Here is the view from the door looking straight into the room.
Here is the view from the door looking to the right.
This is the wall on your left as you enter through the door. It has my Super Kid poster, jobs, calendar, daily schedule, lunch sign up, and mailboxes. This is a high functioning area.
If you walk straight across the front of the room you'll be in my corner. I taped a big center rectangle on my desk with washi tape. I'm not allowed to put any of my stacks of work in it. That way I always have a place to work. The little table is for my laptop and doc cam. I had magnetic bookshelves on the front of my desk, but I kept knocking them over. So now it's just bare. I should find a good poster to put there, right? Maybe something to help them remember to sit still and raise their hands? Sounds like a plan!
To the right when you enter is the wall with my cupboards. I'm using them for my word wall this year. So far so good! I'm using glue stick when the washi tape begins to curl. I store many items on top in tubs and boxes, and I store all of our donated tissue boxes in crates under the sink.
Next to my desk, under the windows, I have my guided reading/math table. Really wish it had a bigger cut out. I feel so far away from the kids. But, still loving the black stools from Ikea! In fact, I just ordered four more!
The class library is my favorite spot! We light our tree and browse and read. The kids would spend all day here if I let them. I took the bottom half of the table legs off, put tennis balls on, and now the kids can sit or kneel to look at books. The tennis balls keep the sharp edges of the leg openings from cutting into the carpet.
I added curtains to the short shelves that store our Fountas & Pennell leveled books. We call them our shopping books. During partner read each day, about four kids come back and flip up the curtains (on a tension rod). Then they all shop from their just right and easy level tubs. They put back their old books and choose 10 new books. Then the curtains flip down, and we're done! The blue numbered tubs are new from Really Good Stuff. They have two dividers each. These are my unleveled, unorganized picture books. I have other author and subject tubs in the tall bookcases, but these are just random good books. The numbers don't mean anything, just an organizational tool. I love these new tubs because it helps the kids to put the short books in front, medium in middle, and tall books in the back.
I used to have six smaller tubs, but I culled them this summer and consolidated what I kept into these four new ones. I also have two of them on a tall bookshelf with three characters in each. Love those dividers!
My writing board and shelves. Actually, the caddies on the bottom hold math materials for each table. My new system this year for passing out folders includes a magazine holder for each table. One person gets the holder and brings it to the table. I have a system for that, so no arguing!
Here you see my math board, game drawers labeled with blue tape/sharpie (very professional), and supply tubs. The rainbow/clouds underneath are some students' hopes and dreams for the year.
I've gotten tons of ideas from other bloggers, so if you see something you inspired, let me say a great big "thank you!"
