I am a firm believer in the fact that everything happens for a reason. We may not always understand it or like it at the time, but it is for a reason!
7 days before the school year started I was officially informed that I would not be teaching kindergarten and instead teaching a 4th & 5th grade combination class. I was also informed that there is a good possibility I will have to move to a different school in our district AFTER school has started. Talk about shock!
3 days before the school year started I was officially informed that I would be switching schools. (I found out at 3:45 on Friday and school started Monday) The best part about it was that I would get to continue to teach kindergarten and I was being moved to the school that my students attend. (All of these changes had to do with our school district redoing the boundary lines for the elementary schools. My previous building had about 100 less students than the previous year so they needed to move some teachers around.)
With being who I am, I was having a panic attack about the fact that my room wouldn't be "ready" for the first day of school.
I read this post by Maria over at Kinder-Craze and it made me feel a bit better, but this is a picture of my classroom on the first day of school.
The afternoon of the first day of school the maintenance guys brought over all my boxes and things. Thankfully, HR realized that there was no way I would be able to teach the first couple days of school. We kept all the kindergarten students in the other teacher's classroom and I was able to work in my room. It was very odd. It was the first day of school and I wasn't really with students. I am very thankful for that time, but it was just a very different start of the school year for me.
Fast forward now to two weeks into the year, I am finally feeling like I have my classroom somewhat where I want it to be. It is definitely still a work in progress for sure and I am still waiting for some items like an easel and a whiteboard (the room doesn't even have a chalkboard or whiteboard at the moment). I *think* I have finally settled on a room arrangement, but it could also change again.
Without further ado, here is my classroom for this school year:
View from the door
View of the front
View of the back
Now let's take a closer look at some of the areas:
This is my reading area. I still need to get a rug, but I am loving having a space devoted just to reading. I am going to IKEA this weekend and will pick up a rug then.
Above my reading area is my new word wall. It was definitely a pain in my behind getting it all even and straight, but the finished product was so worth it!
I am going to have a pocket chart center for word work and poetry this year. I am super excited about this. Currently, the pocket chart is easel because I am still waiting for one of those. We have been reviewing our good listener chart quite frequently.
The rainbow cart will be used for word work activities during literacy centers. The cubbies house the work that students will take home. Right now there are book baskets on top that my students are using instead of having their own bag of books. They are getting their own "bags" this week so then I can add these books back into my library.
My helper board. You may have seen the previous version (in my previous classroom) on IG. I will be adding clothespins under the word champ so that I can change out student pictures for who my class champ of the day is.
My counter that runs along one whole side of my room. The first section is going to end up being my writing center. The back section will be where I house my math center materials. The wall there was an ugly brown so I covered it with fadeless paper and some more of my favorite gray chevron border. :)
My guided reading area with reading strategies and my drawers for each day of the week.
Two of my front bulletin boards. I still need to add the headers for each subject area to my focus wall and then our smart goals will be added once we finish deciding what they should be.
Here is my birthday board and then my classroom doorway. It was ugly and the paint was all chipped so I bought this adorable paint palette border and added some pizazz to the doorway.
I have a set of drawers for each table. We have a new math series with huge student workbooks so I wanted a place to store those, planners, and the students' journals.
Like I said, it is definitely still a work in progress and I am sure by December many things will have changed. I am just happy to finally feel like my classroom is home again. Now I am off to finish prepping for my week. Have a wonderful week everyone!
