Peek Inside My Classroom

 So, it's the night before school starts...

and instead of sleeping, I thought I'd give you a tour of my classroom.  Brace yourself for lots of owls and lots of the colors blue and green.  I tend to take themes to extremes.

(FYI, if you are not easily impressed, or haven't been following my classroom renovation since last summer, you might want to look at how far we have come from this post.)

Come on inside:

 Hello 5th grade!

 Covering up my very ugly/gross well loved desk.  I wasn't brave enough to paint it this year.

 Lockers, undoubtedly the most exciting aspect of 5th grade:

 Our theme verse, Proverbs 1:7.

 Wish list for Back to School Night tonight- owls are post its that families could take home as a reminder of the items they planned to donate.

 Want to know what I thought when I looked at this picture?  "Look at all of that floor space!" With a class this year two-thirds the size of last year's, I am reveling in the extra space that we have.  Room to work without running over each other is always a plus.

 I still love my ombre inspired file cabinet.

Oh, like the pennants?  They brighten things up, and also happen to to match my ombre file cabinet and ombre curtains.  I am so happy that the ombre trend supports my OCD organizational skills that drive me to put colors in rainbow order all of the time.

 Our classroom jobs bulletin board and birthday calendar:

 A little closer look:  Jean pockets, colored card is for group work reference, popsicle stick is for computer privileges, and stars are jobs for the week.

 And even a little closer:

 Mail center:

 The "business center":

 Reading corner:

 The ridiculous amount of books...

 Regular fiction is alphabetical by author's last name on the six shelves.  Baskets hold nonfiction by topic as well as special fiction, like poetry and folk tales.

 The "spoffice."  I will not waste your time explaining why it is called that. I will tell you a little about it though.  My kids don't have space to keep all of their art supplies in their desk or even in the room all of the time.  To save time for quick things in class that require markers, or a glue stick, etc. I stock the "spoffice" with enough of everything for each group of desks.  If we need to use markers for two minutes while taking notes in math, I don't have to waste ten minutes for the kids to get their supplies from their lockers and drop things and show off their set of 124 rainbow hues and then be unable to find the red marker that they need.  I just give them a box for their group to share.  Done.  The kids can also come grab things that they need while working, which comes in handy with kids that don't have as much or towards the end of the year when supplies are dwindling.  

There, aren't you glad I didn't take the time to tell you where the name spoffice came from? :)

 Behavior chart:

 Faith corner.  Will be posting soon on how/why I set this up and my recommendations for doing the same thing in your classroom for school or CCD.

 You might recognize that little owl:

 Check out our patron Saint, St. Maximilian Kolbe:

Area behind my desk, which looks awesome now that I have realized (in my 5th year teaching, mind you) that I do not need every teachers' edition, workbook, resource book, and answer key at my finger tips.  I only have out the current units that we are working on, the rest are in "storage" to be pulled out as needed.  So much more sense.  

(Hey Lindsay, there's my "Where are you?" board!  And Em, your shelf has never looked so good.  New nails and contact paper makes for a new life.)

Hope you enjoyed your visit to my little corner of the world.  Also, thank you for giving me a reason to take pictures today, the day before school, because we all know that after 42 extra hands enter tomorrow, this classroom will not look this neat and organized again...until next fall!