Primary Chalkboard

Classroom Set-Up - A Look Around My Dream Classroom

Hello, Friends!  It is Autumn from The Primary Techie.  I am super excited to be blogging about one of my favorite places - my classroom.  Here is a very nerdy confession: I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE setting up for the new year!  It is actually one of my favorite parts of being a teacher.  I love the anticipation of the student's reactions, planning how the room will function, and organizing all of my teacher treasures.  Have you started setting up?  I bet every teacher is at least thinking about it.  It is a big job!

I have been in the same first grade classroom for ten years and last year, I did a complete classroom make-over.  Don't anybody tell my husband, but I spent entirely too much of my own money on this project!  The way I see it, I spend more than half my life there.  I want it to be the best it can be for my students and myself.  Some ladies buy Coach purses and Louis Vuitton shoes.  I bought my DREAM CLASSROOM! No regrets!  Here is a look at my room and some of the reasons why I set it up this way.  I hope it gives you some ideas and excitement about setting up your own room.

The Library
Metal door to was used to create book display with magnetic shelves

Above all else, I want my library to be inviting and comfortable.  I also want it to fit lots of kids since reading is such a focus in my little world.  My library is almost one fourth of my classroom.  There is easily room for 3 groups of 4 students during stations.  I have used storage benches that I purchased from Wal-Mart to form one corner.  These create comfy seating and also store seasonal books.  There is a cart for my leveled books and several book baskets full of books we love.  There is a table with listening center activities and a comfy corner for audio books.

The Writing Area

Dry erase board on the back of the cabinets in writing area
Close-up of clear paint cans used to sort supplies
Paint bucket stools store seasonal writing supplies
I added "shelves" to crates by using old dry erase boards.  Perfect fit!

I am a crafter at heart and I think this really influenced my writing area.  I have a round table with paint bucket stools.  Inside of each paint bucket, I have seasonal supplies for the writing area (Halloween stamps, Christmas gift tags, etc.).  I hung milk crates all over one wall to store the writing area materials.  I love this option because I was able to make it exactly right for my needs.  On the other wall in my writing area, I hung clear paint cans filled with art supplies.  Writing center is always a station and my students have a specific task.  On Fridays, we have free choice stations and this area becomes PACKED with kids!  They make the coolest, most creative things.  Although I am a hoarder, I share all my fun goodies with them because I know how much I would have loved this as a kid.  (Let's face it, I still love it now!)  I use the metal door (which leads to my bathroom) to hang a magnetic board.  Here, I write their spelling words or weekly writing task.  I also have turned the back of a cabinet into a dry erase board.  This is a fun way to practice spelling, writing sentences, labeling drawings, and so much more.

Teacher Work Area

One of my favorite drawers.  Can you ever have enough rubber stamps?

At my small charter school, every classroom has a full-time aide.  I KNOW, RIGHT????  It is a pretty cool lil' school.  I never sit down, but I needed a place for my aide to be productive.  I have created my dream work space, but I only get to visit it before and after school.  The rest of the day, my aide uses it.  There is plenty of counter space, a coffee maker, fridge, microwave, and even an ice machine!  I had a custom counter top made to cover the desk.  It is long on one side making a perfect spot for my aide to work one-on-one with students.

Table Groups

Pegboard attached to each table for organizing resources.  
Over-the-door hooks create storage solutions for our backpacks right on their desks!

