Yay! It's my fav time of the year to read people's blogs! It's classroom reveal time! I LOVE LOVE LOVE reading blog posts where teachers share their classrooms with us. I think there is so much I can learn by reading what other people do in their rooms, and trying things out myself. So many of my ideas have come from other people's classrooms! I hope that reading this post brings you some ideas for your classroom!
I love these posters from Brown Bag Teacher.
Since my kids and I have been together for so long, we are a family. It is important for them to push themselves to learn and to believe in themselves. Since we are a family, we push each other in healthy ways too. Many of my students will help struggling kids and remind them why the task is important. I love them :) |
| Can you name the movie this idea came from?!?! |
This is my take on "Bucket Filling". I love the idea of kids complimenting each other. I think it is important for them to feel good when someone compliments them, but also that they feel good when they compliment someone else. I love Legally Blonde and anything PINK, so I took the idea of the "Snap Cups" for our class bucket filling.
Here is our exit ticket board. With our Technology/Social Media Theme, I thought it would be fun for the students to create a "status" that shared what they learned. The kids love it because they feel like I'm "letting" them play with Facebook.
Here is where I post my objectives. I found this idea on Pinterest to put paper into frames and use Expo markers. I got the frames at the Dollar Tree!
Here is the area behind my desk. There were no shelves there, so I bought 2 cheap ones from Walmart and placed my teacher resource books and manuals on there. Then I decorated the tops with all my fun teacher stuff, like my princess tiara.... obviously ;)
Here is one of my bookshelves. I used the Library Level Labels from Ladybug Teacher Files. One of the best purchases, although expensive, that I have made are the book boxes from Really Good Stuff. I love how pretty they are. The kids keep them in this beautiful color order and I think they enjoy having some place to put their Daily 5 materials.
Here is where my students sit. We don't have desks, we have tables, and yes, we have TVs. That is a post for another day, but I am a Collaborative Learning Pilot classroom for my district. It is AWESOME, we are very lucky, and we know it. Since the students don't have desks, they keep the items they use often in a clear basket, and put their textbooks and other necessary items on a table bookshelf.
Here is one of my favorite parts in my classroom. The jobs section. With our Kafe theme, I came up with jobs that would exist in a real cafe. Each week the jobs rotate. So far, everyone wants to be the "Boss". My favorite is the Barista, because I love hearing my kids use the word. I feel like I'm at Starbucks.
Next to the class jobs, you see a lil iPad, with Jail Bars.... yea, that's our iPad Jail. Kids get into that when they don't do their homework or follow iPad directions. They don't like it so there haven't been too many in it yet this year.
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| Here is my alphabet from Nicole Swisher. I love the character traits on there! |
Here are my writing bulletin boards. The iWrite board is from Brown-Bag Teacher (I love her). I'm hoping this help my kids keep track of where they are in the writing process and compare how they are moving along to other students. It will help me because with the kids picking Work on Writing at all different times, it's hard for me to always know who is doing what when....
The VOICES board is something I made to help the students select a goal to work on for writing. I will use it similarly to the CAFE board, where the students will select a focus for their writing. The file is available in my TPT store.
Here are my station boards. Every morning the students select their choices for Daily 5 ELA. They pick all 5, in any order. There is a sign I put up if the day is different than usual, such as: No daily 5 because of an assembly, or only pick 3 because we are working on a project. If students go to an intervention, they also don't pick all 5, but they know what to do. I use the little accents, which are labeled with the Daily 5 names. They also have a number on them. The students find their "Magic Number" and they select the 5 using the 5 accents.
For math stations, they select based on groups. Each table has a pan (dollar tree pizza pan spray painted). They select 2-3 stations for the day. I teach 3 mini lessons and they go to 3 stations to complete tasks.
All around my room I have chairs, beanbags, pillows, and blankets. I feel the kids learn better if they are able to be comfortable. My students take off their shoes, cuddle up with a buddy, lay under tables and chairs, and climb under my back shelf with a pillow to read and complete work. They love it! I can usually see them, and they will always tell me if someone is not working! They feel like they are at home, and that is how I like my classroom to be, a home.
Here is my beautiful iPad cart :) I love this :) I am so lucky :) Awww :)
The iPad signs on the front of the cart are the iPad rules I made to match our school's PBIS rules: Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe, and Be a Defender. They are available in my TPT Store as well.
The cart with wheels next to the iPad cart, houses chargers and other items for the iPads and MacBooks. Those labels can be found in my store as well.
My students each have a locker. This comes in handy since they do not have a desk. The locker not only holds backpacks and jackets, but notebooks, folders, and other materials we don't use every day. I made the little iPads for the fronts of the lockers. They say "iAm so "App"y to be in 5K". They have the students' names under them so I know whose locker is whose. At the bottom, the students have the word cloud they created on the first day of school. They used an App called Word Clouds, and told me the things they like most. They saved the finished Cloud to photos and uploaded it to me using Dropbox. Then I printed them and they glued them on "Fancy" paper.
This is outside my classroom. My mom had the brilliant idea of finding a bistro set to put outside the "Kafe". She also wrote the sign that welcomed the kids on the first day.
On the first day, the students took their own picture using our Photo Booth. I got this from Diary of a 21st Century Teacher. The kids LOVED IT! We used the pictures to do a writing activity where they learned how to use #hashtags. Some got it, and others are still working on it...
We put all of our pictures onto our class Instagram Board.
I have to say that I had some amazing help to get this classroom ready.
I have former students who come back every summer to help me. Yair (I promised him a shout-out) is a sophomore this year and was probably in my room for 10 hours total doing whatever I asked of him. Except for putting up my alphabet when he said to me, "Miss, I know how you are, I'm not gonna do it straight..." He knows me well... I am a perfectionist.
My mom is the kind of person who I don't have to even tell what to do. She comes in and knows what I need done and does it. She does bulletin boards and tells me when mine are not straight or even. She scouring Goodwill for me finding the items I need to make my classroom what I want.
And I even had my boyfriend come in to help do some high bulletin boards that required a ladder. He knows how I am too, so when I would say to move the border over just a lil centimeter so it would match the other one, he did it without complaining :)
I have family members who send school supplies and prizes so that I don't have to spend any more money than I do.
The custodians at my school worked long hours and longer days to make sure our classrooms were clean and ready. They are so undervalued. I owe them BIG TIME.
I am so lucky to be blessed with such a great group of kids, teachers, and friends. They know that to me, this isn't a job, it's my passion. I'm not "just" a teacher. They make me love my job more every day. I look forward to making this year, their best ever.
Good luck with the year :) enjoy it yourself, and the kids will enjoy it too!
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