Teacher Week 2015: Classroom Tour

Hi, Teachers!

Today is my big classroom reveal! Wahoo! I've been so excited to write this blog post, but today is the first day of school, and I'm ALREADY pooped! Uh-oh.

As you know if you've been reading my blog, I've linked up with Blog Hoppin' for the 2015 Teacher Week! So, without further adieu... here's my classroom!

Here's my classroom door. As you can see, I decorated with butterflies above my door! That's super typical of me. You can also see my curtain for lock-down drills. 

This is the view from my classroom as soon as you step inside the door. You can see that I've set books out at each table. I introduce my library gradually to my kids, so these are the books they can read from for the first few days. I've also got the scavenger hunts laid out for my kids that I mentioned in this post.

Here's the corner by the sink. You can see my caterpillars in their cage and my empty butterfly cage waiting for some butterflies. Every year I leave my "CARES" up and put our class Hopes & Dreams on them. If you teach your class social skills (which most teachers do), I recommend putting those 5 words up all year and teaching those qualities. I will write a post about that sometime in the future!

I made a simple curtain for above the sink to cover up the yucky storage area I have up there. I also painted the bulletin board above my chalk board and the doors to my over-head storage. You can see m writing chart (that's the pink and green thing!), the expert board (which is currently empty until students file in), and our parking lot. The parking lot is a great classroom management tool. Kids that have questions put their question on a post-it and stick their post-it on the parking lot until I can get to them!

Here I've got my word wall, my writing station, my word study organizers, and my math cart and math bins. I've got a lot of stuff stored in a small amount of space. You can also see my work bag sitting in the "Take a Break" chair, but it's usually in the closet.

Here's most of my classroom library. I am ALWAYS trying to order more books. If you are trying to get your hands on more books for your classroom, I recommend joining Scholastic Book Clubs! You can earn free books for your classroom that way. So far, I've earned hundreds of books. I also have a small group table with crate seats underneath them. The seats hold books that we don't use all year (basically book club books).

Here's my little teaching area. I've left my meeting rules chart out on my chair with my class mascot because I'll be using them first thing today. I've also got my morning message hanging out and waiting for the kids!

You can see the front of my room in the above picture. I've got my morning check in set up on my smart board, our calendar, our weather tracker, and more!

Here's a shot of the door. You can see my class jobs bulletin board and my social studies book shelf. The kids' agendas are also sitting at the end of my writing station table waiting for the kids to take them today. I find that the third graders are always so excited to get their agendas!

So that's that, guys! That's my classroom! I have 23 kids this year, and I can't wait to meet them soon! What does your classroom look like? Make sure you comment below.