The Apple Tree Room: Classroom Overhaul: The Big Reveal!

I am so excited to share photos of how my classroom turned out after a summer of pinning, planning, purging, painting, and "project-ing." OK...so maybe "project-ing" is a made-up word, but I liked the alliteration. All my projects turned out GREAT, and I met most of my classroom overhaul goals!

Here's the big reveal...drumroll, please!

I think my favorite part of the room is my new reading corner!

The baskets came from Baskets of Africa. This is my husband's fair trade company. He works directly with weavers across Africa, paying them a sustainable, fair wage for their amazing, hand-woven baskets. These baskets came from Ghana, and are available on his online store. I've had them for about 10 years, and they still look AMAZING! I love using them for books, puppets, musical instruments, journals, etc.

I made the apple tree out of crushed butcher paper. I especially love the crushed red balls of paper for the apples. I've actually had this apple tree for years, but it was in a different part of the room. I moved it and added the apples....love it!

I bought the carpet and pillow cubes from Target. The carpet was about $60, and the cubes were 80% off. I think I paid about $20 for them. The plastic Adirondack chairs came from Lowe's for about $13 each. The long pillows (basket in the corner) came from Big Lots. There were on clearance, also. I paid $5 each with a coupon. I bought the READ letters from Hobby Lobby and spray painted them. I stuck them to the wall with tacky stick.

Next up...this is my teacher's chair and student notebooks. My husband made the pillows for me. I bought the chair from Lowe's for $18. The 3 crates came for Walmart for $4 each. The basket (love!) came from Baskets of Africa. I bought the cubes from Target years ago for my son's room.

The journals are my students' Daily Digit calendar math journals. I wanted them to be in a central place in the classroom because we use them so much. This has turned out to be a great solution!

This is my Daily Digit calendar math display. I love how bright it turned out! The student clipboard are in a bucket I got from Bed, Bath and Beyond over the summer for a barbecue.

I love how these apple lanterns turned out for my classroom signs! I got this idea from School Girl Style's Apple Theme Room. I ordered the lanterns from Oriental Trading for about $30. I cut out the leaves (at the top of the lantern) from construction paper and laminated them. I bought the chevron apple clip art set from Ashley Hughes for $2.50.

Storage Area - Before

Storage Area - After

Finally, I cleaned up my messy storage tubs (see the "before" photo) by investing in new tubs from Walmart. They were not cheap, at $11 each, and I needed a lot of them, but it was worth it! I made the labels out of a clip art set I bought from Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs.

In case you missed some of my other classroom overhaul projects, here are some of the photos with links to my articles on how I made them.