Classroom Tour 2013-2014 School Year

WELCOME!

This is the Grade One and Two corridor at the new school that I will be teaching at this year.  I am delighted with the changes that our school division has implemented.  This is a Kindergarten to Grade Four site and I couldn't be more pleased to be here!

From the doors to this corridor (and up the small ramp!) you will find my classroom, first one on the left.  The next two on the left are the other Grade Two classes.  After all these years, I will have grade partners.  It will be a welcome change.

Now how could I lose the middle of a palm tree?

This wall is to the left of my classroom door.....

which you see here.  Look!  Windows!

This is the view from the door.  Immediately to the left is one of our rugs for collaborative work, with benches for meetings and bins for storage, mostly math manipulatives.

Here is our math wall, which will hold our new math vocabulary, and allow student hands-on interaction with a variety of materials to solidify concepts.

This is looking towards the east wall, and gives a better perspective of the classroom arrangement.

Just turn around and this is towards the west wall, from the same location.  This is the table that small groups of students will meet me at for guided reading, assessment and mini lessons, based on their needs, especially in reading.  The bookshelf to the right houses about half of my classroom library, which is levelled according to the criteria of the researchers Fountas and Pinnell.  It is from these book tubs that the students will be choosing their books for nightly reading.

The students will be engaged in a researched based model known as 'Daily Five' and 'Cafe'.  These are their 'book boxes' that they will have a variety of reading books to choose from at their own level, many different language learning materials and this is also where they will keep their earbuds/earphones.  Each child will need to bring a set in and these will not be shared, to ensure cleanliness and safety.

I am super excited to have tables this year instead of desks.  The students chose where they would like to sit for the first day but this model allows for continual changing of groups to meet the needs of the activities.  All of their materials will be kept in bins on the south wall of the classroom, which has built-in shelving. 

You can see the bins in this photo, along with one of my many teaching stations.  The students will gather on our second classroom rug which is in front of the SMARTBoard.  This location allows the students to focus on me when I am on the chair, actively teaching or turn towards the SMARTBoard for an interactive lesson.

What are Popcorn Words?  They are the little words that keep 'popping' up in our reading.  Often it's these little words that children stumble on the most because they are easy to confuse with others.  Look at /saw/ and /was/.....or /they/ and /this/.  Early readers have not always learned to look with reading eyes, and this will be an area to focus on very early in the year.

There are many 'pocket' charts in the room and they will be used for many lessons.  Often, the schedule of activities for the day will be displayed to assist the little ones in knowing how long it will be before recess or lunch!

I have many years experience with the SMARTBoard, but did not have one at the last school that I was at.  I am sure that I will be a bit 'rusty' and will need some time to get back up to speed in using this amazing tool for 21st century learning.

A view from the back of the room....

..and now to the north, where there is another little table available for collaborative work.

The view out of our classroom window....I'll be able to see this equipment full of happy children next Tuesday!  Can't wait.

This is a room where we share everything, so this area is right below the windows.  It houses supplies to share, including hand sanitizer, tissues, extra crayons, markers, scissors, rulers, and just about anything a classroom full of learners would need.  You'll see other areas in the pictures as we begin posting all the learning that we are doing in the class.  I hope your child will be joyfully engaged in our classroom this year!