Getting That Classroom Ready

Are you back in school yet? Are you setting up your classroom for the new year? Or are you still on summer vacation glaring at me because I keep on talking about B2S??!! I still have about a week and a half to "enjoy" my summer... but we all know that it is physically impossible to stay out of your classroom until teachers officially go back. I mean, how can you set up a classroom when you are stuck in meetings all day? Let's not even mention getting prepped for Meet the Teacher OR the first week of school, right?! Because one can have the cutest stinkin' room known to mankind, but that first week isn't going to plan itself! And, we know what always take precedence over the other!
So, I'm slowly easing my way back into the classroom. I don't want to have a mental breakdown on August 17th at 7:00 am because I haven't slowly started to prepare my mind and body! On that same note, I don't want to spend every single second of what's left of my summer vacation in my classroom, so I have to find a balance. That means I work like a crazy woman when I'm in my classroom... I close my door so I won't chit chat, I run around all over the place, and I tackle as many things as I can in the little amount of time that I am there.
On Monday I went up to my classroom for the first time this summer. I stayed for about two hours {keep in mind that my bulletin boards were still in tact from last year} to move furniture around, arrange materials that were packed up, and wrap my brain around what needs to happen. Joelle was with me and she was a HUGE help! She got my book bins on the shelves, put all my Neat Seats on the chairs, and cut out lots of nametags!
Here's a pretty good compilation of what we got done...

Let me break it down! -Organized all classroom furniture - Hung up my Key Word Kiddos - Set up my reading areas - Put my Neat Seats on the chair backs - Taped on my Math Desk Toppers - Set out my new class pets {We will name these snakes during the first week of school and they will become our class pets! They will sit with outstanding students, leave us notes, and be the focus of several of our journal writing topics, I'm sure!} - My shape posters were already hung but you can find them HERE!
I still have so much to do, but when I left this is what I saw:

I've already made a trip to Wal-Mart, did a fair share of online shopping, and brought several projects home so that I could make even more headway the next time I go up to work! Maybe today I'll enjoy some pool time :)