Classroom Reveal!

Oh my goodness! I have been going into my classroom each day for the past 2 weeks and I am pretty much FINISHED! Yay! Of course, there are a few things here and there that still need to get printed, cut, laminated...and cut again! I am ready to share my rainbow room with everyone! I hope you all like it! 

Leave your blog post about your classroom reveal in the comments so that we can check out your blog, too!

Welcome to my classroom!

Soon this door will be filled with photos of my students!

"Welcome" sign - free here

Below is the view of the room from the front door. The colored pom-poms label each group in the room. Each group consists of 4 to 6 students. Their desks face the front of the room for the beginning of the year, as I get to know them and they get to know me. During Science, they turn their desks to face each other for experiments. Later in the year, I will have them turn their desks to groups permanently. The students seems to really like this set up because they have had groups in 1st through 4th grade, and now they feel like "grown ups" when they walk in to all of the desks facing forward! (It also cuts down on "beginning of the year chit chat" at groups)

This is the view from the very back of the room. You can see how all of the desks face forward from here. I love these desks! We got them last year and they are just the best! :) We have less students in our class this year than we had last year, so looking at this makes me feel like there is so much more room in my classroom! I will actually be able to walk in between all of the desks this year! ;) haha!

My small group table and the students' cubbies. We don't use the backpack hooks because the students switch classes and take their backpacks with them to each class. Behind my seat at the back table are two bookshelves where I keep leveled readers, calculators, and other supplies for my small groups. I made my dry erase markers into flowers, which you can see on the middle of the table. This way, the students know not to 'walk away' with my small group markers! This really worked last year, so I made new ones for this year! The "achieve" sign above the cubbies is one I painted 2 years ago, and it still looks nice! I am so happy it held up! The blue, yellow, and red boxes to the left of that sign will soon hold all of my math games. 

The banner above the cubbies says "We Love (heart) Fifth Grade" and can be found in my store for all grades Kindergarten through Fifth. I also sell an "A to Z" banner so that if you want other banners in your room to match this one, you can create any banner you'd like with that one! 

Kindergarten

First Banner

Second Banner

Third Banner

Fourth Banner

Fifth Banner

A to Z Banner

The white board! This is my favorite thing right now in my room! I don't really use the white board for solving math problems or anything, because we have a Smart Board, so I use it for other things for the students. 

On the left, I have "Must Do", "May Do", and "Weather". I fill out the top two sections with the things we need to get done today, and the things that the students may do if they finish their work. The students take care of filling out the weather section for me! Meteorologist is one of my class jobs, and that student fills out the weather for the day each morning. 

Next to that column, I have a new section of my board: "Today I am...", "So that I can...", "I'll know I've got it when...", and a spot for work with no name. I will blog later this year about how I use this column! It is an idea I found on Pinterest and I am hoping I will love it as much as I think I will...I will keep you posted!

To the right is my section for homework and reminders for the students. They will look at this section when they first come in the classroom and write their homework! :) I spent a lot of time turning these labels into magnets so that I can move them around if I need to, or pick them up when I want to clean my white board! Keep reading to see how I made these into magnets, and how I store all of these to keep them organized!

Labels for free if you click here

Above the board is my Science Alphabet (click here). This document is over 140 pages long, so each teacher can choose which Science words are suitable for their class! I hope I thought of enough vocabulary words for all teachers! What is fun is that many teachers in the same school can have this same alphabet, but theirs will all be 'different' because they will probably choose different words to display depending on the grade they teach! I have a set of Math posters, with this same general idea, for free at my store. 

Above the alphabet is where I put my "meaningful discussions" posters, or "talk moves" (click here). 

I display the students' work on this bright bulletin board (alliteration!) throughout the year! They LOVE to come in the door and look to see if their work has been displayed! I had this same board up last year! I love when something works and it can stay the same year after year! You can find these letters I used for the top of the board here. The two red trays are where the students turn in their work for me to collect. One is my homeroom and the other is my team teachers' homeroom! I actually had these trays given to me by Arby's my first year of teaching! I use others trays I have for Science experiments! It was so nice of them to donate them to my classroom.

One of my favorite classroom management tools in the classroom is the "Raise a Number" chart! The students raise their hand with these numbers if it applies to them. I love this because I can be busy doing something with a small group or with an individual and spot a student holding up a #2 - it is so great to just give them "the nod" (teachers - you know the head shake I am talking about) to let them know whether or not they can leave the room at that time. This has worked great in my room for 3 years, and I created a new, prettier looking display for this year! Find it by clicking here.

Reading corner! 

The reading corner takes up a good amount of the size of my classroom. Mainly because I found this amazingggg 7x12 rug for such a great deal this summer! I love it because when we play math games, different teams of students can sit in there for their games, too! The students just love to read while sitting in those funky chairs, so I got another one and added it to the corner (they are from Target). 

This is the same calendar I had set up last year and I love it! Find it at my TpT store, here! I used electrical tape on the white board to section off the squares, and all of the pieces are magnetic (thanks to my hot glue gun!) so it is super easy to change the dates! The students do it for me!

