Classroom Set-Up

Each year I decide on a theme for my classroom. I don't take the theme throughout my whole room, as I know students have enough distractions throughout the day...I designate a corner of my room, where my classroom library is housed to recreate it into some place the kids will strive to be. My first year, I created a "Reading Rainforest". Students are able to pick our their weekly books here and get lost in a book in this area. I really found it was a great reward for students to be able to read under the tree!

The next year's theme was a garden. Welcome to our Reading Garden. This year I wanted the kids to help create the corner. I printed a flower variety and had them tell me something I didn't know about them on each pedal. In the center, they drew a picture of themselves. These were up the entire year, so they could see how they have grown in reading/writing/drawing. A great idea that might work for older grades would be to make each pedal a goal they have. Goals would be up all year for them to reflect and focus on. 

This past year, since moving up to 3rd grade...they are a lot "cooler". I decided to tone down the theme, but make this corner very interactive. I found this idea on Pinterest (sorry I don't remember where) and found a sight that printed free large-scale maps. It printed my map on 16 different pieces of paper. I colored, put it together, and laminated it. The saying "Reading Takes us Places". When students read a book that had a city/state in it, they were allowed to put their name on a small dot sticker. I was hoping by the end of the year the whole map would be filled with all the states we visited without even having to leave our room!

 The last piece I added to this wall is above the black bookcase. In the past, I've done "Top Toucan", which is similar to a "Star of the Week". The Top Toucan went with my Rainforest theme and continued the following year (even though it was a Garden Theme). I wanted to continue some sort of highlight for my students, so I started "Reader of the Week". Students would fill out a survey about their favorite things about reading. Each week students would be able to have their 5 minutes of fame to share with the class. Along with this, students had the board in the classroom library dedicated to them that week. (i.e. survey, pictures, books, etc)

In my school district, learning targets/objectives need to be posted at all times. I was in a very "techy" mood this year considering I was able to pilot a classroom set of tablets. I made an "iCAN" board where I would write what students' learning targets would be for the week.

I kind of have an obsession with making anchor charts! Can you tell?

My entire back wall is divided into 3 sections: Reading, Math, & Writing. Great for students to use as a resource. When I run out of room, I take a picture of the chart and print enough copies for 1 per table. Each table has a ring full of the anchor charts we've created throughout the year to continue to use as a resource.