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Monday, September 4, 2017

My New Classroom! We are in an industrial warehouse!

Hi Everyone! It has been a WHILE since I've posted on here and it's because I have been super, crazy busy! I hope you've been following me on my Facebook and Instagram to stay in the loop! At the end of June, I sold my condo and pretty much everything I owned in Wilmington, NC and headed to Philadelphia to visit my family. It was a detour on my way to San Diego to teach 5th grade at my new school!

I spent 11 days on the road from Philly to San Diego, visiting friends on the way and doing some major sightseeing of all the natural beauty our country has to offer which I never even knew existed! When I arrived in San Diego, I explored downtown, the beaches and caught up with friends and teachers that I either knew from the past or connected with on Teachers Pay Teachers. When school started, I was refreshed and ready to go!

The kids' first day was on August 28 and I am ready to share with you some pictures of my new classroom! I figure pictures can tell a better story than I can sometimes! I hope you enjoy!

But first, a quick overview of Trimester 1 

My School: I am at a project-based school where students create and learn! The school year is being planned around the essential question: What kind of person do I want to be? Trimester 1 is all about building community and a safe-space for learning and exploration!

Reading
Read Aloud - Wonder by RJ Palacio
I am teaching Readers Workshop and focusing on specific comprehension strategies. I model with Wonder and then the students use their Independent Reading books to practice the strategies I model. When students are ready, they will read Blubber, by Judy Blume and then The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes as a whole class literature circle.

Writing
I am using Writers Workshop and teaching students how to write a narrative. The plot being either a problem solved or a lesson learned by the main character

Project
Students will be working with an architect to design and make prototypes for a pop-up playground. The idea is to bring the community together by providing a playground for children in an un-used area around the neighborhood such as alleyways, parking lots, etc. This is known as place-making and the students will get first-hand experience with how it all works! We will be doing field trips and bringing in experts to create a full experience of how to create a pop-up playground from beginning to end!

Social/Emotional Learning 
Through reading, role playing and activities, students will learn how to advocate for themselves and each other, how to apologize, how to make an appropriate complaint and how to disagree. I have so many great activities that will help build the classroom community and safe-space for children to explore their learning. I am super excited for them!


 This is the front of the classroom where I keep anchor charts and our Yearly Goal and Essential Question

 Teacher Desk Area 😍

I tried typing out my lessons one year and prefer to write them using my awesome teacher planner and flair pens 😉


This is where student materials are kept. They are oversized magazine holders and the binders are kept on the side of the holders. I hate the setback holder thingys, so I am experimenting with this idea. So far, I am liking it. 

I bought these caddies from Big Lots. The long section is for their reading books, the square sections are for pencils and when they do activities where they need scissors, markers, crayons, etc, I use the other two square sections for that stuff. 

This area is for their homework to be handed in, first thing in the morning. 

Classroom Library - enough said! 😍 

This is how students will check out a book that they want to take home. They each are assigned a number and will use the correlating library pocket. 

I "repurposed" metal shelves aka gave them another use. Here, students use a dry-erase marker to record which book they are currently reading.



This is how I keep track of where students are in the Writing Process. The colorful squares are used for them to sit on when we come to the floor (until our rug arrives) and clip boards are always necessary in a 5th grade classroom 😉 Usually come in handy when students want to work somewhere else in the room, not at their desks. 


That is my new classroom! I hope you enjoyed the "tour" and that I've inspired some good ideas for you to use in your classroom!