your best week yet.  

Happy Monday!!!