I have always placed my kids in groups and labeled them by color.  I started acquiring more and more "stuff" that matched my table colors.  This past school year, I added the most exciting piece of all - CHAIRS!  I think they look so good.  My old chairs were mauve and they just really bugged the snot out of me!  My new chairs make my room more colorful and cheerful than ever before!  I love to frequent the home improvement stores for ideas and inspiration.  One day, I walked down the pegboard isle and thought "That looks like something I could use!"  I started trying to figure out how and where in my room pegboard would fit.  My number one need in my classroom is storage and remember all the stuff I acquired that matched my table colors?  I decided the pegboard would fit nicely on the edge of each table and give me a place to keep these colorful treasures.  I measured the end of the table and had my board cut at the store.  (Did you know they do that?  I didn't know until I found the pegboard isle!)  I spray painted my pegboard black and used zip ties to attach it to the table legs.  This also makes the tables more secure so they don't scoot around the room as much.  I used more zip ties to hang the baskets on the pegboard.  Backpacks hang off the other edge of the tables.  I like having them at the desks so that transitions go quickly.  I found these over-the-door hooks at the dollar store (2 per package).

Extra Storage

Close-up of clear paint can storage
Working pay phone!  My absolute favorite!

I have A LOT of stuff in my room and I really needed storage solutions.  I purchased bookshelves from Target last summer and they have helped so much.  I love the uniform look and the contrast of the black with all the bright colors I have used in my room.  I used clear paint cans to store supplies on the shelves.  I wanted a small counter on the end.  It seems like I am always walking in my room with something that I need to put down quickly and this gives me a place to do that.  There was a piece of leftover counter top that fit perfectly.  I also replaced my school phone with this pay phone!  It is SO much fun!  It really takes money, although you don't have to put money in to make a call.  It has a great ring, too.

Thanks for letting me share my room with you.  I would LOVE it if you would share pictures of your room with me, too.  Click here to head over to The Primary Chalkboard's Facebook page and share your pictures.

The Chalkies are busy bloggin' every day this month!  Here is a peek at what we have got planned:


Growth Mindset

Hi There!
Lisa here, from Growing Firsties & I'm going to share a little bit about Growth Mindset today, which is based on Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck's work.

Heads up that I do have some Amazon Affiliate links in this post. Should you choose to use the links, I'll earn some "circle money" as my daughter calls coins. :-) Half of my affiliate proceeds are for paying it forward - each month I receive earnings I give to my local food pantry/outreach services organization. The other half is spent on books and items for my classroom.
Growing Firsties Primary Chalkboard

With a growth mindset, people believe that through effort and practice, they can develop and improve their talents and abilities. In a fixed mindset, people believe that their talents and abilities are fixed...and that it's talent (not effort) that creates success. Woah.

Years ago, I first began to think about mindset in terms of working with struggling students...those students where the learning is hard. Students, who, if they don't have the mindset to keep trying, will give up. Then what will they learn?

My thinking expanded as I witnessed students labelled as gifted hitting a struggle academically and not knowing how to handle the struggle when they are unfamiliar with the resilience and effort needed.

Then I realized that mindset, resilience & perseverance are critical for all of us. Regardless of age. #helloIhatecardio #gottadoitanyways

You may have seen this Growing Firsties post from a few years ago, containing this freebie download.
Everyone Matters!

Or maybe this post from last summer all about perseverance.
What's Under Your Cape?

I am blessed to work at an amazing school! Some talented colleagues ran a book study on Dweck's Mindset book this year and it was such fun to re-read and discuss mindset with like-minded teachers! I also added Mindsets in the Classroom (by Mary Cay Ricci) to my collection.

We read aloud some great books and I expanded my collection beyond the wonderful texts from Peter H. Reynolds (Ish, The Dot, Going Places...)


One of my teammates asked me if I had a printable for our work on mindset and that gave me the motivation to put my swirling thoughts to work....Here's a little peek at the inside...







Scroll down to download this freebie! :)

You might be interested in reading an article by the always eloquently-thought-provoking Alfie Kohn "The Perils of Growth Mindset" education. You can get to it {right here}.

Carol Dweck, author of Mindset, has written this EXCELLENT article...you'll definitely want to check it out! You can get to it {right here}.

I have a Pinterest board called Mindset and I love pinning to it! You can check it out by clicking here or the screen shot below. You should really check out the Famous Failures video! It's amazing!
Growing Firsties

We'd love to hear what you do to help build a growth mindset with your learners!


