Tried It Tuesday - Seating Arrangement

I've made it through my first day back at school and it was mostly successful.  The kids loved sharing all of their adventures from their 2 week break. Even though I am back in school, I'm going to try to be better about this blogging thing.  It's Tuesday, so It's time for Tuesday Tried It with Fourth Grade Flipper.

 As for me, I decided to go outside my comfort zone and change up for their seating arrangement for when they came back. I've ALWAYS had my students in groups.  I don't think I've ever had them in rows, other than for testing, but the group thing just wasn't working for me this year.  Here are how my desks were arranged before break. To see the rest of my classroom, you can go {HERE}.

 

I kept the U shape but opted for rows instead of groups. 

 I still will do a lot of partner things and I'm trying to figure out how to do group work with this arrangement, but so far I really like it.  I can see them all at once and it's easy to check out 8 laptops at one time when they are working, which I LOVE! It's only been one day, but so far so good.  The kids like it, too!  How are your desks arranged?

Classroom Reveal!!!!

I have officially finished an entire week of school!!!  It's only been 7 school days, but we are already off to a WONDERFUL start!  I have a great group of kiddos that have now had Common Core for 2 years.  Let me tell you it makes a world of difference!  Their mathematical thinking is incredible and they are already proving to be great problem solvers! I can't wait to share some of their work with you!

But today, I'm excited to finally show off my classroom!!!!  Now, it's not perfect and there are definitely some things that still need to be worked on, but overall I am very happy with how it turned out!

This is standing at my door looking into the classroom.  You can see I'm missing a ceiling tile by the windows.  I have a wonderful little leak that continues to be an issue for me since we've had pretty regular rain for the past two weeks.  I love my windows!!!!

Right inside my door to the left is my lunch count.  I used little owl stickers on circle punches and wrote the students numbers on them. They have magnets on the back to stick to the filing cabinet.  The lunch calendar for the month is hanging up.  I didn't exactly think about the size of the lunch menu when designing this, but I think it looks cute and it's easy to take a lunch count in the morning.

This is my supply shelf.  I love this utility shelf!  I'd really like to cover it with some of that cute teal chevron contact paper, but that will have to come later.  I'd also like to get some cute bins that all match, but I didn't want to spend the money on that this year... maybe next year!

This is my desk area.  I really love this part of my classroom!  I've made it my mission this year to leave every day with a clean desk.  So far I've been able to do it!  You can also see my little owl labels in the kids' cubbies.  Aren't they cute?  I kinda did a boo boo with  my keep calm and hoot on on the front of my desk, but it works.

This is same area but from the side.  You can see some of my MMI projects in this area.  I love my multiplication numbers hanging on the wall.  They have the multiples of each number up to 10 on the big number.  I'll post more about those later.

This is my library. It's not exactly the prettiest, but since I don't teach literacy, I don't worry about it that much. The bulletin board on the back is going to be my math word wall, for all the vocabulary we learn.  You can buy the labels here.

Above the library is our birthday owl wall.  I've taken pictures of my kids and added them to the owls.  they look so cute now!  I need to take a picture and add it.

This is looking at the whole back wall from the front.  My cubbies are split between two walls; you can see the other half here.

This is the far window wall.  My windows look out to the playground and I love to watch all the kids play at recess.  The drawers on the counter are my math manipulatives.  I love having the drawers covered and labeled.  I've never had them quite this organized. You can also see my team tubs on the desks.  I got those at TJ Maxx for $3 each!  They are the perfect size to hold some markers, glue, pens and erasers for each group!

This is the front wall/board of my room.  This is my second favorite part of my room.  There is so much room and I have a Smartboard!

This is a closeup of the left side of the board.  I list our objectives and the days activities on this side.  You can also see my rules here! I love how they turned out!

Even closer!  I used my Cricut for just about all of this.  It's the Mickey Mouse font.  I love having my date displayed like this, makes changing the date super easy!

This is the right side of the board - the time/schedule section.  I really want to make our schedule cute, but that hasn't happened yet.  Maybe by October break... we'll see.  You can buy the clock labels at my TpT store here.

Well, that's my classroom!  There will always be projects in progress, but I think it's a great place to spend the year!

I'm also linking up with a Class*y Collaboration for their Cruise Around the Classroom.  Go check out everyone's rooms!

I'm adding this post to Teacher Week '13!

Go check out everyone's Classroom Digs!

Classroom Pictures: BEFORE

My building finally opened yesterday!!!!  I was excited and overwhelmed at the same time! I moved classrooms this year, so I am mostly starting over!  I had the little one with me so I didn't spend much time up there, but today she is going to the sitter so I can get a LOT of work done!  Remember I have kids NEXT THURSDAY!!!!  Here is what my classroom looks like at the moment.

This is looking in from my door.  The whiteboard is at the front of the class.  I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this round table, because I have another rectangle table. I have an entire wall of windows that I am SOOOOOOO excited about because last year I had none!! I was in the dungeon room! I'm not really sure if/how I am going to be able to do curtains, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it!

This is also looking in from the door but to the back of the classroom.

Still from the door, but looking toward the opposite corner.See all the pretty windows!

This is my teacher area.  I think I'm going to repaint the shelf orange.  It needs some TLC. I also have double the number of chairs I need right now, so I have to fix that!

This is looking at the front of the room from the back.  I'm so excited to have a Smart board this year that actually works! I'm going to use the small part of my whiteboard for date and objectives for the day.  The other side I'm going to use for my math word wall.

Here is my sweet little "helper".  She loved crawling around on the newly waxed floor!

Now that you've seen the what I started with, I can't wait to get it all decorated and organized and share those pictures with you next week!