Classroom Tour 2018

Class Tour 2018

I am so happy with how my classroom turned out this year! 

Every year I feel like it looks better and better. 

While I try hard to make my classroom look good, I by no means think it is perfect or 'Pinterest worthy'. Firstly because I am at a school where most of the classrooms are looking their age so it is hard to make them look good and secondly I wouldn't want a 'perfect' classroom. I want student work on my walls, I want to create the classroom with them so I need to leave space for that. I also don't want the students to feel overwhelmed or spend a butt load of money on decorating.

We'll start with a few overview shots first and then go into some things in more detail.

^ View from the door

^ View looking back at the door. Used as the 'front of the class'.

^Back corner on door side

^Adjacent to the door- the traditional 'front of the classroom'.

You'll notice I have a rainbow theme in my class.  

When I had my first classroom I bought things that were cheap, cute and practical. I don't think Pinterest was really around back then and I was 3 hours away from any store remotely like Kmart. I kept collecting items in the following year and each time I got a new classroom there were different coloured walls, doors and chairs. I soon realised the only thing connecting all my items was that they were all different colours so a rainbow theme it was to be!

Let's take a closer look.

To the left of where you enter is my Birthday Chart, clock and T.V. screen. Beneath that I have a desk for putting miscellaneous items. The tray in the corner holds note to go home. 

Sorry about the glare on this picture. I love my birthday chart because it is so easy to make it fit any space, no matter the size!

Above the door I have my Welcome sign. It's in a weird place but I didn't have anywhere else to hang it. The top of the wall on this side is in need of a paint job so I have covered in up with things I probably wouldn't otherwise put up in a year 4/5 class. Here I have Days of the Week and Colour Words display.

I left the green cloth the previous teacher had up on this bulletin board and surrounded it with a tie dye rainbow boarder. The purple drapped over the window is from my wedding- it always helps to add a spot of colour to my classroom. Above that I have my punctuation posters. I am adding them as we cover each one so they are not all up yet.

In the back corner I have my Write Any Number Display- again mainly there for colour but I have seen the kids refer to it a number of times. 

Here is my desk with my beautiful spotted chairs that my mum helped me cover at the beginning of last year. 

My rainbow trays hold all my worksheets for the term with each draw labeled (with my FREE Rainbow Labels) as a subject from my timetable. I have a few items on top like my bells, stapler, sticky tape, hand sanitizer and highlighters.

I like to keep my desk simple. It has my laptop, ipad, magazine holder (with planning folders, assessment folders, clip board and guided reading folder), pen holder, sticky note pads, drink bottle and the item in the top left corner is my timetable for the week on display. 

I am trying a portrait timetable this term with Monday and Tuesday on one side and the others on the back. We will see how it goes. I like having it on display so its easy for me, EAs and relief teachers to see.

Behind the desk is a bookshelf that I am keeping quite a few things on. I am constantly moving things around (you'll notice the items in the above picture are not the same as some of the other pictures as this picture was taken at the end of last year as I was just moving in to the room) as I constantly tweak where things are to get the best location. 

Next to my desk is my FREE Goal setting chart. I will eventually add student names to it as we identify the areas they need to work on

In front of that I have my portfolio's of student work, a work to finish tray, guided reading books and our current gem jar reward system.

Continuing along this wall I have my two borrowing boxes. These are items students may borrow when needed. The black box holds the school ipads. Then we have a comprehension box that I use during literacy rotations (when I do guided reading).

Lastly along this wall I have our class library and then trays with scrap paper and a few other things that need labeling.

I have my rainbow curtains up but I've tied them up this year as it's a fairly dark room so even just having the sheer blinds hanging blocked out a lot of light.

I have signs to show students where to stack chairs. I mainly do this because I change my classroom around so much the chair stacks constantly move location so the signs help the students keep up.

I am still using the Raise a Number system (FREE from Little Lovely Leaders). I don't use the sharpen pencil one but it looks funny to leave it out.

My FREE Spelling Poster is also along this wall.

 I have my Multiplication Display above the whiteboard.

My Number of the Day Display is on the whiteboard so we can write the answers up when we go through them.

This is my reading groups display and my No Fuss Flip Calendar underneath.

My Job Wheel currently sits under my whiteboard as I haven't worked out where I want to hang it yet. I also think I need to redo it with slightly different jobs so that it will work better with older students.

Lastly, is probably one of my favourite parts of the room- my Weekly Timetable. Yes it takes up a lot of space, but you could always print it smaller to take up less room. I love that it lets students know exactly what we are doing and we only have to make minor adjustments to it each week. 

I hope you have enjoyed the tour of my 2018 classroom! If there is anything you would like to know more about feel free to let me know in the comments!

⇨ Like us on Facebook ⇨ Follow us on Pinterest