A Classroom Tour–Finally!

Sorry friends – it’s taken me forever and a day to get this up! My life has been absolutely insane! Between getting my girls ready for school, shuttling them back and forth to dance, getting my classroom ready, I’ve been planning a 50th anniversary party for my parents! I have not had a moment’s rest!

The beginning of the school year has been hectic – we’ve been battling the heat -  with no air conditioning in our buildings.  My classroom was about 86 degrees when I left it today.  We are actually closing school early for the next two days because of the heat.  Unfortunately, teachers still have to work in their sweltering classrooms after kids leave.  Bummer. 

So, here is my classroom.  Some things are still a work in progress, but it’s a start.  I like to keep things pretty simple in my room!

This is from the front of my room.  The door is behind me.  We spend a lot of time in this area!

Here is a view from the carpet to the back of the room where our tables are.  My room isn’t very big – so I have to be creative in my arrangement! I have 6 student tables now and 25 kiddos.  It’s a tight squeeze, but we’re making it work.

Here is “my spot.”  I keep my computer on the wooden drawers in the left of the picture – that’s how I hook up the IWB.  The big white thing is a oil drip pan – I spray painted that white and we use that as a magnet center.

Here is my classroom library and part of the word wall.  This is just on the other side of the carpet.  This is where the listening center is as well.  I keep theme books on the left and leveled books in the blue baskets.

Here is our writing center – not set up yet!

This is our word wall.  I moved this from the back of the room to the front of the room this year.  I didn’t like having it so far away from our learning/teaching space.

Because we have bigger classes this year, I’ve had to rethink how I’m doing my math and literacy centers.  I plan to have 10-12 centers over 2 weeks.  I’ll post more on this later.

This is my small group teaching area.  It’s kind of a mess right now because I’ve shoved a bit! ;)

This is our art center and our science center is on the left. (These centers still both need to be stocked!)

Here is our dramatic play area.  This will change themes over the year.  The kids LOVE playing here!

Don’t judge me, please.  This area is SO messy!  This is the pile up area.  I just put a desk in last May – I have back issues, so I needed a place to sit up properly when I’m working during my planning times!  (Although, I’m usually running around a thousand miles a minute during planning!)

These were my math and literacy center bins for last year.  This year I will just use them just for math centers.  I still need to change the labeling on them!

This is another view from the door.

This is more in the doorway….to the left is our coat area.

Those colorful shapes on the floor are my Sit Spots. I LOVE THEM. I use them for lining up.  I will blog again about them and how I use them in another post.

Mailboxes are right to the left when you walk in.

This is my coat/backpack area.  I normally store the children’s rest time bins in the cubbies, but because I have a larger class this year, it gets a bit crowded, so I’m storing them in the empty room next door (shhhh!).  The red baskets contain all of our school supplies.  The adorable labels are from Katie Mense.

This is where the children make their lunch choice.

Phew – did I get everything?! Did I forget anything? Anything else you want to see? Leave a comment below and let me know!