Aaaand We're Off

The first day is in the books. I am so excited to start this year! My awesome team, Mr. Rodriquez and Ms. Tressa and I have worked really hard the past few days!  I think it's time to show off our work.

I had one big goal in mind for my new classroom and that was to create a better environment for my students to be independent.  This is a huge step for them and a big help for us. 

Here are a few pictures from around my classroom...

Looking at my whiteboard I have my daily learning objectives on the left.  These get a bit tricky because in a 15 minute rotation my kids could work on 2-3 different skills.  I also have 7 kids on 7 different levels.  To keep them brief, I keep them general. I usually write 2 learning targets for each subject and it is only about what it going on at my teacher table.  I need to add in a science label but I am a bit OCD and I can't make the label until I find the font that I used before...I'm still looking.  On the right of my whiteboard I have a calendar taped up.  I love it!

 

Here are my 2 interactive bulletin boards...super interactive right now :)  I update them with different vocabulary, materials, and skills that we are working on. I have one other board.  You can see it in a few pictures.  It is long and purple and I plan on hanging some anchor charts from it.  I am trying to keep the distractions to a minimum...which is hard for me...I love color and making all kinds of crazy stuff.

 

Here are a few pictures of how I keep my materials organized.  I have all my math materials in the buckets with the labels.  I love having them out so I can easily access them and my kids can grab whatever math tool they need to solve a problem.  I have 5 returning students and they know how to use these.  I was so impressed with one of my boys today.  He sat down to his morning work and saw addition problems and went straight to the number charts bucket and grabbed a hundreds chart.  That skill was not lost over summer!  I separate my LA and Math stations.  LA stations are labeled with letters in my amazing IKEA cabinet and my math stations are in the numbered green buckets (also from IKEA). I spent some time at the end of the year last year to send of books that I made for my kids to use during stations.  This is saving me so much time!  I have 4 LA and 2 math stations that I never have to switch out. It is also helps build that independence in my kids.  They know exactly what to do and can pull it out and finish it with minimal assistance.

You can also see the binder schedules we are using on the bookshelf.  I have one kid that uses an object schedule that is hanging on the cabinet next to these schedules.

 

In the middle of my class I have our independent station.  Each of my students rotate through this twice a day.  This is probably my hardest station to prepare.  I think as a teacher I want to keep my kids moving forward and working on new skills.  It takes a lot of effort for me to step back and assess what my kids can do completely independently and then...the harder step is to let them do it independently.  I have got to work on this because I know this is probably the most important station in my room and it is so vital that my kiddos learn to be independent. I have differentiated tasks in the buckets and most of my kids can work on 3 tasks before moving to the next rotation.  As they complete a task on the left they move it to the red tray on the right (the finished tray).

Here's a craft project clock I made last year.  I grabbed it for like 5 bucks at target and then painted the hands and numbers to match our Judy clocks we use in math.

 

Here's how I arranged my students' desks.  I have some kids that come in and out and others that stay all day.  Either way it is important to me that all my kids have a place that is theirs to work in and a place where they know they are a part of the team. 

 

Here is what we call green station or PRT.  It is for language development and working on social skills.  This is where we get to bring out all the fun toys :)

 

 

My kids second favorite area is yellow table or computer/iPad station. 

Login cards and computer website choices are hanging on the wall.  Also, a direction sheet for what to do when they are assigned to a certain computer or iPad station

This is our tech supply central.  Wireless mice, headphones, and iPad chargers.

This is our blue table (one on one) area.  I have it set up so the teacher has access to all the supplies on their left.  Each of my kids are working on 4-6 different skills at this table at a time...hence all the folders.  It is also prepared with data keeping reminders, prompt reminders, visuals, and MATERIALS.  Nothing is worse than sitting down and realizing you forgot to pull a set of cards and then by the time you grab it and turn back around the kid is gone (either physically gone or the attention is somewhere else)

 

Last picture...This is where my kids drop off their lunch boxes, snacks, communication books and anything else they decided to bring from home. I have 7 kids but currently only 6 crates. Can you guess which color is missing?  It's black...and it should be delivered this week.  I have a small obsession with color coding my kids.  They don't really know that I do this.  It is just a tool that I use to keep myself and ALL of visuals organized.  Back at blue table I have colored folders for each of my kids skills they are working on.  I have the same color on their binder schedule.  And I'll post later about visuals but they are color coded too.  It makes my life so much easier.  I have 7 kids that need a visuals throughout the day.  For example, today we came back from recess/lunch and I only had 5 visuals turned in.  Instead of asking each student I just had to look and see that I was missing a green and a red...I asked those kids and they had them in their pockets.  It saves so much time!

 

I love my class! I love my kids! I am so excited for a new year!