Classroom Reveal 2015

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!

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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?

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Classroom Tour

Warning:  This post contains a lot of pictures.  :)

It is finally time for my full classroom tour.  I am linking up with the fabulous ladies over at Blog Hoppin' to show off my room.  This came at the perfect time because tonight is our "Unpack your Backpack" night.  Students and their parents come in, meet the teachers, and drop off their school supplies so they will be ready for the first day of school tomorrow.  This means that my classroom had to be ready to go as of this morning.  Good thing I was there all day yesterday finishing it up!  :)

Here is a view from the front door.  My calendar area is to the right as you walk in the door.

Ignore that table right in front.  It is only there for backpack night and then will be moved against the wall for my writing center.

Here is a view from my back door.  To the right is my reading area.

Here are some close-up pictures from around the room.

The lunch count tags are from A Cupcake for the Teacher and the Birthday Board idea is from Erica Bohrer.

This poster is from Yoga Kids.  If you haven't been to their website, you need to go!  Amazing.  I use yoga in my classroom every day!

As you might already know, I have a student teacher this fall so I made her this "survival kit" courtesy of Rachelle from What the Teacher Wants.

I am off to our teacher inservice day.  I can't believe my summer is officially over.  It flew by in an instant.

I hope you link up with Blog Hoppin' as well.  I love getting a peek into everyone's classrooms.  :)

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