Classroom Tour--Part Deux

Here are a few more pictures form my classroom. You will notice that I did not include my small group area or teaching supplies... that is because they are still in complete disarray!

Since I decided to use bookshelves for my tables this year, I am short one bookshelf that I normally have for my library... With all of the expenses that come with the beginning of a school year, I'm not sure I can justify spending any more money right now! I've already spent SO SO much! I think that's just the life of a teacher.

First up, my gathering place and teaching materials. 

I use the white board below for a lot of whole group lessons. On the back of my easel is a pocket chart I use for Word Study. The bookshelf contains all of my picture books for mini-lessons, as well as class sets of books for novel studies. I was part of a literacy committee this year for our district. We met once a month and planned a literacy curriculum that aligns with the Common Core standards. Then, our wonderful district bought us all the books we need to teach those lessons! WOOT!

Another view of the whiteboard and bookshelf. You get a better view of my carpet here. 

I am hoping to be able to hang a big bulletin board in between those two windows, and put my CRAFT board there.

You can barely see this area in the last picture (on the far right), but this is the entrance to my classroom library. My room is the old music room (which is why the walls have those weird holes) and I use the storage closet for my classroom library. It is super cool!

Here is the entrance to our classroom library. 

We have an old futon I used in college. And above that you can see our genre charts, courtesy of Beth Newingham. 

Close up of the charts. I LOVE that they have the covers of books on their, to give the kids an example of each genre!

That huge thing is a luvsac (sp?), i.e. huge beanbag chair. This was my sisters from college. I don't love having that bookshelf there, because it makes it too crowded. I will probably be rearranging that the next time I go up to school.

Mr. Whimsical thought it would be cool to hang books from the ceiling, so we did that. I love it!

A close up of my alphabet. I spent way too much money the summer before I started teaching collecting and painting these letters. Can you believe we actually found cute things before Pinterest? I found this on a mom blog.

This is a picture from the front of my classroom as you come in through the door. I'm angled so that you can't see the white board up front, but it's there. We also have a door in the back.

I saw this idea for "book luggage" from Fourth Grade Frolics and decided it was a great way for my students to keep up with their books. In the past, I have just had students keep their books on top of their desks... but it always looked SO messy! So until I can get some seat sacs, I will have these. I think they're pretty stinking cute! 

And finally, a close up of one of the shelves I have in front of my groups. Right now I have three tables and 2 groups of 6 desks, but I'm hoping I can trade those desks out for tables if there are any extra tables. *Fingers Crossed*

That's it for tonight. Sorry about the picture overload! Hopefully I will get the rest of my room cleaned up and will be able to get some more pictures soon! 

One quick question, do you think third grade is too old to have a word wall? Should I put sight words on there? Words from our mini-lessons? Both? I have a large space above some cabinets that is hard to get to, so I don't want something I have to update a lot... I don't like having to climb on top of the cabinets. I might add the sight words now, and add vocabulary words from the mini-lesson books as we read them. Thoughts?

Good night all!

Jillian