Sneak Peek At My Classroom

It's Friday!  LOVE the weekend.  I always think I have so much time to get a ton of stuff done but what usually happens is Sunday comes in a flash and I'm disappointed in myself for not getting anything done.  So I just came home from work.  Took a ton of pics of my classroom to show you what it really looks like in kinder land.  I like it bright, welcoming, and an environment that makes kinders want to learn and stay.  It's important that my students LOVE their classroom.  I am also the type of teacher that likes to change-it-up each year because I don't want to get bored with my environment with the same ol' thing every year.  I like change, trying out different color schemes, and making it a place where I WANT  to spend time.  So take a peek at my room and please tell me what you think!

Every kindergarten needs a dramatic play area.  This is our Surf Shack!  Here our Surfer of the week is highlighted and students visit the Surf Shack to take orders, write recipes, or play house.  The Surfer of the Week decorates their own surf board and we interview them and make a class book each week.

Right next to the Surf Shack is my Technology Zone.  There is the computer area where students visit Kidpix, Starfall, or PBS Kids.

The listening center is where students independently listen to the story of the week.  I post clear directions for the children so they know what to do when they get to that center.  

This is my classroom library.  Each student has a book box with individualized leveled reading books.  When we meet for guided reading, students bring their book boxes with them to read and exchange books.

I love the location of my guided reading/math table.  This is where I spend ALL MY TIME!  I never sit at my desk.  I sit here because it is in the center of the room.   I can see all areas from here.  I organize my reading groups by color and store the guided reading books in each colored bin.  On the right side of my reading table I store all my leveled Take Home Reading books.  I also have a set of easy access drawers where I store all my guided reading materials.  I also use this table for my guided math groups.  Each day I meet with one leveled math group to practice skills of the week.

 My class goes SURFING otherwise known as Plan Do Review.  Students pick which area they would like to visit like the writing center, building center, surf shack, listening center, puzzles and games, IPads, or computers.








My calendar is next to my whiteboard.  Here I have my classroom jobs posted, daily schedule, Literacy center and Math center boards.

This is my Discovery Science table.  The kiddos bring in all kinds of items to share and let other children explore.  I store my science journals on this table and display science books of our unit at that time.  What I love about this discovery table is our "I wonder" bulletin board.  Here students ask "I wonder" questions when we start a new unit of study.  Then we constantly refer back to these questions to make sure our learning is complete.  

 

This is our Poetry center.  During literacy centers students visit this center to read, highlight sight and rhyming words, and illustrate pictures in their Poetry journals.  All supplies are in the drawers for students to use and their journals are right there for them to find easily.  Each week I post a new poem and we highlight the rhyming words. Then students write rhyming words on sentence strips.  I always display our monthly art work surrounding the poem.  We are learning about insects and here students created the life cycle of the butterfly.  They used pastel crayons to illustrate beautiful flowers!

Here are some more pics of my Literacy centers.  Top left is our Writing center.  Students can write letters, mail postcards, use stencils to create stories you name it.  Markers, colored pencils, tape, glue, pens, scissors, stickers, and a crate of monthly thematic words are all there at their fingertips.  

Top right is our Tech Support.  Here is where I store our IPads and ITouch for students to grab on-the-go in easy carrying baskets.

Bottom left is our Art Center.  Each week I place all supplies for our weekly art project in the red tray.  When students visit here they grap the tray and find an empty table to create the project.  I also store more markers, dot markers, stamp pads, paper and foam scraps here as well.

Bottom right pic is our Word Work center.  Here I store all my sight word games and activities for students to find easily.  

My Math Center is right next to the Discovery table.  I have two wonderful display cabinets so that I can easily grap a basket of manipulative's at any time of the day.  I keep everything in sight so that kiddos explore and I don't have to go searching for something way deep in the back of a closet.  

 ...and finally the most important!  My coffee station.  I LOVE my Keurig one cup coffee maker.  I can't wait to make that first cup each day.  

Share with me your classroom pics.  I would love to hear your ideas or thoughts.

 Have a nice weekend!

Back To School: New Classroom Pics Part Two

So excited to share with you my NEW classroom pics.  I posted a few days back that I decided to change the layout of my  classroom to help with organization and SMOOTH sailing throughout the new school year.  

Last year it was my first year back to teaching after being a stay at home mom to my four boys.  I taught 1st grade for 5 years, then I enjoyed being home with my boys for 16 years.  Now I am back! So we all know the first year no matter if you taught before or not is always tough :(!  I felt like everyday I was doing the best I can to keep up.

So at the end of last year, I started organizing.  I went through cabinets where papers were all mixed up and I sorted, sorted, sorted.  I purchased plastic boxes to place all my materials for each monthly theme. I also spent a lot of time this summer looking at many blogs to get ideas how to organize my room.  Here is what I came up with :)

Last year each student had their own supply box with a box of crayons, glue stick, white glue, scissors, pencil, and eraser.  The supply boxes took up a lot of room at their tables.  Supplies got lost, and someone was always looking for something.       "I can't find my scissors!"  I also spent a lot of money on supplies to fill 18 supply boxes!!  So for this year, each table will have 1 basket of supplies in the middle of the table.  I found these baskets and fuchsia pencil holders at IKEA!    I saved a lot of money on less supplies :)  We all like to hear that.....

