It's Been Awhile...

It's been awhile since my last post!  Ok... more than awhile... but this girl has been busy!  With a new job teaching, moving, and being newly married I haven't had much time to blog.  Or exercise, but that's another matter.  So today, I have a special treat!  In celebration of having all my observations done and being (almost) finished with conferences, I decided to take some time and show off my room.

It has hit that point in the year where we're all feeling DONE.  The kids are feeling it.  I'm feeling it.  Even Paka is feeling it!  As much as I hate to admit it, we still have another 2 and a half months of school left.  So I decided I needed some change.  The way my room was set up was not working.  Our library was growing and we didn't have it very neatly organized.  I've been wanting to create a reading area for awhile, and when my Promethean Board was threatening to not work last week I realized I had NO empty board space if it ever decided to die on me.  So I took advantage of my free time during conferences to change up my room and I am so excited about it!

 

I forgot to take a before picture!  Here is my classroom mid-move. 

My library was in that bookshelf by the door and was always a MESS!  Kids would stack books on top of the others instead of putting them in sideways.  They were falling out all the time.

So I completely moved everything around.  Library went to the back of the room, desk to the front.  And voila!  Here's my new desk area and library/reading area!  A parent came in today, saw what I was doing and said, "We have a beanbag that would perfect for that area!"  Yay for supportive parents that love to help me build my room!

Library/Book Area

Teacher's Desk Area

Labels

 I put labels on my bins to help my kids know where to put everything back.  They have color dots that will match the ones I put on the front of the books.  I know, I know... wishful thinking to hope they will put everything back perfectly.  But a girl can try!

Small Group Area

I also moved my small group table to the middle of the window.  I put a bookshelf with my manipulatives behind it so I have easy access when doing math small groups.  Moving my room around made it look a lot more open and makes me feel like I have a fresh start!  Now tomorrow it's time to buckle down and plan the next few units.  Have a happy Friday everyone!