My Classroom 2017

**Note:  I did receive some classroom decorations from Oriental Trading Learn 365 in exchange for this post.  However how I used the materials in my classroom were up to me and all thoughts about the products are my opinions.  

I decided to pick items from the Eric Carle Theme for my classroom because my classroom is the reading resource room and I the that that theme went perfect with the room.  The first thing I picked was this adorable Welcome Banner.  

OT Learn 365

It was a bit wide for my door, I have a narrow door,  so I cut it apart(sorry about that) and put it together with some other bulletin board cut outs that I owned to create a door decoration.   I really like how cheery my door is.  I  had several compliments on it from parents and teachers at the open house.

I am by no means finished in my room.  When you have a new room it takes a long time to get all the little finishing touches done.  However, I have what I need to get the school year started in place.  

You will see throughout the room some colorful and inspirational Eric Carle posters.  I love that O.T. used the book characters and added some quotes about learning and being yourself to them. The posters I did not use in my classroom I am going to donate to the school library.  We have a new librarian and I am sure she will welcome the posters.  

This is the best I could do to give you a full view of the room I will be working in this year.   

Most of the room is taken up with the guided reading materials for the primary grades.  I am responsible for keeping the books in order.  

The previous resource teacher, my friend, had a great system in place and I plan to continue her system.  

This is sort of my teacher station.  I some of my resource books here, organization drawers with all supplies, a file drawer with activities and a mini refrigerator with water. I used some of the magnetic pieces from the Very Hungry Caterpillar Retelling pack I received to decorate the front of the refrigerator.  Two students were so excited to see them there during the open house. (I could not find it on their site to link it for you.)   

This is going to be my reference wall.  I hope to hang up more anchor charts for the children to look at when they struggle with a concept as the year goes on.  

The big open wall space here I am planning on hanging a large pocket chart.  This back shelf is for student supplies and easy to grab learning supplies.  

These upper storage shelves is where I will keep all my learning games.  I hope to add more games throughout the year.  

Thanks for visiting my classroom and many thanks to Oriental Trading for the wonderful decorations.  

My New Room and a little Update

This fall I start my new position at my same school as the Primary Resource Teacher.  Basically I am doing the same thing as last year however I now have a little room to work in, instead of the hallway or the principal's conference room. He was very patience and kind to share his space, however sometimes my little four years would get a bit loud when they were excited about learning the alphabet.  

I am now responsible for keeping track of all the guided reading materials as well.  

The room is nothing exciting.  It is down in the basement next to the library.  I'm  sure it was the library storage room at one time but our school is so strapped for space that in recent years this is where our resource teacher carved out a place for herself.  

There are no windows and the light seems a bit limited.  However I am just happy to have a space because when there were a lot of meetings and speech going on in the school, I had to work in the hallways or cafeteria.  Generally not a problem but I always needed to carry everything I needed around with me.  I felt like a bag person.

I am excited to make this my new home.  I hope I will be here for a long time so I want to make this space as pleasant as possible.  Also I want the children to be excited to come to this space to learn.

 I know I can not buy everything right away, however I have a must have list for this year:

• carpet for floor
• two or three lamps
• teaching easel
• one bookcase
• Computer to log books/modernize a checkout system for teachers

I cannot start at my school until Thursday because I have so many cute grand-babies to babysit for so I am trying to do little projects at home. 

One of the things I received in my back to school box from Oriental Trading was some Eric Carle stickers.  The theme for my resource room is going to be Eric Carle.  Anyways I took these colorful square stickers I found in the Target $1 section and the Eric Carle stickers from O.T. and labeled my teacher carousel. 

Before

After

I am very excited to share the Eric Carle bookmarks and pencils that came in the box as well.  I go through so many bookmarks throughout the year.  I think the kids say they need them and then share with their other friends in the classroom.  I don't care....if it keeps them excited about reading....great!   

Pencils are always a problem when I work with kids.  They always come out to me with unsharpen, broken, and worse yet...half eaten pencils.  Sharing a new pencil with them is like giving them a mini reward.  Bookmarks, pencils and erasers are the types of things I reward children with so I am thankful to Oriental Trading for providing me with those wonderful gifts.  

