Welcome to my classroom! Though it is now only, oh a month or two from the end of the school year, I am not any less proud of this classroom than I was the beginning of the year. I always love looking at different classrooms and hope you enjoy seeing mine. 

Welcome to our Room! I have 15 little friends this year. I love to create a basic door and leave it for most of the year. I added a seasonal one at Christmas, but find I don't have much energy at any other point of the year! 

This is the view from our door. As you can see we have 4 table groups for students with a paper fan above each group. In honor of full disclosure, one has fallen three times and now lives in my cabinet. ;) 

This is the view to the immediate right of my door looking towards my teacher station. Things have moved a little from the beginning of the year, but this set up is basically the same. 

This is my student drop station. Here they put their folders, get tissues, hand sanitizer, etc. I've since moved the pencil station and the sharpener, but it was here for a long portion of the year! The board above holds the envelope for ice cream money and a baggie with all of our boxtops for our PTO. 

This is our job board as it stood for well over half the year. I like to assign a job at the beginning of the year that fits the personality/abilities of my students and let them get REALLY good at it. I might change a friend here and there. For example, I had bathroom monitors, but realized with my friends this year, it was best for ME to be the only monitor because of spats the rose up. This board has since been changed to an "Exemplary Work" board. 

Behold the biggest eyesore of my classroom: the random lighter paint section. I assume a board was there at some point. I tried to distract from it with wall decor, but to no avail. Since these pictures, I have taken down the file folder hangers. I find with kindergarten they for some reason do not work as well as they did when I taught 2nd grade for how I organize. 

Student tables complete with first day crayons, work and caddies. We've also since transitioned to pencil boxes instead of communal supplies because I know that's what they use in First Grade here at my school. But I still have a soft spot for communal supplies for the all-important concept of sharing! 

My calendar board. Very simple this year, it has also had a little rearranging but not much. 

This is the view from the back of the room to the front. I'm looking forward to installation of a smart board very soon in my classroom to replace the board on the right side!

This is our class library and manipulative. I made the curtains out of IKEA fabric to cover my teacher books, manuals, and extra student books. The student books will eventually go on the empty shelf and the table caddies are stored away on the shelf on top of their work books when they need to be put away. 

Here is one of my favorite parts of the room: my alphabet wall. I got the idea from Maria Manore at KinderCraze. I spent A LOT of time on her blog when I found out I'd be moving to kindergarten. She is a great kinder teacher at a private Christian school! My rocking chair was a gift from a former parent, the pillow is from IKEA, and the blanket was a Goodwill find by my mom. The white caddy was from Target and all the book tubs are from the Dollar Tree. I've since reorganized and migrated many of these books, but this is the way that it looked the majority of the year. 

Another view from near the windows that I LOVE. They flood the room with beautiful natural light. My only complaint is they can make nap time a little difficult at times!. 

This area has our Work Work materials in the cubbies tubs, and other materials. This area has gone under the most rearrangements since the beginning of the year, but you live and you learn! I will be doing a second blog post later about how I changed my classroom after living in it for a whole year! 

Here is our great view of the pre school playground and a small bit of our view of the huge evergreen right outside our window.

Here is our "CAFE" board and centers materials. I inherited a lot of these materials from previous occupants, so I wasn't sure at this point of the year how I would use them. This area will also be getting a serious overhaul now that I know what I want in my kindergarten classroom and what I DON'T want. All the stuffed animals are from the amazing collection that Kohl's puts out. I can't help but by one whenever I go. Lucky for my wallet Kohl's is not a regular stop for me. 

Confession: I have not touched my CAFE board this year. New grade, new curriculum... I just haven't gotten everything in hand enough to not only learn the new curriculum, but then mold it to go along with CAFE strategies. This is something I plan on sitting down and really hammering out this summer. But it does look great doesn't it? Can't wait to see it actually full of reading strategies. Anyone else have anything fall through the cracks like that? So embarrassing... 

Our awesome new listening centers our Head of School arranged for all K-3 classrooms to get this year. They play from an iPod that sets into the top of the dock. My kids are all very well versed in apple products so these are a breeze for them to use. Since the beginning of the year I also acquired three computers that actually sit in this spot now. The listening center needed to be a little closer to my teacher table to make sure students were on task and for technical support:) 

Again these shelves are full of materials I am finding that I don't use quite as much as I thought I would. Most of these shelves are filled with books at the moment. The polka dot rugs are from IKEA- only $20! The edges do roll quite a bit. I currently have them rolled up trying to get them to flatten back out. They also move quite a bit on carpet. But I still LOVE them. 

To the left is a sand table that needs a major love session. It's another item I inherited and thought I would love to use with my kinders, but just gives me a migraine. I plan to paint the whole thing and need to brainstorm another use that is less messy. I'm thinking dried beans, peas or something that isn't quite as invasive, but still allows some tactile play. 

These shelves hold math manipulative and other teaching materials above, and below hold teacher supplies that are not exactly organized. The empty shelf perfectly fits 4 caddies (from the Dollar Store!) with our thin work books under them. The students who use that caddy put their books under it so they are all in the same place each time. 

Our Word Wall! At this point of the year, it is almost full of sight words, color words, etc. I love using this space for word wall words. Last year I wrote directly on the cabinets with white board markers, and I think I may go back to that next year. 

Here are my read-alouds for the first day of school and my rolling cart with my projector and document camera. I also keep my clipboards there so the students can easily access them during rug time. Soon my class will get to use our new projector and this cart will be no more- and I will do a happy dance! 

 I have also since covered my clear drawers with scrapbook paper! HUGE improvement. I also stole a black file cabinet from my husbands' office and changed this arrangement a bit. It is visually much neater and more functional. 

Well that's it! I've made changes since the beginning of the year as I learn what Kindergarten is all about, but still love my space!