Photos from the First Week of School

A number of pins on Pinterest inspired this first day of school picture frame.

Recess is always voted favorite time of the school day!

The kids had a great time playing this getting to know you game.

After reading the book First Day Jitters, we made a graph to show we we felt on the first day of school.

Classroom Reveal

Here are some photos I took of my classroom before our first day of school. Now that we're almost two weeks into the school year, the room doesn't look as pristine as it does in the photos. At least I have proof that at one point it was clean and organized!

View of the room from the door. Biggest change this year - desks to tables though we are waiting for one table to arrive as I type this! I have been wanting to make that switch after my first year of teaching. Finally get to do it this year! Word Wall split apart by the Smart Board. General word work stations in the colored rolling drawers. New cute little Ikea table for my computer since all the plugs are over there. Waiting for my husband to take down that pull-down projector screen. It looks so out of place up there.

School/office supplies are in those drawers. Mini-crates and stacking bins for tables' storage. That's one of the biggest issues with tables - lack of storage. However, I'll take that over super messy student desks.

Loved this idea and freebie from Pinterest. One of my students said it was pretty! I agree.

Math Corner. Kids sit on/around the striped rug during Calendar Time activities. Math journals, manipulatives, stations, and games are all on the bookshelf. Monthly themed stations are in the rainbow drawers. Oh, and containers on the top of the bookshelf. I love love love containers! Can't have too many. We also have worship and morning meeting around the rug because the piano is here. (It's to the left of the easel.)

Gathering Area - this is where the bulk of our literacy learning happens. Daily Five and CAFE boards are here. This is also where we make our anchor charts. Book bins along the wall - where kids store the books they borrow from our classroom library.

Classroom library is closed for remodeling right now which is why it's covered with black sheets. About 90% of the books are from my personal collection so I'm in the middle of taking inventory. Modern technology is amazing. There's an app that allows me to scan books and take inventory with my iPhone. Books have also been labeled, and library book baskets are next.

Cutting out laminated library book basket labels is hard work.

Kids' check-in area by front door. They put their STAR folders in the bins and hang up their backpacks on their hooks which are under these shelves. I didn't know what to do with the middle space so I threw some of our favorite library buddies up there to feature their books. I'm going to change that out every month. Have I already mentioned how much I LOVE containers?!!

Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teacher help me stay organized! Both are excellent places for classroom management ideas and resources.

You know you're a teacher when you move furniture from your house into your classroom. This Ikea Expedit shelf used to be in our home office. Now it houses our leveled readers and more. Rainbow drawers will have monthly themed literacy stations. The mailbox is for notes/letters that kids write to each other. Our classroom mail carrier delivers the mail.

Writing Center needs an overhaul. It works for now. I'm trying class journals this year. We do shared journaling with some of our take-home literacy bags, but I like the idea off having them in the classroom as a choice for Work on Writing.

New classroom jobs chart. These are the daily jobs. Kids will also have permanent jobs that they will need to apply for. Posters for our lining up poem and for whole body listening.

We use ClassDojo for behavior management. The kids earn (or lose) points. At the end of the day they receive U-bucks for the amount of points they've earned. Every Friday they shop for these coupons with their U-bucks.

Take home literacy bags at the top. This includes Coco our class mascot. He spends a weekend at each student's house. We have two camels who travel with kids who are going out of town. The camels have literally been around the world! Canada, Spain, Portugal, South Korea, Philippines, and all over the U.S. including Hawaii! Kids have to journal with Coco and the camels. We also have a Birthday Bag, a Lost Tooth Club bag, a Superstar bag, and Scientist of the Week and Historian of the Week bags. In the baskets we have our reading aids - glasses to help the kids read "better", check marks to check for understanding when reading with a partner, eye-lighters, and Beanie Babies who each have a name to help kids improve their reading accuracy.

Door hangers to let others know where we are. 

Thanks for stopping by! I'll post more pictures of the classroom when I get a chance.

For anyone who might be interested in where I got some of my resources, I will add links later on. Right now I'm off to bed. Early day tomorrow as I will be prepping for Back to School Night.