My Classroom Tour 2015

Welcome

Today is Open House day at my school.   That is the day all the children come to the classroom and meet their new teacher and drop off all their school supplies.  

When you first walk into my classroom you will see the reading center.

Right behind the reading center in the Religion Table.  I use the term Religion Table loosely because it really is two small file cabinets.

The front white space of the file cabinets I plan on putting a prayer and kid pictures.  

My Science Center and Word Center are right next to each other.  I put my little table in the area so the kiddos have room to spread out and explore.  

My Writing Center is an area I put a lot of thought and money into this year.  First I move the center over by the Word Wall and I put all the supplies up against the wall.  

Last year the children were constantly writing at the small table so I purchased a large table for the area.  

I am hoping it will encourage the children to write and draw more at the table.  

This is my desk area.  My binders are on a little shelf in front of my desk.  The little baskets on the white file cabinets are for picking up and turning in work.  I even made some cute signs.

Here is the view of my classroom from the back of the classroom....

And here is the view from the front of the classroom.....

See More Wonderful Classroom at the Linky Party at Blog Hoppin

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My Classroom.....The Reading Center

 I have spent two weeks cleaning and fussing in my classroom.  The first thing I want to share with you is the focus of my classroom....The Reading Center.  It takes up a good chunk of space in my classroom.  I changed the way I organized my reading center two years ago after I read the book, The Book Whisper.  The reading center is the favorite area of the children.  

 Just like most primary teachers I have labeled my books so that the students are able to find and put away books on their own. 

 I love the book display cart I purchased last year.  I am able to display theme books throughout the year.  On the back side I like to  display class books.  

 My reading center is broken into to parts.  This is what the back side of the reading center looks like.  It also includes a larger round table.  I have all my take home leveled books in one area.  

I have worked really hard to create an inviting, fun, bright and cozy space for my first graders to curl up with a good book. 

Busy Week

Kindergarten Open House

I have been soooooo busy this week with kindergarten open house.  Most people cannot believe our school starts recruitment this early however all the schools in our area start early.  Sign up for school/parish families begins next month and then new families can register after that.  I think we have about 40 spots already filled for K5 for next year, which means they are looking for at least 8 more students.  I would be happy with only 20 in my class, however I am not in charge of paying the bills.

Lots of artwork and cleaning this week, we were making Christmas presents and practicing for the Christmas concert too. 

I added a new board in the back of the classroom.  I wanted to do this for a while, a timeline of a year in photos.  I saw this idea somewhere on Pinterest.  The months are from my new favorite blog, Kinder-Craze.  Maria has lots of great ideas and lots of them are for free.  Ok, I have to admit I did not blog a couple of nights because I was reading ideas at Kinder-craze.  

I was also creating a sight word bingo game for Polar Express day.  My little ones are struggling with their sight words. So I put this bingo game together for them to review their sight words.   I found some cute graphics at Little Red's Schoolhouse. 

My Polar Express Sight Word Bingo is for sale at TPT.

Welcome To My Classroom

Classroom Tour 2012

Welcome to my classroom.  I went with the owl theme again this year.  I just couldn’t pack away my owls they are so cute. 

Here is my classroom doorway.  My students from last year made them to surprise my new class. 

 I put the bench in the hallway.  It is home to the recess balls.

As you walk in my room, on the right is the computer center and on the left is an ipad center.  

I have another ipad center as well.

The Rainbow Carpet is right in front of the smartboard.  This is my large group area. 

I have my teacher table in the corner with all my teacher things. 

The students keep their things inside these lockers.  Above the lockers is my word wall.  

The children can easily see this information from their tables.

This is the building center and my storage area is above.

Right now this is the house area, this area will change throughout the year.

The writing center is in the corner of the room.

I also have the home reading and level check out books on a cart over here.

Across from the writing center is the science center.

This is the religion table.  I am waiting for the children to decorate the big black space.

 The math center is next on the tour.  I added this board with some math vocabulary on it for the children. 

Behind the math center is the reading center, I am excited to see the children reading in here.

In the center of the room is the word center with lots of activities.

That’s my room, now I need some children.  Only six more days until they come to school. J