Classroom Renovations

Jeeze Louise this has been a busy week! On Monday I began the dreadful process of moving classrooms. I definitely can't complain about being bored for the rest of summer! I spent two full days slaving away {with the help of some wonderful colleagues!} and STILL have a ton to do. Before you scroll down and look at pictures, let me give you a heads-up about my new room:

1. It's huge! Seriously. I think it's the largest in the school.

2. There's no outside door, which means I can't go on the weekends and I have to leave before the alarm sets at 6:00. I still haven't decided if this is good or bad, haha.

3. I have a SmartBoard. It's smaller than my last one, but I'm not complaining.

4. I also have a large CHALKBOARD!!?? Do they even sell chalk anymore? I guess I need to make "eraser banger" as a classroom job ;)

5. I found textbooks from...get ready for it...the 80s! Those will be the first things to go.

6. It's definitely not lacking in wall space. They will be filled up with Top Down Topic Webs, Frayer Models, & 2-Column Notes in no time!

Here are some pics, but please keep in mind that it's still a gigantic humongous enormous work in progress!

Day 1

View from the door. The room extends out more on the right.

Here's the extension. You can see the filing cabinet in both pictures to get an idea of how big it is. There are going to be big changes in this area!

1. The gutter-shelf books aren't mine, so those will be gone. 

2. The computers will be moved to the wall next to the small group table. In its place I'm putting a small reading area with bean bags and a carpet.

3. The wooden cubbies (no picture yet) will be lined up underneath the chalkboard.

4. The chalkboard/mini bulletin board will be turned into our math & science word walls.

5. The bookshelf on the right has our art supplies. The cabinets in this room are really narrow, so I'll have to store them here.

 Small group table and my personal area. See both the desks in the picture? There's one on the left with basal readers and a wooden one on the right. Those will not be there when I'm finished. And take a look at the different paint colors on the wall. YUCK! I did something on Day 2 to fix it :)

My chalkboard! Hahaha, I never thought I would have to say that. I'm going to keep the daily schedule on the left with these schedule cards from The First Grade Parade. Our "I Can" statements and math tasks will go on the right.

Day 2

Small group area tidied up! The bookshelf is going to be for math & science resources, planning materials, and student info. It's not organized in any fashion yet. I added a fake bulletin board above it to cover the ugly spot on the wall! Easy fix :) You can also see my paper filer in the corner!

Behind the small group table. Sorry for the poor picture quality. The bookshelf has all my supplies, but I'm not liking how it's organized. It will be fixed soon. The baskets on the window are labeled with the days of the week. I will keep daily work in these. Since I'm teaching two groups of kids, I will have two colored file-folders to separate their work. 

I cleaned out the cabinets, but haven't decided what to put in here yet. I may use it to store math/science books and interactive notebooks. The two pink baskets are for Thursday Folders and Homework, and the purple bin is for their lunch cards. I made bright labels for these, but haven't attached them all yet.

Math manipulatives. I still need to make labels for the baskets. On the bottom I have clipboards and whiteboards. At first I was hesitant to keep our manipulatives in baskets without lids, but I think 5th grade should be able to handle it ;)

Volume level chart. I can't remember where on TpT I got this from, but they are awesome. We use it all the time! Anytime the kids go above the specified volume, I put a strike on the board. After 3 strikes they must work independently for a short period of time. Once they have settled down they can continue at a Volume 1.

Next to the Volume Chart is going to be our Math Rotation Board. I'm still working on a plan for this so I can include both classes up here. Any ideas?? Below that are small group art supplies. Some of the baskets still aren't completed, but you can see how I did that project here.

This will be our class news board. I'm going to post "Brilliant Work", our class newsletter, and a monthly lunch calendar.

Art supplies organized and labeled! The labels were a free download on TpT, and of course I can't find the link! But seriously, if you search on TpT there are literally thousands to choose from. I also covered coffee tins with chevron scrapbook paper! The plastic bin on the left will be moved.

My teeny, tiny, one-and-only whiteboard! I'm going to put the daily agenda for each class here so the kids will know exactly what to expect each day.

Still a lot to do, but luckily I have time. What have you done to your classrooms to get ready for next year?