TGIF

Is anyone else glad it's Friday?  This first week back after Spring Break has been a little crazy for us.  The kids were all extremely energized and we got an unexpected dusting of snow (along with temps that are way too cold for Spring)!  On top of it all, I feel like I may be coming down with a cold - boo!!


Anyway, I wanted to share what I decided to do with my Star Student bulletin board.  I wanted to keep the Star Student theme because I like having a place to highlight the students (especially in such a small room).  If you don't remember the board from before, you can find a picture in this post.  My main goal was to make this bulletin board more meaningful.  In the beginning of the year, I had students fill out "All About Me" sheets with their favorite book and a photo so that different reading groups could see who else came to see me throughout the day.  I had difficulty figuring out how to use this bulletin board mid-year.  I decided to focus on students' reading strengths.  Today I had each student fill out a star paper with their name and an "I can" statement about their reading.  I like how it turned out!  (I changed the background to black for more contrast...the bottom half of the board is still yellow and dedicated to "teacher reminders".  I still have a few more stars to add, hence the space at the bottom!  What do you think?

I also wanted to share some pictures of our newly painted family room!  I'm excited about this because I've been wanting it done forEVER!  We've lived in our house 6 years now (!) so I think it's time to paint some of our "main" rooms.  I'm trying to figure out decorations still.....I'm very indecisive!  FYI: The fireplace wall is our only accent wall.  The other walls are all the color on the right, it was just bad lighting!  Here is a before and after:

In case anyone just loves my style, here are my paint colors.  I like neutral walls and pops of color on pillows, blankets, curtains, accessories, etc.  Don't hate!

Roasted Sepia (accent wall)

Stone Manor (all other walls in Great Room)

Smoked Oyster (common areas of house - downstairs hallway/foyer, stairway, upstairs hallway)

Autumn Fog (I haven't painted yet, but this is the color I chose for our kitchen).  I think I'll do this in our master bath too!  In real life, it seems much more blue than gray!

 Last, but not least, the ladies over at Made for First Grade are hosting an April Fools Giveaway!  Head on over to their blog to enter for a chance to win 1 of 3 awesome literacy resources!