Monday, August 20, 2012

Back to School Classroom Tour!!

I just got home from Meet the Teacher/Curriculum Night!! Whew....I'm tired....and hot!  Having 40+ people in your classroom and having to get up and speak in front of all of them will certainly give you hot flashes. haha.  But I had a lot of fun meeting all of my new kids and their parents. It made me really excited to start the school year.  So....the time has come!  I am finally done (yeah right.... I'm never done) with my classroom, and I'm so happy with how everything turned out.  I worked REALLY hard on a lot of different projects, but all the hard work and $ was worth it!!!  Thanks to my FANTASTIC husband who came to help me get ready for Curriculum night tonight, I got my last and final IKEA bookshelf put in and all my books arranged.  My work here is done! Enjoy..              - Beth


Front of my classroom.

Math Shelf - Trofast Frame from IKEA labeled with all the different math manipulatives.

I LOVE how this turned out! This shelf is amazing!

My calendar and class Focus Wall.  This is my first time using a focus wall...I'm excited!

My PRIDE AND JOY! Rotating classroom utensil holder.  And this is NOT the lazy susan from IKEA.  I had to actually make this one with 18" round pieces of craft wood, ball bearings for the rotating part, spray paint, clear lacquer, a compass to measure out the angles from the center, and a ton of sanding!! Ahhh.... it was a pain.  But I flipping love it!   The bins and plant in the middle are from IKEA. 

Classroom library & mini-lesson area.

IKEA Besta Shelf with my Target book bins.

Back wall of my classroom with my guided reading table/teacher area.

This is where I organize all my teacher stuff, supplies I use, and everything for my lessons.  I have a drawer labeled for each subject and put all the printable stuff I need for each lesson in the drawer.  The little things with the apples are the dividers for each of my reading groups.

Our school is a Leader in Me school, and one of our focuses this year is on teaching our students to be leaders.  So all 22 of my kids have a job this year!!  After seeing a little roach friend in my room, though, I think I need to add "bug squasher" as a job!  What do you think??

My read aloud book baskets.... I organize my read alouds by what comprehension strategy/subject I use to teach with them.

Magnetic word wall & computer stations.

This is where extra student supplies are kept, my extra crayon organizers, writing paper for Writer's Workshop, clipboards, etc.


Our "Family Tree" that's outside of our classroom.  I am going to put all the kids pictures on the tree after I take them on the first day of school so it will look like a real family tree.  I got my tree at Hobby Lobby.  And I LOVE the sign at the top. I found it on TPT.  It's going to be a LONG time until my kids are going to graduate high school.....Class of 2024!

My little bakers!!

So....I have to give my teammates credit for this ingenius idea!!  How can the kids pick and pull at their name tags if they are behind them??  No stickiness or mess on my tables any more!  I just used metal rings to attach them.

Side wall of my room with cubbies. 

My hallway display.  I HATE di-cutting letters for hallway displays, so I got a frame and painted a piece of wood with chalkboard paint to make a hallway chalkboard.  So now I can update the title of my hallway display on the chalkboard!  NO MORE DI-CUTTING LETTERS!  Whoohooo!!  I also used ribbon to cover up the not so pretty cork strip in the middle of my display.

20 comments:

Ginger Snaps said...

I love the name tag idea! Our chairs aren't conducive to the rings though! I would have to tape them probably! =) Your room looks great!!

Ginger Snaps

Julie Shope said...

I love the hallway display! It looks great! Nice idea!!!

Julie
ms. shope's class

Mrs. Reed said...

I love your blog. I have found some great ideas to use with my class. Im your newest follower. Below is a link to my blog.
Latoya
Flying Into First Grade

Cindy Del Valle said...

Loooove the nametag idea!!! That is just pure genius!

Cindy
Primary Reading Party

Nicole Baranov said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nicole Baranov said...

Your classroom looks FABULOUS!!! I love the organization and the hallway display is SOOO SMART!!!! My favorite is your rotating utensils holder!!!! I LOVE IT! I am using round tables (for the first time ever!) and I am going to HAVE to get some!!! You will have to check out my classroom pics at my blog as well!
Have a wonderful year!!!
Nicole
http://kinderconfections.blogspot.com

Tara Hargrove said...

Question: where in Target did you find your book bins? Or what could I search under on target.com? Thanks!

Sylvia said...

I love all of your ideas! I tried to find the tree at three different hobby lobbies and had zero luck. I will keep trying.

Unknown said...

Can you please tell me where you got your labels for your library and labels for teaching strategies? Do you have a list of books that you use for each strategy?

Simply Sweet Teaching said...

Kerry,
I made the library book labels...send me your email address and I can send them to you.

Tara,
Book bins are here: http://www.target.com/p/itso-clear-see-through-bin-6-12-x13-25-x6-56/-/A-13710865#prodSlot=medium_1_23&term=itso

The Itso Clear bins

Unknown said...

Do you have a list of the books you have in your read aloud book baskets.... organized by comprehension strategy/subject ?

carolinabound said...

How did you attach the chalkboard frame in the hallway...also how did you attach the blue/green construction paper...love the idea!

Unknown said...

I want to recreate your hallway display! I love it! Do you have a tutorial and do you sell the template for the name plates? Marykromano@hotmail.com thanks!!!!

Simply Sweet Teaching said...

Command strips for the chalkboard and hot glue for construction paper

Anonymous said...

Do you have a budget for your classroom? Do you pay for all of the organizational
things yourself? The book bins alone are $5.99 a piece at target. We do not get money for our classroom.
EVERYTHING comes out of the teachers pocket if you want something other than 2 rolling carts with no
bins at all. I LOVE your classroom. EVERY teacher (and student) deserves to have a beautifully organized classroom like yours. Unfortunately many teachers in large urban distracts get $0.00 and cannot afford to have a classroom like this. Consider yourself fortunate! I do know that you have put a LOT of work into this for you and your students. ENJOY it! You deserve it!
chris

Mrs Griffin said...

I love your book bins with teaching strategy labels. Now why didn't I think of that?! The labels on the chairs are a great idea too. Thanks for sharing all your organisation.

Unknown said...

Do you have a list of the books that you use to for each of those reading strategies??

Unknown said...

Do you have a template for your hallway display? Love your ideas!!!! My email is jtzumbo@yahoo.com, thanks!!!

SixMonthsofKetchupSoup said...

I would love to find out more about how you built your rotating supply organizer, I'm going to try & make something like this for my preK classroom this fall. I have large round tables with rectangular lakeshore crayon organizers, no one can reach the crayons and they spend a lot of time tusseling over the orientation of the crayon caddy to their seat..I love what you did! How large is yours? What kind of wood did you use? Was it precut? I'd love to know what kind of hardware you used--so many questions! :)

Unknown said...

I would love to order the 10 basket/drawer Trofast tower, but it looks like IKEA no longer makes it.

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