SETTING UP 2014

Setting up my classroom this year has been the easiest year ever!  Guess how many boxes I had to unpack this year?  None! That's right!  For the first time in four years, I didn't have to change classrooms (or grades!)  Awesome!  I was so surprised at how much extra time I have this year during my prep week, what a relief!

Check out this old blog post from August 2012 or how about this one from August 2013.  This year, there were no crazy stacks of totes and boxes to unpack!  What a difference!

So, this year I forgot to take a "before" picture, but it looked a lot like this one, just had all the desks piled in the middle of the room.

Last year, I bought the Magazine Holders from Ikea to use in the cubbies as "Take Home Cubbies" for papers and things to go home, allowing the rest of the cubby to be used for the students personal items.  Because they share desks, the textbooks stay in the desks, but their personal items (journals, folders, boxes, etc...) are kept in the cubbies when not in use.  It worked out great!  This year, we decided to try adding another Magazine Holder for our homeroom students.  Every day during the transition between our classes, at least one student drops their pile of transition materials (Library Books, school boxes, anything needed for the next class).  So, to prevent that, we're going to try using one as a Book Box to hold their books in (borrowing a little from Daily 5), and the students will no longer bring their school boxes back and forth.  They will have one box in each class.  So, with that in mind, I had a LOT of Magazine Holders to build, and needed some help!  I had some great helpers!  

The students will decorate their Take Home Cubby and Book Box during the first week of school, using brand new markers!  (Love having brand new markers!)  When the first class leaves for their Literacy Class, they will take the Book Box (on the right), and the 2nd class will bring their Book Boxes with them.  Not only do I teach Math and Science, but I also teach an Intervention block, most often on Literacy.  We have our students reading every spare minute they have- Library Books, AR books, fun books, chapter books, leveled books, etc!  

I also worked on my classroom library.  Since I have such beautiful bookshelves now, it was so nice to see it all come together.  Usually I have to unpack my books about now, but this year I was able to keep most of them in their containers and store in the classroom, or stack under the counter.  Setting up the library was done in record time!  Only one snag though.... I really need another bookshelf!  I don't like how this is set up (having the chapter books in between the book bins), so I'm going to get one more bookshelf, reorganize, and I think it will be much better!  

A cute addition to my room this year is for how I give out special pencils.  I used to store them in an old cardboard school box (from 1996, not kidding!)  But then I came across this:

  The students will love choosing their special pencils from this cute straw dispenser! 

More Setting Up the Classroom 2014 Coming Soon!