Classroom Themes and organization

     Today was such a lovely day for a swim!  Gianluca and I splashed til about 3pm and then he begged me to go to the farm so he could check on his miniature pig, Patsy.   She's cute but too smelly for me to handle so I decided to do some planning. 

I feel like the summer is almost over so I want to get as much planned as possible since I probably won't be able to get into my room until the day before school starts.  I can't wait to see our new ceiling tiles and new shelving units!  Plus, I get a new HP Revolve, 2 iPads (through a grant) and a brand new laptop with projector all for me to use with the students!  I think I get a SMART board too!  YIPEEE!

I probably won't have much time to get things organized before the kids come so I decided to plan out my room theme.  I have such a tiny itty bitty room so I have to be sure I am extra organized and extra neat.  I have these mini crate bins that I use as book bins.  (I think I have the most books out of any teacher in my building but with the smallest room!) The bins are red so I wanted to add a pop of red with other prints this year so that everything matches.  I recently read this blog that said something along the lines of "decorate your room as you would your home" - I took that to mean that I shouldn't put tons of crazy colors together which is what I have always done - everything bright -  But... this past school year, I became a minimalist.  I have a ton of "stuff" for guided reading, word word "stuff", books and "stuff", writing "stuff" and the list goes on.  I need to figure out a way to cover up my "stuff" to make it a more inviting and homey space. 

I'm going to hit up Walmart to buy some shower curtain rods for my new and improved cabinets but I won't be able to do that until I actually see them. 

Anyway, back to the theme for my room.  I thought about doing polka-dots but that is soooo overdone.  Then, I thought, what if I did black and white chevron but I'm pretty sure EVERYONE is going to be doing chevron this year.  I want to do something different! 

So I have been on the hunt for animal print anything that I can put in my room!  It is sooo me!  Anyone that knows me or has been to my house knows that my husband and I love animals - he likes to hunt them or attend to them at the farm and well I just like animal prints :) 

I created the 1st 100 word wall words with leopard print and a pop of red (so that it will match my crates).  I will use these for my Kindergarten students and then I will use Zebra print for my first graders.  I'm thinking maybe giraffe print for my 2nd graders.   I'll be working on finding the perfect backgrounds to use in order to create the 2nd 100 and 3rd 100.  I have to keep them totally different because I use one word wall for 3 grades (I know it sounds crazy, right?) so the students need to be able to see which is theirs.  I have to do it this way because I see so many grade levels.

Any ideas on animal print decor??? 

Here is the link to my fancy leopard print word wall cards for Fry's 1st 100 sight words. 

I'll be sure to post the other sight word lists when I finish them.

Thanks for reading!

~*Gina*~