How I Organize Back to School Forms

Hi everyone! It's Haley from My Silly Firsties. I can't believe we are already thinking and talking about Back to School forms! It feels like we were just gearing up for Summer! 

I know that so many of us make resolutions each school year, and for me, they almost always center around organization. I am just not organized, hahaha. It will never be my strength, BUT I have found some easy ways to manage paperwork at school. I have found that using binders and folders keeps me sane and makes organization way easier. 

During the first week of school, I think almost everyone sends home a Parent/Student Information Sheet. Our school collects this information, but it can be hard to access, and I like to have something tailor-made to my class. So, I usually send my own form home and HOPE they all come back, haha! I have a few tips on keeping these forms organized! :) 


First, it's super important that you find a form that is perfect for your class and will actually be USEFUL to you! You can find lots of editable forms on TPT and teacher blogs! I make sure to give parents the opportunity to write about their child...it helps so much if I can understand how they view their child's strengths and weaknesses! 


I send home a double-sided page, but I actually think it's better to send 2 separate forms. I have found that parents don't always fill out the back, but they will almost always realize there are 2 sheets. 


Here's an example of the forms I send home each year. 



After I have collected the forms, I keep them in a safe place. In the past, I have hole-punched them and kept them in a binder, but I found these adorable folders at Target and thought they would be perfect for keeping forms in that I don't need to access everyday.


Since I don't like to pull these out everyday, I keep all the information for my whole class on a few little cheat sheets. Those would definitely go in my binder so they are always at my fingertips!


Here are examples of these forms! 




I also found this fabulous FREE form to send home by sweet Lisa



Thanks for stopping by! :) I'd love to hear how your organize your forms! 

Back to School Ice Breaker Activity

Hey everybody!  This is Terry from Terry's Teaching Tidbits.  I don't know about you, but I only have one week left of summer vacation and then it's back to the classroom for another year of teaching 5th graders.

As a 5th grade teacher, it's very important to get your students' attention on the first day of school and amp them up for a fantastic year, especially because in my school it's the last year of their elementary career.  To do this, I have a great ice breaker activity that I like to do with my class; it's one that I did back when I did musical theatre as a kid in order to become more comfortable with our castmates.

On the very FIRST and very LAST day of school, I do this same activity.  I even tell my students this when we get started.  I have everyone arrange their desks in a huge circle and we each get a piece of lined paper and a writing utensil.  Everyone writes their name on the very top of the paper.  When everyone is ready, I say "pass" and we pass the paper to the left.  Whatever name is on the paper that is in front of you, you have to write one positive thing about that person.  Once everybody has written on the paper in front of them, I say "pass" and we once again pass to the left.  A few important things during this activity - everyone is quiet and everyone must write something and it can only be positive.

After a lot of passing, the activity is over when you receive the paper back that has your name on the top.  When you get it, you read all of the wonderful things that everybody had to say about you.  I have my students put it somewhere special and safe where they can pull it out at any time if they are having a bad day.  I usually suggest their pencil pouch.  I keep mine in my desk.  I know have 5 years worth of first day and last day papers of compliments and I still love reading them to this day.

The reason I have my students do this activity on both the first and last day is because it's amazing how much the comments change in that time.  They go from being more superficial comments such as "I like your hair" to, "you really made me laugh all year long".  The comments become more personal, and they are definitely more meaningful on the page that I receive back with my name on it.   This activity can be just as important for us as teachers as it can be for our students.  My students are usually harassing me by the last week of school about when we're going to do the activity from the first day.

For those of you who have students in upper grades, I definitely recommend this activity.  It's a fantastic way to boost every student's self esteem on the first day, allow them to get to know their classmates, and to especially make any new students in the class feel welcome.  I've only seen positive results with this and I hope that you can use it in your classroom.

Here's to a great new school year!


