Moments to Teach: Classroom Decorating Series

My second year of teaching 2nd grade, I decided to redo my theme. The Hollywood theme wasn't the match for me. So, I searched the teaching stores and decided on a jungle theme. I love animals, so this was more than fitting!

Take a look at the room:

I tried to make the cabinets look by inviting by surrounding them with border and cute animals. Notice the pieces of my stuffed animals collection at the top!

At the end of my first year of teaching, I had the students decorate monkeys and write their favorite thing about the year on them. I proudly hung these up for Meet the Teacher night.

This was our calendar area. It turns out we didn't use it as much as I thought we would because most of our calendar activities were done on the Smart Board, which wasn't near the white board. You will also see my colored drawers below. I went from desks to tables, but I continued to use the drawers for organizing group supplies. Still worked great!

You can see the back bulletin board with animal print border and my job tree in this picture. The student jobs were displayed with monkeys. You can also see my map to the writing process on the wall. I loved this piece when I found it even though it didn't fit the décor!

I found this rug during the summer and fell in love with it. Unfortunately, it didn't hold up against the sweepers used by our custodians. :( You can also see the benches my dad made up front! This was my first year using them.

This was the other side of the board - the monkeys were intended to be a behavior management system but I ended up having to adjust the system throughout the year.

This was my reading center and the rest of my lovely benches! I absolutely loved the set up - very cozy. I did away with this set up by the end of the year for various reasons, but I think I'm going to use a similar set up this year. I believe it'll work well in the new classroom.

Here you can see the teacher area. It seems each year, I decrease the amount of space in the classroom that is "mine." This year is no exception - I've already started trying to work out my classroom layout and I can tell you that I've downsized my desk space once again.