Back to My Classroom (Again)

View from my desk

I went back up to my K-2 school again this morning and put up the front bulletin board (forgot to take a pic!) that I never got to on Friday.  It came out really cute.  Lots of smiling flowers, lots of color and the banner reads: "When We Learn We Grow".  Everyone walking by really liked it!  I'll take a picture when school starts.  Once school starts going and the first art projects are completed then it becomes art work display for the rest of the year.  I took a few more pictures of my room as I put up a few things this morning.  This is the view of my half of the room if you are sitting at my desk (which I barely do except to write plans).

 

This is a corner view from my desk area.  (really messy poster/examples shelf in corner!  I'll get to it...  eventually)

 

This is the view of the music room side.  It's not set up yet so the chairs are all stacked to the side.  They get set up in a semi-circle around the piano.  That's the floor area we work on to do large collaborative work.  That's the smart board in the middle. 

 

This is the computer I share with the music teacher.  I took the giant flower off the front bulletin board this morning and taped it up behind the computer stand.  I didn't have the heart to throw it on top of a shelf!

 

New sign I made for my paper cutter.  The other sign was looking pretty nasty!

Here's the sink area.  Notice how high the faucet is above the sink?  When the kids wash their hands water goes EVERYWHERE!.  Oh and a few have figured out that it will unscrew from the base if you keep twisting it around!  Soon the sink area will be filled with paint brushes, paints and water containers (aka. old Blue Bunny ice cream containers).  The kids always comment that I must eat a lot of ice cream to have so many of these buckets!  The paint trays are stacked and ready in the corner.  The smocks are hanging up and ready on the outside of the bathroom door.

 

New sign by the sink to remind the kids to wash their hands.  Made one for inside the bathroom as well.  That sign has a picture of hands with smiley faces painted on them and it says:  "Clean hands are happy hands.  Please remember to wash your hands with soap and water."  (Didn't think you needed to see a pic of the bathroom)  

 

This poster is hanging on the board near the drying racks.  The students always refer to this painting as "The creepy guy screaming!"

 

I got this idea from Mrs. Picasso's Art Room last January when I first started blogging.  This way the students can always see what we are doing now, what we did last and what we will be doing next.  I had to make new ones this year since I am now teaching Kindergarten too.  I like how they came out!  Now I will have to make new ones for 3d, 4th and 5th grades at the other school!

 

I cut up last years painting place mats and used them as the background borders!

 

 

Here they are on the board where I will post the essential questions that go with each lesson.  I'll hang the questions on the side of the board next to the shelf and change them out for each grade level so they can only view theirs.  Less confusing that way.

 

I also made up a poster of lines and poster of shapes that I can leave up in the room on display when we are done using them for the first few lessons.  This way the visual is always there for the students to refer to.  Right now they are on my white board for easy view for the next few weeks.  The painting place mat in the left corner will stay there for the entire year.  I will display examples of the projects we are working on there.  White paper on the white board never shows and I always have to put something behind my examples so they stand out from the white board.  I miss having a chalk board at this school.  I have one at my 3-5 school still.  Love that chalk board!  :)

That's all until school starts next Thursday.  I go back Tuesday and Wednesday for meetings and In-Service.  I stopped at my 3-5 school this afternoon with all intentions of laminating the class folders, hanging up the rest of the displays and taking some pictures for you but...  The laminater was broken AGAIN (second time in a week!), it was dreadful humid and when I walked down to my room the door was locked and I was too lazy to walk all the way back to the office for a key and back again (our keys and ID badges that open the outside doors are not given back until the first day of school).  In disgust, I said: "Forget it!" to myself and went home!

 

I can do the rest on the first day of school.  I will have time in the afternoon to work on my room.  Now all I have left to do is to finish some seating charts and some lesson plans and I'm all set!  Onward & Forward!  :)