Here are some pictures of my classroom. I am mostly putting these up so that I will remember how I had everything set-up. (Thus the detailed explanations...for my own benefit.) That way if I need to remember someday, here it is. Also for my teacher friends, I enjoy looking at other people's rooms cause I need ideas, so maybe you'd like to look at mine.
This is from the hallway looking in. I'm so excited because this year I have windows! Last year my classroom was a windowless hole.
You can see that I have tables this year. They are an awkward shape but I love them! SO much better than desks! (I don't have to wonder if my little angels have something like a dangerous weapon hidden in their desks.) For me and anyone who cares...the big blue bulletin board will be a word-wall for their sight words and their science vocabulary words. For now, however, the vocab words are on the white board as you can kind of see. The green ones are the vocab for the unit we're doing right now on Earth's Surface. The blue ones are their math words. The red things are the centers they have to do for the week. The yellow words are their sight words which I give each spelling group every week whether they are high or low. (I figure my kids still spelling "cat" need to at least have some exposure to the fifth grade sight words.) One each table you can see they have a little tote. Those have colored pencils, pencil sharpeners, glue, scissors, and crayons in them. Underneath each tote there is a laminated sheet. I do team points by just having them keep their point sheet and an overhead marker at their desk and they give themselves points when I tell them to. So much easier! The team with the most points always gets to line up first etc., and at the end of the week they win a free homework pass.
This shows the kids cubby underneath the green science bulletin board. The purple board is for math. You can also see my smartboard which is right next to the math board. I am so lucky to have a smartboard this year. They are awesome. I need to try and use it more. It's kind of hard to switch my thinking into the technology realm. I have used it for a lot of cool stuff though.
Close up of the math and science boards. On the math board you can see venn diagrams the kids made comparing multiplication and addition, and multiplication and division. It's part of our literacy framework to incorporate literacy instruction throughout the curriculum. So I taught them graphic organizers during math. On the science board they wrote their questions about earth's surface before we started the unit (kind of like the K of KWL) and then they made a Volcano Vocabulary page.
I was so excited to have computers this year! The kids use them for centers, we have a math practice program called fastmath, and they've been doing research on them for a project. The red board is the Social Studies board. Right now we are learning about how a bill becomes a law. We did a shared read about the process, then practiced summarizing and put it up on the wall. The weird dragon thing hanging from the ceiling is not mine, it was there when I moved in. I just left it up.
On the yellow cupboards are the recess equipment chart where they check their equipment out using their clothes pin from the behavior chart. Next to that are my jobs. I have president, vice president, and then two equipment monitors. The president gets to lead the pledge, run errands, and always be first in line. Basically it's just a list of the kids who I ask to help me when I need it. I can't keep track of complicated jobs. The two lists are our rules. "Be Respectul, Be Responsible." The first day of school they came up and wrote the specific things that fit under each of those rules. The blue cupboards are the math word-wall. As soon as we are done with our vocab words they will go up there.
This is the easel that I use for interactive writing. Right now we are writing about how to round a number. They are learning how to write a "how-to" (first, next, last) plus reviewing what we've learned about rounding. The shelves are my classroom library. Not gigantic but sufficient. The books on the white shelf are mostly series like Junie B. and Lord of the Rings. The books on the ugly brown shelf are categorized by genre. What I really need to do is get some stickers on them indicating reading level or something but I can only do so much! Those green signs on the wall are for centers. One tells what they need to write down about the story they listen to in the listening center. The other one with the whiteboards on the wall is the "mystery-word." It's a scrambled word that they have to use to make as many 2 letter, 3 letter, 4 letter, and 5 letter words with. Then they try to figure it out. After, they add up their "points" by a little math code thing on their mystery word page. Each week I tell them how many points they need. It's just word-work (but don't tell them that...they think it's awesome.) The white chart paper on the wall are the rules for center time that we wrote as a class. They basically say "do your work and don't bother the teacher unless you're bones are broken and sticking out." (Obviously I really guided them on what the rules should be...haha.)
This is my "desk" where I pull literature groups, guided reading groups, and spelling groups during center time. I have 4 lit groups, 1 guided reading (for kids at least 2 grades below grade level), and 5 spelling groups. When I pull spelling groups I give them their test and then give them their new spelling list and sort page for the week. Then a mini-lesson on the pattern or thing they're working on that week. For center time they also have to do spelling centers. There are four things they do--one for each day. Then they turn their spelling centers in to me when they come to their spelling group. For reading groups, I pull 4 of the groups just twice a week, and then the guided reading group every day. They have assignments from reading groups that they have to work on during center time also. Needless to say, I am pressed for time just a little bit to fit 10 groups in during the week and the kids stay busy during center time cause they have lots to do! (At least they are supposed to stay busy...) The cubbies under the word-wall are extra cubbies that were for students one year because of an enormous class size. Now, unfortunately, they're permanent and so I try to use them for my shelves. I have the kids keep their math books (orange) and science binders (blue) in some of them. The rest I just have organized by subject for me. (Math, ELD, Centers, Science, etc.)
Last but not least, this one goes out to Mrs. Wallace. Mrs. Wallace was my favorite high school teacher who has this sign in her room. We always thought it was weird but now I've decided I like it. It depends on how you look at it as to what it says. So if you have a positive attitude, it will say "succes is now here." Okay maybe I'm lame. But I hope one of my kids becomes a teacher in the future and remembers that sign and puts it in their classroom. 
So that's it for the ridiculously detailed tour. I know that was probably boring if you even lasted this long. But it really is for me to remember because I'm liking the way my class is set up this year. So if I retire for a while and then go back, I will remember how it worked. All you other teachers, I want to see and hear about your class too!
"Sleeping" Arrangement (They're not really sleeping...they're just closing their eyes because of the blinding flash I surprised them with.)
The Saturday Morning Line
Us: Freezing cold, pissed that people were cutting in line, but almost to the ticket office.