Seven Habits Posters! These are purely for display in my room so that the students can reference them any time they need to a reminder of their habits! We use the Seven Habits at our school, because we are  a "Leader in Me" school! I love how they allow the students to take more responsibility for their actions and causes them to think before they act. The habits have been a great addition to the classroom and I think they would work in any room, even if your school is not a Leader in Me school!

Find these free in my store here (other colors available)

Classroom jobs for the leadership classroom! I used these jobs last year, as well! I use real-life job titles, like meteorologist and postman, to give jobs to my students. They love their jobs, as I am sure they do in your room, too! Students love when they get chosen for a class job...and I am not going to lie...I love giving them jobs!! (makes our lives easier as teachers, right!?)

Class jobs here

"How We Get Home" chart! I created this one for my class, but Kindergarten Smiles has a beautiful one for the classroom on her TpT store! I really want to update and buy hers! If you need one of these, check hers out! She has one in a brights theme and one in a rainbow theme! Obviiiii, I want the rainbow one! I like these because the students can tell me if they are getting home differently one day, and we can just move their clip! I have it in a location where they can just move their clip themselves!

I blogged about this last year, but I just loooove it so I feel like I have to tell you all about it again! If you haven't yet noticed...I just die if I am not organized! Well, I force my students to be just as organized as me...My husband says I am creating monsters! Each group (labeled by colors; below you see green group) has their own bookshelf. The bookshelf as color coordinated items on it, so that we know whose are whose. The tray on the very top is for me when I am handing out papers. A lot of the time I had out the materials for the day in the morning, and I put it all in these trays. It waits there until we need it, so it doesn't clutter anyone's desk area...or my desk area! The caddy is where the dry erase markers and socks (used as eraser) go, and the little white boards are underneath. The green cup next to that holds things like glue and scissors. Each group has their own quote that goes with our leadership theme at our school. The little clothespin you can see is holding our "Team Leader" pin. The team leader of the group gets to pin that to their sleeve during group work. The rest of the shelf will hold paper and text books! I love love love having these shelves! I also hold the kids responsible for keeping their group shelf organized and neat.

 Each shelf has a little empty cup on the top. I have the big cup of pom-poms. During each day, the students have chances to earn these pom-poms as a group. On Friday, the group with the most pom-poms earns a prize! :) Usually something from my treasure box...sometimes bonus points on an upcoming project!

Students keep their morning work folders in these buckets by group. It helps in the morning that the students can just go grab their folder. When they are finished, the put their folder back and I have easy access to them if I need to check up on their morning work!

Alright, so I am rewinding a bit! Back to the labels on the board! I turned them into magnets with this roll of magnetic adhesive. I did not trust the adhesive, so I hot glued them on, anyway! I just cut little pieces so that I did not waste the magnetic roll, but also had enough on there for it to stick to the board!

 Here is what they look like from the back, once I have hot glued the magnet on them!

 I used the same idea on my standards side of the board. This is the side of the board to the right of my Smart Board. I keep all of my standards here. At the point of taking the photo, I had only finished making my math standards! I have some more work to do still! I have all of the standards laminated, cut, and turned into magnets so that they are ready for the school year! 

Available for Fifth Grade at my store in ELA and Math

ELA standards - primary colors

ELA standards - brown, green, blue

ELA standards - patriotic theme

Math standards - primary colors

Math standards - brown, green, blue

Math standards - patriotic theme

 Below you can see how I have organized these standards on my bookshelf by my desk! I used a sticky wall clip and a binder clip! So easy! I don't know why I did not think of this sooner! I would organize everything like this! You can see which standards are in each clip by seeing the title on the front, and all of the standards are behind them. I took off the front label on the fourth clip from the top so you can see that the standards are hanging behind their title. I am super excited about this new organization technique in my classroom! Ah! Yay!

 Exactly what I used:

My desk area! I bought all new desk supplies this year at Staples - the Martha Stewart Collection! I love the white! My excuse to my husband and myself: "My classroom is rainbow themed, so my desk is like the cloud! I need the white!" Ha! How did I convince myself that this was necessary!? Well..it looks great and makes me happy!! I feel so organized! I only ever sit at my desk during planning and after school, and I will definitely enjoy it this year!

 Eeeeks! As you all probably know, my favorite things everrrrr are binders! My new collection this year makes me so happy! Rainbow and chevron...best combination! You can check it out here!

I made these last year for my room moms and my team teachers. I can't wait to let my students count down to different exciting activities or events this year with this countdown! FREE if you click here!

How many days do you have left until school starts! I have ELEVEN! I hope I didn't share TOO many pictures! Ah! I am just so excited about being done with setting up the classroom! I hope you all like it and were able to use some of my freebies for your own classroom! :) If you have set up your classroom and blogged about it, leave your link in my comments to share with everyone so we can check out your classroom!

...and because I "MADE" so many of these things for my classroom, I am linking up with Fourth Grade Frolics for Monday Made It! Click the image below to check out what others have made this Monday!