Classroom themes...

I've never been one to have much of a theme in my classroom.  I've done a color scheme, but not so much of a theme.  This year, though, I am going with a...nautical theme.  That's probably not much of a surprise with my blog's title.  :)  While there are touches of my theme throughout the room.  It is basically a blue, yellow, and red color scheme.  

I already had several shelves that my dad and I built a few years ago and painted red.  {I was doing a red/black color scheme...GO DAWGS!}  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these shelves almost as much as the man that made them! The best part of them being red?  No one can try to claim them!  

My hubby made me a couple more shelves this year.  There is very little storage in our rooms, so the shelves made were out of necessity. 

Here's a pic of my Mr. Wonderful hard at work in the heat of a southeastern July!

Here's the finished product! This one houses each student's portfolio for the year.  All unit tests go in here in addition to other work samples. There will be a whole other post on the portfolios soon.  I hope to get some input with them! :)  The other shelf contains the manipulatives that the students will need easy access to.  I organized all these for the upcoming year in the shoe boxes.  I hope to use them often for general class instruction as well as remediation and/or enrichment. The yellow trays?  Krylon spray paint over existing black ones.  I love how the color pops!

The other long red shelf will house crates for every unit.   I will post more about this system later.


These are caddies that are on all of my "desk tables." I shared more specifics on this post - Desk Caddies.

Posters...can't take credit for most of these either.  I'm beginning to think I am not really creative, but I can FIND really creative stuff!!  I found some great ideas from Sherrie at Middle School Math Rules!  I snagged the standards for mathematical practice posters from Teachers Pay Teachers - click here for that!

This poster is outside my door.  I want everyone that enters to know how I feel about my classroom.  I have to give credit to Krissy for this fabulous creation!  Please check out all of her fabulous work at Venspired Learning  I certainly hope it is the sentiment of teachers everywhere.   (And sorry about the flash.) 

My bulletin boards - there is only one board in my room, so "made" another on a plain wall. The one I "made" will have my anchor charts and word walls.  I cannot believe that I didn't use anchor charts until the end of last school year!  What?!?  Using the post-it chart paper, I will change these out easily as we go.

My curtains - nautical signal flags.  Can you believe that I made these? :)  Sewed them with my mom's machine.  My hubby helped with the grommets.  They do spell something, too! 

Hangings - never did this before this year either!  I'm honestly not sure how much I'll like them as the year goes on.  I'm just thinking of the dust they are sure to collect.  Still, they do add so much to the room. (After working on my "Foldables" section, I realized the section was much too large.  So...now I'm going to keep a running table of contents for our interactive notebooks there.)  The rate yourself section was a Pinterest find!  That original post comes from Alison at Eberopolis.  Be sure to check that out too!  I'm not sure how well you can see, but I also love my corner folder shelf my dad built for me.  It is super handy and works well in the small space.

My desk -I picked up this oh so cute lamp at Hobby Lobby. My hubby tells me it looks like a food warmer.  We agree to disagree! ;)  I got the organizer at Staples and I LOVE it!  It consolidates soooo much!  The candy dish - a surprising find at TJ Maxx - and a steal at $6!  (I really should have straightened those papers before taking the picture!)

These shelves house my resources.  The long one (barely visible) under the window has 6 crates on the top shelf - one for each unit.  The bottom houses more manipulatives.  The tall shelf is full of books and such.  I added the curtain this year.  On the wall under my "pencils only" sign will be a calculator pocket chart.  It finally came in Friday afternoon...just in time for Monday's open house.  My podium...yes, my dad built that too!

Hope you enjoyed!  Please leave links to your rooms too!