Confetti Room Back in Oklahoma Again

As I had posted in my last blog, I left Maui and came back to Oklahoma. It was very hard to leave but  I learned that I needed a lot more money and my own jet plane to live in Maui. It is a beautiful place. I did however earn a real appreciation for many things I have in Oklahoma that I did not have in Maui. Every time I think about going back I just remind myself of all the things I would be without. So many things that you don't think you will miss, and you do! :) Here I am back in Oklahoma for at least two years so my son can finish high school. Then we may be moving to the west coast, we will see.

I am teaching kindergarten again and so I decided to use the same theme I had started in Hawaii. It came from the schoolgirlstyle blog/website. The theme is called confetti. You will see that it look very different in this room that in the Hawaii room. Part of that is because I have new carpet in my room and  there is very little furniture in the room compared to the other room. The room is smaller too but I think it turned out much better. I purchased white bookshelves on clearance from Walmart. Having more control over the color and having less furniture to deal with gave me more control over the outcome. So here it is!

You will notice the blue hue in the room. I covered all my lights with filters, so there is a blue light instead of the harsh white light.

 I ordered stools like in Hawaii for my guided reading table. This time I ordered the taller ones, they work perfectly!

 I wanted to create a separate reading meeting place like in Hawaii but it was too small so the chair was moved to the big carpet. Now that is used for both read aloud and math.

 The number corner/math area is a pre-designed layout (the wall part) that goes with out new bridges math curriculum. I added an additional number line on the top and shapes on the bottom.

The tables looked so cute! We pulled out play dough the first day and the white paper was ruined so it came off by the second day. Lesson learned.

                        My library space I was pretty excited about! I really love the turn out!

 Kitchen center worked out well. I used it to create an enclosed space around the sink and cabinets.

                  I managed to get a pineapple in and a photo board to pin some Hawaii photos too!

After understanding the impact that a brightly colored number line can make I made sure to incorporate it into the new room of course. 

 I am getting ready to start the second full week of school and I am already contemplating some layout changes! I am also considering going back to alternative seating. We will see how things go!

Mahalo!

Left Maui :( But here was the room.

Unfortunately as much as I love this place and thought I would retire here forever, things didn't work out financially to stay. I did want to share the changes in the room, which weren't as extensive as I had planned. My hope was to revamp for the new school year but I did make some great changes in the space that made a huge difference!

 This was the first time I've use white BB paper, it was harder than expected. It was a decent start. The colors were a vast improvement. The larger and more colorful and visible alphabet was very helpful.

 This room just had too much furniture in it to begin with and getting it out was not an easy task and couldn't be done mid-year so I had to work with some stuff the best I could. I did create a reading carpet space in front of the smart tv so I could use the curriculum materials on the board.

 The reading bar was the most successful part of the transition. The kids loved it and sometimes I used it for literacy centers.

 Again too much furniture and most of really old and in need of painting. The addition of color really improved the space. The yellow rug really added nice color and we used this are for our math meeting time.

I tried to create some read to self space with various rugs and these little chairs too. It was a huge improvement over all the tables with stuff stored underneath.

Here is the yellow rug in the math space. I also removed all the random colors and backing on the cabinets and hung relevant materials. 

 The previous teacher did not have numbers up, which explained why the kids couldn't recognize their numbers. These were great! I had all my kids recognizing their numbers during my time there.

There was a few more things that were freshened up, but I was pretty stuck with time and money coming middle of the school year to an expensive place to live. Purging the amount of furniture in the room was also impossible mid year. If I had stayed things would have been starkly different in the new school year. I am sure the new teacher made it her own as well!  I loved teaching in Hawaii. I miss living there. No a/c in this school :( but the people were just amazing!