Slowly but Surely

I have been in a flurry of preparation this week! We start school Monday morning. My room is (mostly) ready, just a few quick fixes tomorrow and I am ready to go! Starting my second year of teaching, I am really blessed to be at the same small school again and to already know so many of my students. 2nd grade does lunch and recess with 1st at my school, so I have a good idea of the little (and not so little) personalities in my class this year!

Yesterday I looked at my first week plans from last year. Oh my goodness I was a first year teacher! I had to laugh at how little I understood about second grade and be amazed at what a difference a year makes.

Since I am in the same classroom this year, the last two weeks have been more about refining last year's arrangement and decor to make it work better.  Last summer I was also just getting into designing, so I had to update a lot of my posters as well.

 Here is a quick peak at some of the organization in my room this year:

My new crayon drawers! I am already in love. Each student has one box of crayons at their desk, and the rest of them will be divided up into these drawers. I am putting the drawers around the room on the second day of school and we will explore the classroom as we put away the colors. Now instead of digging through cabinets or buckets, I can easily find a color.  I got the box at Home Depot and the labels can be found here in my TPT store. 

A drawer of blue. I already have over 30 crayons in there and it can hold so much more! 

Another project this summer was updating my weekly drawers. I made labels for them last year, but once I made a copy, grade, file set I knew I needed to redo all of them. I am loving the streamline look. 

My sister painted the tree above the drawers. At the end of the year, I had my kiddos put their fingerprint on the branches. The idea is that each year my class will add their fingerprints in different colors. I got the idea here. 

Check in tomorrow to see more of my classroom!