Classroom Pictures 2

Before I posted a couple pictures of my new classroom when I was still moving in and getting set up. In the last two weeks my projector was set up and my round table and rolling chair arrived. Since the original pictures, my custodian also put up rain gutter shelving for me. Now my classroom is complete! I love it so much.

 

This is what my writing menu looks like. I have a chart for each of the traits on our state's writing rubric. We have been adding areas of the rubric as we discuss them in class, especially with topics that come up with our Everyday Editing lessons. We started out with paragraphs, so that is why there is more on the organization chart than the other areas right now.

I am still not convinced that this is the best set up, but for now it is functional. I know a lot of teachers dedicate a bulletin board for their literacy menus; however, I created these posters because I wanted something that would work year after year with the flexibility to add on strategies and later remove them, as well as something that I can flip depending on the language week. It is essential to me to have the target language represented on the walls in most cases. At the start of the year this was the best way I could think of creating them, but we will see how it evolves over time or if I end up using the same model. Either way, I love having literacy menus!

 

This is my new round table - another component that I am loving. When our custodian first brought it in to the room I was surprised at how "small" it was. I was shocked when I realized that I could sit with seven of my students and still have some room to spare. It will be a great addition to our room. I also used it when having one on one writing conferences, and it is an additional area for partner/small group work for social studies. Today we had the room set up for our feudalism simulation, so I was able to have a group of students sit at the table since their desks were already set up as the throne and castle for the simulation.

The sentence strip chart on the wall is used for our small group word sorts. I also have all of my word study supplies set out on the counter in the corner or in the cupboard for easy access and organization.

 

Here is how my Smart Board and white board ended up. It has been so nice to have them side-by-side at the front of the room. The writing menu is on the left, and the reading menu is on the right. I also just got my map switched over to my new room.

 

Here are the rain gutter book shelves. It was a great addition to our classroom library set-up. Last year I did not like having my forward facing books on the regular book shelf, and this was the perfect solution. I may add another row later if needed, but they actually each hold a lot of books. You can also see the blinds that I just got last week. They will come in handy on sunny days when we want to use the Smart Board.

The charts on the wall were adapted from this Two Writing Teachers blog post, and I also posted the information on our classroom blog in our writer's handbook.