To Theme or Not To Theme?

Yes, it's getting to be that time of year when I'm kind of over the current school year and am already making plans for next year.  It's not that I'm giving up on this year or anything like that...  I'm just already looking forward to a fresh start.  I love that I'm in a career where I get a fresh start each August.  I'm not completely stuck doing everything the same year after year.  If you know me, you know I like change in my home, my wardrobe, and my classroom.  I can't keep things to same for too long before I get bored.

We've done school-wide themes the past 4 years...  Western, stars / space, jungle, and sports.  I like this, but only to a point.  Our new principal, who's been around for years before this as a teacher, has been surveying our staff about themes.  It sounds like we're leaning towards not having a school-wide theme next year.  I try not to spend a lot of money on theme decorations, but I do still have boxes of theme items I probably won't use ever again.  (Uh, western?  I may live in Kansas, but I am about as far from a cowgirl as you get.)  Ideas were thrown out to let teachers just do whatever they want or maybe select a grade level theme.

I'm trying to figure out what, if anything, I want to do with my classroom next year.  Why am I thinking about this already?  I like planning ahead and knowing what I'm looking for when I'm out shopping.  If I spot something on an amazing sale, I can snatch it at a good price.  I can also be lurking around on Pinterest and the blogs gathering up ideas as well.  Let's just admit, Pinterest has put me into idea overload and I need some time to just work on those projects!

Here are some of my ideas and "themes" so far and links to give you visuals:

• Poppin' Patterns - This isn't really a theme, but it's totally my decor scheme right now.  It's from Creative Teaching Press and I'm pretty sure this line came out right around the time I started teaching and has just grown since then.  I was attracted to this collection because it's pretty versatile and I can make it work with most other themes.  The advantage is I already own TONS of stuff from this line.  In fact, when I Google'd "Poppin' Patterns classroom" pics of my room came up in the images!
• http://www.creativeteaching.com/c-68-poppin-patterns.aspx
• http://betterbulletinboards.blogspot.com/2011/03/polka-dot-word-wall.html
• http://www.creativeteaching.com/t-photo-contest.aspx
• http://bulletinboardideas.org/2769/best-of-the-bunch-apple-themed-welcome-display/
• Zebra / Hot Pink / Lime Green - This is super tempting, but I know that I would end up costing me a lot of money.  I've found a lot of cute ideas on Pinterest and I think this would be super cute, but I'm not really sure I want to take on the task of a COMPLETE classroom makeover.  I'm still trying to keep my school spending to a minimum and I know my OCD everything must match brain would go into overdrive.  Still, it's super cute and there's a lot out there to go with this theme.  (And where was all this cute stuff last year when it was "Wild About Learning"?  Nowhere to be found...)
• http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Zebra-Zone
• http://www.mardel.com/store/group.aspx?groupid=151
• http://flipflopteacher.blogspot.com/2011/08/2011-2012-classroom-still-under.html
• Black & White w/ Some Brights - CTP has a new collection of black and white items that is super cute.  Tommie over at Tommie's Tools has a couple great posts that I linked to below on decorating a classroom with black and white.  She showed tons of other accessories that you can get to coordinate with the CTP items.  I definitely have the black and white thing going on in my classroom already, so it wouldn't necessarily be as much of a dramatic change if I wanted to go this route.  
• http://tommiestools.blogspot.com/2012/02/black-and-white-designer-collection.html
• http://tommiestools.blogspot.com/2012/02/celebrate-birthdays-in-black-and-white.html
• http://www.creativeteaching.com/ctp-search.aspx?catId=523

If you haven't been able to tell already I'm not really into cutesy little animal or character decor schemes.  (Nothing against that kinda stuff...  It's just not my thing.)  I'm more of a pattern and color scheme girl.  

So, friends, help me make some decisions!  

What do you think I should do in my classroom next year?  

Please give me your vote in the comments below!  

Check Me Out!

Remember how I won those free pockets from Tommie's Tools? Not only did I get my free pockets in the mail yesterday, but she also featured one of my ideas on her website. Pop on over there to see her variation on my lunch chart idea. She even linked to my blog! :)

Here's the link: http://tommiestools.blogspot.com/2011/06/check-it-out.html

Here are my new pockets... TWO packages for FREE. I also bought matching nametags that I'm going to use for my new work station chart!

I'm a Winner!

Last week I wandered over to Tommie's Tools through the Creative Teaching Press website. If you haven't been on either site before, you need to check them out. CTP is my favorite site for decor for my classroom and I'm a little bit addicted to their Poppin' Patterns collection. Tommie's blog is full of great ideas for using CTP's products in the classroom. She's got plenty of neat ways to use items in new and unique ways (many of which I'm not sure I'd have come up with). Anyway, last week on Tommie's Tools she was having a contest to win cute library pockets... All you had to do was submit an idea on how you use them in your classroom. So, here are two of the the pictures that I submitted.

I use library pockets for two primary purposes in my classroom. The first is for the students' library cards and bookmarks. I usually mount this chart on the door for easy access as the students come and go from the library. The second way I use the pockets is to take lunch count. Each child has their own pocket and I have labeled index cards with the four lunch choices at our school-- hot, other, milk, and cold. Each morning the kids come in and stick the card in their pocket with their preferred choice sticking up. It's a quick and easy way to take lunch count.

It ended up that everyone who submitted ideas won, so I've got two packages of library pockets headed my way! Here are the ones I'm getting: Poppin' Patterns Library Pockets.

So, how do you use library pockets? Any new and exciting ideas anyone wants to share?