A LOT has changed this summer in our classroom! While last year's classroom was wonderful, I really felt that I wanted to make the classroom fit what I was envisioning, a more student centered and learner friendly environment. Also, I love to shop and be creative, so that helped motivate me to change things as well!
Our amazing custodial staff did the hardest part and emptied out ALL of my furniture, but then I had to clear everything out of all of the cabinets! Let me tell you. That is NOT fun, especially when the AC isn't turned on in your classroom! Check out the mess, don't I look scared? I was!
Our amazing custodial staff did the hardest part and emptied out ALL of my furniture, but then I had to clear everything out of all of the cabinets! Let me tell you. That is NOT fun, especially when the AC isn't turned on in your classroom! Check out the mess, don't I look scared? I was!
Once the cabinets were mostly put back together and the room was scrubbed and crystal-clean, we moved the furniture back in and got to work making the room work for our students, not the other way around!
An awesome addition to our classroom this year is a large sectional couch. That sounds a little crazy, even to me. A couch in our classroom? BUT - it's going to be awesome! Students are going to work hard to earn the right to sit on the super comfy couch while learning! And it really helps to act as a divider between our full-group instructional area and our three small group areas (which you can sort of see behind the couch)!
An awesome addition to our classroom this year is a large sectional couch. That sounds a little crazy, even to me. A couch in our classroom? BUT - it's going to be awesome! Students are going to work hard to earn the right to sit on the super comfy couch while learning! And it really helps to act as a divider between our full-group instructional area and our three small group areas (which you can sort of see behind the couch)!
Our classroom was also lucky enough to be given special tables with holes in them for chargers to fit through, and with storage under the tables for the chargers, making those large, red tables PERFECT for our technology center / software area!
Next, I've been working SUPER hard to get seating in our classroom that lets students wiggle and move a bit while not distracting other students around them! I was lucky enough to get 3 projects fully funded through Donorschoose.org, and we've been blessed with many flexible seating options because of that! I'll make sure to post some better pictures of those once the classroom is all finished and ready to go, but these should do in the meantime!
Next, I've been working SUPER hard to get seating in our classroom that lets students wiggle and move a bit while not distracting other students around them! I was lucky enough to get 3 projects fully funded through Donorschoose.org, and we've been blessed with many flexible seating options because of that! I'll make sure to post some better pictures of those once the classroom is all finished and ready to go, but these should do in the meantime!
After getting most of the seating situated, I moved on to lighting! This is another project that was funded through donorschoose, and it has let me get diffusers for most of our overhead lighting! I was also able to get some unique string lights as well. I'm hoping that this really helps the ambiance of our classroom. I want our room to really welcome students and let them feel comfortable, not at all intimidated or over stimulated. So, hopefully this helps! We'll see! And, we get to switch out the patterns for our light covers depending on the season! That's exciting!
Now, I'm onto the really-really hard part! For some reason, I thought it was going to get easier once all the BIG stuff was finished. Nope, not the case. Now I'm spending lots of time getting all of the little details of our room just right and ready for all of those inquiring minds ready to get to work this month! And, luckily, I have some pretty great helpers too! We've added curtains, plants, mailboxes, personalized clipboards, and so much more!
I can't wait to share the finished project with all of you! I hope you're excited, because I know that I am! I'll see you all in TWO weeks!