Center Ideas:

I made an area for each literacy center.  Here is my guided reading area.  Last year my word wall was away from where I was doing my guided reading.  Not the smartest idea.  I always wanted to refer to it and the children were reluctant to use it.  This year my word wall is behind my guided reading table.  In this area I have everything I need for guided reading.    The binders that you see are all labeled.  I still need to laminate the spine labels to make it easier to find what I am looking for.  

Binders:

Sight Words

Word Work

Student Assessments

Writing

Guided Reading

The baskets have sight word readers in them to use during guided reading.

On the left side I have my guided reading leveled books.  I have two mini pocket charts to use doing word work.  The small turquoise file on the top shelf has sight words on index cards for each student.  I have it labeled so I know where each student is at with their sight words.  I have a parent volunteer come in to practice with each kiddo so this will be easy to find.  The black 4 drawer shelves right next to my table has sentence strips, highlighting tape, spyglasses to find sight words and ABC charts for students.

My reading nook is much larger this year.  The kiddos were always cramped trying to read their books last year, so I knew it needed to be larger.  All the baskets are labeled with themes.  The corner book holder contains thematic books.  Right now it has all books about apples.  My big books are in the reading nook also for students to look at.  Once we have the first day of school, I take a pic of each darling and then I label their orange book boxes.  These will go on that empty top shelf that you see.

A cozy little area :)!

Poetry Center:

So excited about this area!  Last year most of my bulletin boards displayed student's work.  I decided for this year to make some of my bulletin boards an active area for my kiddos to learn.  Each week we have a poem of the week.  I used to have the poem on a pocket chart.  Now I will display the poem of the week on this bulletin board in my cute polka dot frame.  On the right side I have two small purple pocket charts.  I will have the kiddos find rhyming words and sight words in the poem and write them on sentence strips to put in these pocket charts.

All the supplies for the poetry center are right here!  How amazing is that!  I finally figured it out that by keeping everything in the right section, makes teaching a lot smoother.  In the 3 drawer file I have highlighters in one drawer, glue sticks to glue down the poem, and the poem of the week miniature style.  In the black shelves are the kiddos poetry journals.  The white binder contains all the poems for the school year so I can grab it and copy the poem for the following week.

Art Center:  

Everything my kiddos need for art!

Colored Pencils

Colored Markers

Scrap booking  Scissors

Playdough

Stamp pads/Paint dots

Yarn

Scrap Paper

Foam Scraps

(Planning on labeling Everything)

Word Work (Top Shelf)

In basket I have white boards for sight word practice.

Sight word letters to make necklaces.

Sight word game

( Will add to this center once kiddos are familiar with routine)

ABC center (Bottom Shelf)

Plastic letters for playdough

Letter Stamps with stamp pads

Letter game

Handwriting books

Sandpaper letters with crayons to do rubbings

Math Center:

These baskets I used last year for my math manipulatives.  I decided to use my tall bookcase for them because I can hide the door to my furnace.  My math center is on the other side of the room now.  I have a lot more space and a cute round table for my kiddos to work at.

This is right next to the bookcase.  These shelves are perfect for all those small math supplies you need daily!  Here is what I put in the shelves:

Colored buckets contain math specific books

Math journals

Links

Rulers (wooden and plastic)

Place Value rods

All kinds of counters

Calculators

Scales

Magnetic numbers

Mini Clocks

I placed my daily schedule in this cute little nook behind my computer.  Last year it was on my white board but it never was too secure.  Kept falling or sliding down.

So much better to look at each day :)!

I love the pocket with the daily activities in it close by!

Finish this today!  I know several of you out there in blogging world had this great idea to take a pic of all the students in each month for the birthday bulletin board.  It's ready to go.  I just need to add the months and the pics of my students once school starts!

I always like to decorate behind my desk area.  I will probably add pics of my boys and family to make it more personal.  My students love to see what my kids look like!

Reading Buddies Shelf:

Behind my desk I have a sweet reading buddies shelf.  In the turquoise bucket are the books that go along with my reading buddies.  I have a backpack that goes home with one of my kiddos each day.  They write and draw a picture about their sleepover with the reading buddy.  We share the student's picture with the class each day :)!

And finally, here's my desk :(.  Still have a lot more word to do.  Stay tuned for Part Three of my classroom pics.  I can't wait to share them with you.  Please let me know what you think so far.

Sherry :)

Back To School: Day One

     It's here!  Time to conquer the good ol' classroom.  Mistake number one.....thinking I need a new layout.  It would of been much easier to keep my same classroom layout from last year, but NO....I decide to rearrange everything and now I am in the middle of one big MESS!
     I need to LOVE the space that I am going to be in day after day, so I spent all summer surfing the web and blogs to find that comfy space that I am looking for.  So I am showing my room on DAY 1 so you can see how I possibly put it all together before the first day of kindergarten.  You can also take a look at my classroom tour from last school year and let me know which layout you like better!!!  Here are some pics of the disaster zone.......

Here is the view from the front door.

Nice and clean, but a lot of work ahead of me....

Tried to move my desk and it completely fell apart.  Desk is gone!  Hopefully I'll get a new one from another classroom.  I'll keep my fingers crossed :)

OK so I dove right in.  I always wanted a cute sink area.  Last year this was always so ugly and boring.  So I put bright fuchsia and trimmed it with a cute flower black border.  My entire classroom is going to have bright green, purple, blue and fuchsia with black polka dot borders.  

With the desk breaking this is all I have for now..................Stay tuned :)!