This year our classroom setup looks a bit different! First, our 40 year old carpet was removed! No more dust and gross carpet. Our floor is now entirely tile. This make the room look bigger, more open and airy. And hopefully this new floor will keep it clean. The second change is that we’ve relocated our guided reading area. For all the details, keep reading!
Classroom Setup: Whole Group Area
Our whole group area is centered at the front of the room in front our stage, smart board and easel. This is where we do ABC BOOTCAMP, read alouds for Read It Up and play games! Our days start here with morning meeting and end here with a dance party!
The rug for our whole group area is a Rugs Alive from Alive Studios! The rug features augmented reality technology that brings the zoo animals to life using the app! Visit our friends at Alive Studios for more details!
Classroom Setup: Guided Reading/Small Group Areas
For the last 4 years, our guided reading table and small group area was located in the corner of the room in front of some built in shelves. This year when thinking of our classroom set up, I wanted to reduce my physical footprint in the classroom so that more of the classroom space was available to the kids. After all, it’s their room. So we moved the table from the corner and reduced my stuff to some drawers and 4 cubbies! Now the shelves are open for our center materials such as write the room, props, etc.
Classroom Setup: Student Areas
Our classroom is all about the kids so we have lots of different areas. We have a light box, sensory bins, the word wall and new this year is a cozy reading area.
In our classroom we use community supplies! Here are our supplies:
This year we added a #happyclassrooms sign to our classroom. We are so committed to the mission of #happyclassrooms and teachers using their voices to tell the stories of all the amazing things happening in our schools. We want this daily reminder in our classroom so we keep telling our stories.
For more on #happyclassrooms visit this post!
Classroom Setup: A Video Tour
For more details on our classroom, visit these posts:
The classroom decor set we used is a simple green and orange set! Grab it below!
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21 comments
Your room looks great. Where did you get your taco pillow?
Can you share more about how you use the name chart?
Its just on the wall for the kids to use as a preference since we don’t have name tags.
Greg your room looks great ! I love that is kid friendly and you are keeping them
In mind at every corner. They are so luck to have you . Happy Teaching !
Vanessa Mejia
How do you do calendar in your class? Is it all on your smart board.
It is all done on the smart board. You can read all about it by using the search function here on the blog!
Love your flexible seating for your kinder babies! I would like to get there eventually! This is my sixth year teaching Kindergarten and I will have my biggest class yet! What’s your advice for big kinder classes?
I wouldn’t change a thing with a larger class.
Your room looks amazing! So spacious and uncluttered! Question- Where do you get your large gnome? Also, what is it made of? Thanks!
Walmart…it’s plastic
Are you going to adhere magnets to the back of the words on your word wall?
How are markers used in your classroom? I was trying to mimic parts of your community supply set up and wasn’t sure what your protocols on markers were?
One more question what do you use to sort crayons into colors so if they are missing red they can go grab a red from the extras section?
Thank you!
I use markers that students use to do center work and art projects. They are kept in a large tub. I use to have small plastic drawers that we sorted the crayons by colors but now we just have a large basket of crayons and they find what they need.
Can you please share where you got the rope lighting?
Amazon! There is an entire blog post on classroom lighting. Just use the search function!
Do you find that your students have a hard time adjusting to desks in first grade?
Never had even 1 first grade teacher ever complain about this at all.
Was there a lot of time in transition at the beginning of the year? I’m thinking of the high traffic it would be to get supplies. How did you manage this? I’m sure it’s mostly practice practice practice after teaching an effective routine of retrieving supplies 😉
Hi! Lots of practice and modeling. If we’re in a whole group setting, we literally follow the leader. I choose a student to lead us and we follow them around the carpet so we’re in a single file line grabbing what we need. We call it GRAB AND GO. Grab and go. No stopping or talking.
Do parents show concern for this setup? How do you reassure and explain it to parents?
Hi! In 8 years we’ve had 1 parent issue and it turned out to be a misunderstanding. Families want kids to be happy and successful and if this helps them achieve that, they’re on board. We have to be very explicit at the front end about why we do it, how it works, and how it helps the kids.