Hello! I am excited to be linking up with Dirt Road Teacher for her series geared toward beginning teachers. Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to be an official mentor to many first year teachers and also a Model Classroom for my county. What I enjoy most is sharing ideas with fellow teachers! If you ask my friends, family, and coworkers about my summer favorites, they may tell you that I LOVE back to school shopping. I am definitely the one who plans out my shopping trips, visits multiple stores a week, and forces recruits friends to shop with me to get even more deals. I am always looking for the best prices and innovative ways to decorate on a budget. Today I'm going to share my Budget Friendly Decorating ideas. 1) Build on a Theme: When you are first starting out it can be overwhelming trying to plan a whole classroom. Relax. It will grow with time. Start with a few basics that fit your theme and know that you can always add new items throughou......

Hello! I'm here to give you the virtual tour of my classroom as a part of the amazing Teacher Week Blog Hoppin' event. Disclaimer - If you read my About Me post yesterday you already know I have a slight obsession with the ocean and the color blue. If you didn't....well the pictures you are about to see should pretty much confirm it :) Here is my pride and joy- my classroom library. I love love love children's books and in fact have a very hard time saying no to a book sale. Books are organized into baskets by genre or author. I also have the Accelerated Reading level on the spine of each book to help my kiddos find a "just right book".   This side of my classroom stores word work materials, book boxes, literacy supplies, take home books, and guided reading materials. I also have a sensory box with a theme for the month (this month's theme is beach). The yellow board will be turned into a writing display. My 3D Reading Reef focus wall......