Tour of my Classroom

Welcome to my 3rd Grade Classroom! 

In my second year of teaching I decided to get rid of my desk. I thought it was taking up a lot of space that was not necessary.  Instead of having my desk I have a table and a book shelf. I have had this set up for two years and I absolutely love it! My desk area is also my reading table. I have easy access to everything I need whether I am doing a reading group, strategy group, or just conferencing with students. 

 The white board behind my table with my computer has some of my classroom management tools. Every day the students and I compete with tallies. These tallies are based on the students transitions. If they are able to transition well, they get a tally. If their transition is not up to my standards then I get the tally. The students love competing against me and it is always fun to see who wins at the end of the day. I also do table tallies for my table groups. Throughout the week if I see a table is doing an amazing job I give them a tally. At the end of the week the table with the most tallies is rewarded with classroom money, that we call Bonhage Bucks. 

I have my student of the day who gets to sit in the special chairs for the day. At their desk I have a desk chair that has a cushion and wheels, and they also are allowed to work in my zebra print rocking chair. The students always look forward to their special chair days. We rotate through all of the students so everyone has the opportunity to feel special. 

On the bulletin board behind my desk is where I keep all of the students book club information. I use chalk boards so we can easily change the information after each meeting. This allows my students to see what they are responsible for getting done. 

Next to my desk area I have my book shelves, which keep me organized. I love my bookshelves. These book shelves have class sets of books for units that we teach. The book shelves have my science trade books which I have organized by science topic. My favorite part has to be my baskets. These baskets hold the copies and activities that I create ahead of time. Many times I will plan whole units at a time. These baskets keep those units nicely organized and I have easy access to them. Along with the subject baskets I have a basket that I put work that students have missed when they are absent, a to be graded basket, a to be copied basket, and a basket with emergency activities for a substitute. 

Across my room is my writing center. In this area I have a table that is set up and organized so that the students can easily grab anything they may need. My writing center includes two baskets of writing ideas that the students can use. There is regular lined paper and cursive paper. In the writing center I have journals that are labeled with different topics that the students can grab and write in at any time. I printed cursive papers that have the letters on them and I laminated them so that the students can practice their cursive letters using their dry erase markers or wet erase markers. The writing center has a fun fact and a joke displayed everyday. We then keep these fun facts and jokes in our library for the students to refer back to. 

My library is my pride and joy! I have put a lot of effort into making sure I have a library full of a wide range of books. Every book in my library has a label on it. This label has a number. The number corresponds with the number on the baskets. The numbers represent genres. For example; if a student was interested in reading fiction picture books, he/she would look in the number 2 bin and when they were finished with that book they would look for a number 2 bin and return the book to its home. Having every single book labeled allows for my library to be organized at all times. If students are feeling lazy and do not want to return their books to the correct bins, I have a big white bin that they can place their books in and my librarians will put the books away for them. 

My students have been working on their reading stamina all year and we are tracking how well they are doing using this chart that I created. I laminated the chart and I use a chalk marker on it to color in where the class is currently. This is a quick way to track their progress and for the students to see where they are now compared to where they should be at the end of the school year. 

Every day I display "I can" statements on the board so that the students know exactly what to expect as we go through the day. On the board that I have the objectives I also display the students homework and have our exit ticket envelopes. The exit ticket envelopes are a wonderful tool that I use to bring lessons to a close and to determine if a topic needs to be reviewed further. You will also see a star on the white board. This star has a table group number on it. Every day the number changes and this represents which table group is allowed to use our classroom pillows during read to self. I have a bunch of pillows available, but not enough for the entire class all at once. Having each table group rotate has saved me from frustration and it makes it fair for everyone in our class. 

My student's cubbies hold their book boxes and textbooks. I require that the student's book boxes have a fiction book and a nonfiction book in it at all times. They can have no more than 5 books in their book box at once. Above the cubbies I have my student's birthday candles. On the first day of school the students decorate a candle stick. I hang these up and on their birthday we light their candle stick with a flame. If I forget to light a candle by mistake the students make sure they let me know! On top of the cubbies I have organized my guided reading books by level and they are labeled so that I can easily access them. 

My front board is where I have my calendar and schedule. I also have our quote of the week. Every week I post an inspiring quote. At our weekly class meetings we read it and discuss what the quote is telling us. 

My math center is on my counter near the sink. This is where I keep all of the hands on materials that the students will be using for each math unit. The materials on this counter change based on the math unit that I am teaching. I am currently teaching the students about measurement and geometry. Above my math center is where I display my content vocabulary. For every unit I have the vocabulary ready to be put in the pocket charts. I leave the vocabulary up on display throughout the whole unit so the students can refer back to it. 

In my classroom I am blessed to have 6 computers that the students are able to use. I labeled each computer with a number and I assigned 4 students to each computer. When the students are using the computers they rotate through the four students whose computer it is. This way if anything happens to the computer, I know it is one of the four students who are responsible. I also have the computers organized this way so that during writing time we can easily write silly stories. We pick a student to start the story; they type up a few sentences, and then pick someone else who shares their computer to continue on with the story. The students are responsible for transitioning through the activity and they are able to take responsibility. It is also nice to tell students to go to their assigned computers. It helps me stay organized throughout the day when many activities are happening at once. 

I feel like my room is always a work in progress. I love trying new things.