Our first mini week of school is over, so I wanted to pop on and show you around my room!
This is the view from the door. You can see my {only} window and the garbage cans I forgot to move! Oops!
Right in front of the door, you can see a polka dot table cloth that covers up two really hideous filing cabinets. I use this space to store my materials. I also have our pencil sharpener in this space.
I also keep my lesson plans on this cabinet so they are available to any one who pops in. I moved the cart on the right because it was obstructing traffic into the room. That cart holds my math and literacy centers.
The never ending pencil struggle. My first grader came to help me set up my classroom and over the course of two days he sharpened a TON of pencils for me! He hated the electric sharpener, and used the cheap-y target sharpeners for each pencil!
Right next to the entrance, I have a welcome board. This area has our calendar, homework club, daily attendance and "Flow of the day" - our schedule and learning objectives. I write my objectives on a dry erase sentence stripe that has magnets on it. You can find the Homework Club Sign {Free}
Here. The calendar numbers, welcome sign, schedule cards and labels for the 10 drawer center cart are in my
Bright Animal Print Decor Pack {Editable}.
On the same wall, behind the file cabinets, I have four bulletin boards: math, college, concept board and literacy. Above the boards, I made a simple cursive bunting. You can download the cursive alphabet
HERE. You will need to edit the font to be KG Eyes Wide Open (or your favorite script). I printed on colored card stock; the file is just in black and white.
Yikes, blurry! But you can see the full alphabet and all of the boards. The college board shows where I went to school and the concept board is for ReadyGen, our literacy program. We display the anchor and supporting texts, big idea, essential questions, enduring understanding and the vocabulary from our current module. On the left of the bulletin board, you'll see Kristine Naninni's self assessment posters. These came from her
Student Data Binder Pack. The banners on the bulletin board (not the concept board) are in my Bright Animal Print Classroom Decor Pack as well.
On the south facing wall, I have my word wall.
My homework board is really on its last legs. It won't hang on the hooks any more and I don't know where to put it!
The bottom of the board is covered now, so please ignore the sloppy cutting! You can grab the word wall sign
HERE. The letters are in my classroom decor pack.
On the floor, under the SMARTboard, is where we will keep our literacy book boxes. They aren't ready yet, so I just have a box of journals and text collections waiting there. Storage options in my room are very limited. There is NO built in storage at all! No cabinets or closets to hide things. I have one metal closet that is P A C K E D.
I don't have a desk, so I keep a round table by the SMARTboard for my computer and document reader. I also keep my teacher toolbox there.
I made this last year and I still really love it :-) {Also, I originally had green backing paper on the word wall but I really didn't like it, so in the last twenty minutes of our PD day I decided to change it!) You will find the labels in my classroom decor pack or you can get them for $1
HERE.
The next corner of my room, under my only window, is our library area. We have a TON of books, collected over twelve years of teaching. The mess in the corner is me trying to keep my literature circle books separate. The mess isn't there any more. And I added a few pillows from IKEA!
This is my favorite spot in the room. I love how the
Brown Bag Teacher's Subway Genre signs look!
In the next space above the library, I have the outline for our vocabulary chart. I'm not sure how this is going to turn out, but I heard about it at a training this summer, so I wanted to try it out. I envision that the students will write the information on sentence strips and we will hang them for the module.
Next, you'll find my writing and media area.
This space has characteristics of narratives and papers for student examples. Below the board, there is a listening center and writing organizer. I keep dictionaries and reference materials on the cart below the organizers. The mess is mostly covered by the table skirt.
I have a little table right in front of the coat rack and writing area. Right now this is student seating, but it will become our small group work area. The crates of text books will be distributed next week and I won't have that eye sore under the table. The dots on the table are vinyl and dry erase. I bought them on
Amazon for under $10! I'm pretty in love with them. It looks even nicer when I don't have my lunch and coffee on the table!
So that's it for now. I'll post the rest of the room - it's just one wall and the kids' desks left.
Tell me, what's your favorite spot in your classroom?
