Runtah

Show Off Your Classroom!

I have to admit, I almost missed Mrs. Fultzs linky party because I really wanted to take some updated photos of my classroom, but seeing that this linky ends tonight, I want to be sure to show off some of my favorite things.. even if these pictures are from September!
Yes, Im starting with this!  I am so lucky to have a play Kitchen in my classroom!  I also have a block area, but I dont have a picture of it!  The kids absolutely love playing here, and it helps develop their socialization skills and their sorting skills (foods need to be put in the right baskets, same with the utensils and cups.  Mostly, its a great place for the kids to just PLAY!

This was probably one of my favorite things that I did (or that my mom did!)  This summer, I read the book Spaces and Places by Debbie Diller and one of the amazing tips in the book is to use curtains to hide all of your things!  I went to the Christmas Tree Shop and bought these purple Kitchen curtains and my mom helped me trim them to the right size.

In the book, Debbie Diller recommends hanging them with velcro, but since I started with actual curtains, I used a tension rod to hang them up so I wouldnt need glue or screws.  The curtain on the right spans an 89" length so that one needed some hooks to help hold it up, but it helps hide all of my things and it looks so pretty!  I also have matching cushions for the computer chairs, but again... these pictures were from September!

 Wow, my walls are empty!  But again, heres my use of curtains to cover up my bookshelves!  I hung them up with curtain rods.  These are my cubbies also... I know the colors dont go so well in my classroom, but they work just fine!  Another thing that I love in this picture is my daisy tables... perfect for Kindergarten!

This picture has my library area and meeting area...  the green bench doubles as a seat during reading time and a step to help us reach the smartboard, and the laundry basket has some nice pillows for cozy reading time!

Around the carpet, those green and yellow papers are my students blurred out names.  I have the class sit along the outer edge of the carpet for the most part, though theyll move to their "smartboard seats" when were doing something on the board. I use those names through November/December to help students remember where they sit!


My pride and joy... my shelves!  I put these up myself!!! I even used an electric screw gun, a level, and toggle bolts for the metal studs.  I am so glad I put these up!!!  And yes... that is a mini-fridge!  Im so glad I brought it in, it is the best!

To the left of this picture, the blurry art is a mixed media piece using oil pastels and watercolor paint to practice writing our name (hence the blur!)



Clearly my bookshelf shows that this was from September!  Anyway... more curtains, this time being used as they should be... to block the light.

This picture also shows my covered up windows :/ I have mixed feelings about this... unfortunately, it was the only place to put a word wall that was visible from everyones seats, and I was hoping that some light would come through the papers, but that didnt happen because of this:

I had this wonderful idea to do an outdoor bulletin board... the blurry box has the name of our school on it.
I put up the following from the inside of my windows facing out.  When I covered the windows in bulletin board paper (lots of effort and lots of tape!), the light was going through the windows and you could see the mirror image of "If you can dream it, you can do it..." shining onto our floor every time it was sunny out.  I had to cover the bulletin board paper with black poster boards, then again with pretty bulletin board paper just to keep the sun out.  It literally took a full day and a half just to do this project.  And it ended up completely blocking all of the sunlight from the windows.

Now... the pros to this:
1. It was absolutely amazing looking from the outside!
2. I had no blinds on the windows so it helped block the light.

But the cons to this:
1. It fully blocks the light on four of my wonderful windows.

Im not sure if Ill be doing this one again next year because of that one major con, but well see!

Im linking up my classroom with Mrs. Fultzs Linky Party, stop by there to check out some other amazing classrooms!