Blog Hoppin' - Classroom Tour

I'm joining in on the fun today by sharing my classroom tour over at Blog Hoppin' AND Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd and Lucky Little Learners! For those who are new to my blog, this is my eighth year teaching, but my first year at my new school. New school, new classroom!

As you know, it's never completely finished, but these pictures were taken right before school started. 

Immediately to the left, I have a bookshelf with various materials. To the sides you'll see our recess bag and a school designated recycling bin. There's not really a good place for them so they stay in this area.

I created this bulletin board "What is Mrs. Geren reading?" to show my students that I am a reader, too. I just changed the papers in the page protectors to "Now reading" and "Just finished". 

Past that shelf is my dry erase board and then my student computers. Below my dry erase board is this board I created to celebrate our community of readers! I have added pictures of the books students checked out the first time and will be adding "Shelfies" to this after students complete book talks!

Above my student computers you'll see a map of the world with my map bunting. We will be marking the places in the world we "visit" when we read stories aloud with the theme "Reading takes us places".

This print is on top of my student cubbies.

On the wall beside the student computers, I created a bulletin board for my fabulous fifth graders! When I sent letters home to my students this summer, I asked their parents to email me a picture of their child doing something they loved. I printed these photos and added them before Open House last week. My new teaching partner gave me the idea to do it and I LOVED it! I think by displaying student photos in the classroom, it helps them to feel a part of the classroom community and I want them to know I care about them, their interests, and who they are as a person.

At the front of the room I have my Promethean board. To the right is my teacher desk.

To the left of that board I have another bookshelf with various books. On the bottom I have books that relate to our Social Studies standards. I'll pull these out during those units of study. The middle shelf holds read alouds I'll use or books that I'll recommend soon. The pink basket will hold weekly folders. 

I love this "In Our Classroom" sign. My favorite line is "We are family". I hope to always have a classroom community where we feel like family.

 Directly to the back is my student cubbies, which has random student supplies in them in this pictures. We organized supplies during the first week of school. This picture was taken after Open House when students dropped supplies off.

Now to my FAVORITE part of our classroom: the classroom library! 

I love this area and could just get comfy over there with a good book!

I organize my books by genre and have labels on every book. It was such a labor of love organizing this library, but I LOVE the final product. 

Three sweet moments from Open House related to my classroom library:

• One student actually gasped quietly and whispered to her friend, "Look at all of the books!"
• Two boys came in early, found a book they wanted to read, and got comfortable and read together.
• Another made himself comfortable in the chair and read while his parents visited his sibling's classroom.
  
  THAT is what it's all about folks! 

Above the cubbies I have our "Snapshots" of our year together timeline where I will post photos of our year.

LOVE this sign from Hobby Lobby!

That concludes our classroom tour!

Classroom Tour 2015-2016

School has started here and I have classroom pictures to show you! It has been a work in progress and it isn't 100% finished (is it ever?), but it's finished enough to share these photos.

 

As you know, I moved schools this year so I came in to a blank canvas in this classroom. I feel like I have created a cozy atmosphere for my fifth graders!

 

Welcome to my classroom!

Immediately to the left, I have a bookshelf with some materials and our Social Studies books. They are paperback so I am keeping them to the side instead of student desks so that they don't get too messed up. To the sides you'll see our recess bag and a school designated recycling bin. There's not really a good place for them so they stay in this area.

I created this bulletin board "What is Mrs. Geren reading?" to show my students that I am a reader, too! I will change out the "What I'm reading" and "Books I recommend" every couple of weeks. 

Past that shelf is my dry erase board and then my student computers. Above my student computers you'll see a map of the world with my map bunting. We will be marking the places in the world we "visit" when we read stories aloud with the theme "Reading takes us places".

 

I'll be adding this print somewhere in the classroom to go along with that idea.

 

On the wall beside the student computers, I created a bulletin board for my fabulous fifth graders! When I sent letters home to my students this summer, I asked their parents to email me a picture of their child doing something they loved. I printed these photos and added them before Open House last week. My new teaching partner gave me the idea to do it and I LOVED it! I think by displaying student photos in the classroom, it helps them to feel a part of the classroom community and I want them to know I care about them, their interests, and who they are as a person.

At the front of the room I have my Promethean board. To the right is my teacher desk.

 

To the left of that board I have another bookshelf with various books. On the bottom I have books that relate to our Social Studies standards. I'll pull these out during those units of study. The middle shelf holds read alouds I'll use or books that I'll recommend soon. The pink basket will hold weekly folders. 

I love this "In Our Classroom" sign and will be discussing it throughout this first week of school. My favorite line is "We are family". I hope to create a classroom community where we feel like family.

 

 Directly to the back is my student cubbies, which now have random student supplies in them. We'll be organizing supplies this week. This picture was taken after Open House when students dropped supplies off.

Now to my FAVORITE part of our classroom: the classroom library! 

 I love this area and could just get comfy over there with a good book!

I organize my books by genre and have labels on every book. It was such a labor of love organizing this library, but I LOVE the final product. 