10 Things to Do BEFORE You Set Up Your Classroom

Hey, there, friends! It's Laura from Peace, Love, and First Grade!

If it's summer vacation for you, enjoy! 
If not, live each day to the fullest and smile because it happened!

I'm here today to talk about getting your classroom ready for a makeover. 
Now, this is NOT my classroom reveal. 
That will come as I have time to get in my room. 
I'm excited to share that with you on my blog later this month!
Today is all about getting ready to set up your room!

Let me preface this by saying, 
I'm not trying to pressure anyone into decoration madness,
but I do believe a happy classroom is one that functions efficiently,
 and is well organized and attractive. 

This summer I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. 
Marie is a proponent of getting your house in order and keeping it in order. 
She suggests keeping only the items in your home that bring you joy and letting go of the rest.

I think we can apply the same principle to the classroom. 
Keep what sparks joy in you and let go of the rest.

ARE YOU READY TO SEE MY MESS? 
Here you go!
Want more? 
The good news is...it doesn't look that this anymore!
So, are you ready to get your classroom in order?


Great! But remember-this is not a one day job.
I like to think of it as ten days.
Already started school?
Take one task a week for the first ten weeks.


Day 1) Clean out your children's literature. 
Keep only the books that bring you and your kiddos joy!
I know. 
I LOVE children's books, too, but let's face it. 

Not all books are created equally. 
It's okay to let go of a book. 
DON'T THROW IT OUT. 
Pass it on to someone who will find joy in it.

You'll be amazed at how much room this gives you AND you'll know what you have when you need something.

Day 2) Clean out your Math manipulatives! 
You don't need 6 bins of pattern blocks or 48 Judy clocks.
Keep what you need and pass the rest on to someone else. 
It's okay.

Day 3) Clean out your art supplies. 
If you haven't used those foam Easter bunnies in the last 3 years, get rid of them. 
Pass on the joy to someone else! No hoarding!

Day 4) Clean out your office supplies. 
Look at each one. 
If no joy comes from having them and they serve no purpose, 
pass them on to someone else or donate them. 
It's a good feeling!

Day 5) Clean out board games, puzzles, and other activities. 
If you don't use them, someone else can. 
If Czechoslovakia is still on your globe...you get it.
Share your treasures.

Day 6) Do I dare say it...Clean out your paper. 
Oh, it's tough! I know it is. I've done it. But the feeling is just so great! 
If you haven't used it or it turns your fingers purple...you don't need it.
Recycle that paper!

Day 7) Decide how you will store supplies.
Once you decide what manipulatives and supplies you are going to keep, choose how you are going to store them. 
Then label your supplies. 
Labeling makes supplies easier to find for students and other adults who may visit. 

NOW-
The next two may not be popular, but I'm going with them.

Day 8) Get rid of your filing cabinet OR scale down to a smaller one.
The more room you have for stuff, the more stuff you'll acquire.
If there's no where to put the stuff, you won't be as likely to hold onto it.

Day 9) Get rid of your teacher desk OR scale down to a smaller one.
You can do it! I did and I had a lot of stuff in mine, too.
I never sat there (not even after school), and it took up a great deal of space. 
Now, that space is used by my first graders, and I don't miss my desk one bit!
I use an over-the-door shoe organizer for my office supplies. 
Space saver!

Day 10) Plan your classroom design.
Once the clutter is removed and you are ready to set up your room,
 go online and play around with a classroom set-up tool. 
You can design your whole room as many times as you like.
You'll need your room measurements for this.

Here are a few good ones:



This is the one I use. 


Now you are ready to think decor! 

Let me tell you, if I can do it, you can do it?
Did you see my mess above?
It doesn't look like that anymore.

This week, I can get in my building to work and I plan to make the most of it. 
Pics to come on my blog!
Happy Tuesday!!


Don't forget! We're blogging every day this month at Primary Chalkboard!