Category Archives: 2012-2013 Classroom Pictures
My classroom
Here are some pictures of what my classroom looks like mid-year:
This is my desk area. It usually looks as messy as it is in the picture, but I can find everything you need! I really to need to organize it better–what do you do to organize your desk?
This is the beginning of the counters just to the left of my desk. I keep my Reading A-Z readers in these buckets right behind my horse shoe table, so I can grab them quickly when doing small reading groups. 
Here is my horse shoe table. I rarely looks this cleaned off! I meet with 4-5 students at a time. 
This is the opposite end of the counter top. I got these pink and purple baskets in the Dollar Spot at Target a couple of weeks ago to help me organize materials I need for each day. I’m still getting used to the system, but it’s better than having everything all over my desk! 🙂
Here is a glance at our science center
This is where I sit when we do whole group activities. You might notice that there is a blue desk chair there now…my beloved bench broke a few weeks ago and I had to put this here. I didn’t think I was going to like it, but I like being able to roll around to write on the easel and forward when I’m reading a story.
Our Listening Work Station
Our Library Work Station
A look back towards my desk (far left) and the home living area. It’s currently a grocery store!
Panning to the left a bit…I think one day, I will make some curtains to cover up those shelves! 🙂
Whole group area…
The Promethean Board
Looking into the Library Work Station and at the back of the computers.
Looking out towards the hallway.
Our classroom door and cabinets. The three cabinets on the left hold the kids coats and backpacks on the bottom and my stuff on the top. 
The open doorway is a little office between my room and the K classroom next door. Mostly we have our microwaves and fridges in there along with some other assorted things…The closed door is a storage closet (it used to be a bathroom). Sometimes we are scared to open the door because things have and will fall on us! 🙂 You can also see our sink and drinking fountain. 
Can you tell we are studying community helpers?
These are the shelves where we store our supplies. The tub on the bottom is a math work station tub. The yellow bucket is storage for SSR books and science notebooks. Above that you see our Writer’s Workshop basket holding paper and our folders. On top of that we keep our Morning Work folders. 
In the buckets on the top of the shelf, we store our supplies we use most often. The kids can bring the tubs to the table and they usually bring the crayon basket, but leave the larger tub on the shelf. They like having more room!
That’s a look at the room right now…what does your room look like? Leave me a link to pictures of your classroom! 🙂
Let me know if you have any questions!
Kristen 🙂
Poster Markers
I’ve been using the Mr. Sketch scented markers for a few years now to write on my chart paper. They were fine for awhile, but they dried out quickly from too much use on the paper. I found these Crayola Poster markers at Jo-Ann’s a few weeks ago and I’ve been using them ever since!
They have a wide tip, but if you turn it around, you also have a small tip you can use. The colors are really bright and the kids can see them all; even the yellow. They are more of the “Brights” colors than the primary colors, but I really like using them so far and they haven’t started to wear out yet–and I use them a lot! 🙂
Kristen 🙂
Math Work Stations
We finally started our Math Work Stations this week. It takes me about 2 weeks (10-12 days) to introduce all the activities the kids will be doing during our MWS times. Here is what we looked like on day 2 of MWS:
Kristen 🙂
Classroom Spaces 2012-2013
As you can see from my last posts with classroom pictures, I’ve decided to move some spaces around in my classroom this year. I’ve also been unloading 13 years worth of stuff to some new teachers in our building and getting some of it ready for a yard sale.
This is a look at my new library area. I hadn’t yet put everything out:
Here is what it looked like after I worked on it more today.
Here is a closer look. I got the shelf at Target for $51.99–they will probably go on sale soon for Back-to-College. They were about 1 1/2 months ago for $39.99, so if you like it, be watching!
Here is a new shelf that will hold some games and indoor recess items. It now has two boxes of LEGOS on the bottom two shelves.
