This year I decided on the Rainbow Brights Classroom Decor set by Ashley McKenzie and I’m so happy I did. I love how my classroom turned out! I’m so excited for the first day of school tomorrow when I can welcome in a brand new group of first graders.
Classroom Tour
Teacher Desk
We start with the view of the classroom coming in from the door. You can see my teacher desk with a bulletin board and bookshelves behind. At the time I’m writing this, our district is not allowing us to use our bookshelves yet. They are turned around and and shrink wrapped to prevent anyone from taking books off. Above the book shelf, you’ll see my important information board where I post any important information that might be handy for anyone coming into the classroom, especially substitutes. I will post my class list, daily schedule, library schedule and computer login information once it’s available.
Objectives
We are required to post I Can statements each day. I’ve never been a fan of writing the I Can statements on my board. Not only is it time consuming, but I also don’t like how it looks. I buy frames from the dollar store and insert the subject area paper. Then add a piece of velcro to the glass and it’s ready to go. These are super simple to switch out and some of them work for more than one day.
Welcome to First Grade
Moving along in the classroom tour, you will see my Welcome to First Grade light along with my organizational rolling cart. You guys! I LOVE how this cart turned out! I’m so excited to have a place to keep all those sets of paper organized. I chose not to label the drawers at the bottom so I can use them as I need them. For example, right now I have a drawer for all the sets of papers I’m collecting to hand out at Back to School night. In the past, these may have sat on the counter until I was ready to collate and put them in folders. The need for the drawer may change after Back to School night is done.
This is also where I’ll be taking their first day of school photos this year. I can’t wait to see how they’re going to turn out.
Word Wall
I haven’t finished this wall yet because I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it. I’ve always had a word wall, but this year I’m debating making a sound wall to go with the Secret Stories. This is one of those decisions where I want to stay current, but not sure there’s enough research to ditch the traditional word wall. I’m going to wait to see what my students need after I meet them.
Calendar Wall
Moving right along you’ll see my calendar wall. For the first few days of school, I am the Calendar Captain while I teach the calendar routine. Once students become familiar with it, I have a different Calendar Captain every week who leads us through the daily routine. Calendar only takes us a few minutes at the beginning of the year, but I add to it later on. They’ll repeat the date after me. We sing about the days of the week and the months of the year. We count how many days we’ve been in school and use the 120 chart to count by 5’s and 10’s.
A Latte Help Needed
Next up is my helper chart. I loved this helper chart from a different seller, so I decided to keep using it this year. Here’s the link to the Coffee Shop themed bundle I used the last couple years. Student names go on the coffee cups and then they’re placed in the cup liners when students choose their jobs.
Workshop/Centers
My Workshop board is where I hang my center information. I do centers a little different than most people. I hang their Must-do’s on the top row and their May-do’s on the bottom row. They work their way from the top left to the top right. When they are finished with all their Must-do’s they can pick any of the options from the bottom row. I like this system a lot because I can make sure they get the work done that I need them to finish and they’re motivated to finish so they can do the fun May-do’s. It also doesn’t interfere with their work if they’re at a particular center when I call them over for their small group reading.
Student Work Bulletin Boards
The last two boards are where I hang their student work on the first couple days of school. They will complete an All About Me poster for the first board. We also do a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom project for the smaller board.
Secret Stories
Next up is my Secret Stories wall. Have you heard of Secret Stories by Katie Garner? I’m excited to try something new this year. When you purchase the stories from the website, they come with a book and 12X12 story posters to hang. The posters teach a secret for students to learn how to decode. For example, au and aw have a crush on each other. When they get together, they say /au/. Teaching the stories is a fun way to help them remember some of the crazy rules in our language.
Classroom Door
My classroom door is also a throwback to the coffee shop theme I did a couple years ago. Some things are too cute to let go. Once I have my class list, I’ll add their names to the coffee cups. They love to see their names on the first day of school.
Front of the Classroom
No classroom tour would be complete without seeing the behavior chart and rules. The front of my classroom has my clip chart, a noise level poster, and my classroom rules. I’m excited to have a noise level poster that matches my classroom theme.
Well, that wraps up my classroom tour. I hope you enjoyed a peek into my class. I’d love to see your classrooms. Please post a pic in the comment section below or send a link so I can check it out.
Have a great year!
If you missed my post about teaching classroom routines and procedures, check that out here.
