Classroom Reveal 2017

Hi guys!

Happy Labour Day long weekend!

I FINALLY finished getting my room “ready” yesterday.  I put ready in quotation marks because there is so much I still want to do, but it is ready for the kids to come, play and learn on the first day! I was lucky that my new school was open on Friday and we could go in to do some last minute things if we wanted to.  I was so thankful because I honestly did not feel ready at all on Thursday! #whathaveibeendoingthelasttwoweeks

I always put a lot of thought and time into my classroom set-up.  I truly believe that the environment is the third teacher and strive to set-up a classroom that supports students to be creative, calm and independent learners.  My walls are bare because I will be creating a lot of anchor charts, bulletin board titles and posters with the students when we start school.  

Some of my challenges this year included the colourfulness of the room (I love neutral rooms so I’m not used to the bright blue walls and the blue/green/purple/orange chairs) and the size of the tables in proportion to the room (they are huge!).  I also currently have 5 tables that seat 6 kids each plus a guided table and 32 chairs.  I am a classroom of 15 with no ECE partner this year so after re-org (end of September) if there is an alternate storage space the custodians said we can chat about where to store the tables and chairs I won’t be using.  My classroom is a new Kindergarten room so they had absolutely nothing in the room except the standard furniture.  I thankfully had a lot of bins, toys, manipulatives and other materials from my 4 Kindergarten LTO’s and my principal has ordered me a sensory table and it’s coming soon.  The OCD in me is dying that the classroom doesn’t look the way I envisioned it from the start but I’m learning to live with it.

Okay enough with the jibber jabber! Let’s get to some photos! 

—

My kids will coming through the Kindergarten pen, vestibule and this door when they enter the school.  It leads into the cubbie area.  I put my clipboard above the cubbies so it’s easy to grab for dismissal and for the first day of school. 

For the first day I’m bringing out sticker labels with their name and room number on them to stick on them as they enter the gate.  I also have a First Day Dismissal Permission Sheet so I can ask the families and quickly jot down who is going to pick each student up on the first day of school.

*Cubbie set-up tip: Set up your cubbies so that it is SK boy, JK girl, JK boy, SK girl.  This way the JK’s will always have an SK beside them to ask for help if needed when getting dressed or undressed.  If you already know a bit about the dynamic of your class, put the students who will require the most support or supervision at the end(s) so that they have a bit more space and you are able to keep a close eye on him/her and support them if necessary.  Also labeling the buckets helps you move students easily if a certain combination of students doesn’t work out during the first week!

After the cubbies are two cabinets and the door on the left is the bathroom.    This will be our writing wall and our monthly guided writing will be going here.  I will have a student make the title for this “wall” for us during the first or second week.

I decided to keep my literacy materials in one cabinet and my numeracy material in the other.

This is the inside of my literacy cabinet: 

And the inside of my numeracy cabinet:

I had a few requests to share these labels so they are now available in my TPT store.

Click here or on the image below if you are interested in checking them out:

When you turn around the corner you find the technology centres.  We have 1 desktop computer and 2 iPads.

Next to the iPads we have our Lego Centre.  I set-up this simple invitation to build for now to get students used to playing in this area.  I also have a printer in my room (but it is for the entire first floor) that I haven’t figured out how to print to yet 🙈.  The workroom is at the other side of the building so this is going to save me time when it’s set-up!

Mail bags and things that have to go home the first week of school are stacked beside it for now.  I’m planning to buy a legal size hanging file folder tub to store these in over the weekend!

This is a view from the room from the Lego/Writing centre.  The custodians were moving one of the big tables (you can’t see it in this picture but it is between the paint rack and the literacy/numeracy cabinets) after the church group had moved out of a room they are using over the summer.  Once it’s gone I’m moving the guided reading table to that spot so the kids can line up at the sink easily and I can keep an eye on students while they are doing entry routines and eventually run a guided group at the same time.

I often get questions about my linking chart.  It is included in Step by Step: Kindergarten Writing Plans.  Click here to view it in my TPT store.

The shelf beside the lego centre is empty for now.  I’m thinking about having the kids save their creations there to work on later.

