My Big Classroom Reveal!

The first week back to school was a success!  As always, the first week was long and tiring but it was very exciting.  I love my new class!

My van all loaded up and ready to head to school to set up

I moved from middle school to fifth grade this year so that meant moving to a new classroom.  If you are a teacher, you know how much effort goes into setting up a new room for a new grade level.  Here are some pictures of my room when I arrived two weeks ago

 

Here is what it looks like after I added my touch to it... 

The hallway outside my classroom

 I teach at a Christian school where all of the Elementary classrooms have the same theme.  This year's theme is F.R.O.G.  (Fully Rely On God) so there are plenty of frogs around the room.

I wrote each of the student's names on the frogs

View from the hallway (Rug $19.99 from Ikea)

I have 18 students in my class so I felt placing the desks into 4 groups made the best use of the small space (Curtains from Ikea $14.99 a pair)

Table signs hanging over each group of desks- signs can be found at Teachers Pay Teachers

Continuing the Frog theme with my Birthday chart

This Fun Frog printable was FREE on Teachers Pay Teachers

I purchased these Frog themed Classroom Rules posters from Teachers Pay Teachers

One of my middle school students last year drew this scientist for me.

The empty bulletin board will be filled with speech bubbles and pictures of the kids.  The kids will write their goals of the speech bubbles.

My cursive alphabet has a science theme.  This is an easy way to incorporate more science into your elementary classroom.  I purchased them on Teachers Pay Teachers.

I love working at a Christian school!  I can openly share my faith! You can print the poster on the right for FREE on Teachers Pay Teachers and the poster on the left for FREE on Teachers Pay Teachers.

I love having a podium.  The bar stool is from IKEA.

FREE printable from Teachers Pay Teachers hanging on the front of my podium.

One of my pet peeves is when people don't use these correctly.  So I have these posters hanging on the walls.  I printed them for FREE from Teachers Pay Teachers.

I purchased these Sterlite file boxes from Walmart and decorated them with an editable file from Teachers Pay Teachers.

Every time the students check the time they see this sign.

I will be super busy the next few weeks with my class and with my additional coaching duties but I plan to post about some more of the fun ideas that you can see in my classroom!

More Middle School Bulletin Boards

 I know that Minions may seem too babyish for middle school but my 6th graders loved making these.  TCS stands for Timothy Christian School.

I bought the minion template on Teachers pay Teachers.

 

 I always have trouble coming up with bulletin board ideas for the last weeks of school.  This bulletin board was perfect to count us down.  One of my students changes the number each morning for us.

More Middle School Science Bulletin Boards

I teach middle school science at the middle school that I attended.  For many of you that would be a nightmare but I love it.  Since I started my teaching career as an elementary school teacher, I love bulletin boards.   

My sixth graders are working on a physical science unit.  I decided to have the students make Bohr Models out of cereal and paper plates.  It was a quick, easy activity and they had so much fun.

I had to take two shots of the bulletin board because one of my 8th graders photo bombed me. :)  

 

Middle School Bulletin Boards

I went back to teaching this year after three years home with my children.  I spent the first 12 years teaching as an elementary school teacher in the public schools and now I teach middle school science at a Christian school.  I don't have to tell you that there are a lot of differences between the two!  

One of the differences is the bulletin boards.  If you are a teacher you know what I am talking about.  In the elementary school, bulletin boards are sacred.  The teachers spend hours designing and making the most beautiful creations.  It is in their blood.  In the middle school and especially the high school, bulletin boards can be an after thought.  

I was excited that my colleagues in my middle school were open to some creative bulletin boards.  We spiced it up in the middle school building this year.   One of my colleagues created an amazing display for Christmas on the names of Jesus.

Here are the bulletin boards that we have created recently: 

I got the idea for this from Pinterest and then adapted it for us.  The teacher next door to me drew the Bible and chose the verse- Isaiah 34:16.

One of the student teachers in our building designed this winter themed board.

She used cups and paper towels.

It was fully three dimensional!

This simple board outside my room displayed some goals and resolutions for the new year that kids in my study wrote.  There is paw print border because our mascot is the TIGER.

The Names of Jesus Bulletin Board

 

 One my very talented colleagues put together this bulletin board to hang in the hallway of our middle school building.   It is a word search where she hid 10 names for Jesus that are found in Scripture.   She took the time to weave the red and white strips of paper to create that checker board pattern. It is hard to see but she also added Christmas lights around the perimeter of the board.

 She and one of my other colleagues turned the bulletin board into a contest.  The students had to search for the 10 names of Jesus in the word search and three passages of scripture.   They also had to identify the references for the verses they found. 

It is hard to motivate middle schoolers but this bulletin board really excited them.  Many of our 6th and 7th graders accepted the challenge.  it was fun to see them searching for the verses!