Teaching Little Smarties: Classroom set-up

I am so excited to get this school year started because I am going to be at a new school, in a new district and teaching a new grade. I will be teaching fifth grade and after teaching sixth for the past two years I was ready for a change. I absolutely believe I have found my school home and plan on staying here for a while!!!

Today I finally moved all my school stuff to my new classroom and did a little work that I want to share. My lovely husband spent his morning helping me and I an forever grateful because you won't believe what we found in my newly cleaned room. LOL crazy funny!

Before I moved all my totes in to the room, I can promise it didn't look like such a mess :(. I am so happy my principal was really listening when I was telling him the things I needed for my classroom because I wanted a lot of shelves!!! He got my four huge shelves and I am so excited to get my books on them. I also counted the desk and I only have 21, so I'm thinking that is how many students will will have which I an happy with after having 27 sixth graders in one room. I am not really a teacher desk person so I placed it in the back of the room out of the way so just in case I actually use it.

In the first picture on the top left, along the was is about ten boxes full of books. If you know and follow me my book lovin' heart was beating out of my chest LOL :)! Later this week I'll spend so time organizing and putting in to my Booksource system.

From the pictures you can see for the most part all my big furniture has been placed where I want it thanks to my husband. In the process of moving shelves and tables all of a sudden one of my daughters yells mouse and we see this little mouse running along the outside of the wall in the room (by the way this is my newly cleaned classroom). We all quickly ran out of the room and too the office LOL (including my husband because he is not a big fan of mice). Sadly the custodians couldn't help so we ended up going to the store to buy traps and sad a little prayer that the mouse finds a new home by tomorrow LOL.

Once again thanks for dropping my and hope you enjoyed what I had to say.

This past week, I had the chance to participate in two reader's workshop professional developments. I also got a three-day training in June that was awesome! During the past school year, I started to implement reader's workshop, but my district's focus was on writer's workshop. I can honestly say I did a few pieces of the workshop model, but still needed to learn in order to become better.

I want to share what I learned, what I have done with my students, and what I will be doing during the upcoming school year.

When setting up you classroom, think about how you want to convey the message that this is a reading environment.

Reading wall- my bulletin boards in the back of my classroom are reserved for anchor chart that have to do with reading. I am also going to reserve the front of my air conditioner for my graffiti wall. Students will write quotes from books they are reading. I read Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller this summer and I have become obsessed with everything she talks about. Graffiti walls are one of the things she does with her students that I believe will make a great difference with my students in getting them to read.

Meeting area- even big kids need to be on the floor from time to time. I am excited I was able to get a big rug through Donors Choose. It will be our meeting area for all my mini lesson, read aloud time, and when my students want to lay on the floor to read.

Small group area- depending on your preference this will be an area where you will meet with your groups. It can be on the floor on a rug or at a table.

Classroom library- You have to have books for students to choose from. LOTS & LOTS & LOTS OF BOOKS!!!!! The recommended number of books for a classroom library is 2,000 books. Now that number may not be possible, but there are many places to start building your classroom library. Your public library, Scholastic, and used book stores are some places to start.

Have comfortable items for students to lay on or sit on while reading. I have a tile floor in my classroom and in the winter it can be very cold at times. I brought in old pillows from a couch and put them in pillow cases to match my classroom room decor.

Room arrangement- I switched to tables this past school year so that we have more floor space for my students to find a spot to read.

Here is an example reading block schedule. I was given this schedule during my June training for Reader's workshop. This schedule is geared towards grades, 3-6 students. You can tailor this schedule to fit the needs of your classroom.

Read aloud time is the heart of your day. It is outside of the reader's workshop time. When I read to my student's I like to have them close to me so we sit on the rug in our meeting area.

My first read aloud of the school year will be Fish in a Tree. I am taking the pledge to read this book during the 2015-2016 school year to my students.

You can also take the pledge by posting this sticker to your blog, Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook page.

*The key to making reader's workshop work in your classroom is PLANNING! The lack of planning will be doing your students a disservice. They have to know you enjoy reading in order to make them enjoy reading. IT ALL STARTS WITH YOU AS THE TEACHERS. Your students will follow your examples.

To learn more stay tuned for my next posts on:

Interactive Read Aloud

Mastering the Mini-lesson

Getting Students to Read

Conferencing with Students