Classroom is Ready! 2012-2013

So this is what my room looked like when I was able to get into the school 2 weeks ago. Every summer they wax the floors and everything must be up off the floor so I put it on the back counter. After 2 weeks of work this is my classroom:



The back wall is going to be my math focus wall. We are getting a new math textbook this year so I'm waiting until I get those materials to do anything here.

Here you can see my genre posters on the cabinet doors and on the far right it says "Brownie Points." Every time my students get a compliment they earn a brownie. Once the pan is full I bake real brownies for everyone.

On the left side of the back counter you can see my materials for Word Work and Work on Writing (Daily 5). I'll share a few of those at the end of this post.

These are my cubbies where I have my classroom library. I know, they don't match! But I just couldn't bring myself to paint them black. That would be a huge job to do alone.

This is my small group table! Behind the table you can see my materials that I use for small groups. On the right side I have reading materials and on the left is math. You can also see my metal supply cabinet that holds all my science experiment materials and goodies!

This is my area in the room. I have a document camera and teacher mobi that normally go on the taller table but they were checked into the library before I left for the summer. You can just see the days of the week drawers where I store all my materials for each day of the week. I also used fabric around my desk so it looks a little nicer.

This is the computer corner. You can see my student mobis and the bag of clickers I just got. I'm not loving the way that poster is looking in the window so I might have to work on making that look a little better.

The is a view of the entire room from the front corner.

This is an old Smartboard that we are lucky enough to have. The first batch the school ordered had something wrong with them so they sent new ones and let us keep the old ones. Some of us were able to have them hung in our room to use as a white board. So I have each subject area posted and this is where we write homework assignments, tests, and objectives.

This is the shelf that has my writing/word work materials on it. You can see the mini boggle cubes (ordered from Oriental Trading).  The kids use these to play boggle. The dice on the right side are letter dice. Just roll to get a letter and create a hidden letter drawing. The catch? The kids have to write a story to go along with the drawing. On the left side is the basket with trays and Play-Doh. The students use the Play-Doh to write their spelling words for the week (yes, my 5th graders love this).

This is one of my math corners. We have 4 Corners, which the groups rotate to throughout the week. This is the fact corner but if you go back and look through the above pictures you might be able to see all 4 corners. We have fact games, number games, strategy games, and paper practice. Before any of the games go in the corner we play them together as a class to learn to play. Then, on a sentence strip, I write the name of the game, number of people that can play, and a picture to help them remember how to play. The cards up here are left from last year. When we start this year the cards will be gone and the crates will be empty. (Where in the world will I put all those math games?) 

My final project is something I forgot to make a picture of once it was complete. These are the letters I printed and put on paper plates from Target. Each teacher has his/her name above the door to the classroom. So I made these to put up (which I did today). I'll try to remember to take a picture next time I'm at school and post for you to see.

I hope you have enjoyed the mini tour of my classroom. We are having a Meet & Greet this year instead of the traditional open house so I'm planning to do a mini classroom tour via QR codes. That's my project for next week.