It’s the LAST Monday Motivation of the summer. I skipped last week because my “Classroom Reveal” was not ready as I was drowning in meetings and boxes and curriculum and print shop materials and good ole fashioned sweat.
I’m keeping it real here, people. This post is going to be a bunch of pictures and links (when possible) and not a whole lot more. I’m just gonna put it all out there, but it’s not going to be interesting or funny or exciting unless you like looking at other people’s classrooms like I do. In fact, if you just skip today’s post, I wouldn’t blame you.
So here we go! Most everything has stayed the same, but there are some changes here and there.
This is the view from my door. I LOVE LOVE LOVE all of my windows and can’t imagine not having them. Classrooms on the ends of the buildings at my school have four each, but classrooms in the middle just have two (one on each side). Either way, ALL of our classrooms have windows and I am SO happy about that.
When you come in the door, this is the wall immediately to the left. I also love that I have a sink!! When I was student teaching, the school was an “open concept” school which meant there were NO WALLS OR DOORS. The classrooms were separated by filing cabinets and bulletin boards on “legs”. It was AWFUL!! Teachers literally walked “through” your room to get to theirs. And no one had a sink. By the way, student teaching in this kind of environment is probably why I am now a looney tune whackadoodle. The last thing any student teacher needs is the WHOLE SCHOOL OF VETERAN TEACHERS listening in on all of her failures. When they offered me a position, I didn’t take it because I wanted WALLS.
A girl has dreams, you know.
My cubbies are the same except for my new 3 drawer caddies WHICH I LOVE and I’m so excited they fit in there! You can find the Editable Labels for those {HERE}.
Recently, when I shared these drawers, there was a snippet showing of the posters hanging above and I got a TON of questions about them. They are our PBIS posters and pertain to our school. Our PBIS committee (along with our entire staff) brainstormed, wrote things down, tried things out, went back to the drawing board, etc, etc, etc, and we finally came up with what has stuck for almost two years.
I am working on making these available in an editable format in my store, but . . . school JUST started and I barely know my own name these days so please be patient with me! 🙂
The classroom library! This is probably my most favorite spot in the room. I’ve shared this picture before, and it always gets a ton of questions. I’ve pretty much covered it all in {THIS POST} so be sure to read that if you have questions (I have a step by step tutorial at the end)! Last year, I had Really Good Stuff baskets in the shelves and believe it or not, several ripped. I’m pretty sure it’s because my kids push and pull them as they take them in and out. I was totally disappointed, but it wasn’t my kids or RGS’s problem.
In the spring of last year, I got the turquoise baskets from Target and they are SUPER STURDY! I am pretty hopeful that they will last!!!
The flowers in the windows also seem to get a lot of attention. Cracks me up! Teachers will pick out the tiniest (or biggest) detail that no one is really event talking about and want to know all about it. 🙂 I think we are ALL looney tune whackadoodles! The flowers are from a DJ Inkers Bulletin Board set and you can get it on Amazon. And it’s PRIME! I got mine at our local teaching supply store about a million years ago. The flowers just make me happy. 🙂
Just another view.
It was Back to School night when I took all of these pictures so my Wish List (from The Creative Classroom) is hanging up there in hopes of people donating all the things! My new ceiling mounted projector is AMAZING. Seriously. AMAZING! And now I have speakers in the ceiling and I feel like a real 21st century teacher. We were trained BRIEFLY on the Mimeo and I can’t wait to use it!
Chairs are from IKEA but you can also find them on Amazon!
This is probably my second favorite part of the room. Because we adopted new curriculum (Benchmark Advance), we got a TON of new materials and each teacher got guided reading books so I had to buy another 6 cube organizer to hold everything (before that, I only had two).
I used to have the Walmart Mainstay 6 cube organizers, but really and truly, they were not good quality. If I moved a basket forward or pushed a file organizer back, they literally moved with it. I was always in fear that I was going to break one. I don’t recommend them.
So I buckled down and got the Threshold brand from Target (they were on sale when I got mine in July). They are SUPER NICE. Super good quality. And the cube itself is bigger which is also nice because I felt like everything in the Walmart brand was squished.
This is all the stuff I need for whatever. Ha! I have drawers for reading groups, sight word practice, things to file in weekly homework folders, a drawer for students who need to redo/retake stuff, a drawer to hold “extras”, supplies, tools (a 120 chart, ABCs on a ring, cubes, etc), rubrics, Read and Reveal cards, and Fluency strips. This also holds a Running Record kit that we all use, Student Files, and my Sight Word and Math Fluency assessments.
