Long time, no see....

It seems like every year I have to post something like this...."Sorry I haven't posted in a long time, I'm the worst blogger, blah, blah, blah..."  Well, once again, it's true!  Hopefully my posts, even though they are few and far between are helping someone, somewhere in their classroom!!  And maybe this will be the year that I figure out how to blog on a regular basis AND teach fulltime!  This year I'll be moving from fifth grade down to PreK, so I'll definitely have a ton to blog about!

Here's my classroom being built...I know it looks super big, and it is.  However, technically this is two rooms with a accordion divider between the two rooms.  That said, the other half of the room isn't used because these two rooms are our school's safe rooms and we have to have room for all the kiddos.  Therefore, I'm using all of the cabinets in the other side of the room, plus we'll be napping on that side (and the cubbies for mat storage will be there, too).  We'll also be using it for whole group activities that need more space than our rug in our classroom will accommodate.  I'll also be putting a group table, for small group work, in the middle where the two rooms are divided.

 

This is part of my storage room.  It's HUGE, yet I know I'm going to run out of room just the same!

 

These are two of the things I'm having built for the classroom.  The cubbies/lockers will go in the vestibule right outside of our classroom.  And the loft will go in one of the corners.  The loft is 12' by 5' and it is amazing!  The stairs hadn't been installed yet, but they go on the far left of the loft.  The top of the loft is our reading center.  It's got a kid size bookshelf, sofa, chair, end table, coffee table, and 3 bean bags in it.  The downstairs is our dramatic play area.  It'll have a kitchen, baby doll furniture, table and chairs, etc.  Eventually I'd like to add another kid size living room set down there.

 

This is the only thing I've really done so far, and I really only did it to test adhesives.  None of my furniture is in yet, so I'm patiently waiting for everything to arrive so I can set it up.  The chairs and laminator won't stay here (the laminator WILL be on the other side of the room on the counter though.  I want quick and easy access to it at ALL times!! Haha!) The empty cabinet door is going to be for our Color of the Week Scavenger Hunt.  Our entire school celebrates a color of the week through mid-November, so after that I'll reassess and decide what's going up there!

 

As I set up the room, I'll be sure to post additional pictures, along with what I'm including in each center, etc.

 

Thanks for reading!

Mini Chart Stand

How many anchor charts do you have hanging on walls, on chart stands, or rolled up somewhere in your classroom?  Well, if you're anything like me the number is high!  Last year I made smaller versions of my charts by either redoing the anchor chart on my computer (or sometimes by hand) or taking pictures of the original chart.  Then I'd shrink it down a bit, print it, and put it in 8 X 10 magnetic picture frames I had that looked something like this...

 

 

 

That worked out ok, but they were a little time consuming to slide in the frames, I only had so many frames, and I was limited on  how many magnetic surfaces I had to put them on.  Not to mention, students weren't very independent using them because they weren't really set up for that. 

 

Like many of you, I find Pinterest is my best friend!  While wasting time on perusing Pinterest, I came across several little mini chart stands.  I made a few design changes, and thought I my husband can make those!  So this summer my husband cut some PVC pipe for me, and I made a bunch of mini chart stands, one of which has already been hijacked by one of my teacher friends for her classroom! The stand holds 8 1/2 by 11" paper horizontally or vertically.  I use a 3 hole paper punch to be sure that the holes are the same distance apart on all charts.

 

I plan on having more than one chart stand around the room that my students can use.  I'm thinking at least one for science, math, English, and reading.  I am thinking of painting them (or using washi tape) to coordinate with the colors we use for each subject so they can easily remember which stand to go and look at when they have a question!

 

If you want to purchase one of these for yourself, you can visit my TPT store by clicking here.

 

 

Or if you want to make one on your own...I used:

5 - 12" long

4 - 3" long

6 - elbows

2 - tees