Tour Our Classroom
Welcome to our classroom! Of course, looking at photos of our class doesn't really do this special place justice. The best way to see and feel our exciting, vibrant classroom is to come and visit. Nonetheless, I'm happy to give you a little tour on this webpage so you can take a peek into our classroom. You'll notice that I've spent a particularly large amount of time organizing the classroom library, since I feel that this is the "heart and soul" of our classroom. Many of the spaces in the classroom are multi-purpose, and I adapt the spaces to fit our needs at the moment. If you have any questions about how we've organized our classroom or how we use the space, don't hesitate to get in touch!
Check out our virtual Read-Aloud Bookshelf here.
Download my library basket labels here.
Check out our virtual Read-Aloud Bookshelf here.
Download my library basket labels here.
Student Cubbies
Since the students in my classroom sit at tables instead of desks, they store all of their personal items, notebooks, and folders in their cubbies. I like this system for several reasons. It allows for a fair amount of movement around the room, which I feel is a good thing. Everyone deserves to stretch their legs between lessons, and since I carefully teach my expectations for "efficient transitions" to and from the cubbies, it hardly takes any time at all. (My students have been known to cast my words back at me, and efficient is a favorite. They love discussions about how we can make our classroom even more efficient.) It also means that when I ask for "clear tables," there really aren't any personal belongings near the students. Everything is neatly tucked away in their cubbies. An added benefit of this system is that the seating arrangements at the tables are inherently more flexible. The students don't have their personal belongings at their seats, so they don't mind swapping seats continually throughout the day. This allows me to create flexible groups for each subject that meet at the various tables, without any concerns from my students about "who is sitting in my seat."
The back corner of the room with the cubbies also has a cozy rug. We use that corner for small group meetings, book clubs, portable math centers, and our listening center, as in the picture above.
The back corner of the room with the cubbies also has a cozy rug. We use that corner for small group meetings, book clubs, portable math centers, and our listening center, as in the picture above.
Here a student explored symmetry and architecture while building a perfectly symmetrical structure on the back rug.
Here you can see the entire back corner of the room. The blue crates store the students' portfolios, and the red bins hold the students' Everyday Math journals and Homelink workbooks. On the right is a small table that I use for conferencing, and other times I want to work privately with one student. Students also use this table when they want to work quietly with a partner on a project. It's a more intimate space than the other larger tables in the classroom. The lamp also helps to make it cozy. To the right of the table, we store our educational board games and our chess sets.
Student Tables
Students collaborate to build bridges out of gumdrops and toothpicks.
We have four large hexagonal wooden tables in our classroom, where the students do a lot of their independent and group work. Each table can seat up to six students, and while students have a "home base table," they move among the tables frequently throughout the day. Each table has a small plastic caddy (pictured in the second photo). I bought these caddies at a kitchenware store; I think they were supposed to be for cutlery. We use the caddies to store communal pencils, erasers, and pencil sharpeners for each table. At the beginning of the day, one student replenishes the pencil supplies at the tables as needed.
I sometimes let students choose where to work. The Asia group chose to work on their continent poster at a table...
Whereas the Australia group preferred a cozy nook on the floor. Communal classroom supplies for the students like scissors, glue, highlighters, markers, crayons, etc, are stored in the clear plastic bins on the shelving pictured here. Each bin is labeled with a pictorial label to help the ESL students in my classroom.
Lesson Gathering Area (Classroom Library)
(That's Mrs. Zimmerman's mother, a former teacher, doing a read aloud for our class!)
A student leads a math group at the dry erase board.
The students meet on the rug at the classroom library for all of our mini lessons, read alouds, and class discussions. On one end of the rug in the corner is a dry erase easel that I use for my lessons. I also use the easel to hold chart paper and as a "screen" when I use my overhead projector. This allows me to sit on the rug with the students, and all of our "board work" is at eye level.
In the top photo, you'll notice that I have an unusual lamp from Ikea tucked into the corner. I have several old lamps stowed around the classroom to create cozier nooks and a homier environment. The students love when I turn off the overhead fluorescent lights and we read by lamplight.
