Classroom Photos - Just Before the First Day

Door with the kids' names on strips of colored paper attached with magnets. I leave the names up for the first week, and then use the names during the year for other activities. I love that my door and whiteboard are both magnetic!

Tables ready for the first day. I have six table groups, but due to space issues, the tables are pushed together in twos. The small, brown strips you can see in the middle of the tables are the kids' nameplates - made with paint stir sticks! I saw this idea on a blog and loved it (of course, I can't remember whose blog, sorry)! I wrote the kids' first and last names with black Sharpie, added a couple of cute star stickers, and then painted over the stick with Modge Podge. The sticks are attached to the tables with Velcro, making them easy to move when the kids change table spots later in the year

Closer view of what's on the tables - name sticks as described above, a writing/coloring page to do as they come in on the first day, a pencil, and a box of Crayons. They'll be bringing their pencil boxes and we'll distribute supplies later in the day.

On the left wall, just as you come in the door, is the "Check-In" table.  I have a couple of calendar items hanging here, although we do all our calendar activities using the SMART Board and Kim Adsit's interactive calendar notebook (click here to see the calendar on her TPT store). I like having a physical calendar visible so that we can refer to it at other times besides during our calendar notebook work.  Also on this table is a basket for turning in homework/notes and a basket of items for parent volunteers to work on.  There is a big plastic jar for collecting Box Tops for Education and a smaller one for collecting aluminum pop-can tabs (which we donate to the Ronald McDonald house). On the left side of this table is the crate of materials for our "Super Star Math" math facts program.  This year I hope to have parent volunteers checking the kids' fact pages, marking their progress in their folders, and refilling the folders with the next fact page. You can see some colorful index cards toward the front. each student has a card with his/her name on it that they decorated either last May at "Meet Your Teacher" day or last week at our "Sneak Peek" open house.  A few kids are new and weren't at either event, so they'll color their cards on the first day of school. Each day when the kids come in they put their index cards in the pocket chart to the right of the table. There are two columns, one for "hot lunch" and one for "home lunch." This way I can quickly get a count for hot lunch and I can easily tell who's absent by which cards are left on the table.  There's also a sign for book order due dates and a lunch menu posted above this table.

The attendance and lunch chart. The cards on top say "Today I am having school lunch" and "Today I brought my lunch from home."  On the bottom are the bathroom and office passes fid kids to put on their desks when they leave the room to got to either of these places.

View of the attendance and lunch chart, ball bin, and one side of the small group area. 

Small group area - Treasures flip-chart on the left, my rolling drawer unit to keep groups' materials in, reading strategy wall directly behind the table, large standing whiteboard easel to the right (it has a pocket chart hanging on the other side). I traded my kidney table (HUGE!) for this round table. I think I can still get 6 kids around it if needed. It's much cozier and fits in the space better. On the table is one of the little pocket chart/whiteboard easels from the Target Dollar Spot. Also on the table is a mug I got for free from Vistaprint. It says "Mrs. Barton's Super Stars - Pencils from this mug must stay at this table!"

Reading strategy wall behind the round table. Lots of stuff up here from great blogs!

Table supply bins on top of the backpack cubbies next to the outside door. Each bin has markers, colored pencils, Elmer's glue, extra scissors, and four wash clothes for cleaning the kids' mini-dry erase boards. These don't need to be taking up space on the tables all the time, so they are stored over here until needed.

Outside door to the parking lot. 16 backpack cubbies on the left, 8 more on the right. You can see some of the kids' book/folder bins on top of the right-hand cubbies. There is also a Little Tykes chalk board/paper easel that I plan to integrate into our work work and spelling centers.

The "BINS" - and lots of 'em! Right hand section (white bins) is math manipulatives, Legos, and wooded building blocks. The next section has my new math work station bins (11 bins - the 12th station is computer/iPad). In the middle are several shelves with different kinds of paper. The smaller blue bins have supplies for the kids - extra markers, glue, crayons, etc. Next to the supply section are reading manipulatives - magnetic letters, phonics phones,  magnet boards, etc.  On the far left are board games, card games, Play-Doh, puzzles, etc. for "Star Time" on Fridays and inclement weather recesses.  Each bin is labeled with both words and photos, and a matching label in attached to the shelf the bin goes on.  The board games shelves have photo-labels for the games that go on that shelf. On top of the bin cubbies/shelves are my Lakeshore science center tools (far left in back), a large plastic organizer with letter tiles for word work activities (far left in front). Each section of the bin area is labeled up above on the edge of the counter - you can see the yellow labels.  On the counter above are my *lovely* copy-paper boxes full of math supplies, which are organized by NCTM strand.

Part of the class library - baskets of books on the counter and down below on the carpet.

Looking at the class library area - shelves with book baskets, book baskets on the floor, and book baskets on a wire cube unit that's behind the (fake) tree in the window.

Another shot of the class library.

Book display in the class library.

Easel, pocket chart, and teacher chair at the rug.

Treasures focus wall on the whiteboard. SMART Board is to the right. I just got a new 800 series board and it is awesome - dual-input! My old board went to another first grade room - the rest of my team finally jumped on the bandwagon, so now I am not the only SMART Board user at my grade level.

Partner names, monster noise level chart (from  Little Warriors) team points chart, team roles chart, and daily schedule on the whiteboard to the right of the SMART Board.

Behavior clip chart and some awesome decor signs I've printed from blogs.

Teacher reference books and Treasures materials above the filing cabinets.

Area behind my desk. LOVE all my plastic drawers! They are labeled for supplies and paperwork (small and medium), by days of the week for materiels (medium), and by subject (two sets of large drawers below the medium ones).

Second table for small groups. This will be used by the push-in reading interventionists and by parents working with groups.  You can see our "bucket fillers" chart in the background (hanging on the front of my desk).

Close-up of bucket-fillers chart. The slips for kids to write on are on the little desk to the left, in the purple bucket.

 Clip boards hanging on the cabinet wall behind my dek. LOVE the Command hooks! The "sharing bag" is hanging on a hook to the right.

Listening center, pocket chart center, and job chart.

Well, that about sums it up!

"Let the wild rumpus start!" ~Mrs. Barton