 

Three sweet moments from Open House related to my classroom library:

• One student actually gasped quietly and whispered to her friend, "Look at all of the books!"
• Two boys came in early, found a book they wanted to read, and got comfortable and read together.
• Another made himself comfortable in the chair and read while his parents visited his sibling's classroom.
  
  THAT is what it's all about folks! 

Above the cubbies I have our "Snapshots" of our year together timeline where I will post photos of our year.

LOVE this sign from Hobby Lobby!

That concludes our classroom tour! I'll be adding things here and there as I find some items I'm on the lookout for!

Teacher Week '13: Classroom Tour

This is the day that I have been looking forward to during Teacher Week '13!!  Classroom Tours...LOVE!!  I have worked so hard on my classroom and it is getting so close to being exactly how I have envisioned it!  It has truly been a work in progress over the past 6 years, but I am LOVING it this year!  Prepare for picture overload!

This is the view standing at my door looking towards the back left. I love the colorful pom poms!

This is from the same spot, looking towards the front of the room.

As soon as you enter, on the left wall is my student cubbies.

I have a small area where our pencil sharpener is right by the cubbies.  These framed inspirational quotes are perfect for that spot!

At the back of the room, I have several cabinets.  On this cabinet I have displayed Math and Science Vocabulary Wall cards and pocket charts.  This year we had to select which words we felt were "power words" in our Math units (as 5th grade teachers in our district).  This area will be perfect for those words!  I love that Math and Science vocabulary will be the focus of this area.

This is the storage right beside.  It looks a little crowded because most of my Open House and 1st day materials are sitting there for now.

To the right of the storage cabinets is most of my teacher storage area and bulletin boards.  

We make many anchor charts and since I only have two bulletin boards, I use them both to display our charts.  Here you will also see baskets for white folders (weekly folders that are sent home) and graded papers, as well as our homework bin and other materials.

Beside that is my classroom museum display, which is new this year!  I love all of the cool items I've collected and can't wait to add new items.  I have a friend in Montana looking for something that is specific to Montana and I am hoping to find something Tennessee related, since that is where I am from.

These organizers house most of the materials that were in my desk. Last year I went desk-less and have loved it! The clear basket holds various read aloud's that I use during the year and the pink basket holds Social Studies read aloud's (picture books and novels) and Reading/Language Arts picture books that are used when teaching certain skills.

Next is more storage for various things from leveled readers to stickers!  I also have two Tennessee VOLS teddy bears!  Around here, most students are Carolina or Clemson fans, but this girl says "Go VOLS!" :) 

This is a picture of the back area as a whole.

To the right of that area is my computer desk (that I snagged for only $10 at Goodwill) and my student computers, plus storage.

This is the view from my computer area looking back towards the door. 

This is the view from the back wall and from my guided reading table/desk area.

Same spot, but looking towards my classroom library.

Same spot, looking towards the door.

This is the front of the room by the door.  Here you see: my student desk covered in chevron fabric where I store all of the materials/copies that I will use for that day, student helpers and classroom ambassador signs and name-tags, district-wide lockdown poster (must have), and our bucket filling area!

These inspirational quotes are above the student desk at the front.

Close up of student helpers and class ambassadors...

This crayon wreath is a cute touch!  I actually made it for a birthday party and then re-used it for my classroom after adding school stickers.

This part of the board will have the date at the top, today's goals and today's homework once school starts back.  Confession: today's goal and today's homework actually needs to be switched. Homework should be on the left.  Oops!

This chevron welcome banner is currently in front of my Smart Board for Open House.

On the left of the board is: Common Core "I Can" statements, idiom chart, and a pocket chart that will hold our weekly vocabulary charts.

Below that is bins that will hold each table's Math manipulatives for each unit.  We will grab these for Math and then put them back here at the end of the lesson.  You will also see 3 holders that hold popsicle stick with student numbers.  One is for first drafts, one is for editing & revising, and one is for final drafts.  Hopefully this will help me track who is working on what during Writer's Workshop.

And now...my classroom library!  I have really worked hard on this area this summer.  I bought all new bins at Big Lots (in the colors I've always wanted!) and designed new labels.  I also love the chevron pillows, Snapshots of the Year timeline, owl pillow, and rainbow colored tissue balls.

This book has my calendar above.  I love the way it looks!

This is a close up picture of that bookshelf.

This is my bigger bookshelf with photos on the top.  This is also the area for our classroom fish, Swimmy, but he's still living at my house!

Above that bookshelf is our "READ" banner and our classroom schedule.

This is a look at my last bookshelf with the Snapshots of the Year timeline.  

Closer up photo...

These bins are sitting a supply desk at each group. Some groups have these blue bins and some have pink.

I've had a lot of people ask if these labels are available on TPT. The background is only available for personal use, not commercial use, which means I cannot sell products with that background. However, I have created these with a similar brightly colored chevron background.  If you are interested, click here to go to my store.  

And that my friends is my 5th grade classroom!  I love it! :)