The Classroom Reveal

I've been into the school every day this week, getting ready for "opening day".  I haven't been alone, my colleagues have also been busy bees getting their rooms ready for their students.  I love this time of year, when all of the adults are in the school, in their casual clothes, getting things ready for the kids.  There is such a sense of excitement in the air!  The custodians are running around patiently moving furniture for teachers who are trying out new floor plans.  The secretary is busy welcoming new families who have come in to register.  It is kind of like Christmas Eve when parents are wrapping presents and putting them under the tree for their children.  What a wonderful time of year!  It is so great to be back!

My classroom looks and feels great.  It is bright and cheerful.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  You might be surprised or disappointed to see that my bulletin boards are bare.  I don't like to put anything up on the bulletin boards that hasn't been taught.  I know lots of teachers put up beautiful posters of Reading Comprehension Strategies, or Traits of Writing.  But I won't put up anything like that until it has been taught.  Once I teach a strategy, I provide the students with a visual poster, I explain the poster, and I post it.  Otherwise, all of those great posters and anchor charts just become wallpaper.  I like to gradually turn our bulletin boards into "Learning Walls" - reminders and evidence of all of the great learning we have done throughout the year! 

 I have a rather large Mentor Text collection, you can find some of my favourite titles on the book shelf.  If you hover your cursor over a book you can read how I use it in my teaching.


























You can see that all of the books for my classroom library are still sitting in bins.  I like the kids to sort the books into genres and organise them onto the shelves.  I want them to take ownership of the classroom library.












I  like the blue and green colour combination.  We have beautiful green cedars right outside of the window.  I chose sky blue for the walls and the kelly green for the bulletin boards in an attempt to "bring the outside in".   The research suggests that people score higher on cognitive tests when they are looking at nature!













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