Ready for not, here they come! Classroom Reveal!

Where did August go???

In hopes of being more active in the blogging world I joined Angie at Lucky Little Learners and Ashley at Schroeders Shenanigans with their Together We Are Better . This month it's all about our classroom reveal.

I was excited to sign up to join this linky party last month. This was motivation to set up my classroom and share with pictures what kinder looks like in my classroom. Sadly I couldn't get into my classroom about a week before school started. Construction was waaaaaay behind at my campus. This included working in Texas summer weather with a broken AC unit and a classroom with no windows. It was miserable and just unbearable, maintenance folks were out working on the unit late into the hours Sunday BEFORE the 1st day to prepare for our kids coming in on Monday. I worked maybe a total of 2 full days and a half setting up my room from bottom up.  Did I mention that I moved to my 3rd classroom in the last 4 years? Hence the blank canvas I had.

So needless to say, on Day 3, the Friday before the first day of school, I was as ready as I could ever be. Seeing photos on pinterest and instagram of elaborate classroom decor can be intimidating. I almost hesitated to post my results. I reflected this weekend over my first week back. I'm slowing pep talking myself that it's OK to not have every wall covered and all of the cutesy things available in the world that I could hang/post in room 205.

Right now my room is working out well for my kiddos. We've been transitioning and getting routines down, making anchor charts together, and slowly but surely making it our little community TOGETHER. Check back in a couple of weeks, together we'll get in sync and you'll see that our walls won't be bare for long.

Below are the BEFORE pics. I moved into a new classroom and ended up with the furniture of that classroom and my old. I had to work around all that until it could be removed.

The sorta.after.still.in.progress.

This is the view from the door as you walk in. The blue plastic tubs are from dollar tree. I'm using them as crayon boxes. They are working well so far. Easy to close and open, and able to hold 24 count crayons.

The black plastic shelves are something new I am trying out. I'm debating having some of the materials we use the most on these shelves to make for quicker transitions.

Heading away from the door, I have our cubbies that house of our things like consumables. Above that is my pocket chart for our literacy centers work board. I'll be introducing these centers one at a time and slowly add the center icon cards as we learn how they work.

I'm so excited that I have three huge bulletin boards this year. I was able to section off these four sections show. First space is set up for our letter of the week and other helpful reading anchor charts we'll create together. My word wall is in the middle, followed by a section for math visual aids and anchor charts. Last is an area for science, social studies and anything health related. 

A couple of days in and I moved over our supply baskets away from the black plastic shelves.

This is what our supply baskets look like. I find this set up helps me. When we need just pencils, it's much easier to just pull the cup out. This minimizes distractions of my little friends that think they need glue and scissors ALL the time.

Here's our library. As we learn literary elements and reading strategies, I start posting these as anchor charts on clips to change out as needed. 

Because it's beginning of the year, I try to put library books that are a little worn out, in other words I'm okay if there is a tear here and there. As we practice and learn to take care of books, I start swapping them out as necessary. I have some friends that are still learning how to hold books so some of these older copies work out for them.

I also try to put out materials that most of my students have some familiarity with, like puzzles.

This the view my students have from the carpet for whole group. On the closet wall I have our ABC linking chart, our campus fluency words, good listeners visuals, and our whole brain teaching rules with our behavior clip chart below.

Our writer's wall gets student work added monthly. At the end of the year, I pull all of their work and make a portfolio to share with parents their writing throughout the year.

This little summer project is a favorite of mine so far and a popular class choice. I spray painted some old Scholastic book holders and printed a little readbox label from TpT here. These books are available for students to "borrow" when they are fast finishers. I'm going to be putting "special" kind of books and changing them up. I have two of them on opposite sides of the room.

I got rid of my teacher desk to make room for five student tables. I was nervous to part with it, but I realized it's just two small compartments I'd be missing. So this is my teacher area/guided reading/group area.

Whew! Thanks for sticking around. I'm off to catch up on emails and check out more of the classroom reveals over at the linky party.