My room is short on open shelving storage. Another teacher was getting rid of this shelf, so I took it. Behind it is my library and in front of it is my writing center. Right now the shelf has manipulatives and games for math, language arts, science, and social studies. I realized that I still have 2 more bins of math manipulatives, so tomorrow the science and social studies materials will have to be moved elsewhere.
This is my writing and art center, which is to the left of the manipulatives you just saw. As you can see, the bulletin boards aren't done. The picture made me realize that the word wall may be hard for students to see from farther away in the classroom because of the tablecloth background and my spacing was off! I might change that... I still need to put up paper and a border so I can finish putting up my writing process steps and poster to the left of the word wall. Everything on the counter was kind of just thrown there for now.
Sorry this pic is a little blurry! It's my very unfinished entry corner and brand new Promethean Board! The laptop cart is to the left of the door and to the left of that is my overhead. I thought I was done with them once I got a document camera two years ago. I might buy one for myself since my building only has 2 for 26 classrooms. On top I have the green polka dot bin for library books, tropical bin for lunches, and sand bucket with my cue signs and pointers.
Above the laptop cart will be my classroom jobs. I still need to put up my alphabet, number line, schedule, calendar numbers, and reward board. I'm going to buy a magnetic dry erase board to put up daily homework. I can't stand writing on chalkboards! Right now I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the pocket charts that are hanging over the easel.
Here's my partially finished library. It's tiny because my room is small! I added more books and a couple of desks with baskets to the left of the computer after taking the picture. I still have 3 bins of books to unpack and labels to make! I have to buy a new carpet and blow up my inflatable palm tree too. I'm going to get a tan carpet, add my beach chair, and call it the beach...because that's where I love to read! I plan on using the side and back of the large shelf for guided reading folder pocket charts.
The unfinished bulletin board is my language arts focus wall. Our program has pre-made posters for each weekly lesson so they just get tacked up there. My room is so humid that my posters are falling off the wall, so I stuck them on the chalkboard temporarily. That area will turn into my objective area once I move the posters. They will be on the wall near the flag and my alphabet and number line will be to the right.
Unfortunately my district won't allow us to bring in our personal laptops, so I have to use this desktop with my Promethean Board. It takes up so much space and blocks the chalkboard, but at least I have a computer and printer in my room!
Here's my unfinished desk area. This is where I took my little tumble, so I avoided the area today. Once the desk is finished, I'll post zoomed in pics. For now, here's one of the shelving:
These are my blackline masters, teacher's guides, student test booklets, and student reading texts. Tomorrow I have to unwrap each pack and separate the books. The bins are our guided reading books.
My weekend project is to cover my 2 chairs from home with new fabric and replace the one here at the computer and the one at my guided reading table. I have really unmatched, wrong-sized student chairs there, so I might also make the popular storage crate seats this weekend.
Come back tomorrow to see more detailed pictures of these areas and others when they are finished!
