Ahoy matey!

I've survived two weeks with my adorable (but exhausting) kinders! Wowsers! I have gone to bed before 9:30 almost every night this week. Even though its been a hard two weeks, I'm very excited about this year!

Before I go into what I did for back to school,  I wanted to give you guys a little tour of my Pirate room! Don't forget, if you want the pirate decorations, check out my TpT store HERE.

When you first come in my room you are greeted by my welcome board! I put our class schedule, newsletter and other announcements on this board. I decorated the bottom with waves and DJ Inkers sea animals (bulletin board set). You can't see it but below that are two tubs where my kids store their backpacks.

Right next to the welcome board is my class bulletin board. I had good intentions on having it decorated the first week of school, but I was happy just to get the title up there. I'm planning on having the kids decorate little pirate faces.

Next to the bulletin board is our word wall, which I named "Words of Gold." I made the alphabet cards with parrot clip art except for the vowels which are pirates. I have been doing pirate of the day (my version of student of the day) and putting that student's name on the board each day. We will also start learning sight words in a few weeks and they will be placed on the word wall as we learn them.

This is my art center underneath my seaweed decorations I left up from last year (my theme was under the sea). I'm planning on displaying student art work on that bulletin board. I absolutely love my giraffe measurement bulletin board set and didn't want to take it down so I added an eye patch to make it work with the theme. ;-)

I made a student display board that I titled "Work We Treasure."I put a laminated piece of card stock for each student and clipped a clothespin on it. I will later put each student's picture on their clothespin to mark where they will display their work. 

 I made this bulletin board of me as a pirate saying "These kids ARRRGH great!!" Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet - probably decorate it with the kids' names. Next to that is my math center which I have decorated with fish numbers.

I got this awesome box from a coworker and I used it as my rewards box or my "treasure chest." My kids get rewarded for earning "warm and fuzzies" and filling up their class jar. I also found this awesome map pillow at IKEA and my teammates convinced me I HAD to get it. I have to admit, it looks great in my room.

 

At the front of my room is our learning goals. I am most proud of this bulletin board! I got the idea from Deanna Jump's literacy center display. I just used butcher paper to make the waves and ship. I then bought a yard of fabric and stapled it in between the two beams. The kids love it! I hot glued clothes pins where I display our weekly learning goals. I'm trying to get better at regularly referencing them with my kids. 

Finally, here is my classroom job display, which I named "The Captain's Crew." Each kid gets a parrot card and they will rotate between the different jobs. I haven't started jobs yet - planning on doing that next week. The kids have been begging for jobs.

Hope you enjoyed my tour! Please let me know if you have any questions!