While I usually prefer to sit on the rug with my students during mini-lessons, I do have a "teacher chair" at the front of the rug. (However, I do not have a teacher desk. I make due with a "teacher bookcase.") My teacher chair is actually a denim-uphostered ottoman that very conveniently has pockets on the sides where I tuck in a couple of markers and some bookmarks. (I'm always misplacing bookmarks!) I mostly use my chair for read alouds when I want the students to be able to see the illustrations.
I also have my SmartBoard mounted at the front of my room, where the blackboard used to be. Underneath the SmartBoard are sentence strips attached to the wall with accountable talk starters. These are at eye level for my students sitting on the rug, and they help some of my students use appropriate language to participate in grand conversations.
In the top photo, you'll notice that I have an unusual lamp from Ikea tucked into the corner. I have several old lamps stowed around the classroom to create cozier nooks and a homier environment. The students love when I turn off the overhead fluorescent lights and we read by lamplight.
While I usually prefer to sit on the rug with my students during mini-lessons, I do have a "teacher chair" at the front of the rug. (However, I do not have a teacher desk. I make due with a "teacher bookcase.") My teacher chair is actually a denim-uphostered ottoman that very conveniently has pockets on the sides where I tuck in a couple of markers and some bookmarks. (I'm always misplacing bookmarks!) I mostly use my chair for read alouds when I want the students to be able to see the illustrations.
I also have my SmartBoard mounted at the front of my room, where the blackboard used to be. Underneath the SmartBoard are sentence strips attached to the wall with accountable talk starters. These are at eye level for my students sitting on the rug, and they help some of my students use appropriate language to participate in grand conversations.
I love my dry erase easel! It has storage space underneath for dry erase slates and bins of markers. It also doubles as a chart paper easel and it has big book storage inside. This is probably the single most used piece of equipment in my classroom.
The Technology "Zone"
Our four classroom desktop computers are lined up against the windows towards the back of the room. Students use these computers every day from the very first minute when they arrive and the 'meteorologist' of the week goes online to look up the daily weather forecast. The students use our computers for research, educational games, audiobooks, word processing, and much more.
I created a technology 'word wall' of sorts on the column in between the windows in the classroom. Students refer to this area when they need to brush up on their technology terminology.
Our Classroom Library
My piece de resistance, and my constant on-going project, the classroom library is the central hub of our classroom. The space serves double duty as both our library and our main lesson area. I lead guided reading groups while sitting in a small group on the rug, I teach all of my mini-lessons from the library, and we begin and end our days with morning meeting and afternoon meeting in the library. Given how much time my students and I spend there, I felt that it was worth it to make the library as inviting and organized as possible. For my students, I also think that they are so much more likely to pick up a book or magazine if it is displayed in an organized, enticing way. I've posted the labels I created for my library book baskets here.
Two of my students excitedly unpacking a new box of books for our library. I constantly try to add to our classroom library with finds from garage sales, public library cast offs, and our favorite resource, the wonderful DonorsChoose.org.
Our library is organized into color-coded baskets. Yellow baskets have our leveled books. About one third of our books are leveled to help the students make appropriate book selections. As the year progresses, I wean them away from strict adherence to levels, and instead promote book selections based on interest and purpose.
Blue baskets hold our series fiction novels and our baskets by our favorite authors.
These baskets hold books organized by author. I also try to maintain a large collection of magazines. We have National Geographic Kids, Ranger Rick, Cricket and Spider, Sports Illustrated for Kids, and Discovery for Kids.
I use a wire paperback rack and a wire spinner rack to display more of our series books together. I encourage all of my students to find a series that they really enjoy and to stick with it for a while. Favorites this year are Geronimo Stilton, the Humphrey Series, Bunnicula, and Horrible Harry. I only put out the easier series at the beginning of the year, and I add more difficult series to the library as the students are ready for them.
I organize non-fiction books in red baskets. This bookcase has our social studies topics. A separate bookcase houses the science and math non-fiction books.
Here are our science and math non-fiction baskets. I have far more non-fiction books than I have room for in the library, so I swap books in the baskets every month or so, to provide a fresh selection for the students throughout the year.
Buddy reading in the classroom library.
Showing off our new Geronimo Stilton books in our library.