Come tour my classroom!

It's hard to believe that tomorrow is the day.  The first day of the 2014-2015 school year.  It seems like it was only yesterday that I was saying "See ya later" to last year kiddos, oh how I will miss them!  But now it's time for a whole new group of lovely students and a new start.  I have big plans for this year and I'm super excited to get started!  

I thought I would take you on a little tour of my classroom today... :)

Above is our calendar, objectives, schedule, and our supply area.  The empty white shelves will house all of our journals, our writing binder, and our data folders.  The blue and green bins are our book boxes!  And of course, the board is lined with all of our beginning of the year read alouds.

This lovely adorable light is our symbol for when we are hard at work.  We'll turn it on in the morning during our morning meeting and turn it off before we leave for the day.  Unfortunately it's not as bright as I thought so I'm going to have to try to look for something else, but this will work for now!

The students desks are all ready for the first day!  Many students brought their supplies to our "Meet the teacher" on Thursday, but others were not able to make it so tomorrow morning might be a little chaotic.  I don't like to make the first morning too demanding because I'll need to talk to parents, organize supplies, etc.. so they are this adorable little coloring sheet to work on.

Our cubbies that hold our backpacks and jackets.  This was built for our class by one of my students and his dad!

This is normally our collaboration station, the place where students will work when it is otherwise independent work time.  It is covered in supplies that my students brought on Thursday right now.

Our math tools/games are stored on this shelf.  It has anything students will need for math: unfix cubes, tiles, dice, money, counters, place value blocks, rulers.  

Our small group table/ my area.  Hopefully I can keep this clean!

Lunch choice board. (Ignore the collection on top tehehe!)

Our library area with lots of comfy seating is above.  In the corner by the couch you can see a collection of folding chairs the students will be able to use.  You can also see that the sheet was messed up after Meet the Teacher - I really need to get it stapled!!

Word Wall!  Soon it will be full of words and students will be able to interact with those words.  This is the first year I'm implementing this word wall in addition to their personal dictionaries.

One of our computer stations.

Whole group area.  We're going to attempt to sit in a circle this year instead of in the squares to create more of a family atmosphere.  I think this will also keep students more accountable because everybody will be able to see them the whole time we are on the carpet. I'm just not sure there is enough room for 23 students + me, we shall see. 

2 students tables and our mailboxes / important notes turn in spot behind them.

This is what you see when you enter into my classroom.  We got our stability balls in January this past year and we absolutely loved them! 

First week begins tomorrow.  I can't wait to get started with my new students and make this year even more epic than the last!