2015-2016 Classroom

Whoa!  It’s already week 5 in our school year and I feel like our first day of school was just yesterday!  I promised an updated post about how my classroom turned out.  I decided to do a nautical theme this year and have gone back and forth on how I feel about it.  I think I like it!  Stay tuned for a more informative post as soon as I get my life together!  It’s been a whirlwind, but a good one!  My class is ADORABLE and so much fun! :)

I decided to do something a little differently with my silent reading set-up.  This year I have a chart on the wall for the children to see which books they can read, (red, blue, or green).  Over the past few years I have had a book bin for each individual child and with bigger classes it really takes up a lot of room.  I'm hoping this system will allow more book opportunities for children and less prep time on my end.  The colors have different levels: approaching, on-level and advanced.  The children look to see which they can choose a book from during silent reading.  After they read 3 books from the bin, they can then look at a book from our ABC's basket, our library book basket, or a book from our classroom shelf.  So far I like the system.  The only thing I would do differently next time is put a color sticker on the books so they remember where to put the books back.  They get a little mixed up and that drives the OCD person inside me completely insane! :) 

I'm excited how it turned out but in the pictures it looks a bit like a crayon box exploded in my room, but at least it's not boring! :)  What do you think?