Room Design

I am so excited to get my room set up this year.  The school I am moving to is being built as we speak so I have no idea of the layout or anything.  I thought I would look back at my room last year and see what I did, what I liked and what I did not like.  The school I was at last year was a converted daycare. The magic that all of us teachers had to do on those rooms was nothing short of a miracle! Here is what my class looked like last year:

 Here is my teacher desk and sort of behind the desk area. We had a large room but not a lot of usable wall space.  Behind my desk I put social studies and science resource information. I put the US map because fifth graders learn US history and a Solar System poster because we also study the Solar System.  The scientific method was also posted. These posters came down often and were moved to the front of the classroom when necessary.

On the left side of my desk there was my resource shelf. I had some books on top for decoration but all of my teacher books were on this shelf. I have books from every grade level for practice sheets. I do not throw these away because you  never know when they will come in handy.  I had a fifth grade student who read at a second grade level so having my fluency passages for second graders was useful. I also put on this self task cards that students could access when they were done with work early or during centers time.

 Next to my resource shelf, there was my Language Arts corner. I had my traits of writing on top of the bulletin board and then key items on the bulletin board such as descriptive words and the writing process. I would do this differently this year because some of the smaller texts could not be read from far away.  Also the writing process on the lower part of the wall was used partly to cover these horrific stains on the wall, but not useful as a resource for my students due to placement.

 Next came my  math wall.  This was the same concept as the Language Arts wall but with math material. This year I am going to create a math word wall so that students can have access to the weekly vocabulary.

 Then came the front of the room.  I had two movable white boards so I made the best of the space.  I always put a welcome message on my board for the first day so that students are not confused about what to do when they come in.  Behind the white board was the pledge of allegiance, Presidents poster, and the morning creed students said each morning.

 Next to the front of the room was the library. I bought a little carpet and pillows for the first time last year and found that fifth graders LOVED it. This year I will make either two library spaces or put more than one rug down.  There was always a race to "get cozy" for reading time. They really enjoyed it.  I do not have a picture of my library system but stay tuned.  I am very proud of my 1000+ book library. When I started teaching I had NO  books and had to get donated books from a donation center here in Henderson, but now I have one of the best library selections in most of the schools I've taught at.  I'm very possessive over the books and assign a librarian and watch books like a hawk....it's an obsession.

We had these HORRIBLE dingy cubbies in the building so I had an idea to use colorful duct tape to decorate the space. I divided the cubbies among girls and boys and decorated as such. I used the tp of the copies for in-bins as well as pencil boxes, games for Fun Friday, and other miscellanous items.

 We had only two computers in our classroom so technology was not high on the priority list. Above the computers I used the months to create a birthday board. On the first day of school I took pictures of each my students with others that had birthdays in the same month then developed the pictures and placed them under the month. Super cute idea but I did not make note of the day of the month birthdays were. Fifth graders do not want to be shouted out for their birthdays most of the time so I often would not know it was a child's birthday until their parents' came in with cupcakes! This year I will keep better track of the specific day. 

Welcome boards are still cute in fifth grade. This bulletin board was at the front of my classroom and changed monthly. 

 I always tell my students that we are getting ready for college and beyond so I name my tables by universities.  Students really begin buying into this and understanding the importance of colleges.  I will definitely do this again.

 Finally here is a center view of my desk. I did not have a traditional teacher desk but it worked. I stapled border around for decoration which ended up getting torn before Christmas break.  Which then left me with all of these staple ends that snagged all of my pants! Next time, I would use tape.  To the right of my desk, is my coach's corner where I put pictures up of me and my family.  Many people stated they had never seen this done before. I always put my family in my classroom.

So what do you think? I know there is a lot I will change for next year and hope to have more color and better places for resources posters. How do you set up your room? Any tips?