2012-2013 Classroom Tour

I will preface this post by saying that my classroom is not completely finished yet, but we're pretty much there, so I wanted to take you on a tour.

Last year, I got hired about 7 days before school started, and I had to scramble to get my classroom together in time. Then I got switched to a new grade level 2 weeks into the school year and had to redo my entire classroom again!

I don't think my stress level ever came down after that whole experience.

So this year, I knew I wanted to get the ball rolling much sooner.

Stress-free is the way to be.

So I recruited my wonderful momma to come in and help me set up my room BEFORE I had to be back to work for our professional development week starting Monday.

We spent 3 different mornings/afternoons in the classroom, and this is the {almost} final result:

This is my amazingly awesome new rug from my parents and grandma as an early birthday present.

In Kindergarten, the kiddos almost always sit on the floor while I teach, because they learn better down there than sitting nicely in their chair at a table all day. I wanted to have a space where we could learn close to the board, and mentioned that I wanted to save up for a nice rug to put down. Then I was surprised with this beautiful rug!

This is the view of the front of the classroom when you step inside the door. I have bulletin boards on each side of the board that will be for math and literacy.

This will be my Word Wall. It looks plain now, but as soon as school starts, it will begin filling up with all the new words we are learning. Word walls are so convenient for young students learning how to write, because they can look up on the wall, find the word they need to spell, and write it down. It's so much fun to watch the kids looking for the words we've learned up there. Very valuable classroom tool!

This will be my small group area. I will pull different groups back to this table during centers to work with them on skills they need help on, or helping them get ahead if they've already mastered what we're working on. My mom made the tree on the wall. I love it, and think it really makes the room look unique.

My mom also made these branches with the owls on them. My school requires us to post student work in a certain area of our classroom, so I will post some of their work every couple weeks under each branch.

This is my {still unorganized} library area. The chair is where I sit when I read aloud to the students. They will also work in the library during centers.

Here is another view of the room.

And this is my desk area. The blue shelves are the students' mailboxes, where I'll put their papers for them to take home each day. The other shelves behind me will have all my important supplies, binders, teacher books, lessons, etc.

(My mom made the "Mrs. Miller's Class" sign for me last year. She's AWESOME when it comes to making crafty things to make my classroom cute. Thanks mom!)

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my "home away from home" for the next 10 months. I'm sad to see summer coming to an end, but happy to be getting back into my normal routine. I've really missed having little kids around the last 8 weeks. Here's hoping I can make an impact on my next group of kinders this year!

xoxo, wife.