Classroom Set-up 2014-2015

I have finally finished my classroom set-up for my 2014-2015 5th grade class and decided to link up with Blog Hoppin Back to School Tour.

Here are some pics - I'll update as the year goes on, as I'm still missing my new rug and I have a ton of desktops in the back of my room that won't be there later.  This year, I continued with my rainbow theme with a touch of technology (desk tags and binders).

The calendar area by my desk.  Around the calendar are all of the students' birthdays using my Free Birthday Labels. 

Here is my desk area with my closet that holds all my teacher resource books, etc. I love my Monday - Friday cart that I got a few years ago at Lowes. Above my desk are my Spanish posters for numbers and colors. Our students have spanish three times a week. 

Another view of my desk area. On my door, I add all my class pictures.  This year is year TEN for me! Crazy. :-) 

Since I teach at a Catholic School, we are required to have a prayer table area.  Here is ours. Above it are my Ten Commandment posters.  Right below the posters I have some hooks - my students create a class rosary each year. Below is a picture from last years class. It turns out beautiful and will follow them through 8th grade where it will eventually be raffled off to one of the students.

Rosary created by my class last year. Each student had to decorate a few beads with markers and watercolors. Came out gorgeous!

Student community supplies.  I reuse antibacterial wipe containers to hold pencil cap erasers, clothespins, BINGO chips, etc.  You can download the FREE labels here. At the end of each year, I have students who don't want their old crayons and markers put them in my community pile.  We check to make sure they work and now I have a full stash for anyone who might need them this year.  

This is where I keep the students' morning work folders and other supplies such as regular pencils, clipboards, absent folders, etc. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with the open space above it all. Still deciding. On the other side of the bookcases is the library so this helps me separate it and create a "library space."

Here is the entry into the classroom library.  I have almost 3000 books for my students to read and choose from.  I also have ten stability balls in my classroom for students to use. You can read about that here.  Hanging in my library are my genre posters and my common book theme posters. 

I have a variety of seating options in our library, including this comfy little couch.  :-)

Here is a student work display bulletin board and the computer is for my librarians to handle book checkouts.  

My art supply closet and author's purpose writing posters. 

This is our back table (complete with stability balls all around it). It also doubles as my classroom bank when needed.  Right now it is full of student supplies that are ready to be assembled and handed out on the first day of school for our iPod Binders.  On the left is our art drying rack. Above that is where I display our schedule for the day in the pocket chart holder. And above that is the "May Do" and "Must Do" list for students.  I do not display a homework board anymore since we are a 1:1 iPad school.  All homework is now displayed on their myHomework app. 

This year I replaced my standard "We Do" poster with this new bulletin board set that I created. It has over 40 printables for you to pick and choose from.  Next to that on the left are our classroom rules.  Below are my new cubbies that I got from Kohl's and the cubby holders from Amazon.  This is where I am holding our new The Walking Classroom kits and some other odds and ends. On the right of the cubbies is my privacy folders that I got from Really Good Stuff.  

This is where students can get paper, math homework graph paper, correcting pens, staplers, and where they turn in their work.  I have a system on how they turn in their work. You can read about that here. 

Here is my main white board. 

A view of the classroom from the doorway. 

Another view from the doorway. 

Since we have iPads, I created the students name tags on iPad clipart. :-)

Classroom Tour 2013-2014

Wow, I know I'm a bit late to the game but figured I'd post pictures of my 2013-2014 5th grade classroom.  My favorite time of the year is when we are able to get into our classrooms to begin working on set-up.  Usually I'm all ready to go a week prior to the first week of school. However, my new position (in addition to being the 5th grade teacher) of Director of Technology had me extremely busy getting our iPads ready for the school.  So I was working up until the day before school started to make sure my classroom was ready for my kiddos.  But I must say, this is probably the best it's every looked. :-)

When you walk into my classroom, the first thing you will see is my desk.  This year, all teachers were required to have their desk at the front of the classroom because we now have short-throw LCD projectors that needed to hook up to our desktops. I decided that since my desk was going to be in the front and a focal point to paint it.  So I primed it up and painted it with chalkboard paint.  I then used liquid chalk to draw on my design.  The lion was actually replicated from Scrappin Doodles Little Lions.  I love him!

 Above my desk are Spanish Posters for Numbers and Colors.  All of our students take Spanish as a foreign language and while I'm not required to have those resources up, the students like them when they need to know something.

I also have all of my photos from all the classes I've taught in years past. As well as personal pictures of my wedding, husband, and daughters.  The closet is where I hoard store all of my teaching resources.

Next to the closet door on the right side is our calendar and classroom rules.  I absolutely LOVE my calendar this year. I got it from Really Good Stuff and it comes preprinted. It also came with a bunch of stickers so I could mark birthdays, holidays, etc.  Love, love, love it!

If we continue to go left around my classroom, you will see all our windows and built in shelving. This is where I store all the classroom community supplies, games, manipulatives and other things. 

 All the classrooms at my school are required to have a prayer table.  This is ours.  Above them are the Ten Commandment posters I made. 

 Here is a view of the classroom looking back at my desk area. (Calendar wasn't there yet, so it's missing.)

 Another view.

These are our morning work folders. You can read what is in these here.

 This is my classroom library. It contains over 2,700 books - all owned by me.  This year I am completely overhauling the organization of it with the help of my classroom librarians. 

 The other side of the library. And a view of my awesome USA rug I got from Big Lots.

 I also received ten stability balls, so I have three of them in the classroom library for the students to use. 

 My genre posters that I created.

My book theme posters and special paper for penpals, etc.

On the other side of the bookshelves is a small couch and my computer which manages the check-out system for our class library.

Next you can see the puppet theater that I refinished to use as our classroom bank and to film "news shows" during the school year.

I also have another six stability balls around our back table. 

Our stability ball rules. :-)

 A poster on our classroom culture - you can see more about that here.

And a brief students survey activity they did the first week. 

 My writer's workshop board. Students move their dot down as they complete each section. This allows me to know where they are in their writing at all times.

My Author Purpose posters and art closet.

 Our homework board and art drying rack.  The black pocket holder is where I display our schedule for the day.

 This is where students can find a majority of their supplies and paper. 

Here are the students' privacy folders and some other things.

Not that best photo as this was taken during set-up but on the right side is the door into the classroom.  Also, that white cart holds the laptops for the school.  Those are used primarily on Tuesday and Thursday during formal technology class. All classes 3-8 have 1:1 iPads in addition to that. 

 Here are a bunch of random shots of my classroom. I made that penent banner. I love it!

 This was from Back to School night. The folders contain all the paperwork I was handing out to the parents. The students also wrote a letter to their parents and I provided apples for them.

A note from a student to their Mom and Dad. :-)



And that is my classroom tour.  Hope you liked it!  Share a link below so I can check out your classroom!

A majority of my classroom resources can be found in my TpT store for you to get.