Tour Our ClassroomI hope the following pictures and explanations will give you a better understanding of how we go about things in the classroom!
Our classroom front door. Student names adorn the leaves at the beginning of the year, welcoming students to their new home (the leaves are attached to the door with velcro). Over time, the leaves will have "wishlist" items listing items needed in the classroom. As parents are able, they will take leaves off the door, purchase the classroom item needed, and return the item with the leaf.
Lunch and attendance clips. After greeting Ms. Kuan in the morning with one of the 3 H's (hug, handshake or high-five), students move their lunch clip to indicate whether they will be eating a cold lunch (brought from home), a hot lunch or a vegetarian lunch (ordered at school). With one glance at the lunch clips, lunch count can be tallied and attendance can be taken.
Lining up. At the beginning of the year, students discuss what lining up should look like each day and what a super #5 line looks like and what a not so good #1 line looks like. The teacher takes a picture of the class lining up in a #5 line, a #4 line, a #3 line, a #2 line, and a #1 line. The pictures are posted on the door for student reference, so when lining up, the teacher just holds up her fingers indicating the type of line the students are currently in, and will not let the class proceed out the front door until a #5 line is achieved. This classroom management strategy uses visual cues rather than the teacher's voice.
Bulletin boards. Several ideas for displaying student work easily without having to staple and remove the work each time is to place stationary construction paper on the bulletin board with paper clips on the top and bottom of the papers so that student work can be slipped in and out without using staples. Another idea is to paste clear plastic folders with a sealed bottom edge to the bulletin board and to slip in student work when ready to display. For the clothesline displays in the classroom, clothespins stay on the clothesline all year so that students work can be quickly clipped in and clipped out as needed.
Classroom Library. Books are all categorized by genre and topic and placed in child friendly baskets with labels on them so that students can easily access the books they are interested in and know at a glance, where to put the book back.
Seat sacks.To help keep students desks neat and organized, each student has a seat sack hanging over their seat. This seat sack is a convenient place to store all folders and notebooks so that they do not need to be stuffed into their desks. The folders and notebooks are easily seen and accessible to students as they turn around in their seat and reach for items in the seat sack.
Writing Center. A variety of papers are available to students for publishing their final pieces during writer's workshop. Letter writing paper is also available to students to write and "mail" letters in our classroom's post office. Having the materials easily accessible to students produces classroom ownership and helps students to be in charge of their own learning and to use their time wisely.
What To Do Labels. The Catch-up (ketchup), Must-Do (mustard), and May-Do (Mayonnaise) signs are fun ways to remind students of what their current task is and what they may work on when they are finished. The assignments/ tasks to be completed are usually listed next to the labels on the board.
Supply Caddies. Each pod of desks has their own supply caddy that students share. Students bring in supplies based off of a supply list sent home at the beginning of the year. The supplies are shared among all students throughout the year and replenished as needed. The supply caddies have 8 separate cups to hold different items. Each group has scissors, glue sticks, crayons, thick markers, thin markers, colored pencils, pencils and erasers.
Desk arrangements. Student desks are grouped in sets of 5 to help facilitate cooperative learning and team building. Students have many different groupings throughout the day: reading groups, math groups, literacy groups and heterogeneous group seats. The variety of groups used throughout the day allow students to understand that the groups are always-changing as the need arises.
Math Calendar Board. The calendar and daily counting activities are found in this area. Every morning, students gather in this area to go over the day's date, the weather, the number of days we've been in school as represented by sticks and coins, and different equations that can represent that day's number. This provides daily math practice in number sense, counting coins, number equations, and telling time.
Word Walls. Since this is a bilingual classroom, there are two separate word walls. One in English and one in Chinese. Words are added throughout the year as they are introduced and practiced so that students can have the words easily accessible to them.
Rug Area. This is where we meet for our daily meetings, where we listen to read alouds, and where Ms. Kuan holds focus lessons in writing and reading before we go to our seats and practice the concepts taught ourselves.
Daily Schedule. The schedule is posted with analog clocks next to them so students are given more opportunities to practice telling time.
Desk boxes. Each student has a box that can easily slide in and out of their desks. Students only place their textbooks in their desk boxes. This helps to make changing seats easy. Students just slide their desk boxes out of their desks, put their seat sacks on top of their boxes and they're ready to move to their new seats!
Month-by-month teaching materials. File boxes labeled with the month of year help to organize big bulky items and seasonal items needed for specific months. For example, our Gingerbread Man unit is housed in the December file box.
Children's Literature Teaching bookshelf. I organize the children's literature I teach with by units. I put them in a separate bookshelf from the classroom library to help with keeping track of books I need to use with my lessons.
Post office. Students are able to write and address letters to their classmates then mail them in the classroom mailbox for hands on letter writing practice.
Tooth Chart. Students get hands on practice with charting information on graphs as each student places a paper tooth on the tooth chart each time they lose a tooth. Throughout the year, the class is able to revisit the graph to see how many people have lost how many teeth each month.
Guided Reading Center. The guided reading center is where Ms. Kuan meets with 5 students in a reading group at a time while the rest of the class works on different literacy centers and word work tasks at their seats.
File Cabinet. Files are organized by month and by subject to allow for easy location of needed items.
Student Computers. Students have the option of visiting the computers in the classroom on their assigned day of the week when they are finished with their work early. Students are able to practice their typing skills, play math skill games and literacy activities on the computer.
Student File folders. Each student has one file to hold items to be put in an year end portfolio and another file for assessment papers and documentation done throughout the year.
Student Helpers. Student names are labeled on small frog die cuts and attached to the student assignment board with velcro dots. The frogs are rotated every other week so every student has a chance to take on the different responsibilities in the classroom. Student jobs allow students to take ownership of their own classroom. Our daily clean up song is "The Freeze" by Jon Scieszka. Students are done with their class jobs, and in line ready to go home when the song is over.