These black art files were on clearance at Hobby Lobby for about $7 each. I used them to put all my posters in instead of using this brown drawer cart which took up lots of room and was a great place to stack things (junk). 🙂
This is my leveled reader shelf/baggie book shelf. Each Monday the children select four books to take home and practice and then return them on Friday morning to the right color dot box. The bottom three rows of shelves had lots of the readers that came with our past two reading series–I gave them away to our new K teacher and just kept the ones I like the best and that I’ve had for years.
The bottom three shelves now hold school supplies, opening up more space in one of my cabinets for other things. 🙂
Here is the small group area/Writer’s Work Station area that used to be my Library Work Station.
This is a closer look at the newer shelves that are next to my bench. The blue chair is the author’s chair. 🙂
Science work station
I put out my three tables and chairs that I got last year from IKEA. I’m not sure what I will use the one that is up closest in this picture, but I’m thinking a work station…
Another look at my library work station
My 6 tables…each day when I go in, my goal is to clean off the tables before I leave. 🙂
The messy area under the loft near my desk.
I’ll have some more pictures tomorrow. 🙂
Kristen 🙂
Classroom Pictures 2012-2013 after
Here are the after pictures. I didn’t get much done, but I did get rid of some furniture and move some things around. Mostly, I would move a piece of furniture and then sit down and contemplate where the next piece would get moved…
This is my science area. I put my sand table back here after talking to a K friend down the hall. I can use the table top for some science things and then open it up when we are ready. 🙂 You can also see my green house that I bought at the end of last year and my compost bin under my sand table. Our meal worms are on top of the sand table.
This is my front board. The orange sign in the middle indicates where my Promethean Board goes (it was installed today yeah!!!)
This is my bench where I read books to my kiddos. 🙂 You can see my easel to the right and I put wire shelves to the left this year instead of a book case. I got some more storage this way compared to my old two shelf book case. I think I can put a workstation in the cube that did not get filled up.
This is my new library work station area and computer area. My library work station used to be back where you can see part of the round table and the bookcase with the red curtain. I moved my library work station up near my front board and will use these two bookcases. I did this for two reasons 1) I wanted to be able to have the books that were on our topic close by when we do read alouds and 2) I couldn’t see my kids over the top of my taller bookcases and we had a close call last year where some one almost tipped the bookcase over on them, so I wanted to do away with that.
I will be moving the front facing bookcase perpendicular to the computer desks. I bought a Closet Maid organizer at Target last week:
It will lay on it’s side and hold books in each of the 8 cubbies. I will put it under the front ledge of my dry erase board. I will also leave the pillows close by it (and my rug will be far enough away from it). and let me kids read in that area.
This is the area that was my Library work station. It will now be a small group area, and be used for either big book work station or writing work station…I haven’t decided yet. I turned all the computers to face it so that when my assistant (LOVE her!!) is working with a small group on a computer program, we won’t disturb them and my kids won’t be watching the computer screens instead of me or their task. 🙂
This is a look at my six tables. Some are way in the back of the picture. 🙂 Last year, one of them was the round one in the picture above and I opted to take back my writing work station table and use that as a student table. I would like to use my tables more and have them pull double duty (they can be both individual work areas and work station areas). Also, the round table was always just a little too much in the way.
I’ve also given some thought to the shelves I have at the end of my tables this year. I will keep them, but when having 5 kids sit at some tables, it is hard to fit 5 binders in them. I requested plastic folders this year on my supply list (the kind with three prongs). I will put my binder sheets (the ones available on Teachers’ Pay Teachers–see the button on the top left) in sheet protectors and then put them in the folders instead of the binders this year.
Also, we had magazine holders that held our SSR books and those created a hot mess when only 4 would fit comfortably on a shelf. I was always tripping on a box somewhere. So I’m working on some solutions in my mind, but haven’t settled on anything yet. It will come to me…just need to think it over. 🙂
I’ll be at school after I’m done helping to train teachers the next couple of days and will get some more pictures as I move things around. Tomorrow, my hubby is coming with me to put the bookcase together for me, and I’ll get pictures of the Promethean Board. 🙂
I’ll work on a map of my classroom here in a minute and post that. 🙂
Kristen 🙂
Kristen's Kindergarten 