Classroom Set-Up {then & now}

When I saw that Little Miss Glamour Goes to Kindergarten was throwing a linky party on how our rooms have changed with teaching experience, I got so excited I wrote this post immediately! (Hence, why I'm up past 1 am!) I'm going on my 5th year of teaching kindergarten and have been in the same classroom all 5 years! After my first year of teaching, we had a change of administration and with that came a goal for school improvement! To start off, that summer of 2010, all teachers were ordered to "de-clutter our rooms" (aka: THROW AWAY THE JUNK!) So that's just what I did. Then we were allowed to paint our classrooms, so I did that too! My principal hated the rickety, wooden tables in my room, so she got me beautiful, green tables that were sturdy and easy to clean! I also got a new easel and through the years, have really gotten better at staying organized, keeping clutter to a minimum and creating (and finding) awesome classroom decor for my room! Well enough of my jibber-jabbing... take a look for yourselves! 

My first year of teaching (2009-2010) to My 4th year (2012-2013)

BEFORE

Note the boring walls, old rickety tables and boring table signs... (all before pinterest and this blog!)

 AFTER

EXACT same view of my room during my 4th year of teaching... pretty color on the walls, new tables, chair pockets made by  my mom, pretty table signs I made and matching table tubs for supplies! =)

BEFORE

This was where my writing center was my first year of teaching....

 AFTER

Here is the exact same view but this area is now my calendar area! (I LOOOOVE my new rug thanks to donorschoose!)

 BEFORE

These next two photos were my calendar area my first year of teaching...

Here is that same wall now! It's my word wall/small group area on the large whiteboard and the smaell board is my writing board and listening center.

 AFTER

Close up of my writing board....

This wall is also part of our writing board...

 BEFORE

This is how I used to post my standards...

 AFTER

Here is how I post them now!

 BEFORE

My letter of the week board (before we were told to stop letter of the week)

 AFTER 

Here is the same wall this past school year!

 BEFORE

My tiny little word wall....

Old computer station....

 AFTER

Here is that same corner NOW. =)

Here is what my computer center looks like now!

 BEFORE

Old library station...

 AFTER

My new library station! (That little book shelf didn't stay there... I eventually moved it  b/c it was too cluttered for my liking here.

 BEFORE

Look back to the right side at my flat file and how messy that area is (my first year)!

 AFTER

Now look at this beauty! So organized and loving it!!!

I get so excited looking back at these b/c I can't wait to start decorating my classroom (I know... I'm a big nerd!)

So click on the link at the beginning of this post to go see other classroom transformations!

Sincerely,

#TeacherTalkTuesdays

Our "QU" wedding....

Playing duck duck goose, while waiting for the buses on our field trip!

I taught the kids how to play simon says when we were learning how to act out the meaning of simple verbs... they loved it so much they played it out on the playgrounds!

One of my little guys brought this in for me on teachers appreciation day and I about cried.... it was one of the most thoughtful gifts I have received!

This went with my crayola crayon picture =)

Another sweetie brought me these flowers <3

"Smarties" were in the jar (LOVE the creativity!!!)

Instagram #teachertalktuesday

Man oh man have I missed out on a lot this past school year! I am amazed at how the blogging world has exploded with so many great teachers and teacher blogs out there! Most of you know I took a little hiatus so I could focus on my masters classes this past year. I tried to post here and there, but had a tough time managing it all and staying sane. But I am happy to announce that my classes are going AWESOME and this time next year I'll have a master's degree!

Now onto more fun stuff! I saw the posts on Teacher Talk Tuesday and I thought it was such a GREAT idea I had to join in! (I know... I'm a week late!) I'm officially on summer break since Friday... but I did remember to take a few cute pics of our end of the year fun! I used the picstich and instagram apps to join....

You can find me on instagram as...

underthealphabetree

If you are interested in where I found the cute activities- I have provided a link to TPT where I found them!

An adorable summer craft (Found HERE)

Our writing activity for the last week of school! They turned out so great!!! (Found HERE)

After the kids left for summer break. Don't pretend like you didn't do it too! ;)

I miss these little boogs!!! <3

I can't believe another year has flown by! I hope that next school year I will have a little more time to post on here now that I'm in the swing of things with my masters! =) I will definitely be posting freebies and maybe a few things on TPT here and there this summer. I appreciate all the love and support you have shown me this past week!!! Love my blogging buddies!!! (And those teachers who are loyal readers!) =)

Hope ya'll are having a wonderful summer break! (And to those of you who are still in school.... you are almost there! YOU CAN DO IT!) =)

Flashback through the year

Thank you all for your kind words on my most recent post! It's so nice to know that so many of you cared enough to leave a sweet comment for me! =)  I'm officially on summer break and enjoying a nice weekend of camping in the country with one of my best friends and her family in middle Tennessee!

Today, I wanted to share some pictures of anchor charts I have made the past school year that actually turned out pretty cute! Most of them I got from other blogs and I will try my best to give credit where it's due!!! =) Don't ya'll just LOVE pinterest?!

I had a sub that day... she did a pretty good job with her illustrations! =) This chart was inspired by this cute one found here!

I tried to draw my best! This chart was inspired by Kindergarten Kindergarten!

How we introduced addition equations! =)

This is what we did at the end of the school year for retelling a story! This was another chart idea from Life in 1st Grade!

We created this venn diagram to compare and contrast what it was like in Kindergarten and what it will be like in 1st grade!

This chart REALLY helped my kinders understand how to find the main idea of a story!!!! Thanks to one of my FAVORITES: Life in First Grade!

This was a great chart to introduce details for a main idea! The kids did an awesome job!

We used the examples found HERE to come up with details for our Main Idea after reading some non-fiction texts!

I didn't have time to make this as cute as the others! =)

We did this several days in a row with different books! The kids really started to get the hang of it! =)

Here's a cute one we came up with when we were learning about digraphs! =)

The kids loved this one! =) Idea from HERE!

Our school librarian gave us this idea!

Loved these two No David chart idea from Cara Carroll! It really helped my kids with making inferences!

This was a graph we made for the beginning of the year for our opinion writing on what was their favorite book and why.

This one was from Cara Carroll! I was so proud of this one I didn't throw it away! 

No more personal posts!

So it's been brought to my attention that I am getting too personal on my blog and no body cares... apparently I just need get off of the blogging world b/c I'm ALL ABOUT ME!!!! So to CRUELla.... here is your non-personal post.

I just finished my 4th year of teaching kindergarten.
In those 4 years, I have loved 80+ students and taught them to be kind, supportive of one another and that there is someone who loves them--- ME. (Selfish)...
I spent a week in Haiti and loved on orphans and taught a 4th grade class teaching them about Jesus. SO SELFISH. I know....
I have a niece, who I ADORE. And will babysit her for free anytime my sister and brother in law asks- no questions ask.... FOR FREE. (Again... how can I be so selfish!)
The majority of the things I create, I share for FREE. (Sickening, right?)
This personal post you speak of... that NO ONE cares about.... happened to be about my grandfather who passed away and left behind his wife, 11 children and their spouses, over 30 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. I'm pretty sure THEY CARE.

So when you want to write a cruel and hurtful email to someone... here's a little suggestion. Don't include your SCHOOL email. B/c in this day and age... it's pretty easy to find out who you are. Which it was. Just sayin....

OH... and one more piece of advice... don't send them to me. ;) If you don't like what I write. That's fine. Don't read it. You are a grown woman, so act like one. Sending emails like that is so childish and mean. Hope you're proud of yourself.

PEACE.