This is the first year in about 5 years that I've been able
to set up my classroom at my leisure.
Previously, I'd be calling at the beginning of July asking if the floors
were done and furniture back in so that I could get it all done before my trip
to England to visit my fiancé.
But now that he's living here (we got married in February) I've been
able to go in as often as I please (he even came in with me to clean all the
desks!)
I've kept my lime green, teal, and white theme since it goes
well with the existing colors in the room. These photos are from 2 years ago but they're mostly the same:
If you can't tell, I got the inspiration for my classroom color scheme (and blog theme!) from this tablecloth (a Target special, haha).
I chose these colors mostly to tone down the pre-existing 70s color scheme of brownish floors, avocado bookshelves, and teal student chairs/desks.
I think the overall look is harmonious and cheerful, so until they switch out the furniture and give me the thumbs up to paint the shelves, the theme stays!
And I've kept most of the layout the same, though I've added a few upgrades here and there. One small thing I'm proud of is my hand sanitizer bathroom passes (available for purchase in my TPT store). I think back to all the times my passes got lost, or worse...WET) and attempting to use unpleasant but memorable passes, like a globe (my principal at the time did not see the humor in that). Finally a colleague tipped me off: have them leave the pass on their desk. No more lost passes! Well, that worked perfectly well last year; I didn't have to replace those bathroom passes (which you can download free!) once.
But then I found an even better idea: wrap your bathroom pass around a bottle of hand sanitizer! I'll keep you posted, but I'm excited about this little nugget. I used to keep a bottle beside the bathroom passes, but I'm hoping that if they actually have to pick them up, they'll be much more likely to use them if they forgot to wash.
I wish my desk stayed that neat all year! |
I chose these colors mostly to tone down the pre-existing 70s color scheme of brownish floors, avocado bookshelves, and teal student chairs/desks.
I think the overall look is harmonious and cheerful, so until they switch out the furniture and give me the thumbs up to paint the shelves, the theme stays!
And I've kept most of the layout the same, though I've added a few upgrades here and there. One small thing I'm proud of is my hand sanitizer bathroom passes (available for purchase in my TPT store). I think back to all the times my passes got lost, or worse...WET) and attempting to use unpleasant but memorable passes, like a globe (my principal at the time did not see the humor in that). Finally a colleague tipped me off: have them leave the pass on their desk. No more lost passes! Well, that worked perfectly well last year; I didn't have to replace those bathroom passes (which you can download free!) once.
But then I found an even better idea: wrap your bathroom pass around a bottle of hand sanitizer! I'll keep you posted, but I'm excited about this little nugget. I used to keep a bottle beside the bathroom passes, but I'm hoping that if they actually have to pick them up, they'll be much more likely to use them if they forgot to wash.
The next little upgrade was my homework board. Originally I had manila sentence strips with
labels, but this year I used my book shelf label design to upgrade the look.
I wish my white board was magnetized so that I could use these for the schedule as well, but this is a nice start.
Finally, I upgraded my hallway bulletin board. The leaves are the same as usual; I made those years ago because there are fewer things that make me as feel happy to be alive as a sunny day of foliage-watching in the fall.
![]() |
Names blurred to protect student privacy |
So I made leafy letters that coordinated and changed out the rest.


Anyone else excited about "classroom upgrades" for the new year? Join our Linky Party!



