Wow, it has been almost a month since I have updated my blog. This last month I have been trying to finishing up my long-term planning and working on setting up my classroom. I had to re-do all of my walls this year--and it was a lot more work than I thought it would be!
This summer, we had technology updates in our classroom, so we had to pack up EVERYTHING! When I first got into my classroom about two weeks ago, it took me about a day to unpack everything. Thank goodness I had the help of my boyfriend to help me with all the unpacking.
Once I had everything unpacked, I could start working on my little projects, organizing my class, and do my focus walls. So, here is how my classroom turned out:
This is probably my favorite focus wall in the whole classroom! This is my CAFE, phonics, and grammar wall. I also have my small group area right there, so it works perfect.
Here is my small group area. I have word work games and materials. I'm still working on adding a few more activities. But, this is what I have so far.
This is my Tree-mendous Behavior Chart. I really liked how it turned out :) For the clothes pins, I used file folder labels to write their names. That way, at the end of each year instead of buying new clothes pins, I can just peal off the label and put on a new one!
Here is my voice level chart that I found from
Totally Terrific in Texas. I LOVE this because it teaches students what their voice level can be during each activity.
This was my first wall that I did this summer--My beautiful word wall. They are just basic third grade sight words. I might add more as the year goes on. This is my first year using a word wall--and so far, my little kiddos have been using it!
This is my science board that I made. Since I have SO many windows in my classroom, I had to use some of them for my focus walls. I had to get creative.
This is my Classroom Tree and 7 Habits area. I LOVE this part of my classroom! I did a similar tree activity during my student teaching. Then, when I got my job last year, I started doing these activities that go with the tree in the beginning of the year. I'll be doing another post next week about how I do it. But, I absolutely love me tree because it ties in with 7 Habits and my Tree-mendous Behavior chart.
Here is my Math-tastic focus wall. Thank you to my boyfriend for coming up with such a creative heading.
Here is my writing focus wall where I display all of the students' writing work. This one was probably the HARDEST and LONGEST focus wall to put together. It took me about 5 times until I got it perfect. I am NEVER taking this focus wall down! But, in the end. I am so happy with how it turned out.
So, this is what has been keeping me from blogging this past month! It took a lot of time and effort, but I am so happy with how it turned out. It took a little longer than I would have liked it to be. Mostly because I was sick with an awful cold last week, so setting up my classroom was more difficult. Thank goodness for my family for helping me unpack and set up some of my focus walls! I'll be doing another post next week about the activities I did the first week of school. I'm really excited for this year and can't wait to show what my students have been working on!
