Bin give away

Lori over at Teaching with Love and Laughter is partnering up with Steps to Literacy and having a give away of some great looking bins. Head on over to her blog to enter to win! Good luck!

Classroom Progress

Whelp my room is coming along! I've been in a few hours here and there but today I went and worked all day and I'm feeling pretty good about where I'm at as far as unpacking and putting things up. I feel a million steps ahead of where I was at this point last year. One year ago today my husband and I were just arriving in Minnesota from our cross country move from Nevada. It's hard to believe that it has only been a year! Here are some pictures I snapped of my room before I left today. When It's all ready - piles put away, bulletin boards up, etc. I'll do a more in depth tour. Who knows.... maybe it will be a video;).

This is the view when you walk into my classroom. There is a "kitchen table" style table in my book corner area. On the back side of the table bench there are two book cases filled with baskets of chapter books loaned to me by my friend who moved down to teach kinder this year.  The "kitchen table" is also hers.

 Here is another shot from that same place but over a little so you can see my side wall and desk arrangement. Over near the flag is my teacher area with my desk and a bookshelf for my materials. On the right is my guided reading table.

 From this view you can see my guided reading table in the back corner. You can also see a little bit of the back of my reading corner area.

For some reason I can't type above this picture... Anyway this is a picture of my reading corner and the view toward the door of my classroom. Don't mind the piles of stuff on the desks still. :)

 Here is another view from my desk area. You can see more of the reading corner and also off to the right there is a writing nook there. I think I'm going to choose one "writer of the day" to be able to sit back there and write.

Here is a view of my room from my guided reading area.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Teacher Giveaway on The Primary Chalkboard

The wonderful teachers over at The Primary Chalkboard blog are hosting a huge give away!
Head on over there to see what it's all about! Watch their videos to gain more entries and some wonderful back to school tips as well!

Check back with me sometime next week to see how my classroom is coming along!

Who doesn't love bins?!

Lori over at Teaching with Love and Laughter is giving away a colorful set of Lakeshore Learning connect and store book bins. Head on over to her blog to check it out and enter to win.

And the prep begins...

A couple weeks ago I met with a co-worker at school to work on planning some things for math. I wasn't going to go in my room and move things around yet because I wasn't sure if the custodians had finished cleaning. I did however want to take a peek and see how it was left and just to get a "feel" for the room again to help in planning and laying things out in my head while working at home. I snapped a few pictures of the before and decided to share them with you. :) How would you organize this room? Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

View to the left when you walk in the door. South wall - student lockers, counter runs along the wall with the door.

View along the south wall. Lockers, SMART board, teacher desk will go in the corner under the flag.

This is the view of the side and back corner of my classroom. You can see a row of lockers going along the back wall. That wooden corner bench and table belong to a fellow teacher. She is switching to Kindergarten this year and didn't think she would have room in her classroom for the bench and table so she is letting me use them this year. I think I have a plan for them but don't know spatially if it will work yet.

Here is a view from my carpet area toward my classroom door. In the corner you can see a little desk area. There is a matching one in the corner just opposite from that.

Here is another shot of the lockers along the back wall of my room.

Lots of NEWs!

Wow! I can't believe it's been so long since I've last posted here! A lot of things have changed in the past year. One year ago today we started a journey we didn't plan on and didn't know if we were ready for. My husband took a transfer with his job which lead us to moving half way across the country back to our home state of Minnesota. This of course meant I needed to find a new job too. So in the past year I have a new state, a new town,a new house, a new school, and a new grade level. I spent last school year teaching 3rd grade and will be doing the same grade this year too. I am hoping to keep up this blog a little better than before. If nothing else I want to post here as a record of good ideas I've found and what I'm working on in my classroom. We'll see how that goes ;)