So long summer; Hello school days!

If you are a teacher or are friends with teachers, I'm sure you can understand why this post is a little late. I'm just now beginning to feel like things are slowing down a little. Because of some sad circumstances with a couple of our families, it was a tougher beginning to the year than usual. But we made it through, and hopefully it's all downhill from here...right?!

To back up to this summer, I started on my classroom much later than I usually do. We had our air conditioning worked on this summer, and after sweating it out for a few hours one day (it was hotter inside than outside...and keep in mind, this is Texas in August), I decided to wait until our air was back on before I returned to do more. When I came into my room, this is how I found it.

I had a lot to do. I moved my stuff into this room at the end of the year, and shoved more stuff than I thought was possible into my cabinets. Then I put all my books into big crates. I was starting from nothing. After lots of stressful days and backaches, I finally got it all ready to go. I finished it the day the kids came in (minus the stuff I had crammed into cabinets until I could figure out where to put it. I have to thank some great helpers who made the process a little easier and definitely more fun!

Here is what the room looked like the weekend before school started.

There's lots of blank space on the wall to add anchor charts, our birthday timeline, and other things. But this is basically what the room looks like. I'll update it as the year goes on, as well as include more close-ups of some of the things around our room. You may spy several Pinterest projects within my room. I am proud of them, and they really add to the room!