Four on the Fourth!

Ms. M is having a linky party sharing 4 new things we plan to do this year in our classroom.  Since I've started blogging, I've learned so many new things and I can't wait to try them out in my class.

1. Fully incorporate a classroom theme!  I've never had a "theme" before and this year I've decided to use sports as my theme.  I love sports!  On Saturdays and Sundays I wake up to watch the college/pro football pregame analysis shows.  {I love College Game Day!}  Since I played softball in college, I figure that this is something I don't mind seeing in my room over and over.  I'm even starting to create my own classroom materials based on this theme.  Here's a birthday poster I made:

2. Use student organizational binders.  I purchased the sports themed STAR book set from Jodi at Fun in First and I'm almost finished with all of my pages.  I'm waiting on my school to purchase the binders so I can start filling them up before school starts!

3. Stay organized!  I seem to start the year off right, but things just go down hill from there.  But not this year.  So far I've already labeled all of my math manipulates:

my supplies:

and created the labels for my library bins:

I'm hoping that these will help keep my stuff organized.  This summer I have to finish organizing my files and teacher stuff.  I'm almost done with my teacher binder and I know that will definitely keep me organized.

4. Continue to be a learner!  I think in the past I start off the school year with all the enthusiasm in the world, but it inevitably drains, and I get into the rut of going with the same old same old.  Thanks to blogging I know that this won't happen and I'm super excited about it!

I hope everyone has/had a wonderful 4th and stops by to link up and share some great ideas!