#2getherWeAreBetter September: Classroom Reveal

It's the second of September already?? That one snuck up on me!! I know that some of my teacher friends to the North of me won't have kiddos until next Tuesday, and that those to the South and West of me have had kiddos for several weeks now. Me, I just finished up Day 7 with my Dragons!

Since it is officially September 2nd, that means I get to link up with Schroeder's Shennanigans In Second and Lucky Little Learners for their incredibly awesome #2getherwearebetter link up!!

This occurs on the second of every month and we get to blog about a different topic each time. This month it is all about Classroom Reveals!!

It just so happens that today's topic for the #teacherweek15 link up is also Classroom Reveal!! I wonder if that was planned?? Anyway, it makes it easy to have two posts in one!!

I have been incredibly fortunate to have some seriously wonderful ladies help me this year in setting up the classroom!! With my injury, I would not have been able to do it without them! I am so very lucky to work at a school where everyone is more like family than mere co-workers!!

Here are a few peeks into The Dragon's Den, my much-loved kindergarten classroom!

This is my Number Line. It's pretty high up on the wall so it's hard to get a decent angle so the entire line can be included, but the numbers range from 0-20. Each border is a different rainbow pattern or design, with bright primary colors. Each dragon is holding a numeral done in a rainbow scribble pattern. The letters that make up each number word perfectly match the design of the numerals. Each number is represented by a set of jewels or gems inside a ten-frame, because we all know Dragons love collecting sparkly gems!

Here's a shot of my Alphabet Line. It's pretty high up, so again it's tricky to get a good shot of it. 

Of course, the glare from the lights doesn't help! Each letter is represented on handwriting lines with the uppercase and lowercase versions, and the vowels are in red ink. Each letter has a dragon holding a picture representation of a high-frequency word that begins with each letter. The 'Dd' dragon is holding a doughnut while the 'Yy' has a yak. Also, each vowel has two pictures, one for the short and long vowel sounds. In addition, the letters 'Cc' and 'Gg' have a hard and soft sound picture.

This is my classroom door. Each of my Dragons has their name on a crayon, which is being held by a flying dragon. 

We've had some super-ugly-hot-and-humid weather these past few days, most days reaching well above 90. As if that isn't bad enough, the humidity is ridonkulous!! All of my dragon tags are flying right off the door!! No joke, it's like as soon as I put them back up they are falling off again!!

Due to my injury and not being able to do anything for myself, my room is still very much a work in progress!!

Here is a view of my room from our classroom door.

The table closest to the windows is where I host my small groups. The other tables are mainly used during breakfast time and rotations. Otherwise we're sitting on the floor in front of the SMART Board. In the back left corner you can sort of see our back door, which leads right out onto our playground. On the counter are the student mailboxes, where they put their Take Home Folders each morning. In the back right corner is my desk, which is a bit messy. I don't spend a whole lot of time sitting at my desk, so it's more of a dropping zone for things throughout the day!

This is the front of my classroom, where our SMART Board is. The Board was mounted right over the chalkboard, but as you can tell they didn't center it very well when they installed it! On each side of the Board are two large bulletin boards. The one closest to my desk is where I tack up important information that pertains to me. The other board will be our ELA board, that I will add to as the year progresses and we being working with our phonics skills.
Above the Board is a long, thin bulletin board that I use to display different letter sound posters, which will be added to as we learn them. The wall above the bulletin boards is where my Number Line is located. Underneath the Board are our Daily 5 Book Bins.

The back of the room has the same set-up as the front. I use the chalkboard as my Word Wall. The bulletin board on the right will be our schedule and calendar board, and the board on the left will be our Math board. You can also see several of my centers in this picture. Starting at the far left is the Pocket Chart, then Dramatic Play, next is ELA/Math stations cart, and on the far right is my Blocks area.

The far right corner of my room holds a few more centers. You can see the Sensory table against the wall. Right now there are scraps of different types of paper inside, along with several pairs of scissors. Students have been practicing their cutting skills by slicing up the scrap paper. This is a great beginning of the year Sensory activity, as I can see at a glance who still needs to practice holding their scissors correctly.
There is a connecting door to another kindergarten classroom, then a door to the kitchenette we share. We made play-dough in that kitchen last week!!
The easel represents my Art center, which right now has white paper and markers for students to create their own drawings.
We have our own bathroom, which can be seen next to the sink. It's so great to have a bathroom right in the classroom, and only the Early Childhood rooms have this feature.

Finally, you can see our locker area. Each student has their own locker (there are 30 lockers but luckily I only have 19 students!) and they are responsible for putting their backpacks, lunch boxes, and jackets inside their locker each morning. I use the counters and cabinets above the lockers as storage areas.


That's the basic tour of my classroom this year! As I update the boards and add more things to the wall, I'll take more pictures and post them on my blog. I hope you enjoyed your peek into The Dragon's Den! Want to check out lots of other classroom set ups? Swing on over and see who else has linked up!

