I See The Light!

My classroom is not finished. There is still a lot I would like to do. Last minute touches like things to hang from the celling, more posters to hang, outside display to make, mailboxes to label, desks to clean, outcome wall to make, bulletin boards to finish, oh! and the SMALL task of lesson plans to make- but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! When I walked into room 204 a few weeks ago with boxes stacked high and dirty walls and no idea what I was going to do I just turned around and walked out. It took me quite a while to muster up the courage to attack the mess. But after a few short weeks of working evenings in there it is really starting to look like a place where I might actually like going everyday and kids might even learn a thing or two! Like I said, it is not done but here are some pictures (from my phone) of the progress so far.

I don't like the poster boxes under that table, but I really don't have any other place to store them right now.
I will be working on that. But for now that is their home.

My spin rack of books. (Bought it at a bookstore going out of business sale)
It is full of chapter books but lacking some picture books because many of the ones I used on it last year are too easy for 5th grade.

We departmentalize and I teach Language Arts, but I had to have my math wall.
The orange reading books will be gone after the 1st day.

More of the reading area.

I finished that b.board last night. At our school our 4th and 5th graders participate in the county wide Battle of the Books program.
They read the books and then we will have a school competition with quick recall type questions about the books. We will then pick
the top kids from our school to compete in the county competition. I helped judge the county competition last year and it was sooooo
much fun. So in my classroom when they read one of the books they will get to add a piece of popcorn with their name on it to the popcorn bucket. The buckets are labeled with all of the books on the battle list. I hope this will be a fun motivator for them!
 I think it looks pretty cute!

Indoor recess games and a cozy little spot to read.

My white board up front.
I want to make one board my outcome wall. I saw a GREAT idea on one of your
blogs using colored masking tape to create an outcome grid, but I can't remember which oneof you did it. HELP!! Who was it?

Anyone want to volunteer to cut these for me! ha!
Tennis balls for the chair legs to help with the noise.
They all need cut- a project for another day. ugh.

It is coming along. I am pleased with much if it so far, but I have a few more days and evenings of work ahead of me. Thank goodness it is all the fun stuff and NO MORE UNPACKING BOXES. (Well, at school anyway- we are doing the whole move to a new house thing- but that is a whole other story!) We also sent out our letters to our new kiddos and that made it all seem very real. I will be teaching 5th grade in a few short weeks so I had better get ready for it!!