I have such ambitions of what I’m going to accomplish when I get home from a day of teaching, but it all seems to come to naught when I sit on the couch and start snuggling with my Pookie-Lou and a package of Chips Ahoy Dulce de Leche Ice Cream Creations.
Very frustrating! I have got to get back on track! Me actually posting this classroom reveal post will be a great sign.
When you enter my portable, you are greeted with the best feature of my
whole classroom – this beautiful wreath with our school colors
handcrafted by my partner teacher. She, quite simply, is the best. You will hear a lot about her in this post!
When you enter, the first thing you will notice of course are the typical paper lanterns. I kind of went overboard, but everything serves a purpose. Almost everything.
Every table is a Spanish-speaking country. I have six tables and their corresponding countries are: Mexico, Honduras, Peru, Columbia, Spain, and (best for last) Argentina. When I call students to line up or work together or play against each other in learning games, I often do it by table. And it gets the students thinking about that country. Now that I think about it, I should have each table do a country project! Yes, that will definitely…most likely…possibly happen. Who knows.
The numbers hanging from each lantern are different learning stations or groups students may go to when they are finished with required work or when we do math stations.
Here are my station wheels from last year that I use for grouping students (I have two classes). They have held up swimmingly! You can check out how I do my math stations here.
Here’s my reading/iPad area. Did not touch it one bit from last year except to move the iPads down to the floor because the wall holders kept breaking from the weight of the iPads.
Here’s our Student of the Week Wall and computer area. This also has not changed. I choose two students a week based on their ClassDojo points to be students of the week. I take their pictures and place them on a star. They also have their picture posted on our class website and receive an extra QR code behavior coupon.
Here is the student supply area and also where they find prizes and pencils in exchange for their QR code behavior coupons. All headers were made from the Paisley Pack.
Here’s our schedule! For you Spanish speakers, I have a typo in related arts, sorry! And honestly, what is related arts in Spanish?? I translated it literally, and I’m feeling that’s not right. Ugh! #notnativespeakerproblems So anyways, my students always ask when we switch or go to lunch or go to recess (even in May!), so here they have it. And you should hear them try to pronounce horario (schedule). It sounds like they have a mouth full of marbles!
Here’s our Muro de las palabras! In 4th grade immersion, I use this all the time for Spanish words my students need to learn. To the far top right I have my attention grabber posters. I thought about redoing them to match my theme, but regardless – THESE WILL NEVER CHANGE! You can see more and grab some free copies here.
You can find my alphabet circles in the Paisley Pack, too!
I changed this sign to match my paisley theme. In 4th grade immersion, always speaking Spanish is a big deal, so hopefully this in-your-face-yet-sweet-and-cute sign helps serve as a constant reminder.
Ok, this looks pretty crappy, I admit, but I have no space! Here’s my attempt this year to make more use of vertical space with their station journals. The circle poster was made with my pack and the fonts are Zippypaisley by Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah-Designs and This Font Is Bold by Darcy Baldwin.
Here’s our lunch choice board with the same bottle caps I’ve been using for…5 years maybe?? Geesh!
Here’s a transportation board that my lovely partner teacher inspired me to do with her transportation board. Click here to see just a little bit of her black and white chevron decor.
Here’s our welcome banner on a very bright green screen background. Once again, I used the editable banner in my Paisley Pack for this.
Ok, here’s my “dirty closet.” Behind those painstakingly handmade curtains is a lot of disorganized teacher mess. But it’s stuff I need, so for now, it will stay hidden. On top are some cultural items I bring down from time to time. To the right is a bag of whiteboards and erasers for one table. I have six of these hanging in discreet places all over the classroom for students to grab for their tables when we need them. Since we have small tables for our growing 4th graders, there’s just no space on the tables to store items all day long. So I’m loving these, but I’m not sure I have faith in those 3M hooks. We’ll see. And who got me those lovely Dollar Tree bags?? My fabulously awesome teacher partner, of course! Courtney, you’re going to have to guest blog one day!! I’m talking about you way too much!
And how do I decide which student grabs the white board bags, or helps hands out papers, or grabs the table waste basket? Well, my PT and I placed a colored sticker on each leg of a table.
If I call out “niños rojos,” the students look to the table leg on their right, and if it’s red, they’re the ones to do the task I call out. This has worked AMAZINGLY. We don’t even need brain breaks (so far) because students are always getting a chance to get up, move around, and help out. My PT had a circle sticker pack that contained colors red, green, yellow, and blue.
Here was my first day set-up – paper straws from Target and my “Back to School” mini-book freebie.
Lastly, for my Spanish friends, these are some circle posters are created for the steps students should take to figure out a word they don’t know in Spanish. I am #5, so they have 4 prior steps before coming to me: word wall, ask a friend, look in a dictionary/Google Translate, think of a synonym, ask the teacher.
These 5-step posters are provided in a blank, editable format in my Primary Paisley Pack, too. If you’re interested in that pack, just click here or on the cover page below.
If you’re interested in any of my other class decor packs, click here.
So, I know my classroom is kind of like a rainbow threw up, but my kiddos and I are very happy here, and hopefully one day I’ll become more organized and streamlined. If you made it down to this part, thanks so much for visiting my blog! I hope to hear from you – unless you are a spammer and want to share about computer software or something totally irrelevant to this post! 😛
Hope you’re having a FABULOUS year! Thanks for what you do!
Tabitha Carro
Love everything! I can't believe you are in a portable. Mine is really ugly. That paisley them is cute! And the sticker idea is so clever.
Thanks, Paula! You're the best! Are you going to take pics?? I want to see!
I ADORE paisley! I used paisley in my room this year also, although I chose brown, turquoise, and green as the main colors. Yours is so bright and cheerful; no wonder you're happy there! And that sticker idea- it is the BOMB!!! I am so borrowing it. Thanks for sharing.
Angela
Thank you, Angela! Have you posted pics? I'd love to see!