Classroom Walls

I'm always amazed at how bare the classroom walls look after the last day of school. It makes me a little sad. I have always liked my walls to start off plain and uncluttered in August, but by the time May comes along the walls are stuffed! What a difference!
In August, I like to have very little on my walls. After reading The Daily 5 by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser, I finally have research to back that choice! Every chart on my walls when we start the school year is something we will use every day. From the first day of school, we are anchoring learning to each chart.

Main Wall in August

I seem to have lost my other photos, so I will continue this another time... :(

Thank You, Volunteers!

Well, there are only three more days left with students this year!

Last week I finally realized how few days I had and I started panicking about how to thank my parent volunteers.  Thanks to several creative teacher blogs, my creativity started to spark.  But, being on an island in the Gulf of Alaska, my resources were quite limited.  Sure, a month ago I could have gotten supplies shipped here, but I wasn't thinking about that then...

A local craft store was having a sale, and I found cute little wooden pots, dowels, and moss.  I found a flower shaped free clip art pattern and traced it onto card stock.  Then I found wonderful lettering at Lettering Delights.  Here is what I came up with:

Let me know how you thank your volunteers.  I'm always in need of ideas!
That's all from the First Grade Zoo!

 

Suzan