A Mouse, Freebie, and Classroom Reveal!

Today is the day!

My "classroom" (intervention space/office) - is finally DONE!!

Which is great timing...

Family Orientation is tonight and the students arrive Monday.

I've enjoyed reading other teachers' blogs and seeing pictures of their set-ups. I'm more excited for the students arriving to learn in all these thoughtfully set-up rooms! I also have to admit to being a tiny bit jelly when I see things like matching chairs, technology, and beautiful paper displays. I have tried to steal be inspired by many of your ideas with mixed results. This year I think I finally came to terms with the real boss in my classroom:

Sure, he (or she) may look cute now, but this little friend has also feasted on many, many cute teaching decor items and supplies! His pallets include anything made out of cloth (those fabric "cubes"), paper (umm...everything!), foam (math manipulatives!), and books (unforgiveable!).

This little classroom pet is actually going to save me money because when I see all the adorable decorative items at Target, I just picture them with little chew marks and then I can easily keep walking towards the ink cartridges.

This year, my theme is "plastic and clean."

I finished what I started last year and purchased more Rubbermaid shelving to remove all items from the floor and picked up more clear bins (with lids!) from Ikea. The idea behind this was that I can easily clean with Clorox wipes and Lysol spray without worrying about damaging/discoloring anything. 

I chose a very simple black/white color scheme with primary colors mixed in. It just feels clean and in an old public city school...clean is a good thing :)

Here's the results!

On the right is my library and on the left wall are all my storage bins of materials. The bulletin board area with sentence chart (black!) and small carpet is for m Power Hour (aka Guided Reading) groups. On the other side of the room is a kidney table and easel that I'll be sharing throughout the day with other special educators (so we will keep it plain and bring our own caddy of supplies).

Any areas that look empty will soon be filled with exemplar student work!

There's also a sink (doesn't work) and counter/cabinets. I put my desk back there to create a more open space. I'll post more pictures of that area soon!

I also realize it looks a tad "stark," but that's actually preferred in these old schools :)

I purchased and adapted Schoolgirl Style's "I Heart School" black and white collection and then added my own pieces. Please don't mind the phone...not all of our electrical outlets work, so we're still working on it! Am I missing anything fabulous? Please leave a comment if you think of something - thanks!

I also love a good motivational quote! 

Here's a freebie featuring one of my absolute favorites!

Please stay tuned as I add more finishing touches!

This post is linked up with the

You simply must check out The Primary Gal's linky!

Unless you're trying to save money ;)

Have a wonderful week!