My Classroom

Hey Everyone! Sorry it has taken me so long to get this together! Since I am new to the blogging world, I thought I would start by showing pictures of my classroom. As I said, this was the first year I have actually been able to do things the way I wanted, so I am very excited to show it off! :) If you couldn't tell from the title of my blog, we have a garden theme in our classroom. I worked really hard and had a lot of fun getting this together over the summer, so enjoy! :)

My classroom as a whole with my little darlings thrown in there :)

 

I couldn't figure out how to make it go the other way, but here is my pride and joy, my door! :) I worked so hard on this all summer! I have to give credit to my sister in law who helped me deisgn it, and my fabulous boyfriend who helped me cut out all the pieces!

Here is our meeting area and our classroom library. The hole is where my calendar is supposed to go, it is STILL on back order! >:(

Here is a book shelf at the entrance of of our classroom library.

 Once again, it took forEVER! The 6th grade teacher at my school just  purchased a Cricut machine this summer, and I had so much fun playing with it, if you couldn't tell!! :)

Bookshelves with reading and writing strategies on the back.

These are our little classroom critters that I let my kiddos take turns taking home. Look familiar? They are the critters from all of the Laura Numeroff books (If You Give a Mouse A Cookie, and so on) At the beginning of the year, I let my kiddos spout off ideas of names for each one. I  make sure to tell them to come up with names that start with the same letter as the animal name.  Once I have four or five good ones, we close our eyes and vote. This year, we have Petunia the Pig, Caroline the Cat, Mason the Moose, and Marvelous the Mouse..  I use them to teach responsibility, and also to help them with their writing skills. I go down the line alphabetically and let them choose which animal they would like to take home. Each animal has a notebook, in which the child has to write a paragraph about their night with the animal. My kiddos had a ball with this last year! We haven't started it this year yet, we will probably start second quarter, after fall break. :)

A closer look at my book baskets in our classroom library. I wish I could give credit to the site I got my book basket labels from, but I searched so many sites this summer, I honestly don't remember! :(

Here is a pocket chart that I display our weekly spelling words on. I have found this really helpful for the children to reference to, especially when doing reading centers or spelling sheets independently. At the top are their reading center groups and center assignments.

Our discpline chart. I found this little guy on reallygoodstuff.com, which is basically where I LIVED over the summer, and where half of my life savings went! :o

Another sideways picture... grr >:(

This is our Awesome Author Award Board. Each month, we honor a different author by learning fun facts about them, as well as reading various books written by them. 

My word  family caterpillar! Another fun reallygoodstuff find! It comes in handy every day, and the kiddos love finding words to put on there! :)

This is our vocabulary word wall, or "Garden of great vocabulary", as we call it! :)  This is where we put all of our weekly vocabulay words. I put them up at the beginning of each week as I introduce the words.

Here are my birthday flowers...You can't really see them because of the glare, but each pot has the month written on them and the petals have the students' names who have birthdays in that month, followed by the number date of their birthday. My boyfriends mom made me the valance to hide all my junk on my stoarge shelf!

Our computer area

This is where they keep their book bins for reader's workshop. They have a blue folder that they keep their reading center papers in all week.
This is also where they keep their guided reading book, and one other book they are reading for fun!

Our tooth chart and my guided reading pocket chart. I keep each groups guided reading lesson plans in a different folder. It helps me keep my head on straight! :)

Our sticker incentive chart. This is where I reward the kiddos who are showing extraordinary effort or behavior. I give them a sticker every time I "catch" them doing the right thing. When they fill their chart, they get to draw a card out of a little box. The cards have various incentives printed up on them, such as "get a drink whenever you want for a while day", sit at the teacher's desk, lead morning meeting, etc..

Our 100 day chart! Gotta love reallygoodstuff.com!! :)

This is where all of our materials and manipulatives  for our reading centers go.

This is where all of our extra writing supplies are kept. Extra pencils, crayons, markers, per, glue sticks, etc... I also have a bin for their rulers and scissors that they bring in at the beginning of the year. I found last year that some of them cannot handle having such fun objects in their desk, so we just keep them all in the same place. The bottom shelf stores our pennies, nickels, and dimes that the children are asked to bring in at the beginning of the year for math!

Ok I swear this is not an ad for reallygoodstuff, but I love LOVE this purchase! Each morning I post a different question they can answer about themselves. (Sample questions are listed on the back of each piece)  This has helped tremendously with our graphing skills!!

Each morning when they come in , children are expected to read the question, and put their name in the appropriate column. One of our end of the day jobs is to clear the magnets off of the graph, and as you can see, my kiddos love putting them in crazy patterns and formations!

My teacher's guide shelf. This is motly teachers guides, but I have a few extras on there, such as linking cubes, pattern blocks, and a basket full of stickers! :)

These are our "mailboxes" where I keep their weekly folders that go home every Monday.This is also where I file their graded papers that also go in the folders. 

My filing cabinet wit hthe best hole punch EVER on top! It can seriously take like 100 pieces at a time and hole punch them perfectly! My paretner teacher gave me the cute little C as a back to school gift! :)

Our indoor recess toys

This is where they hang their coats...

My desk! Yes, I konw flowers is not centered and it drives me crazyyyy! I can't get it to fit and still have room for the flowers though.... :(

Weekly drawers to keep my papers for each day in, along with our Saxon Math tubs, a fun little three-drawer organizer, and our recyling bin!

Our guided reading station!

Our board that tells us which specials are which days, "Miss Sims, when do we have "m usic today?", or "What tme is P.E.?" I got the ladybugs and little vines around them at a teacher store in Louisville called KSS :)

So there ya have it! Theyre kind of in a random order, but I just thought I would post a few things from my classroom to share with you guys. I found all of the customized garden printouts and such on teachersclubhouse.com. They have some great printouts and posters of almost ANY classroom theme for only 99 cents! Let me know if you would like more details and I can give clearer directions of how to find the materials!

Thanks for being patient with me during my first official blog! I am sure it looks a little rough, so any advice or feedback you have would be appreciated! :) Happy Thursday tomorrow, that means it's almost FRIDAY! I hope you all have a great end to your week, and I look forward to hearing any feedback or comments! :)