A Tour of My Room!

Hey, hey!  I am FINALLY ready to post pictures of my classroom.  Slowly but surely I put it together. This is what it looked like when I first went in to work on it.

I am not sure if you can tell it, but everything is shoved to one area of the room.  In order to clean the carpets all the furniture, etc is moved to the linoleum.  

This is what it looks like now.  :)

 This is my circle time area.  The cards below the circle time center are my job cards.  I usually pick jobs for my sweeties, rotating them through the list.  Every once in awhile I will let them pick their jobs.  They think that is the best!  The strip to the side with picture icons is my visual schedule for circle.  Even my little ones who don't rely on a visual schedule love this.  It helps them know what comes next.

My books/reading center is an extension of my circle time area.  While everyone waits for circle they will get a book to look through.

These are my picture icons for music and movement.  I pick six songs for the week.  The music helper for the day will chose one of the six.  My interactive whiteboard is where we gather later in the day for our learning time.

These are my centers.  From top to bottom they include:  puzzles/dolls/dramatic play; blocks/cars/trains/ dinosaurs; kitchen/babies; fine motor tubs; art center and computer center.

Here are a few of my random decorations and my desk area.

My bulletin board with calendar, going home, bus info, and box tops bag. Below the bulletin board is where I keep our journals, markers, trays, crayons, dry erase boards and paint smocks.

Here are my cubbies.  The blue birds will be a.m. names and the red birds will have the p.m. names.

I hope you have enjoyed my classroom tour!  

Link up with Surfin' Through Second Grade Classroom Theme Linky

and A Class*y Collaboration : A Class*y Cruise Around the Classroom and show off your room!

Thanks for reading!  Have a great day.  :)

Back to School Blogger Exchange Linky!

I participated in the Back to School Blogger Exchange hosted by Covered in Glitter and Glue.  Now it's time to share what I received from my blogger buddy Victoria from Enchanted in Elementary.

I love, love, love my gifts!  Victoria hit the nail on the head with what she chose for me!  Check it out:

I love chevron and bright colors.  I couldn't have picked out anything better!

Here are some close ups:

Love this bag!  It's coated in plastic.  :)

These are little plates!  How adorable are they?!!

Look at this tub and matching lid!  I already know what is going in it. :)

And, finally this fabulous picture frame with a pink chevron background.  I already put a picture in it and have it on my desk at school!

This picture is kind of blurry, but you can see the frame sitting on my computer.  :)

Thank you SO much Victoria!  I love everything.  :)

Go to Covered with Glitter and Glue to see everyones goodies!

Thanks for reading and have a great day.  :)

Five for Friday!

It's time for Doodle Bug's Five for Friday weekly linky party, so here it goes!

I have been working on a few things to start off the school with.  One of the books that I plan on reading is "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books" by Lucille Colandro.  My little ones love using my old lady puppet to feed her the items as we retell the story.  This one originally was used with "I know an Old Lay Who Swallowed a Fly".  I usually try to gather real objects from the story for my sweeties to feed the old lady. Of course she tries to 'eat' their hand as they are putting a piece in her mouth.  :) (Lots of giggling takes place!)

To check comprehension of the story I made a PowerPoint of essential questions that I plan on using on my interactive whiteboard.  I have included it below if you would like a copy to use with your little  learners.

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books Essential Questions from lolaragan
I love using these with my littles.  If this is useful to you, please let me know.  I would love any feedback!  I also made a hard copy of the questions so when we are reviewing the answers my learners can follow along and color or circle the correct answer.  It is available along with some retelling props and a cut and paste sheet on my TpT store, if you are interested.
I also have been getting my room ready to go for the year.  I am almost there!  This is my calendar set-up so far.

I just have to add my job pockets below the calendar and put complete my visual schedule, then I should be good to go. I am pretty sure I use my visual schedule just as much as my students to keep me on track!
I have been trying to take advantage of my last week before school starts to get in as many lunches with friends as I can!  Lord knows how cray cray it is, especially at the beginning of the year to do much of anything else!

I am involved in Polka Dot Kinders 400 Fabulous Followers Giveaway.  Check it out.  She has some fabulous prizes!

As always, thanks for reading!  Have a great day.  :)

What I'm Loving!

I am linking up with Covered in Glitter and Glue for What I'm Loving Wednesday {or Thursday}.  This week has been a whirlwind and my days (and mind) are discombobulated!  I have been spending a lot of time working in my class.  I am loving my bulletin boards!  They are so clean and tidy before school starts.  Wonder how long that will last?  I covered this one with shelf paper.  I got the idea after reading this post from First Grade Blue Skies.

 I love my room arrangement.  Again, I wonder how long that will last! Until the little ones get in there and start playing, I never really know if putting this center here and those tubs there was really a good idea.  :)

 

I am really loving my Back to School Blogger Exchange goodies I received this week!  They are perfect for me!  Victoria, you did an amazing job.  Thank you!

I am loving getting to know two new blogger friends from my Slant Box Exchange.  It has been so much fun!  If you haven't done it yet, you can still sign up for next month.  I highly recommend doing it at least once.

Thanks for reading!  Have a great day.  :)