Classroom Reveal

Welcome to my classroom! Each year I try to do a different theme.
I've done a water, travel and safari theme in the past, but this year I did a western theme!
Yee haw...let the tour begin!

This is the bulletin board outside of my room.
Each cowgirl/cowboy has a lasso with a student's name in it. I'm not going to lie- I would never make those cowboys/girls again, they took me FOREVER!

A closer look...

Our door...come on in!

This paper was my first inspiration to make a western themed classroom.
Martha Stewart- you make everything beautiful.
Too bad I could never find this pad of scrapbook paper again.

The rainbow of locker tags... I heart the turquoise one.

This is not the best picture, but each chair had a bandanna wrapped on the back of it. As you can imagine, the boys had them around their necks in 2.0 seconds the first day, but they did look adorable while they lasted. This was my mom's idea- she is planning my sister's wedding right now and thinks maybe she has spent a little too much time looking at chair covers. :)

Write 'Em Cowboy!


Part of our writing center...

Our calendar and schedule area...

Boy and Girl Bathroom Passes...

Mailboxes, our school's theme verse for the year, and colorful book boxes...

I absolutely love this banner that I made for our window...
too bad it didn't really show up for the picture.
It has alternating bandanna and jean fabrics.
I made it using these awesome, no-sew instructions from Abby's blog.

Lasso A Great Book!

Our Book Nook organization area...
I forgot to take pictures of all of the bandanna pillow covers
that I sewed- they're fun- maybe I'll post them later.

Our vocabulary words will go here...right now they just have western words on them.

Our library area... and the huge cowboy boot that is a hit in our classroom.

Our wanted bulletin board. I took pictures of the kids the first day dressed up in a western vest, cowboy hat and bandannas and then printed them in black and white and hung them on the posters. I wish I could show them to you- they turned out so cute!

I love birthday! And who wouldn't love a birthday hat with their name on it?

Boot Scootin' Behavior Board...
we can only hope that I don't have to use this much this year.

Our job board...

This is above our door. It turned out larger than I had imagined,
but I actually like it that big...it adds some color to our room

Wrangler of the Week...each student gets to bring in pictures to share.
I always start out with a poster about me.
Yes, the large picture in the middle is me when I was in fourth grade.

Oh, how I love decorating my room. I think that is one of my favorite feelings...the feeling you get when your classroom is all decorated...the name tags are perfectly on each desk, the books are all in order, the notebooks are all new, the locker tags are all straight, and everything is in it's proper place just waiting for students to come. Ah! Too bad I have to wait another 365 days for it to come again. Until then, we will saddle up for the rest of the year...it's going to be a good one!

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes- ch. 21-35

Here are my answers to the discussion questions on The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes chapters 21-35. It's been a great read so far! Join on in the discussion from Book Beginnings and Bookends.

1. Do you think Tim is the one sending the money?
I'm not sure. Maybe. It doesn't really sound like something that his character would do especially if there is nothing in it for him. I'm not sure who it could be though. I thought maybe it could be Naomi, but they didn't seem to have extra money that would allow them to do that, so I'm stumped.

2. So far, there's been a lot of discussion on CeeCee/Eve and her choices. What choice(s) would you make differently from her?
Well, I don't think that I would ever get myself into her situation, but I do think that since she has started to live with Mariam, she has made pretty good choice. She has created a new, healthy life for herself.

3. What do you like about Jack? Are there things about him that you don't like?
I like that he is funny and carefree. He seems passionate about life and his relationship with Eve. He also appears to be a great and loving dad. There really is nothing that sticks out about him that I don't like.

4. What are the differences between CeeCee/Eve's relationship with Tim and Eve's relationship with Jack?
Eve's relationship with Jack is real and true from both sides. Obviously CeeCee and Tim's relationship was pretty one sided and just wrong for many reasons. I think that Eve has matured quite a bit which shows in her relationship with Jack.

5. Do you think Eve is to blame for Cory's fears? What could she do, specifically, to help Cory feel like less of an outsider?
Yes and no. Probably part of how she was raised as to do with her fears and Eve is very protective of her. However, part of it just seems to be her personality.


6. Do you think Eve appropriately answered Cory's questions about her father? Do you think Cory will question her father more as she grows older?
They were hard questions to answer, but she went with her plan and stuck with it. I think she did fine answering the questions although I'm not sure that I would have gone with the story that she did. I'm sure that Cory's questions about her father will come up later on in the book.

Oh, the Places You'll Go

When I was growing up, we always had some first day of school traditions. My sisters and I would all gather in the living room and listen to my mom read, "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" by Dr. Seuss. This became such a tradition in our house that it actually became part of my Dad's speech at my wedding. When my mom would finish, we would talk about the places we might go in 3th grade or 8th grade or whatever grade we happened to be in that year. Then we would always receive our bedtimes for the year.


In the morning, we would always wake up to a place mat at our breakfast spot wishing us a Happy First Day of School. Oh how I loved the first day of school growing up!

I can't say that I have the same excitement tonight as I'm getting ready for the first day of school tomorrow. I am excited to meet all my new students and start off our year on a good note but, I'm also a little sad that my days of lounging around in the morning, laying out in the sun, spending hours trying to figure out my sewing machine and staying up late watching TV are done. Tomorrow I'll be back to prying my eyes open in the morning, keeping track of 21 students, and grading hundreds of papers which although they don't sound half as fun as my summer days I know that I'll love (almost) every second of it.

Better get off to bed- it's past my self proclaimed school bedtime.