*Let me point out that you see a lot of bare walls because I am all about hanging up work that I do WITH children, even if that means making the same charts year after year. I want the children to have ownership over the room and therefore 90% of the wall space is dedicated to their learning.
View from the Classroom Door (there are so many chairs because I planned for 30 children)
This is to the immediate right from the door with the sink area. On the cabinets are our Thinking Map posters. We've been using them in our district for about 4 years. On the counter is the pencil area and some extra books that were in the room.
Shelving area. The black binders are district issued for writing (the top shelf has research stuff and the 2nd shelf has daily writing stuff). Storage along the top (some of those boxes are actually empty!), dictionaries on the second shelf from the top along with even more books left in the room, then the students' book boxes, some of my stuff and the shoeboxes of school supplies for each table.
Small group/Conferencing Area and Word Wall (which isn't up yet! I ran out of fun tak!)
Calendar/Job Chart -- aren't the little popcorn shapes adorable?!
White board/Tech Stand -- the tech stand houses a VCR/DVD player and the central computer to run the ELMO and projector.
Teacher desk area (and yes, that is a can of Diet Coke on my desk!!). I put it against the wall because I know I'll rarely ever sit there except before/after school. Plus I wanted to have something on this side of the room that was by the phone.
Window ledge with books that are being showcased to start the year (that's what the books on the cart are for also -- I am going to make a sign that says "Mrs. ______'s Favorites". You can also see my sub tub there. It has to be there because we're required to all have them on the ledge.
View of the classroom from the back corner by the tech cabinet.
Whole group/Small Group Teaching Area -- you can't really see but there is quite a bit of floor space for the children to sit on while we're working over here. This was the perfect corner because all of the children will be facing away from the door.
Classroom Library -- This isn't ideal because it's only one big cart...BUT I'm not going to complain too much since there are about 550 books on it! Above it I've put our genre posters. On the cart are the classroom behavior expectations -- we use these posters school wide.
Student Computer Area -- I plan to use a lot of the white space above it to put our anchor charts we create during reading/writing workshops
Back Bulletin Board/Mailboxes -- On the bulletin board will be placed examples of good student work and the red file crate will say "Fan Mail". The baskets next to it will be in/out boxes. Underneath the table are indoor recess games and recycling baskets.
Posts
I can't even imagine having thirty children, let alone 5th graders! It looks great though!
ReplyDeleteI think 30 is a long shot but I want to be prepared in case we get that many!
ReplyDeleteI'm super impressed with all of your organization :). I love your popcorn job chart and how clean and uncluttered your whole room looks! Great job!
ReplyDeleteI am in love with your room!! It looks great. Please take some pictures once you have the walls filled with work. It would be so neat to see. That is so cool that you do reader's/writer's workshop. We con't do it at my school and I so wish we did. I hope to find a way to work it in there at some point... but since this is my first year I'm just working on not rocking the boat! lol
ReplyDelete~Maggie
@Sarah -- Clutter is the bane of my existence! I even get the kids on board with how crazy I am about clutter so they pitch in and make sure our room doesn't look cluttered :)
ReplyDelete@Maggie -- I hear ya! I really wanted to do Daily 5/CAFE but my principal said no. I was bummed. But we do use a Writer's Workshop model district-wide and even though we use a basal reader (which I hate), I do incorporate Reader's Workshop stuff into our SSR block. I think it really just helps the children to take some accountability for their learning. Oh and I will definitely take some more pictures once the room has been "lived in" for a little while. It's always so fun to see the changes in my rooms after 2-3 weeks of being in school.