Classroom Tour

Oh--the trials and tribulations of classroom design! After all, we spend more time there than in our own homes for a great portion of the day, week, month,--you get it! Trying to place things in an absolutely perfect location for both teacher, instructional assistants, students, is of a priority. And, we want to make sure it has a pleasing decor. Homelike. Comforting. Inspirational. I recently retired but I just realized I never posted pictures of my classroom. It was my absolutely favorite. 

Wouldn't you know that the summer after I retired the carpet was replaced? Bye-bye orange/red in your face carpet!

However, I do love carpet when it comes to letting the kids be all over the place--especially reading with each other!

And reading to self! I snagged this area rug at Target in a large size. Love, love, love the gray touches!

When I decided on the colors I was dreaming of aqua colored pocket charts. Again--Target to the rescue. This was the way I worked with the work station rotations. We were required to work in small groups during the short time the Instructional Assistant was in the classroom. In order to move quickly and meet with everyone, I had my kids in four groups. She met with two groups and I met with two groups each day--so everyone had instruction.

Hobby Lobby has the best fabrics that are of a good "first grade use" quality. It was easy to cover the crates with chevron in my color choices.

This was an in-project pic of the "corner". Half of the word wall is displayed on one side of the SmartBoard projected whiteboard. (That is a do-it-yourself projector displayed on the whiteboard using a SmartSlate). 

I covered all the bulletin boards with fabric and they lasted several years. I made the banner out of printed triangles filled with a chevron pattern. After laminating them I hot glued them to ribbon. Easy!

The inside of my door was decorated with a chevron wreath. I got the burlap ribbon at Hobby Lobby on the week they had 50% off ribbons.

This shows the corner with finished boards. I displayed our objectives to the left side of the Word Wall. I purchased the common core objects from TPT.

I was so glad to get rid of quit using the foam squares in the bright colors.

The blue and aqua baskets house parts of my classroom library: aqua is non-fiction, blue is famous authors.

The blue pocket charts served the purpose of hiding bookshelves crammed housing our old reading series books. They were good to use for reading to self. The yellow bins holds fiction books and were sorted by genres.

I purchased Ikea stools to use at my teaching table and used the crates at this table. My IA used this area for her small groups. She is the BEST ever!

We had four student computers and used those for several small group activities/station. Loved the long bulletin board over the back of the room. However--climbing on the computer tables to hang work was a bit challenging. It is a wonder I didn't fall/step on the keyboards.

When we started Daily 5 I used this area to show what it looks like and sounds like. I think I reminded those kids several times as we practiced, practiced, practiced!

I laminated aqua colored construction paper and hung it above our sink. I could showcase 18 of the kids' work. To the right of the board I added additional pages to use since I had 20 kids.

Wal-mart has these black bookcases for under $20. I covered the cardboard backs with more chevron fabric and used them at the end of the groups to make finding their book boxes easier.

All, in all, we have some great memories of Room 109!

Reflections of Classroom Setup

Hours, hours, hours are spent setting up a classroom (in the summer on our own time--right?)

This summer our school is having renovations so we have no access to work, change, clear, organize--you get the picture. So my planning is done in the back--very back of my mind.

Last year I changed the decor to chevron and I still love that part.

The desks arrangement were a trial and error. I must have moved those desks 1,000 times at least. The issue was accelerated by a larger number of kids than I expected.

16 became 21 and with that came little bodies and more chairs and more desks.

This original plan was to use the end of the groups of desks to house their book baskets, water bottles, etc. Those baskets tipped over...constantly...many times the contents made a domino effect. So I tried a different approach: 

I purchased the inexpensive bookcases at WalMart and used Chevron fabric on the back. The problem with this was that the book baskets were too tall to place on both of the bottom and top shelves.

Finally I just shoved the bookcases against the wall and the kids had to actually walk TO the bookcase to gather their things. I could put four, five, or six desks together in table groups. Win, Win.

I set up a nice area for the kids to choose their Daily 5 station. Epic fail. The way the district was setting time requirements made lead me to set up a streamline approach to moving the kids due to RTI changes. Next year it will change again so maybe this would work.

Then there was the issue of a meeting area:  

1: No rug--kids were everywhere.

 2: One 5 X 7 rug--too small.

 3: Back to my uncoordinated colors of square foam tiles--too big!

 4: Just right--I found this awesome rug on a discount and it was 8 X 10. Worked out wonderfully!

So, I'll keep thinking in the deep spaces of my mind as July moves along!

Classroom Sneak Peak

It's getting closer. Time. for. school. August 1. Need I say more?

I spent a few hours at school tossing and tossing old stuff. When I get in a cleaning mood I get in a throw it out mind-set.

Since our district is moving to a literacy based concept I tossed all our old reading series files.

Do you see the leveled readers below this bulletin board? I pulled them out of the display boxes and saved them. I do plan to use them in guided reading so I didn't toss those!

The new, cleaned off area:

I pulled out my little storage "benches" that Mr. Spouse built and placed those at the end of the desks.

From this:

To this:

The baskets go inside their desks to hold various items so that I can't see the orderly disarray inside. (Picture hidden unfinished work that I couldn't possibly know that is missing?)

I'm thinking of displaying our common core standards (I Can statements) that are required to show that I indeed am a Tennessee teacher who is going to be evaluated on said standards. I really need to have them close to our meeting area. 

I did have half of the student book baskets stored in this area but since I may use those little storage benches near their desks I have placed the science area/journals there. I will move all my non-fiction book baskets to this bookcase. The ones pictured in the blue baskets are actually author studies and chapter books. Above the area is my Daily 5 choice pocket charts. I'm a little undecided as to how those will go with our new "balanced literacy" reading/writing workshops. I am more of a Reading Workshop person than a Daily 5 so I sort of made my own way to combine both.

Well, this week I have three days of Common Core training. 

Room Tour

Whew!!! Finished--well as finished as I will be. Tomorrow--Sunday--Open House. I worked most of today to finish up.

This is the view from the door. I have four children in each group.

To the right of the door are the mailboxes. On top of the mailboxes are the trays to place finished work. The table next to that is where I will sit to use the SMARTboard slate. 

The whiteboard that becomes the Interactive board when used with the SMARTslate. I have baskets to place donations if parents bring in any supplies. We aren't allowed to give out a supply list.

The pocket chart is where I display the "I can" statements. My trusty rocking chair and chart stand is next to the whiteboard and meeting area.

The anchor chart area for our reading will be displayed in this area. The baskets on top of the long bookcase will be our word work/work stations for Daily 5. The pocket charts allow the kids to choose their activity. I use a kind of Daily 5 but not truly!

With Common Core an emphasis is on non-fiction. The classroom library is separated into different genres. This is the non-fiction area.

The small group/teacher area is next. We have four student computers. 

I display student writing above the sink. Next is the Math area.

And finally back to the door.

I used hot glue to put Target pocket charts on the metal cabinet doors. I have my classroom rules, schedule, and clip chart on these.

You do realize we spend more time in our classrooms than waking minutes in our homes for the next 180 days--don't you?????