I displayed my students' work all year long on these 12'x12" laminated scrapbook papers. I took black and white pics of each student and made special name plates for each one. I really loved this display, but I do not know how I will incorporate it next year.
Let me warn you.... as you continue to scroll down, you will notice I like to use primary colors (+green) in my class decor, but I could never find the perfect border...so I made my own border. I used 12"x12" scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby, laminated, and cut it out!-
Entrance into the classroom....
"The Greatest People in the World Walk Through This Door."
I've had this little sign since I started teaching, it's going on 16 years, and
I still post it above the door!
(I decorated the little chipboard letter B and made some for my first grade family!)
Directly on the wall to the right of the door was our Lunch Count and Attendance chart.
A little to the left were the student cubbies.
A quick snapshot of my closet. It was small, but I was happy to have it!
The next wall, directly in front of the entrance wall, was the Reading Rounds Area.
I used these colorful containers to organize the materials for each reading group. Behind the blue curtains, I organized all of my reading "goodies" in these plastic show boxes.
Below is a quick look at the word wall. This year I used the space below the word wall to display story vocabulary charts.
Here is a closer look at the story vocabulary charts I made for our basal story of the week. We use Reading Street in our district, and so I used the amazing words list to create these. They included a kid friendly definition, synonyms and antonyms for each word. The kids would use them when they had a writing assignment!
Immediately to the left of my word wall was a wonderful large cabinet that housed a 5'x6' shelving unit. My hubby and father-in-law built it for me a couple of years ago. I will leave it for my sweet friend to use next year. On the doors of the cabinet, I created a WOW work board, and I made a special Phonics Focus Wall. This past year I chose to only display the current phonics content taught, and retire those the students had really grasped. They also kept a personal word wall book in their desks to refer to when writing. The reading center area and writing "nook" were all located in this corner of the room.
The next wall was my calendar and whole group meeting area. We met on the mat for our daily math meetings, lessons, and read alouds. The blue containers below is where I housed my math tubs for math rounds. My centers were located throughout the room in nifty little dishpans (below the big book stand was the poetry center.)
If you look below the green hand you'll see the
Table Captain Chart!- I loved this! This is not my idea. I'm afraid I don't remember where I read about a Supply Captain, and just changed it to Table Captain and made a handy chart. Each week one student was responsible for passing out paper, books, supplies, etc. It was great! Saved me from a lot of those extra little duties that take up so much valuable time.
The computer center was located to the left side of this wall.
My desk and technology center was located closely to the
computer center. Although we didn't have a Smart Board, we did
have document cameras, and projectors.
Behind my desk/technology center was the student management chart
along with our classroom expectations.
This is a view of the left side of this wall. The center work board, birthday chart,
student learning expectations, and student assistant boards were located here.
Well, that was my first grade classroom!- I've always loved using the bright primary colors. I am not certain if I will carry that over to my fourth grade classroom. I've been in "lower primary" mode for so long, and now I am about to switch to "upper primary"! As a teacher, you understand what I mean.
I hope to post my new classroom on a new blog. I hope you'll take a peek!- I've been working on creating the new blog, and I'm really digging the colors. I'm considering using those new colors next year!- Let me know what you think. See you soon....
