Burlap and Chalkboard Bulletin and Classroom Decor

For the first time, I am working on a theme for my classroom. I decided against animals or a particular title, just because I know myself and I would be sick of it within a year (that can't be cheap!). So, I originally planned on chalkboard and red.  However, after about a week of mulling that over, I changed my mind. Again. I am still sticking with chalkboard (and adding burlap), and going for a home-y feel for my home away from home.

I love these table group supply tubs.  I bought them at Walmart my first year of teaching (in the laundry aisle!) and use them almost every day.  I assign one student at each table group the job of "Tub Person" and they are responsible for making sure it is stocked and organized, as well as retrieving the tub and putting it away when they need it.  I put glue, glue sticks, crayons, markers, colored pencils, scissors, stapler and tape dispenser in each tub. I also took a picture of an organized one and taped it to each tub so the kids knew what it should look like each time they put it back.  They are awesome. The only downside is that they are turquoise. A perfectly great color, but not black/burlap. So...spray paint time!

 I brought them outside (we have had a BEAUTIFUL summer and it happened to not be raining, which doesn't work well with spray paint).

A couple of coats of Krylon Fusion gloss black and voila...black!

And while I was at it, I decided to fix up my lil coffee table I already had in my room.  He served as a mailbox stand for the last 5 years, but now it is his time to SHINE as an actual coffee table.  Ladies and gentlemen, get a load of this makeover! Is he a whole new table or what?!

And if you didn't already know, Chalkboard comes in SPRAY PAINT FORM. Halle-frickin-lujah for this or I wouldn't have done it. I stuck with good ol Krylon and wasn't disappointed. The top is chalkboard and the rest is just basic black.

So, my saint of a mom, always "knows a guy." She's the person people (not just me) call to ask for help with just about everything. So, instead of going to JoAnns and buying burlap, she hooked me up with some for FREE. I got a big ol bag of burlap bags from her friends' son who works at a local coffee company here. 

The goods:

 So, I laid the bags out and cut them to open them up, and cut off any colored parts while I was at it. 

And here they are on my Word Wall bulletin board! I scrunched and stapled like a mad lady for what felt like hours (probably took me about 30 minutes total though).  The black background is actually fabric on top of corkboard...it doesn't fade all year and you can reuse it over and over!

And here are the bulletin boards with stuff on them!

 The Word Wall words are from my Chalkboard Sight Words pack (editable of course!).

Our daily schedule:

 And here are the tubs all filled up and put back.

 A view from the door. Check out the huge area rug I scored at a garage sale this weekend!

I also purchased a few matching black pocket charts (yes, they do exist!) to go with my chalkboard theme. Click below to check them out.

 The chair was a gift from my host teacher.  It was red...until this weekend when I attacked it with flat black spray paint and added a burlap cover with my Mr.Tongass' staple gun. The horseshoe table doubles as my desk and small group area. If you haven't already thought of getting rid of your desk, I highly recommend it! I got rid of mine a couple of years ago and love it!

I also spray painted my mailbox and this old globe. I plan on writing inspirational quotes with my white chalkboard marker (if I can find it...did you take it?!).

And a close up of the Bathroom checkout system (sign-out sheets found in my Editable Teacher Binder Essentials pack) after jazzing up the hand sanitizers...

And a close up with the binder-clip labels.

 

Supply table.

If you're looking left and right from the door.

And with my line-up spots (also found in my Chalkboard Classroom Decor pack)

My Turn-In Box area.

I'm trying to go for a home-y feel, which is why my library has a couch, chaise, coffee and end tables! Doesn't the chalkboard coffee table look great there? I love it.  Wouldn't you want to read a book in this little library area?

And I just updated the book tubs to include these Chalkboard Reading Level labels.

And we are a PBIS school, so I had to make a PBIS matrix with Velcro pieces we could build and refer to throughout the year. You can check it out here.

Do you have a reading program? Does it take up as much space as ours? Check out how I organize my weekly sight words, vocab words and sound spelling cards. They all have velcro so it's a quick switch each week!

And the outside of my room is a sneak peek of what's to come!

And I even made my own personal sign for the hallway--cute, right?

And even my Calendar area got a chalkboard facelift!

And we added important days and holidays cards to add the the dates and count up to:

I laminated a few of the pieces to make them dry-erase friendly (the pieces that aren't in a pocket chart have sticky magnet strips on the back so all of the pieces are easily moveable).

 And here's a snapshot of the desks all ready for Tuesday. I got the hats on sale after New Years a few years ago and the Play-doh mat and worksheet are from my Play-doh pack on TpT.

Click below to see what else is included.

If you're looking for a fun little matching chalkboard photo prop to do with your students (I made this to use with my own kiddo), you can grab this FREE editable first day of school poster by clicking below.

And now that my room is put together, you better believe I'll be printing and cutting for the next few days! If you're thinking about a Chalkboard and Burlap (or really any other color), you can check these resources out by clicking below. 

Pin below for later!

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