Five for Friday on a Saturday CLASSROOM REVEAL Pt. 1

Hey everyone!!  So sorry I couldn't post yesterday, but I was knocked down flat by a migraine.  I had to lie down as soon as I got home from work, and I slept until this morning.  Luckily I woke up migraine-free today, thank goodness!!  Those things are THE WORST!!!!

Since I couldn't yesterday, today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party.  I am going to share some of my Classroom Reveal with you!!

These numbers are a creation of Krista Wallden.  She's awesome.  Go check her out on TPT!!!

Here is my Dragon Alphabet Line.  I know it's hard to see, what wit the glare of the lights and the fact that my phone doesn't have the greatest camera.

I tried to crop it so it would give you a closer view, but it's not all that much better, sorry!!  I have all of the vowels in red and the consonants in black, and each vowel poster has a picture for the long and short sounds.  Plus, 'C' and 'G' have a pic for the hard and soft sounds. I placed the alphabet line on the cork strip that is attached to the overhang part of the ceiling.  This overhang marks the spot where the floor of my classroom turns from carpet to tile, and my kiddos walk underneath of it every time the line up at the doo. My kinders are getting a kick out of how many dragons I have around the classroom!!

I also created a Dragon Number line this summer.

Here is a zoomed in picture of part of the number line.

I have Lil Dragon holding the numerals, and each is rainbow-colored.  I also have rainbow-colored letters to match the numbers, and used the letters to spell out the number words.  I also have a ten-frame (or double-ten frame) on each poster, and inside the frames are different gems and jewels.  We all know that dragons LOVE all things shiny and sparkly.  I have a poster for numbers 0-20, and they are in a line along the top of the wall above where my SMART Board is located.

Something else that I completely changed in my room is where I keep my word wall and schedule board.  For the past three years, I've used the chalkboard at the back of my room to display my calendar, schedule, and objectives for the day.  My Word Wall was displayed on the bulletin board attached to the right side of the chalkboard.  This year I decided to swap the two.

Here is the bulletin board that used to hold my Word Wall.  Now, it has my calendar, schedule tags, and objectives.  This calendar is really for display only, as all of my calendar activities occur on the SMART Board.  I use a Wikki Stix to create a circle and show them what day of the month it is.  My schedule tags have a dragon theme (of course) and are labeled with the name of our activity as well as a picture to go with it.  For example, the 'Lunch' tag has a picture of the cafeteria and our 'Music' tag has a picture of our Music teacher.  The black frames are going to be where I write my daily objectives.  Oh, and on the left side of the schedule tags is a rainbow ribbon with Lil Dragon at the top and a Castle at the bottom.  I move the dragon down the rainbow as we get to each part of our day.  My kinders can 'see' how much of the day is left by looking to see how much rainbow the dragon has to travel until he gets home.  This system has really helped answer the 'when are we going....' questions.

The new schedule board was relatively easy to create.  The most time-consuming part was putting black construction paper inside the frames and hanging them with ribbon.  Now, the new Word Wall was a bit trickier to create.  First, I wanted to give it a border.  I used painter's tape and hot glue to attach the border.

This part was tricky because I had to make sure I got the border attached to the hot glue before it cooled, while at the same time not getting any hot glue on the chalkboard.  It took a while, but I like how it turned out!

I used a rainbow border, since it fits in with my room's theme and I sort my sight words into groups that I label with colors.  I also created headers with rainbow letters and a rainbow border, and attached a magnet to the back so I could put them on the chalkboard and easily move them around.

Our district is currently working on choosing 150 sight words and arranging them into groups/levels.  I am so grateful for this idea, since we will ALL be teaching THE SAME WORDS AND IN THE SAME ORDER!!!  How helpful for kinders who switch schools mid-year, and how super to have it already organized for me.  Once the final decision is made and the lists are given to teachers, I will be adding the words to the wall.

I am lucky enough to have several bulletin boards in my room that are 'real' bulletin boards, attached to the walls of my room.  There are two large ones on each side of the two chalkboards in my room, as well as three long, thin boards.  I use each one for something different, and am very grateful to have them!!  However, I quickly realized I would need even more.  So, I decided to make some.  The yellow board in the picture is one of the large bulletin boards that are attached to the walls of my room.  The blue board is one I made myself, by using painter's tape, hot glue, bulletin board paper, and borders.  I have, so far, made four of these types of boards in my room.  In this picture, the large yellow board will be my ELA board, and the large blue board will be for Math.

Does your classroom have bulletin boards and/or cork strips?  Did they 'come with the room' or did you have to buy/make some of your own??

Don't forget to hop back over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to see who else has linked up for her Five for Friday linky.  There are some really great tips and tricks being shared, plus some great pictures and stores!!  :-)