Classroom Pictures 2014-15

Room Reveal!!!

Yay! I'm actually doing one this year! Last year I didn't get to do one, so I'm kind of excited about showing you my room this year.
(There are some freebies scattered throughout this post, so make sure you read, too!)

So, this is my NEW room at my NEW school! The whole set up is completely different than my other school, so I really had to think about how to organize and set everything up the way that would work for me. And I'm sure I'll change it a few times by the end of the year. ha!

If you've read the post I did a few posts ago, you saw how my room was when my husband brought the    U-Haul and "dumped" everything in the middle of my room. Yeah. The custodians were even doubtful that I could get the room looking good. lol. And today they told a me a FEW times throughout the day how much they loved my room. Um. That's like the best compliment - EVER! These people are serious neat freaks and we get a long great. ha! Just in the few short weeks I've known them I can tell they are some of the best people you could meet.

Anyway, let's get started.

So here is my "entry" way. I've never had an room with an inside door so I'm super excited about having one right now. I can actually decorate it without worrying about the rain or sun or wind.

And when you walk in, this is the immediate view. My whole back wall is windows, and I. LOVE. IT.  I love the natural light - I don't have to even turn on the lights during the day! I have to warn you, the pictures do not do it justice. The natural lighting, lights turned off, Enya music playing on the speakers. I almost don't want to go home to my chaotic house loving family! lol

You'll see that each team has a rolly cart. The middle drawer only has their math bucket in it right now. But I don't allow them to have their pencil boxes IN their desk; they keep them in the top drawer, so the team leader is in charge of them.

On top of the rolly cart is their team bucket. In the bucket, there is another book bin. Here, they'll keep their books (that they borrow from my library), their offices, team folders and the alphabet chart resource. They will also keep their pencils, glue bottle (team bottle), and their behavior card. I'll do a post on "Teams" later and get more into it then.

Here is my back wall. I've never had a BIG bulletin board, so I'm excited for this one too. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but for right now, I'm loving my DJInkers bulletin board! (Right, Teeny!?)

 And then under the board I have the supplies station. I have 2 drawers extra that I'm not sure I what I want in there, so we will see.

Then over to the left of that we have the listening station on the small rug and some books displayed. This will be my "Author Study" section. When I do author themes (like Kevin Henkes, Pete the Cat or Frog and Toad) then I will put the books over there. I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing with that bulletin board, but I had to cover the wall. There were disgusting tinted velcro dots stuck all over the wall, so I had to cover them. I will probably be putting up some anchor charts of our skills of the week up there.

Same thing with this make-shift bulletin board. I had to cover the ugly velcro dots, so I will probably be using this as our writing anchor chart wall. Right now, there are monthly word cards (from Miss Kindergarten) and file folders (from Kindergarten Smiles) there for the kids to use as writing resources.

Underneath this long counter are cubbies. My teammates like to use these for backpacks, but I have so much stuff, that I needed them for storage...for myself! 

They were a perfect fit for all of my 3-drawer storage bins.

...and all of my shoebox bins filled with "stuff."

....and my holiday book bins. These book bins didn't fit with the rest of the books, so they are off to the side. That's ok. It works.  They are actually two rows deep. So, where you see the two August bins? There are two more bins behind them. Yeah. Those are just my holiday books. lol

To the left of the counter is the center bins and the "I'm Finished" drawers.

The reading buddies are next to the shelf. They will get to use these during our silent reading time at the end of the day.

Here is my favorite spot in the room. My area. My chair, rolly cart, calendar, pretty much everything I need.

I love my calendar. It's one of my favorite areas.

and HERE is my NEWEST favorite thing in my room.....

my book bins!  This was a labor of love....and I just LOVE how it turned out! They bins come from Steps to Literacy. These are just my fiction books. I have a slight addiction to buying books, you could say. lol 

Here are my non-fiction books. You can also see my filing cabinet that I will be keeping student tests in and then all of my papers that I need that have been copied off for the year or my "I'll keep this for later" file. And above my desk on top of the cabinets are my monthly bins...for all my activities and centers and such. 

That book shelf in the right corner...the staggered one? That's my monthly book display....where I'll put that month's or week's theme there. Right now there are some empty space in the shelf because I had their first day packets there for the parents to grab today during our Meet & Greet.

Behind my desk are my bins for the week. Right now you can see my Time Capsule activity ready for Monday and in today's bin is the Parent Survey that I handed out (those are the extras). These two things are freebies, grab them HERE.

And here is my room from the left side when you walk in. 

My focus board for this year. I HAD Rowdy in Room 300's Close Reading Board up, but then our admin said that they wanted it a certain way, so I had to change it up a bit. But you should check her board out. I Love it!

So here I will type up the focus question for each week/2 weeks of study and put the vocab cards in pocket charts. The spelling and sight words I think I'm going to actually move those over next to my calendar bulletin board so that we can do more with them during our morning meeting.

 

Here is my "In the News" board. I have the schedule posted, our classroom jobs, the calendar I send home (I always staple one up for myself and then I can write on it for appts and such), and the standards will go in the pocket chart that will match up with our focus questions.

Here's my bookshelf behind my guided reading table. It's got all kinds of goodies! Most of the things you see, I talked about in my "Guided Reading Tools" post HERE. 

On my cabinets above my guided reading table (to side) are the Reading Strategies Posters that go with the Beanie Babies you see on the top of the shelf.

I don't know whose these are (no name on them..and I've had them for a few years!), but I know my friend over at Teaching with Style just posted some in her store for free that you can snag!

And then under the cabinets are my student computers.

And that brings us full circle around the room to leave. (sorry about that bad lighting! eek!)

I must say, it's probably one of my most favorite rooms I've "made." It's simple, calming, organized. I love it. Hope you found something you liked in it and can take back to your room!

I have a few other posts I'm going to do that stem off this post, like a "cameo" post and a "teams" post. Any other "side posts" you would like!?

You can get all these labels in my Get Organized pack on TpT!