Classroom Reveal and a FREEBIE!

To be honest with you, I am still setting up my classroom...despite the fact that I was in there (almost) every day after my floor was waxed this summer.  But...if I wait until my classroom is "done" before I show you photos, there will never be a classroom reveal.  So here goes!

Here are some "before" shots:

(That is my little munchkin in the blue chair.  He was such a good sport - not that he had any other choice - and came with me to my classroom...again and again.)

(I am in love with the beautiful wood floor!)

(This is a "before" shot of the coat room.)

Annnnnnd...here are the "after" shots:

(This is the entry from my classroom to our coatroom.  I chose to use the smallest teacher desk I could get my hands on and I stuck it in the coatroom.  No need to take up classroom space!)

(I covered the open closet shelves with window curtains that I found at Big Lots, so my kiddos would not touch the things I have in there.  So far, so good!)

(This is where my students' work will be displayed in the hallway.  I used laminated scrapbook paper and clothespins that I spray painted.)

(We have a school-wide character education curriculum that we developed and this bulletin board reminds us what Principle of Leadership we are focusing on each month.)

(At our school, all teachers are required to display their teaching credentials in the hallway for all to see.)

(Each classroom displays a high school graduation year banner.  My Kindergarten students this year will eventually graduate in 2027.)

(We are all required to display our schedule in the hallway.)

(I wanted to give parents and other visitors a chance to write and leave notes, if they so choose.  Since I have a window on our classroom door, I decided to call these "Window Notes.")

(We have a big focus on student attendance at our school, so every homeroom teacher posts our daily attendance data.)

(Sorry that this picture is so blurry, but it is my teacher mission statement.  Every teacher in our school is required to write and display one.)

(We are a partially-integrated Project-Based Learning school, so every classroom must display the details of the project we are currently working on.)

(This is still not done...but it will be our class schedule.  I have two columns for morning and afternoon.  All the cards are there in that pink basket.  I just have to start sticking 'em up with Velcro dots.)

(I found this rolling cart that I LOVE on clearance at Wal-Mart.  I was keeping my fidgets on it, but I had to move that box because it was becoming a major student distraction.  I also keep things like my "Pick Me!" sticks, Kleenex, stickers, stamps, etc. here.)

(This will be our Calendar Math area eventually, but it is currently nothing but a mess.  Ha!)

(Yuck!  Please ignore the ugly vent.  The pink stool is used when my kids are getting water in the hallway because some have a hard time reaching.  The box contains books that the kids can read after they are done using the bathroom.)

(We are a school that is implementing Responsive Classroom strategies and systems, including Morning Meeting.  This was our first morning message.)

(I had to move this purple basket, too, as it was becoming a huge student distraction.  *sigh*  Anyway, the tallest item in there is our "talking stick" that we using during Sharing Time of Morning Meeting.)

(This is our Word Wall - but I cannot find our high-frequency word cards.  So frustrating!  I don't want to have to make new ones, LOL.)

(Every year that I have been a Kindergarten teacher, my students have always decorated their coat hook tags on the first day of school.  That is what those card stock cut-outs were for...along with stickers, markers, and crayons.  The green and red cups were supposed to be used if the kids needed help.  In other words, if someone needs me, they reverse the cups, so red is on top.  However, I had to take away the cups because they were a big distraction and noise-maker.  *sigh again*  Perhaps I will re-introduce them later in the year.)

(I love that our whole group carpet is an oval, which is perfect for Morning Meeting, but it is a little too small for 25 Kindergarten students and 1 teacher.  We are learning how to sit on the very edge!  The bean bag was to be used by our "Leader of the Week" only, but...I also had to put that away.  Maybe I will bring it back later...)

(Ah...here is something else that had to be hidden for now.  Have I mentioned that I have some extremely challenging students in my classroom this year?  I will re-introduce the exercise balls later in the year.  Our table captains will have the option of sitting on these, instead of chairs.)

(These frames are still empty, but will soon be filled by our "Classroom Code of Cooperation," or classroom rules.  We already wrote our code together, but I have to create the subway art version to go in these frames.)

(I created this voice level chart, so that it aligns with what we wanted at our school.)

(If you have followed my blog in the past, you may remember our "Share Chair."  This will be used a lot during Sharing and Reflection time of our Writers Workshop.)

(On these two bulletin boards, I have displayed our "Leadership Roles," or classroom jobs.  The students' name cards go below the jobs.)

(I cannot believe I am showing you this, but this table will eventually be one half Writing Center and one half Computer Center, if all goes to plan.  For now, it is a place where I am throwing things that I need to hang and do.)

(The black bin is our "Book Hospital," the pink tubs have seasonal and holiday books, and our big books are hung on a rolling clothes rack.)

(I have two laundry baskets from Big Lots and two pillows that students can choose to sit in when they are reading.)

(Here is my still-messy and still-not-organized-or-labeled classroom library.  To the far right on the floor, you can see our "conflict carpet.")

(Families put school supplies in grocery bags at Open House.  I still have to go through some of them, as you can see.)

(This is the area where I keep random stuff.  The blue mini garbage cans are for when students are cutting, they just put the paper scraps in there, instead of getting up and walking to the big garbage can.  I have a "Lost and Found," pails for sharpened and unsharpened pencils, our "Boo Boo Basket," and our "Tattling Turtle.")

(I am waiting to find time to get to a color printer, because I have to print my students' birthday pictures before I can stick 'em here.)

(I am hoping to put our Literacy Work Stations rotation cards on those damask memo boards, but I am not sure if it will work.  *fingers crossed*)

(Thank you to my mom for helping me make the curtains for my shelves!  I could not have done it without her.  Believe me...I tried and failed.)

(This is our Writers Workshop area - though it is an incomplete mess now.)

(That trophy will sit at the table of our "Leader of the Week."  I will also identify why they were selected on the "You rock because..." frame.)

(Here are our "sponge activities," which are things children can do to sponge up any extra minutes, if they finish early.)

(I stuck plastic plates on the wall and attached velcro, which will hold my students' photos.  This is how I will form, display, and, as needed, change our Guided Reading groups.)

(These are our Math Workshop work station tubs.)

(My students' photos will go in that black pocket chart soon.)

(So if any of my kids end the day on "pink" on our behavior clip chart, they receive one rhinestone to put on their clothespin.  After they obtain five rhinestones, they get to choose a reward card to redeem when they want.)

(This is our school-wide color system that we use for behavior checks.  I used a clothespin clip system.)

(My kiddos with lunches from home put their lunch boxes here in the morning, then this basket gets carried to the gym during lunch.)

(Here you can see our dismissal clip chart, dry erase board to record dismissal changes, hallway passes, and "HALL" poster.  We are also required to display our lesson plans, which is why I have a clear page protector hanging from the wall.  I will slip my lesson plans in there.)

(I assembled these for each staff member.  I say "assembled" because I found the freebie printable online.)

So that is it!  I hope you enjoyed my classroom reveal.  If you have any questions about anything you see, go ahead and leave a comment and I will write back as soon as I can.

Yesterday was my 30th birthday.  I am trying my best to embrace the fact that I am no longer in my 20's, but it is not easy!  Anyway, in an attempt to celebrate, I am sharing this freebie with you.

It is a questionnaire that you can set out at Open House or, if your Open House is over, you can just send it home in the students' folders (which is what I am doing, since I forgot about this form at Open House).  If you would like to snag this freebie, click HERE to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

As always, thanks for stopping by!  :)