Classroom Reveal......Finally!

Normally I work a little bit here and there throughout the summer in my classroom, but this summer was completely different.  I had an extremely busy summer and didn't really get a chance to get into my classroom until the end of July.

I feel like I crammed a lot of work into a little bit of time and I am proud of the final product!

(You might notice that some of my room did not change from last year.  I liked how my room was and just wanted to enhance what I already had going.)

Here is a picture of what you see when you walk in the room from the front door:

The students come in through the back door after hanging up their backpacks.  Here is what they see when they come in:

Now let's take a closer look at some of the areas.

On the left side is where I do my lunch count.  (Each student has a magnet with their name that they move to the appropriate choice).  In the middle, I use that space to put up vocabulary words we learn within our thematic unit.  On the right is my word wall.

Writing center:  As we learn about how to write, I will add charts and posters here on the board.  I don't like to overwhelm the students.  I prefer to add items to my boards as we learn them instead.

This is on the left of the writing center.  I use this board to put up a picture of each student and underneath their picture I put their name.  The students use this as a reference when writing.

This is my guided reading area.  See that blue flower painting?  Yep, I painted that.  (Just don't look too close ;)  I went to a Vino Van Gough type painting event.  It was a lot of fun!

Student Work Display

This is where I will post our decoding strategies as we learn them.

Next to all of that is my teacher "desk" area.  Each year I get rid of more stuff in this area and I love it.

Our carpet area:  I am loving that new chair I got.  It is from Walmart and the perfect pop of pink for me.  :)

Here is a close up of my curtains because I am beyond proud of them.  They only took me forever to make, but it is my first big sewing project.  On top of the shelf is finished early work and puzzles.

Next to the carpet, under the windows, is our reading area and classroom library.

Above the library is our focus wall.  I put our "I can" statements for the day under each subject.

Behind the carpet is our calendar area.  I have to admit that this area is not quite finished.  In the blank space on the right I plan on adding "Today is" and a weather chart.  I just forgot to bring them to school today.  Oops.

 Above the calendar are our ten frame number posters.

Above that the shapes and colors posters.  (Once again, that darn glare wasn't helping my picture taking skills)

I am pretty happy with the overall outcome of my room.  I love having all my bulletin boards the same background and border.  To me, it provides a calming effect not only for me, but also for my students.  Now I just need to finish up my lesson plans and I should be good to go for next week.

Teachers go back on Monday and then students start on Tuesday.  Are you back in school already?  If not, when do you start?