You can also hop over to Blog Hoppin' to see even MORE classroom set-ups and revealings!!

Five for Friday on a Saturday CLASSROOM REVEAL Pt. 1

Hey everyone!!  So sorry I couldn't post yesterday, but I was knocked down flat by a migraine.  I had to lie down as soon as I got home from work, and I slept until this morning.  Luckily I woke up migraine-free today, thank goodness!!  Those things are THE WORST!!!!

Since I couldn't yesterday, today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party.  I am going to share some of my Classroom Reveal with you!!

These numbers are a creation of Krista Wallden.  She's awesome.  Go check her out on TPT!!!

Here is my Dragon Alphabet Line.  I know it's hard to see, what wit the glare of the lights and the fact that my phone doesn't have the greatest camera.

I tried to crop it so it would give you a closer view, but it's not all that much better, sorry!!  I have all of the vowels in red and the consonants in black, and each vowel poster has a picture for the long and short sounds.  Plus, 'C' and 'G' have a pic for the hard and soft sounds. I placed the alphabet line on the cork strip that is attached to the overhang part of the ceiling.  This overhang marks the spot where the floor of my classroom turns from carpet to tile, and my kiddos walk underneath of it every time the line up at the doo. My kinders are getting a kick out of how many dragons I have around the classroom!!

I also created a Dragon Number line this summer.

Here is a zoomed in picture of part of the number line.

I have Lil Dragon holding the numerals, and each is rainbow-colored.  I also have rainbow-colored letters to match the numbers, and used the letters to spell out the number words.  I also have a ten-frame (or double-ten frame) on each poster, and inside the frames are different gems and jewels.  We all know that dragons LOVE all things shiny and sparkly.  I have a poster for numbers 0-20, and they are in a line along the top of the wall above where my SMART Board is located.

Something else that I completely changed in my room is where I keep my word wall and schedule board.  For the past three years, I've used the chalkboard at the back of my room to display my calendar, schedule, and objectives for the day.  My Word Wall was displayed on the bulletin board attached to the right side of the chalkboard.  This year I decided to swap the two.

Here is the bulletin board that used to hold my Word Wall.  Now, it has my calendar, schedule tags, and objectives.  This calendar is really for display only, as all of my calendar activities occur on the SMART Board.  I use a Wikki Stix to create a circle and show them what day of the month it is.  My schedule tags have a dragon theme (of course) and are labeled with the name of our activity as well as a picture to go with it.  For example, the 'Lunch' tag has a picture of the cafeteria and our 'Music' tag has a picture of our Music teacher.  The black frames are going to be where I write my daily objectives.  Oh, and on the left side of the schedule tags is a rainbow ribbon with Lil Dragon at the top and a Castle at the bottom.  I move the dragon down the rainbow as we get to each part of our day.  My kinders can 'see' how much of the day is left by looking to see how much rainbow the dragon has to travel until he gets home.  This system has really helped answer the 'when are we going....' questions.

The new schedule board was relatively easy to create.  The most time-consuming part was putting black construction paper inside the frames and hanging them with ribbon.  Now, the new Word Wall was a bit trickier to create.  First, I wanted to give it a border.  I used painter's tape and hot glue to attach the border.

This part was tricky because I had to make sure I got the border attached to the hot glue before it cooled, while at the same time not getting any hot glue on the chalkboard.  It took a while, but I like how it turned out!

I used a rainbow border, since it fits in with my room's theme and I sort my sight words into groups that I label with colors.  I also created headers with rainbow letters and a rainbow border, and attached a magnet to the back so I could put them on the chalkboard and easily move them around.

Our district is currently working on choosing 150 sight words and arranging them into groups/levels.  I am so grateful for this idea, since we will ALL be teaching THE SAME WORDS AND IN THE SAME ORDER!!!  How helpful for kinders who switch schools mid-year, and how super to have it already organized for me.  Once the final decision is made and the lists are given to teachers, I will be adding the words to the wall.

I am lucky enough to have several bulletin boards in my room that are 'real' bulletin boards, attached to the walls of my room.  There are two large ones on each side of the two chalkboards in my room, as well as three long, thin boards.  I use each one for something different, and am very grateful to have them!!  However, I quickly realized I would need even more.  So, I decided to make some.  The yellow board in the picture is one of the large bulletin boards that are attached to the walls of my room.  The blue board is one I made myself, by using painter's tape, hot glue, bulletin board paper, and borders.  I have, so far, made four of these types of boards in my room.  In this picture, the large yellow board will be my ELA board, and the large blue board will be for Math.

Does your classroom have bulletin boards and/or cork strips?  Did they 'come with the room' or did you have to buy/make some of your own??

Don't forget to hop back over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to see who else has linked up for her Five for Friday linky.  There are some really great tips and tricks being shared, plus some great pictures and stores!!  :-)