Soaring Through 1st and 2nd

Shew, what a week!? I hate to be that way, but man on man... it was just one of those weeks. I'll spare you the details, but I am sure thankful for my Saturday morning. I am praying for a more peaceful week next week.

I have been teaching for 3 years and I have had 3 classroom themes. I have loved all three, but also love creating new ones. This year's theme is my favorite, I think. When I was reader Debbie Millers, "Reading With Meaning" over the summer I loved when she talked about classroom environment and making it homey and inviting. She recommends pillows, lamps, and anything that will make the classroom feel cozy. I have always found classroom decor to be fun, but I wanted to know a little more about the "why" behind it. THIS research article does a great job of explaining how a comfortable learning environment can help increase student achievement. Ding! So don't let anyone fool you into thinking that creating and environment in your classroom is a waste of time, it's research proven people.

I am loving the calming effect of my theme this year. I did a soaring theme (my sister sucked me in when she showed me ideas that she had from ikea for her middle school classroom). I have lots of clouds and stars combined with green, blue, and yellow.

Here are some pictures:

My table mobiles made from a sewing hoop, card stock, and ribbon. 

Sky High Learning Targets

Love, love, love the poster printer at school. I made the clouds, printed them as posters and then had them laminated to be headers for all of my anchor boards. 

Cloud Cubby Number

I used a yellow paper lantern to make a 3D sun for the room. You can also see the "Math Cloud". 

You can't see a lot of them here, but I have created a classroom theme for my TPT store. You'll find things like the cloud header files, a star of the week packet, name tags, cubby labels, "soaring" work header, table signs, iPad rules, along with a few other fun things! 

Click here to grab this theme in my store! Hope you enjoy!