My classroom setup has begun! I am so excited to be back in my classroom! I still have a ways to go, but here are some summer projects that I have worked on and some new setups that I have been looking forward to having in my room.
A fun way to display my objectives for the day! I bought frames from the Dollar Tree and painted them. I bought the letters on each frame from Hobby Lobby and spray painted them gold. I hot glued the letters on the frame. The best part is that you can use a dry erase marker on these frames and they wipe off so easily to reuse each day!
Here is the before picture.
Here is the after picture of the drawers in my classroom!
I will have the students’ math and science notebooks in the drawers as well as their poetry journals.
Below are baskets labeled Whiteboards and Reading Folders.
In the caddy above the drawers I will be placing glue bottles, dry erase markers, scissors and markers.
Here is the display of what the tables look like right now. The caddies on their tables will have their crayons, pencils, and space men/girls in it.
Still have lots to do, but it’s a start! 🙂
I ran into a bit of a dilemma last year.
When you run out of wall space, what to do????….Use the CEILING of course!! Last year I ran out of space on my walls, so I decided to hang LARGE shapes on my ceiling tiles with push pins. On each shape I have displayed the shape name, the number of side, the number of vertices, and anything important about that shape. This is what you see when you walk in to my room:
Here is the view from the students seats:
Would you mind telling me where you found your grey shelves that you have your drawers sitting on?
Yes of course! I purchased the gray shelves online at Walmart.com. I had a hard time finding them at the store so I ordered online instead. I got the shelves shipped to a local Walmart instead of my home because it was free shipping that way.
They are the called: Plano 4-shelf storage unit, Dark Grey. $15.13
They are actually 4 shelves, but I separated them to make 2 small tables. I also bought more of those shelves for my classroom library. I will have pictures up of that this weekend.
Let me know if you need any other information 🙂
Wow! Thank you for sharing!
Wow! Love, love, your classroom! Where did you get the big blue totes? Those are awesome!
Aww! Thank you so so much! That is so nice of you to say! I got those big blue totes from Walmart. I bought them right before the school year began when they have all of the college dorm supplies out. They were each under $3! They had lots of different colors too! 🙂
Where did you find the shapes that you have on the ceiling?
Hi! I actually took bulletin paper and used a large ruler to make most of the shapes myself. For the round shapes, I kept cutting until it looked like the shape. Took a few trials, but finally got the shapes I wanted 🙂
Thanks for sharing. Just found you pinned on Pinterest. I will have some questions when I get back to my classroom in August. Thanks for sharing.
Wonderful! I look forward to chatting with you 🙂
Hi Jaimie, Looking to revamp some of my room, too. Thanks for the ideas and pics! I have a small room and like your table set-up. Thanks for sharing, Karen
Love the shapes on the ceiling! Great idea!
Hi! You are so welcome! I hope they helped give you some ideas! Good luck setting up your room 🙂
Jaime
Thanks so much! 🙂
Jaime
Came across your blog last night on Pintrest and spent the day imagining doing that in my room. But I have one question. What are the black stripes on the tables?
Hi! Thank you so much for checking out my blog! Great question! Those black stripes are actually velcro strips. I use velcro for the kids name tags. I place 2 small circle dots of velcro on the back of each of my students name tags and they have the entire black velcro strip on their tables to get their name tag on. I have done this for quite a few years now and LOVE it. I especially like when at times we need a little more space on the tables and the kiddos can easily take their name tags off themselves. The name tags also last all year which is a BONUS! 🙂
Jaime
Jaime,
The use of the ceiling is nothing short of genius! I have a quick question for you. Has your principal or fire marshall commented on the 'fire safety' of them? My school/fire marshall are REAL sticklers about anything hanging from the ceiling or lights.
Love your classroom! You have given me a few ideas for my classroom in August. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Goodness gracious! I'm a 23 year veteran, still looking for ways to better organize my room. Your design is genius! I don't have tables, but I should be able to arrange my desks this way as well! Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you so much Lisa!! That is so nice of you! I have had those shapes up for 2 years now and have not had anyone mention about 'fire safety'. You might definitely want to ask your school though. Thanks for checking out my blog! 🙂
Hi Tiffany! Thank you so much! I am so glad I could help 🙂
You are so sweet and kind! Thank you so much!! I am so glad I was able to give you some help thinking of a new way to arrange your tables 🙂 Thanks so much for checking out my blog!
I teach Kindergarten in eastern KY and I did basically the same thing that you did: when I ran out of wall space for my word families, I used permanent marker and wrote word families (by short vowel) on the ceiling tiles. The children love using the ceiling for writing the room activities!
Love your sight! Your ideas for storage at the tables will really help students become more independent. Where did you get the little shelf you placed between the tables?
I absolutely love that idea with the word families! Thank goodness for ceilings! 🙂
Hi Michele! Thank you so much! I really appreciate it!! Thank you for checking out my blog! I bought those shelves from Walmart. They are called Plano 4-Tier heavy duty plastic shelves. I bought a few of these and pulled them apart into single shelves. They had them in white, gray, and taupe when I purchased them last year. Thank you again! 🙂
I love your blog! Just groat of my room set up(furniture anyway) and am doing something similar with supply shelves between tables. I hope it works. I LOVE the Velcro name tag idea! That is one of my biggest frustrations! Cannot wait to go back and add that! Thanks for sharing!
Hi AngiB! Thank you so much! That is so sweet and kind of you to say! I hope your new set up goes great! I personally LOVE this set up because I feel that it gives a really good flow in my classroom 🙂 I can understand your frustrations with the name tags. It took me awhile before I figured out the velcro and haven't turned back since! Best of luck to you this school year! Thank you again!! 🙂
Awesome!!! Come check out my classroom, too! Seemswrite.blogspot.com
Love your student materials set up. I've never had a system that completely works for me. I teach kindergarten & have 22 to 23 kids at 5 round tables w/2 at a small rectangular table. Things at tables work well. They use communal crayon that stay on tables and their name tags in laminate sleeves. Chair pockets hold a library book, writing spiral, morning work folder & pencil holder (travel toothbrush holder). I inherited a wonderful long double- sided bookcase with the room. I use one side for my storage that's covered with fabric. The other side would be more useful for students but only has 3 divided area . I need at least 4. I bought a small wooden bookshelves for the fourth group but never found a good place for it. I'd love to have a consolidated place for book boxes, workbooks & add'l subject spirals. We really don't use those things which frustrates me a bunc .
Any suggestions?
A bunch.
A bunch.
Hi Kristi!! Your classroom sounds adorable!! I would love to help you think of ideas! Is there anyway I can get a visual layout of your room? That would really help me kind of see the size/layout of the room is. You can email me anytime at aspoonfuloflearning@gmail.com
Thank you so much for your kind words!! And for checking out my blog!!
Jaime
We are considering switching from student desks to tables. I teach first grade. Would you mind sharing the dimensions of your tables? Do you prefer tables to desks? Thanks! Tina
have you ever tried magnetic strips?
Don't know if its our state but here in AZ we have strict guidelines…no material can reach within 24" of the ceiling. Too bad I would have loved to try this idea.