Last Year

I have now taught for 4 years at the same school and each and every year I have moved classrooms. Always in Kinder but always a different room.  I could say that it is the worst thing to happen to a teacher because most of the time it's great to have an established classroom that you can just add on to or improve.  I however think it has been a great opportunity for me to be able to improve and start with a blank slate every year. It also gives me a great opportunity to spring clean.  These are a few things i did last year.

I had a great reading nook with a jungle theme.  Books were properly labeled and organized into book baskets.  Of course plenty of reading buddies, teddy bears and such, were provided.

I also used the same type of jungle theme for my math area.  

As part of my endless strive for perfect organization and love of coordinates I found matching desk organizers for my student's supplies and journals.  I also properly labeled these with their table number in case the color did not give it away.  

I believe that the most important component to having a successful class is the way you manage your students behavior.  The sets of rules, consequence chart, anchor charts and many other tools allow a teacher to demonstrate and achieve the desired behavior in the classroom.  This past year I adopted a new technique called brain breaks.  Brain breaks are quick 1-3 minute activities that are meant to get students to release either release their energy, become energized and refocus on the lesson being given.  I found these extremely helpful with my five year olds whose attention span is very limited. This particular suggestion was found on Pinterest.  I also changed my boring green yellow, red, behavior chart to a fun "How am i doing" monkey tree.   Through the years one of my goals has been to create a more independent student environment in which I am only there to assist not to control the class, this is not only true for activities such as literature workstations and math centers but also for tasks such as classroom organization and management.  I found this great way to keep track of how students went home each day on Pinterest, the only difference is that I made the student responsible for moving his clip when there were any changes.  It also helped when there was a substitute because she/he could easily get the student where they needed to be.

 Because of the time constraint and the fact i didn't want to spend too much money on getting my name done in wood I just wrapped a poster board with some cute wrapping paper and bought some cute letters from Lakeshore (that came with the bling). Final price for each person on my team, less than five dollars!  

 I reused banners, pom poms and paper rosettes from my friends summer bridal shower.  Sometimes

My favorite find this past year was the crate seat.  These cozy and practical seats have a dual purpose, they are not only soft on the bum but have storage for all the supplies need for small group instruction (math and language arts).