Then my writing/art area starts.  The top shelf has 3 buckets with pencils/erasers and 1 bucket with dry-erase markers.

Then crayons sorted by colour and glue sticks on the bottom shelf. 

The next shelf has the markers and scissors.  Under that is the “art bin”.  I just have some paper in it for now but eventually I want to put some magazine files here and provide construction paper sorted by colour that the kids can use.

Then I have our paper drawers.  I’ll actually be taking off the labels other than “Blank Paper” on Tuesday and keeping the other drawers empty until I have taught them how to use each one.  But this way the students can grab blank/GOOS paper independently during centre time.

Under that I put the student’s independent writing folders.  I sort them by JK/SK and colour so that they can find their folders more efficiently.  I still need to add one more magazine box labelled “resources” to put linking charts and other resources in and add it to this shelf.

Here is where I store my stands and cork rounds that I use to set-up invitations to learn/provocations.  The space below is empty for now.  

On the next shelf I stored some of my math manipulatives. 

Next to these shelves is the book shelf! I put mostly literacy books on one side and numeracy books on the other side.

I put some more numeracy based books and back to school books on hold at my local public library.  I will pick them up over the weekend and add them to finish filling the shelf on Tuesday morning.

Next to the math manipulatives we have some first week puzzles on the top shelves and book boxes on the bottom shelves.  I made labels for now but I’m hoping to replace these labels with a photo of the each student reading during book box time within the first few weeks of school.

If you want to grab these book box labels, you can find them in my TPT store here.

Next we have our dramatic play area!  I’m also keeping this area super simple for the first week.  I added some cups, utensils and plates to one shelf.  The white container has pom poms sorted by colour that I’m hoping they will use as pretend food.

Here is a view of the rest of the room from our Dramatic Play area:

You can see the extra table near the bathroom I was talking about earlier.  I’m hoping that that table is gone by Tuesday morning and I can move my guided reading table there.

On the other side of the dramatic play area is our manipulative shelf and meeting area! 

Here is our word wall:

*My word wall headers and matching word wall cards can be found here*

I’m planning to put our math wall cards on magnets this year and use the low whiteboard space beside the word wall as the math wall. 

Here is my teacher chair and my chart stand:

I’m going to keep an eye out for a more comfortable teacher chair.  Any suggestions?

Behind the teacher chair and chart stand is my desk.  This is my first time having a desk! I have a nice comfy chair for my desk🙌  At first I didn’t know where to put it and thought of getting rid of it but now that it’s in I kind of like it.  We can’t request moving any furniture until the end of September anyways so I’m going to see how functional it is and then decide.

I often get a lot of questions about my supply caddy.  It is from Michaels!

Behind my teacher table I have 2 more floor to ceiling cabinets.  I have so much storage this year and took advantage of it.  I sorted all my craft/centre making supplies and labeled them so that they are easy to find.

I didn’t label the clear bins because you can see what is in there easily.

Again you can grab these labels in my store here.

Next to these two cabinets I have some counter space, an adult sink and cabinets above it.  I put my binders here and my Sterilite drawers.  

You can find my binder covers/spine labels in my store here.

Then we have a small wall with the paper towel dispenser on it, a student sink and this counter space.  Since the paint rack is on the other side I put the painting centre out here for now.  

I have four large tables the students can work at during centres (hoping to get it reduced to 3 at the end of September!).   I set them up for entry centres before I left.  

Here is one of the tables with play dough and play dough mats.

You can find these play dough mats by clicking here.

Here is another table with whiteboards & alphabet dry-erase books on one side and alphabet Magnatabs on the other.

If you are interested in the Magnatabs you can buy them here:

Kid O A to Z Magnatab (Uppercase)

Kid O A to Z Magnatab (Lowercase)

The alphabet tracing books can be found here.

 Another table for alphabet puzzles.

I got the puzzle on the left at Dollar Tree (this month) and the puzzle on the right at Walmart last year.

And another table for writing/mark making.

And here is one last look at my room from the writing area.

I hope you enjoyed taking a little peek into my classroom! I’m looking forward to seeing how the room grows and changes with my new students.  If you are starting a new school year like me on Tuesday I hope you have a great start and school year!

– Yukari