I painted that pencil hanging up at a Girl’s Night and I recently just made the READ frames. I bought $1 frames at Michael’s, painted them, and then used the font KG Red Hands to print out the letters on card stock. EASY! My teammate wrapped wooden blocks with her READ letters, my other teammate has black picture frames, and I went this $1 wooden frame route. To each her own, right? All I knew was that I had to have them!
Okay so all of you Benchmark Advance people, listen up!! They sent all of their stuff in these “fancy” cardboard box holders that took up a TON of room!! One wouldn’t even fit in one of these cube spaces. So I took out the Unit 1 leveled readers and stuck them in a basket and I had LEFT OVER room. So I combined two units at a time and went from too many “fancy” cardboard boxes to count . . . down to just 5 baskets. Same deal with the Phonics Readers. If you are running out of room with all of your curriculum, TAKE IT OUT OF THOSE FANCY CARDBOARD BOXES!!!
I was so relieved when it all condensed down into something manageable. I was seriously ready to have a nervous breakdown, but condensing it all down made me feel a whole lot better.
Carpet Area
Focus Wall/Calendar Area/Where I do a lot of my teaching
I love love love SitSpots and HIGHLY recommend them!! They are like velcro!! The custodians can vacuum right over them! You can also wash them in your washing machine and dry them in the dryer!!!! I have blogged about my love for SitSpots {HERE}.
I wish I had time right now to blog about my Focus Wall, but this has already started to be my longest post ever in all the land so come back later this week (I HOPE)!
I can tell you that the ABC letters, focus wall headers, and the posters on the calendar wall are now available in my Turquoise and Line Decor ADD ON pack. 🙂
Back corner of the room where I have a big bulletin board, the listening center, and computers.
And my matching refrigerator. That’s a couple of years old and I found it online at Walmart. Having a refrigerator has changed my life! 🙂 I like to stock it up on Mondays and then I don’t have to worry about packing a lunch/snacks throughout the week. One less thing to do!
Another view.
Our writing center! I blogged all about that {HERE}. You can get the Writing Center Reference Posters {HERE}.
And this is the view from the back corner looking at the door.
And there you have it!
My home away from home! 🙂
Feel free to ask any questions in the comment section below and I’ll do my best to answer them!
Have a great day! 🙂
Hope you had a wonderful first week! I’ve been going back and forth about the Sit Spots and just ordered them! I hope you don’t mind that I chose the same colors you did. ?I have a camping theme with blues, black, greens, and brown, but turquoise is my favorite color. Last year, I bought the cutest carpet, but I couldn’t fit all of my first and second grade friends on it! This should work so much better. ?
Your room looks awesome! It looks like a wonderful place to learn.
Of course I don’t mind!!!!! 🙂 I hope you like them!!!
Your room looks amazing! I would love to be a teacher in that room for sure–but I don’t know about the number of kids ?. I recently retired in Tennessee and our last reading curriculum was Benchmark. I am anxious to hear how you manage.all.the.stuff! I missed having a basal for the kids to see take home and “proudly” show what good readers they were.
Thank you!! Happy retirement!
Your room looks beautiful!
I read on another blog (I’m sorry, I can’t remember where.) that the teacher left her Sit Spots on the floor and the cleaning crew cleaned the carpet right over the Sit Spots. It apparently worked wonderfully well!
WOW! That’s amazing to know!! I always pick mine up!!!!!
I’m very envious of all of your teacher storage space. It looks great! I, too, thought of ditching the fancy cardboard boxes from Benchmark. Did you actually toss them, or are you saving them elsewhere?
So excited to hear that you are able to wash the Sit Spots! My lighter colors are looking dingy after two years of use. I’ll peel them up on Friday and take them home!
I totally threw the boxes away (or our custodians did). 🙂 I hope your Sit Spots look better!!
Love my sit spots! How do you get yours so straight? How far apart do you put them?
My teammate told me to put a length of string down and weigh it down on each end. Once the string is straight, you just line them up right on the line!!! It was the easiest and fastest I’ve ever put my Sit Spots down. As far as spacing them out, I just kind of eyeball it after using my own bottom as a guide!! Hahaha!
Your room looks great! I enjoy reading every week.
When you have washed and dried your Sit Spots, do you put them in a lingerie bag or leave them loose?
Thanks!!
I leave them loose!!! 🙂
Where oh where are your beloved park and props??
Hahahaha! I actually gave them away, if you can believe it. I just got tired of them!! I gave them to my 4th grade teaching friend. 🙂
What?!? I bought mine because of you! Everyone is terribly jealous of them! ? I also swiped your blue and green theme, your QR code listening center ideas and your gold tags!! My 4th graders loved the gold tags. I’m such a copy catter!
Hahaha!!! I just needed a change. 🙂 I love that you “swiped” stuff from my room!!! I know of a 5th grade teacher who uses gold tags! I LOVE THEM! Have a great school year!!