Classroom Design

You know it's true. Designing your classroom is an art. For some it is a time to start completely from scratch. (Especially if you have to change classrooms! Yikes!) I like to change my classroom every year. I get bored with the same furniture design, decor, etc. And I always find new ways to display material. My classroom is just about ready for the school year. We start August 12. (Really??!) So, here is a little tour of what my room looks like so far.

 

This is my birthday board. I will put candles on the cupcakes as soon as I get some kiddos. I got this cute idea from Pinterest.

Below are some pictures of my walls/bulletin boards.

 My rolling carts service as my Word Wall. I put up the words as we learn them. I like the kids to work with the Word Wall and don't want to overwhelm them with all the words at once. We learn between 3 and 5 words a week.

Entry Way/Cubby Area

This has their cubbies (you knew that), jobs board, manners reminder, classroom rules (the crayons by the door), and the big yellow board is where the ABC Kings and Queens pictures go. Once a child has learned all of their letters and sounds I will crown them a King or Queen. They will get a paper crown, their picture taken, and a book to take home. It is always a big honor for the students. Everyone claps and congratulates each other. It's awesome.

 My Focus Wall. 

On the left is a focus board. We practice reading the letters as fast as we can in the morning for fluency. I change the board every week. I have spaces for our Phonics Reader book words, new sight words of the week, our calendar, our color poem and our Alphafriends chart. On the bottom is a big Elkonin box to practice sounds. It is dry erase so that I can write letters on it once the Kinders are ready.

 On the left is my Popcorn Words board. It doesn't have words quite yet. I will post more pics once we have learned a few. (Remember, it's only the beginning of the year!) I also have my Chicka Chicka Tree. No K classroom is complete without one! I will leave it up for a couple weeks, until we begin our color unit.

Sight Word Stars Board

This board keeps track of how many words each student knows. It's kind of hard to see, but each star has numbers on it counting by 10s. (10, 20, 30.....got it?) Once a student learns 10 words they get a sticker. The star goes all the way to 100. I have benchmarks throughout the year and if students meet their goal they will get a surprise. (Don't tell, but it's going to be an ice cream party.)

Of course, I have more pictures! But, my classroom is still not quite completely presentable. I will be posting pictures soon of my tables, windows/cabinets, fish tank, mailboxes, and maybe (if your lucky) my desk.