Shine On: A New Teaching Chapter and Classroom Reveal
This year, I’m beginning my 22nd year of teaching and a very special new chapter! After 17 years at my previous school, I made the difficult decision to move to another school in my district. While new beginnings can be scary, they can often bring much needed growth and a renewed passion in our teaching profession. I’m so grateful to still be doing what I Iove…teaching Gifted and Talented, Enrichment, and Makerspace to Kindergarten through 2nd Grade students. Although my former school will always feel like home to me, I’m so excited to begin this new adventure. Here’s to impacting and inspiring more kids in big ways and making some new teacher friends along the way!
I’ve been hard at work making my new classroom space feel like home, and I can’t wait to share all the details with you! I wanted our learning space to be colorful, welcoming, inspiring, and cozy, and decided that a bright pastels color palette was perfect. My main elements for decor are lightbulbs (always the perfect symbol to inspire bright ideas!) with a few sprinkles of bows and flowers. My classroom will also serve as the building’s STEM Lab/Makerspace, so it’s larger than my previous room. Plenty of space for full classes of students to create and play!
My favorite decor element has to be these CREATE letters that my daughter, Ellie, and I made this summer. When I first saw this big wall in my classroom, I knew we needed an inspiring statement piece, and I knew it had to be HUGE. I finally decided on these 36″ cardboard letters from Etsy. We painted them with black acrylic paint and hot glued all the decor on top.
- C = Paper Flowers – Link to Tutorial Here – Link to Paper Here
- R = Paper Rolls – Peaches N’ Cream Paint, Creamy Coral Paint
- E = Paint Brushes – Lemonade Paint, Natural Buff Paint
- A = Paper Airplanes – Link to Paper Here – Link to Paper Airplane Tutorials
- T = DIY Pom Poms = Link to Tutorial Here – Turquoise Yarn from Hobby Lobby
- E = Purple LEGO Bricks (dug out of our LEGO buckets at home!)
STEM Read Alouds
Here’s a closeup of my book display! I rotate all of these read alouds seasonally.
Here’s a view of the front of my classroom! My beautiful new black and white sit spot rug is from Schoolgirl Style.
This white mini rolling desk holds my iPad and laptop! I’ll pull a chair up next to it when I’m using it to my iPad as a document camera to model activities for my students on the Smart TV. iPad holder is found HERE.
These STEM posters are FREE in my resource library just for my Teach Outside the Box subscribers! Borders, cutouts, and background paper are all from Schoolgirl Style (links below). We made the paper fans ourselves using this tutorial from The Creative Classroom.
STEM Bulletin Board
Here are links to all the bulletin board elements that I used:
- Grid Background Paper
- Lightbulb Border
- Black Scalloped Border
- Pink Scalloped Border
- Light Blue Striped Border (around TV)
- Lightbulb Cutouts
- Flower Cutouts
- Bow Cutouts
- Pastel Punch Paper
- Light Pink Paper
- Lavender Paper
Multiple Intelligence Bulletin Board
We explore our unique gifts and Multiple Intelligences or “Smarts” at the beginning of the school year and highlight them during our weekly enrichment lessons. These posters are a great way to remind students of their strengths and help them set personal goals. Bulletin board elements are all linked above.
LED Lightbulb Bulletin Board
I absolutely LOVE how this bulletin board turned out! “SHINE” is our school mantra, so I wanted to make sure to highlight it in our room in a special way. This beautiful handmade lightbulb sign from Tony at AJ’s Fine Woodworks is an stunning focal point that my kids are gonna LOVE! It’s color-changing and remote operated! (Check out THIS LINK for a smaller lightbulb sign option that I had in my previous classroom.) I used my Cricut to make all of the bulletin board letters. Top font is AG Lazy Level Expert Bold and bottom font is KG Blank Space Solid.
The left side of my classroom is covered in color, and it makes me oh so happy! These cabinets are full of ALL the things…robots, read alouds, STEM supplies, project cases, art supplies….you name it. Let’s see how long it actually stays organized! I wanted the perfect quote for the top wall, and I chose the final quote from one of our all time favorite read alouds, Maybe by Kobi Yamada! We read this book every single year toward the end of the year, and it’s also perfect for back to school. I cut the top letters on my Cricut with black card stock and printed the bottom letters poster-size on colored paper. You can grab the top letter display for just $1 HERE. The “Lightbulb Moments” cabinets on the left side will be used to display photos of students and their special STEM projects throughout the year.
- “I Am” Maker Posters
- Lightbulb Labels
- Pastel Punch Paper
- Light Pink Paper
- Lavender Paper
- Pink Mini Fridge
We also have the perfect Storybook STEM unit to accompany this read aloud. Students visit four flight-themed STEM stations to make their “pigs fly!”
Teacher Table
This year, I ditched my traditional teacher’s desk for the first time EVER and swapped it for a big horseshoe table! I think I will love all the extra tabletop space for prep and I especially love how I can easily work with students individually or in small groups. My new floral rug is from Schoolgirl Style and absolutely LOVE my super comfy white teacher chair. This pink clipboard opens up to store documents inside! I use it to keep all my class lists and schedules close at hand.
This pastel rolling cart (assembled by my sweet 10 year old, Beau) is perfect to store all my extra essentials!
The shelves on the right side have my file bins on top. These will store all my weekly copies, read alouds, and teaching materials for each class. My sweet and talented daughter, Ellie, created those gorgeous paper flowers for me! The bottom baskets will be used to store extra materials for each grade level. Bow cutout labels are found HERE.
Just a few of my favorite teacher supplies that I always keep close:
Safe Place
I just added this new “Safe Place” or Calm Down space in my room! This bean bag chair is awesome quality and comes in several colors! The breathing strategies shown on the posters are from the Conscious Discipline model and you can grab them for free HERE.
Calm Down Caddy
Here are my Calm Caddy materials:
- White Caddy
- Mindful Mazes
- “Express Your Feelings” Sensory Bottles
- Sensory Fidget Tubes
- Timers
- “STAR” breathing tool (pinwheel)
Student Supplies
All our STEM, Makerspace, and math supplies are stored in tubs on shelves and are easily accessible for students. Labels are from Schoolgirl Style and font is KG Inimitable Original.
My hand2mind STEM Bins and Arts and Crafts materials are housed inside our “Maker Shop” cart that was custom designed by my amazing husband, Andy. The open baskets make it easy for students to grab supplies for their creations.
I see you swooning over those pastel Ticonderogas! I saw them and I just knew I had to have them!
My pastel supply caddies are all from Teacher Created Resources:
These two empty shelves are reserved for kids’ STEM projects and creations in progress. If you are new to teaching STEM, I highly recommend having a storage area similar to this. These plastic trays are perfect for students to put all their materials on top and make clean-up quick and easy.
Doorway Decor
I have my favorite Maker quote by Brene Brown right outside my classroom door. This poster is a FREE download just for my Teach Outside the Box subscribers! I also grabbed this adorable custom pencil sign from Etsy for my classroom window, and I think it makes the perfect finishing touch! It would make such a thoughtful gift for a teacher friend too!
I can’t wait to begin my new teaching chapter and make all the happy memories with my new students! I hope you love my new classroom as much as I do!
