Wow guys!! I've been back at school for over two weeks now and am just now caught up enough to sit down and blog about beginning the year! My classroom didn't get a giant makeover this year, but I did add a few things, make a few things, and still have a couple more additions to add to it over the next week. So here goes!
Here are a couple of pictures of my room right before the kiddoes came in for meet your teacher night. I did get the bulletin board finished up and ready before they arrived. All of their desks were so neat and tidy...Now that we're two weeks in...not so much...
The back corner of my room before the addition of my new kidney table. I got a project funded from DonorsChoose.org at the end of the school year and they were kind enough to deliver it during preplanning so that I could get it all put together and setup. I don't have a picture of it so you'll kind of just have to imagine a kidney table where the easel sits in this picture.
This is where I hide all of my teacher junk materials. I bought two cheapo curtains from Walmart and a roll of ribbon to make my own curtains to cover the things I don't want to see all day, every day. All the stuff on top of the shelf, sans the tissue box, have been removed and hidden away in my closets. Student mailboxes, supply bins, and a few other goodies hide under the small table and the easel makes it's home right there where you see it. The bins beneath the easel hold guided reading materials, all color coded to my reading groups so each group only has to grab their bin and they're ready to go for the day!
My desk...In a sort of clean state.. I try to keep the top manageable...The drawers on the other hand...are a stinking MESS!! I'm terrible with drawer organization and I'm constantly just tossing things in there. I've lost the remote to my projector three times already...and found it two days later..IN MY DESK!! I'm lucky enough to have a projector, document camera, smartboard, and laptop in my room.. And you guessed it...right under the phone..is a VCR!! The district bought new DVD players and they all tore up within two years, so I had to have something to get closed circuit TV and the VCR was all I got! But I actually like it, I can bring in my Schoolhouse videos to watch in class!!
These were my summer project!! Again, a cheapo curtain from Walmart, some scrap plywood, a crapload of staples, and I have a handy set of eight crate seats. We sit on them during small group, and extra paper towels, cleaning wipes, and other supplies are stored inside! I think these might have been my favorite addition!
Half of my focus wall here... I made all of the headers and A.R. posters right here at home! I LOVE the A.R. posters and can't wait until my kids get to start signing their names to them as the reach their levels. Below are our standards that we are studying. The white pages are laminated posterboard and I just wipe em' down as I need to change standards.
The other half of my focus board. These are little wooden buttons (from Micheal's) that I painted and stuck a sticker to. Each kid has a button that they get to move once they've mastered a particular set of multiplication facts. They love them and are already racing through their facts this year!! Did I mention my class is built for Advanced Content? This has never happened so early in the year before!
Our work display board and half of our classroom library. These bins I got from ReallyGoodStuff and I LOVE them.. They have little dividers in them so the books don't fall forward! Somehow, my kiddoes have removed and lost one of my labels, but no worries..when you make them yourself, all you've got to do is reprint!
This poster was a recent addition and hasn't made it's way to a permanent location. So right now it is magneted to the board until the kids get used to their rotations during flex groups. I have three groups, each color coded, that go through a series of rotations each week. Every day, all of the kids go to a math station, and I pull individual kids from their rotations for remediation. I've tried the scheduling each kid for different things on different days and it just doesn't work for me. I like knowing that everyone has a place to be, and when I need them, I can just pull them out and reteach things as needed. I made the poster at home, had it printed and enlarged at Office Depot, and that was it! I think it cost me about $9.00 for the printing and laminating.
And that's it for the photos...There are several other things that I want to show you over the next couple of weeks so I'll save those for another post. I hope you've enjoyed your walk through my classroom, and I also hope you'll stop back in soon (maybe on Sunday) for some exciting news!!
