Teacher Week '13: Classroom Digs

Good evening! I'm back with my second post of the day to participate in Teacher Week 2013 with Tuesday's Classroom Digs: Classroom Tour. I've been in school for a week now, which means my classroom has become slightly more disheveled, but that's the way it goes! Excuse the camera phone shots as well...

I'm fortunate to have a pretty big classroom, and a glorious shared office space to boot! Here's the shot of my main area of the classroom.

This tree is a new-ish part of my classroom this year. I say new-ish because I had the tree on my wall last year, but I used it to hold incentive charts. Maybe it's just me, but I always seem to fizzle out and following up with incentive charts throughout the whole year. The days get busy, and it's the last thing I think about, or I tell the student they've earned a sticker for their chart and then I forget to put it on! So this year, I decided... no more individual incentive charts! I just am awful at keeping up with them! So I made some clothespin leaves for a cuteness factor and made it into a student work showcase tree. I love how it turned out! I could never find a great place to display student work and this was the perfect solution. And no, I don't only have 12 students... these are just the ones that did the self-portrait at Meet the Teacher Night!

 Here's a close-up of one of the leaves! The clipart I used is from the fabulous Little Red Schoolhouse. :)

Zooming back out a bit further, here's what my book center looks like. There's no rhyme or reason to it (I need to increase my book collection!), but I just wanted to make it a little cozy corner.. the kids love sitting in there to look at books.

Right next to my book center, there's a little cove of cubbies that I use to hold some of my curriculum materials. Next to that is this open shelf, which I covered with a this D-backs banner that I won at a game a few years back. Amazingly it was the perfect width for this shelving unit! It wasn't very pretty without a curtain, and this way I got to represent my favorite baseball team.

And a sneak peek behind the curtain....

Continuing my tour around the room... here's my word wall! I love my paisley border, it's adorable. Right in front of that is my writing center. The kids haven't used it yet, but when it's in full swing, we'll add vocabulary posters to the area that go with our new reading series. The plastic drawers hold different kinds of paper and alphabet resources for the kids to use. In the little shelf next door, my Ikea baskets hold resources for circle time, the word wall, and calendar time. The bottom houses literacy station baskets!

Next up is my calendar area. My magnetic pockets hold all the calendar cards and extra pieces. I created the velcro ten frame last year and it was SO helpful with teaching my kids base 10 concepts.

This shelf houses my students' table buckets of supplies, extra activities, and my lesson plan tubs for the week.

Along this wall is where I store most of my math manipulatives. The empty pocket chart will house sight word cards as we learn new words each week. We started a predictable chart this week, that's what else is hanging on the board next to my "I can..." statements.

Next to the door are these cubbies, which I've turned into a bookshelf/storage.

I organized my books a few years back, nothing fancy, but since we got a new reading series (HM Journeys), I'm going to have to revamp my book organization! The ones you're looking at in this picture are sorted by theme from the old series. This shelf holds the books the kids don't get to touch for fear of destruction... anyone else have this problem, or is it just with kinder kids...? Ha.

This is the area right behind my horseshoe table. I'm not sure what I'll be using the bulletin board for yet, but the border has more of my Eric Carle theme like I had with my book center. The magazine file holders in the shelf are empty at the moment, but that's what I use to organize my small group activities and resources. And of course I have to represent the Phoenix Coyotes... is it hockey season yet?

Last but not least, here's a glimpse into the office I share with my best buddy who teaches next door! We LOVE having this extra space... see all the shelves lining the wall on the right? I didn't take too close of a picture for fear of you running away screaming at the sight of my cluttered desk...

Oh, and in case you were wondering about the John Travolta masterpiece in the background...

Three years ago, one of our other kinder teammates discovered this incredible 70s style poster of the one and only Travolta in a discarded pile of old teaching posters, so one night after we had gone home, she snuck into our rooms and hung it up. The mustache was added by a mysterious party a year later... and we are never taking it down!!! Needless to say, we get a lot of strange looks from people who come into our office for the first time. HA!

Phew! That was a mouthful. My classroom isn't necessarily all cutesie-fied or matchy like most of the other incredible classrooms I'm sure you'll see around the blogs, but it's home. As long as it's colorful, fun, and intentional, I'm happy!

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