2014-2015 Classroom

School starts in less than 24 hours and I am ready to go! At least, I think I am. Today I am linking with Swimming into Second Grade to show off my classroom this year. As I mentioned before, I am in the same classroom, though with a different set of desks. It was nice to walk in and already have a few things on the wall or at least know where I wanted them to go. Sticking with my polka dots and sock monkeys was an easy choice. I love them both and already had the decorations! 

The outside of my door. Each year my principal picks a theme that we have to incorporate into our doors. This year it is weather. I love that I was still able to use my sock monkeys! This door stays the same all year, but since I usually keep my door open and against the wall, I am the only one that gets to enjoy it. 

The inside of my door. In theory, each time we read a book we will put it on the door. I haven't decided if it will only be for whole class books or not because I am afraid of opening a Pandora's box with a million umbrellas. Since we don't have bulletin boards in the halls, this door changes for the seasons. Hopefully this door will last me until Christmas!

The view when you walk through the door. I only have sixteen kiddos right now, but last year I had twenty-three, so I am holding my breath to see if I get to keep this delightfully small group. On each desk is a new book, their crayon bag, and the Welcome Back Pack from Sunny Days. 

My Conduct, jobs, objectives, and school-wide engagement posters. Across the school we use the same language in behavior so it is consistent from year to year. Most of my students will be used to this system coming in day one. 

My carpet, word wall, and genre posters. I love to read aloud, so we spend a lot of time here. I mostly use my word wall for math and reading concept cards, which I will hopefully finish soon! The genre posters can be found here. We talk a lot about the genre of the books we read in small group and on the carpet so we can check them off of our genre bingo cards. 

View of my room from the carpet. My lovely shower board only looks clean from this far away! I mostly use my document camera that I was able to get last year through Go Fund Me. My projector will hopefully be installed this year, but currently it lives on a cart that I wheel around. In this picture you can also see the Home Depot bags tied to each chair. Students keep their crayons, scissors, glue, dry erase marker, and sock (for an eraser) in a quart size bag in one pocket and a chapter book in the other pocket. 

Visible thinking wall. I went to Project Zero last spring and was able to incorporate some strategies last year, but I plan on doing more now. 

Anchor chart wall on my other cabinet. My math curriculum has a lot of graphs we will make throughout the year and I love making charts for reading, so this will stay pretty full! 

Small group table and phonics wall. I use SMILA methods, which is an offshoot of Slingerland, to teach and review phonics daily. Once I get another pocket chart, our weekly spelling patterns and rules will go next to my phonogram chart. 

This is the view from desk in the back corner. You can see all of my calendar math up on the front wall. On the right is my station table with crate seats. 

My classroom library! Between Go Fund Me, Scholastic Book Orders, and several expensive trips to the used book store, I have a pretty large library for a second year teacher. All of the basket colors match the school library coding for the different AR levels, which makes picking books easy in both places. Most of my students take 1-4 AR tests a week. 

Panorama view from the door. If only the room was as big as it looks here! I love walking in every morning and am so excited to meet my new class tomorrow! 

Slowly but Surely

I have been in a flurry of preparation this week! We start school Monday morning. My room is (mostly) ready, just a few quick fixes tomorrow and I am ready to go! Starting my second year of teaching, I am really blessed to be at the same small school again and to already know so many of my students. 2nd grade does lunch and recess with 1st at my school, so I have a good idea of the little (and not so little) personalities in my class this year!

Yesterday I looked at my first week plans from last year. Oh my goodness I was a first year teacher! I had to laugh at how little I understood about second grade and be amazed at what a difference a year makes.

Since I am in the same classroom this year, the last two weeks have been more about refining last year's arrangement and decor to make it work better.  Last summer I was also just getting into designing, so I had to update a lot of my posters as well.

 Here is a quick peak at some of the organization in my room this year:

My new crayon drawers! I am already in love. Each student has one box of crayons at their desk, and the rest of them will be divided up into these drawers. I am putting the drawers around the room on the second day of school and we will explore the classroom as we put away the colors. Now instead of digging through cabinets or buckets, I can easily find a color.  I got the box at Home Depot and the labels can be found here in my TPT store. 

A drawer of blue. I already have over 30 crayons in there and it can hold so much more! 

Another project this summer was updating my weekly drawers. I made labels for them last year, but once I made a copy, grade, file set I knew I needed to redo all of them. I am loving the streamline look. 

My sister painted the tree above the drawers. At the end of the year, I had my kiddos put their fingerprint on the branches. The idea is that each year my class will add their fingerprints in different colors. I got the idea here. 

Check in tomorrow to see more of my classroom! 

My First Classroom

This post has been a long time coming. I am not sure why I never posted the before pictures. Enjoy a picture overload!

Before:

Small Group Area and Independent work table

Computers and a look at my old desks! 

Old desks.

Front of the room where the teacher's desk used to be. It took four people to move it to the back! 

I love how much whiteboard space there is along the front, but unfortunately it isn't magnetic. The last teacher glued a few clips to the board to attach papers. 

Kicking it old school with a chalkboard. 

 About 12 billion hours later: 

My objectives and required school engagement plan information

Math, religion, centers, and LA posters. Also, we sat on cushions the first day! We didn't have desks until day two. 

My desk and teacher area. I love having it in the back of the room! 

My Math and anchor charts board.

My take on crate seats (thanks mom for the cushions!) 

My door. It melds my sock monkey theme and the required school ocean theme. 

View from my desk. You can see our carpet, library, and front of room.

Now With Desks:

Each desk has a pencil gripper on it. I hardly ever hear pencils drop! 

My WBT rules and scoreboard. 

Back of my door (Sign is free here!) On the first day of school we made self portraits. 

We don't have bulletin boards in the hallways, so I covered clothespins with polka-dot washi tape and hot glued them on the wall outside. It is so easy to change work out! 

View from the door.

I know it is a lot of pictures, but I am so proud of my room! It is so wonderful to finally have one of my own.

They Rave for a Reason

Today we started the second week of school! I am really starting to fall in love with my little class. They LOVE when we do Whole Brain teaching. In my spare time (HA!) I am going to start a series on WBT. If you haven't heard of it, go there now! But enough about my class, back to the reason for today's post...

Ok, so I bought this pencil sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies on a whim over the summer when I was desperate to get into my classroom but still wasn't allowed. I just set in a bag and didn't think about it much until I got to school two weeks before the kids came. First morning in my room and I was so overwhelmed by the mess in front of my that I decided to try out the sharpener. WOW was I amazed! It worked beautifully and I loved that it is idiot proof. There is no over-sharpening with this little beauty.

(please ignore the mess background! Cute class pics to come!)

Beautifully sharp pencils...every teachers dream. 

Now on my second week of school I love it even more. My kids get picked up from inside the classroom and I sharpen our pencils from the day while we wait. It is so quiet that some kids didn't even realize what I was doing until the third day! and I rarely have to give the kids new pencils during the day, most can make it through on one. After a pencil nightmare in student teaching, it is so nice not to have to worry! 

I highly recommend getting one for yourself! The entire teacher-blog community can't be wrong!