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!

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Classroom Tour 2015!

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!

Click here to purchase welcome banner

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.

Have a great year!