Update on Building My Dream Classroom

Work in progress!

We have counter tops!!!

Friday was a VERY exciting day for my classroom makeover!  I had to get to school at 5:45 to meet the guys from the cabinet shop.  They installed my counter tops and I LOVE them!  It looks so much cleaner with the fridge under the counter.  The best part is that now I can fill the cabinets up!  I have SUCH a mess in the back of my room.  I got rid of three large book shelves, two small book shelves, and a large cabinet.  All that stuff is just piled up and driving me nuts!

I have ordered upper cabinets.  They will be installed over the summer.  The cabinet guy is also going to attach a dry erase board on the back of one of the cabinets.  I found a magnet dry erase "sticker" that looked great for the job, but I think I am going to go with another option.  Here is the link for the magnetic sticker board.   I did find some info on cutting these types of boards.  You can read what I found by clicking here.   I would really like for the board to be magnetic, but the sticker is over $100 and I found a place that will cut it for me for $50.  My cabinet guy will supply and install a non-magnetic board for $40.  I pretty much HAVE to go with that option.  It doesn't seem worth the money for it to be magnetic.

This shows where the dry erase board will go.

One side of this area is where I share a desk with my aide.  The other side is my writing area.  It will be really nice to have a dry erase board in the writing area.  Kids LOVE writing on the board, but since my white board doubles as my smartboard, it is often not available during centers.

I also love having the cabinet that opens on the writing area side.  I have filled it with paintbrushes, ink pads, water color paint, etc.  It will be great to have all those resources in the right spot!

The OCD in me loves this drawer!

There are many things I still need to change in this area.  The desk is too big for the area.  I am looking for a smaller one.  I also have a mauve chair (which looks awful!).  I will buy a round table for my writing area over the summer.  It will match the wood on the cabinets and fit the area much better than the rectangle table I currently have in the space.

I am trying to find solutions to things that I KNOW are problems in my room.  One thing that bugs me is my jacket.  I like to keep a sweater or jacket in my room all year.  I get chilly when the air kicks on.  I usually keep an extra sweater on the back of a chair.  It slips off and I roll over it.  It looks ugly.  I need some place to keep my jacket.  I also need a place for my purse.  It is never in one spot!  My kids also come in and toss their backpacks in the middle of my floor everyday after school.  This is annoying!  I have solved all three of these problems by adding hooks to the wall in an unused corner.

No more purse on the floor!!!

Before I glued buttons.

I got rid of two small book shelves in my writing area.  They were cheap shelves that had been moved a few too many times so they were wobbly.  The wood was dark brown, so they had to go!

I want more floor space so I am hanging many of the supplies that were on the shelves.  I bought some wooden peg hooks and painted them green.  I attached them to the wall and hung supplies from them.  The screw holes looked ugly, so I hot glued buttons over them.
I bought these little, clear "paint buckets" from Joann's.  I have filled them with buttons, pom-poms, google eyes, and craft sticks.  I definitely need some more.

This is starting to look like my dream classroom!  Hooray!

I will post more as soon as I make more progress.  I am hoping to make a huge transformation over the summer!  It is SO much fun!