classroom tour

I have a bunch of post coming because I have a lot to talk about, but I thought I show just a couple of things in my classroom tour!

First up classroom library. My classroom is so small, one of the smallest in our school so I have to make good use of space. So I added some cute lawn chairs and a colorful lamp to make this small, but functional classroom library. The map to the side is the "Learning Takes us Places" map. We add stickers to the map for settings in books, as well as other places we learn about in Social Studies and Science. You can't see it in this picture, but this is also were students find dictionaries to aid them in "Expanding Vocabulary."

This is my word wall to the left and writing center to the right. I thought the best place to place our words is close to wear we right. The green board is Science words, Blue is Reading, and the Orangeish/Red Board is Math words. This coordinates with class folder colors. I do not teach Social Studies that is why there is not a Social Studies Board. This is organized like this because the majority my 4th graders don't need the words organized in ,"ABC," order, it is more important for them to remember their connection to the word. Every week one of my classroom jobs is the word keep. This student has note cards and writes down important words for our word wall and illustrates them. They are revisited and hung up at the end of the week. I feel like it gives them a sense of ownership, and it is one of my most wanted jobs.
The writing center includes note cards, different types of pencils, pens, and paper, as well as dictionaries and thesauruses. To the side of it is the, "Write from the Beginning," steps to help the if they get stuck. This has become a great place for them to, "Work on Writing."

This is my calendar. I have struggled with how to use this. Last year I left the numbers up because I felt like it was important for my kids to figure out what the date was using a calendar how they will see one in everyday life. (Let's face it calenders normally have the numbers already on them) So far I have had a students remove the days that have past and leave the ones that remain, and this month we are adding them to the month instead of removing them. I'll keep you all posted on which I think is the best plan. In the left hand corner of the picture is my class score board. For the past two years I have been adding more and more whole brain teaching into my class. I did the score board last year and my theme was fish so the person we were competing against was called, "Petey the Piranha" this year my theme is Birds so our villain is, "The Evil Dr. Wormwood," if you don't know much about the scoreboard and how it works watch for a later post and I will explain it in detail with more pictures.

Instead of the Daily 5, we do the Daily 4. Partly because of lack of resources since this is only my 3rd year, and more because our reading block is only 90 minutes. Those white things are business card magnets (staples) that I added labels with students names on them. The students grab their book boxes and move their magnet to their choice, so that I don't waste their time writing their choices down before they can move to thier spots. The other board is a Math meeting with the SPI skills spiraling from every strand of math. It is made by using page protector to make it dry erase and so that you can change the skills daily

C.A.F.E board

Class Rules: 1. Follow Directions Quickly 2. Listen when your teacher is talking 3. Respect yourself, Respect others, Respect your School (yes in the picture it says you school, I promise I fixed that) :) 4. Make Smart Choices 5. Be Honest, Be Safe.
These rules have motions that are practice twice a day in the morning and before lunch. It doesn't take, but a minute and save me heart ache as the day goes on.

Well I believe you have probably had enough for now. Hope you come back and keep reading! See you all soon!

Mrs. Beasley
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