I once did an interview for a teaching job where I showed pictures of my classroom because I believe your classroom is a great insight into what kind of teacher you are. It must have made a good impression because I got the job!
Come and take a tour of my classroom!
My classroom theme was very haphazard for the first few years....I just put up what I thought was cool, purchased whatever coloured containers caught my eye and then tossed up a large piece of purple material left over from my wedding. A few years later came my addiction to Pinterest and hours spent looking at beautifully coordinated classrooms.This year I have tried to pull my classroom into a theme and rainbow seemed the easiest choice given my classrooms current contents and not wanting to replace a lot of the things I already own.
To the left of the door I have the evacuation posters and file, my duty vest, bag and hat and the hanging thing (red, orange, green and blue) is a canvas pocket my brother made for me. I use it for storing notes/work that need to go home. Its particularly good when students are away and you have to save notes for them.
Here is an overview of the rest of that wall and half of the 'front' wall.
I like to use plastic table cloths to cover up my pin up boards. Underneath they are an old cream coloured carpet material. I staple the table cloth up with borders around them to hide the edges.The red, orange and yellow table cloths are from last year and are still holding up well. Below the pin up board I have the 'typical' teachers desk (more on what I use for a desk later) which I have covered with the printer, student portfolios, lunch basket, borrowing box and spelling lesson material. The draws hold materials for Comprehension Box activities (more on those in a later post). Next to that is my book case...I'm not entirely happy with it because it so large but the books stay in good condition unlike the standard bookcase. Then we have the computers and a chair stack.
Above those pin up boards are windows. I took down the curtains that had been there for a few years with the intention of making new ones, but found it made the classroom more open without them. The wooden board says 'Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream, really do come true' and was a gift from a student. I also have objects to use as speaking sticks sitting on the mantle. Along the top I have reading strategy posters by Nicole Blunt.
To the 'front' wall now. I have the current reward system on the green background (will do more on that in another post). I have an Are you Organised? chart which reminds students what they must do at the start of the day. Next up is a tricky word hat and days of the week word cards from Teach This. This year I am trialing the Raise A Number system where students show a different number of fingers for a question, bathroom, sharpen a pencil and getting a drink. So far it is working well and saving loads of time. I especially love it because it means the flow of a discussion doesn't get interrupted by someone asking to go the toilet. I got mine from Little Lovely Leaders.
On the other side of my interactive white board I have my computer, hand sanitiser and my job wheel. Click here to get my job wheel.
The coloured table cloths continue along the back wall. At the top of the wall I have my Birthday train. You can just see the students pictures sticking up out of the carriages. Click here for my birthday train. The coloured pencils are from Communication4All .
Across the middle of my room I have a large purple piece of material draped. It helps to brighten the room up and always catches peoples eyes. The rainbow bunting I made using card stock. I laminated the pieces to ensure it lasts a long time and remains looking good.
I use this horse shoe desk as my desk. I love it! I don't know how I lived without one before. I keep it clear so its always ready for working with children in any way.
I have a wheely chair to help with posture, comfort and ease. The white bookcase is used for storing books for guided reading.
Behind my desk and next to my mat area I have a rainbow draw system. In it I keep all my photocopied sheets grouped by subject areas. Sometimes they will have only that weeks worth of sheets and when I am super organised they might have a whole terms worth.
Behind my desk I have my stationary in easy reach. I love post-its, highlighters and bull dog clips! I have coloured pens, sticky tape, pins, paper clips and a stapler. I use clip boards for any current individual assessing I am doing. On the ledge behind that I have a three tiered tray system. The top is for works in progress, the middle for marking and the bottom for gluing or filing. The files next to that are filled with planning documents, photocopiable resources (like WTW), assessment files and a templates file. On top of the multi coloured draw system I have a display file with my daily workpad. More on all those things in a later post.
Directly behind my desk I have my small group resources. The top two shelves are guided reading resources and sight words. The bottom shelf is whiteboards, markers and maths blocks. More on these in future post.
The shelf adjacent to that holds my consumable resources like magazines, newspaper, masking tape, pasta, paper plates, PVA glue, pipecleaners, popsticks, paper cups and wool.
I have a sliding door out to a shared grass area that I stack chairs in front of. I use chair stack signs to remind students where to stack the chairs. Before I used these I found students would stack the chairs where ever they wanted. You can get the sign free by clicking here. As the chairs are not there during the day, having this area open makes the class feel larger and brighter. I like to paint pictures on the wall that match our theme. The dinosaur, bush and pyramids are left over from previous years and will stay up until I get sick of them or they start to look tacky. The cabinet in the corner holds the mats for assembly. On top is a material box with scrap paper.
Along the back wall I have my reading groups, number crunch and writing goals displays. Click here to purchase my Number Of the Day display.
I use laminated labels for the student names that are blu tacked up so I can easily swap students' groups. I write the acitvities with whiteboard marker so they can easily be changed as well.
On the whiteboard I have my No Fuss Classroom Calendar. I don't like to keep a lot on my whiteboard in case my Interactive Whiteboard is not working (like right now). Click here to purchase my Calendar. (Available in a few background themes)
There is a tray for each of my students and the rest of the trays have my spelling lists in theme. Click here to download my tray labels. Click here to read more about my spelling program.
Above the boards are Multiplication charts, at the time they were the largest numbers I could find. I printed them from TeachThis and photocopied them onto coloured card. I have since made my own with larger numbers but haven't put them up yet. Click here to see my rainbow chevron set
This is my visual timetable. I kind of wish I had printed it out one size smaller, but it does fill this area nicely. Students can easily see what they are doing any time of the day. Click here to purchase this timetable.
This is my Writing Goals Poster. I plan to blu tac up students names to the goal they are working on. Click here to download this poster
Above my door I have my class rules. The students always help me come up with them and in previous years I have written them on a laminated poster (you can see it in the background of the next picture). This year I decided I wanted something bigger and brighter so I turned the rules into A3 posters. The last poster is the the signatures of the children agreeing to follow the rules. They used whiteboard marker so next year I can use them all again (lets face it, kids always come up with the same rules!) Click here to purchase the posters.
Thanks for touring my class with me! I am going to be doing some more in depth posts of different parts of my classroom as the year goes on so please subscribe to the blog (see side bar), like MrsAmy123 on Facebook or follow MrsAmy123 on Pinterest. See more of my products on Teachers Pay Teachers.
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