5th Grade Classroom Reveal

Hi, friends! The time has arrived to show you my first home classroom. 🙂 There are still a few things that need to happen before next Tuesday (name tags, team buckets, and iWrite pockets), but the room is definitely kid and family ready for our Open House this Thursday!!!! I am SO thrilled to show off my first classroom….it’s hard to believe this is real life – eeekkkkk 🙂

Here was my blank canvas…

So, what do you think?? Different enough, right?! 🙂 Now, let’s take a look at the different spaces in the room! We’ll start with the teacher area/guided reading table.

So, this is my little teacher area and I am in love. Since I am in a tiny room, I 86-ed my desk for the year… At first I was thrilled and then, I went through all the stages of grief- ha! Now, I’m in the acceptance phase and I’m very happy there. Mr. Phillip (our custodian) snagged a kidney table for me, and then I picked up a roll of dry erase adhesive paper from School Specialty, spent AN ENTIRE afternoon tracing and cutting circles (because I am paranoid about that kind of stuff) and love them. 🙂 Plus, I grabbed two storage containers for my ‘desk’ area under the table and repainted a little shelf that was already in my room.

As we walk counter-clockwise around my room, you have a wall that I whipped up yesterday, and honestly, it might be my favorite part of my area – our “We believe” wall. I really wanted to post classroom expectations (not rules), but didn’t want them to seem too “do this and this and this because I am your teacher.” So, I wrote down a list of expectations I have for myself and things I believe about the world (i.e. everyone deserves respect, learning is beautiful, the responsibility is ours, our words have power, etc). Then, to match my genre posters, I put them in Subway Art form and mounted them on colored cardstock. Truthfully, I really love them. Short, sweet, and easy to remember, these phrases have tremendous power. Within the first few weeks of school, we’ll discuss (as a class) the implications of these statements asking “How will my actions reflect these beliefs?”

As we shimmy on over, we have student mailboxes with numbered binder clips that I made several weeks ago. And yes, I did have to add 4 mailboxes on top because why yes, I do have 30 kiddos. And yes, we are not talking about it….thank you. AND THEN WE HAVE MY SET OF IPADS!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOOOOOOO 🙂 Yes, I am ridiculously thrilled….like whoa. Aren’t they beautiful????

As we continue our travels….we see a giant yellow partition that I covered in black paper! Killing trees is my favorite pasttime. But really…have you ever tried to put up a 12-foot piece of black bulletin board paper by yourself and make sure it’s not crooked??? It takes forever and a giant ladder and a lot of tape and maybe a *few* tears. This home in our room will host our interactive class word wall – each week students will learn 8 new vocabulary words – 2 teacher choice words and 6 student choice words (that students submit throughout the week). Then, throughout the week students practice using the words in modeled Kagan structures in class and with at-home practice activities!

Next to the word wall, I created a little space to mount anchor charts on. I wanted to make sure not to exclude big or small ones (because let’s be honest…sometimes a computer-printed anchor chart will have to do), so I gave myself a variety of options – big horizontal, big vertical, 2 small vertical, and 2 small horizontal charts!

Now shimmy to the right again please. 🙂 It’s library time! (Well, for you. Not my kids. We don’t go to library. Do I sound bitter? No, of course not. What teacher wants their students to visit the library??) I know you all saw an overview here last week, but here is an overview…but first, let’s see the classroom library before (please note the differently-painted bookshelves, the lack of bins, and the use of the entire large wall) –

And, after!

Here is an overview of the library so you can put it all together in your mind {genre posters, book bin labels, rolling cart drawers}! To see more pictures of our classroom library, check out this post that is devoted just to this space. 🙂

Directly across from our nonfiction shelves (on the opposite wall), we have our books-in-a-series shelves I found it did not work putting these books on the non-fiction/fiction shelves because they would get separated from one another and they were difficult to find. We added them to shelves I purchased at Target and they were organized by the author’s last name. (Note – after our last Donor’s Choose project of graphic novel series was funded, I had to move my teacher binders and replace them with books! :))

You also see my bulletin board above the bookcase which includes genre posters that we’ll review the first week of school. The posters will act as a visual reminder to students about the different categories of the books they should be reading throughout the year (based on The Book Whisperer). On the far right you see running list of ‘Words to Know’ that we’ll cover in our first unit together. Through the year, I’ll switch out the words. I wanted to go ahead and have them up for Open House so parents will know what we will be learning the first few weeks!

Also, you might notice writing on the side of my filing cabinet! No, I did not defile school property, but I did cover the side in black butcher paper and purchased a silver sharpie and added a magnet to the cap. This will be our classroom’s “Favorite Book Quotes” area. As students are reading their books, they will look for the ‘just perfect’ quote to include on the board. I just finished up The One and Only Ivan, and had to start our class out. BEST BOOK EVER.

(1) Bathroom Pass – a ‘clip on’ alternative to the germy handheld pass. You can grab the pass for free here.
(2) Locker Tags – I made little iPads for locker tags and added magnet on the back (so they can easily be changed around)!
(3) The Great Divide – That’s right…my desks don’t touch. I know; it’s horrible. I thought about staggering them so they do touch but it sent me into convulsions, so I opted for the great divide. My kiddos are going to have to be well trained in maintaining the Great Divide….and I am not even kidding.
(4) Teacher Hoarders – Last week on my Facebook Page I asked, “What does one do with 91 rolls of paper towels?” I still have no idea.
(5) Filing Cabinets – So, as a new teacher I have 0 files, so I am putting all my file cabinets to use. They store old vocabulary programs, sets of books for literature circles, dictionaries, scholastic materials, and oodles of other items! I love it because it keeps my classroom shelves clutter free – woohoo!

Opening a classroom has been as awesome and fun and exhausting as I thought it would be, and I absolutely, positively cannot wait for my 5th graders to come – 7 days!!!! 🙂 Woohoo – I am so super pumped! 🙂