2012-2013 Classroom Tour

I finally had a moment today to take pictures of my classroom set up.  I was hoping to have more done before I took these pics but honestly this year seems to have been more hectic than others.  As you will probably notice, I haven't even had a minute to put my word wall cards back in the pocket charts.

I have finally come to grips with the fact that it will just have to wait for another day.  I have a few more days of my beginning of the year lesson before we start really getting into things, so that is a bit comforting.  Hopefully be the end of week 2 all wall decor/unpacking will be done.  Fingers crossed!  :)

This is the entrance to my classroom.  Not pictured here but to the left of the door is the Performer's Corner, a display where I post information to keep my performing groups organized.  To the right is my Pluck-a-Note display.

I got this idea from my best buddy, the art teacher at my school.  She always posts Art Advocacy materials on or outside her door.  It's so great to have this information posted when administration is giving a new family a tour of the school or for classroom teachers as they wait to pick up their kids.

The view from the door.

Inside the door I have my bookcases and rocking chair.  I love having this space to sit and play line games with my students while we wait for their teachers.  (Looking at it now, I realize how much more is still boxed up!  Those bottom shelves are bare.)  I also keep my recorder karate belts and recorder karate music next to my chair.  Check out this related post:  Recorder Karate .

On my cabinets are my Word Wall and Fingering Charts.  If you notice I have trapezoid tables behind my risers.  Instead of having the barred instruments on the floor in an instrumentarium, I have my students rotate around the tables.  In Kindergarten, we sit in rows and play instruments.  I will take another picture later in the year but normally my BX/BM/CBB are in the corner between the red and blue risers but for now they are still in the cabinets.

Behind the green and blue risers and next to the back door, I have a cabinet with drums, found sounds and my white boards.  I also house my tubanos along this wall.  And down at the end is my thinking spot.  I will post more on this later.

I moved this book case up front this year.  It was back where the tubanos are now and it was such a pain to get to these instruments.  Much easier!!!  On the bathroom door is my Common Board Configuration .

Under my bulletin board I have storage units that I bought at Target.  In the green and blue bins are the instruments I use most frequently with Kindergarten.  These containers are easy for them to move in and out and are close to where they sit.  Below are close ups of the labels and contents of the bins.  I use these instrument labels throughout my room.  

My white board and glockenspiel storage.

 Doc cam and more storage.  In this unit I have all of my movement resources (scarves, ribbons, balls, etc.) extra mallets, and rewards.  Behind the cabinet is my desk and on the wall are my rules.  I got my rules from Sandy Lantz at my Level I.

 Earlier in the summer I posted this: Summer Project  I ended up finding the Laiva desk at Ikea.  It was cheaper, sturdier and the color blended with my cabinets.

And it has a nice little space for pen storage.

 It has taken me 3 years to figure out that I could move the piano!  Not really.  I just didn't figure out that I had the space to move the piano away from my desk in order to have a path for me to walk through.  I spent 3 years walking from the front of my classroom all the way around to where the doc cam was behind my desk!  Sometimes I wonder about myself.  :)

 My space.

Behind the piano is a sink area.  This is where I keep extra copies of newsletters and recorder karate packets.