Classroom Organization and Decor

I've been spending the past week getting my classroom in order for my new sixth grade students, and thought I'd share some of the cool things I did/made for it. The running theme is all things British, because I am 1) a nerd, and 2) Imperialism is the key theme throughout what we study in 6th grade humanities (lit and history roughly from 1850-1950).

Over the summer, I made:

A pennant banner -- it's a little difficult to see against this rug, but you'll be able to see it better in the classroom photos. There are four union jacks, in addition to a scottish, english, and welsh flag included :)

2. Painted bench.
I made one of these a couple of years ago for my apartment in Nashville, and finally got ahold of its pair this summer. Unlike the first, though, I painted it a deep red color, with lions, to go along with the British theme. I intend eventually to write in a motto between them, but I've got to come up with the classroom motto first ;)



3. Homework drawers. These are more functional than cute; the labels I printed from someone's free teacherspayteachers download, and added clipart to make them happier. Basically, this prevents me from having to go around picking up homework, or sorting it out by subject. Students will routinely know they are to turn their homework in here FIRST THING in the morning. If it doesn't make it into the drawer, it's their loss.

4. Lesson Plans & Materials organizer
This basically holds everything I need for the upcoming week. I make my copies the week before, and then put all the handouts, etc. in here, ready to go by day and subject. Makes me less of a hot mess when running late in the morning.

5. "Twitter Feed"
I made a twitter bulletin board from a self-invented template, a mini-pocket chart, and some scrap paper. Basically, the kids can write their own "tweets" reviewing books for their peers. And speaking of books....

....6. I labeled all the books in my classroom with these guys, and developed a checkout system using paint chips and index cards. Each paint chip color corresponds to a genre section, and includes the title and author of the book. When students "check out" a book, they remove the paint chip and place it behind their last name card in the index card box. When they return it, they put it back in the book, and place it with the same color books on the shelf.

7. Summer welcome notes to students
They ask the teachers to write welcome notes to their new students every August, and I made little postcards from an old set of notecards that my mom had a million (read: 24) years ago with our old home address. I whiteouted out the name and address, transcribed a note on the back, and doodled a little hot air balloon in ink and watercolor on the front.

8. Recovered rocking chair
This was quite gross when I pulled it out of the attic--but it looks a bit better after putting some clean fabric over it. Anyway, it's fairly comfortable and sturdy for a classroom.

9. Homework board
Because my classroom whiteboard is relatively small, and there's no bulletin board in the room, I've had to get inventive with ways to post stuff. I've taken to sticking mini pocket charts and clear plastic page protectors in places to put up things like calendars, schedules and rosters around the room. I also got a separate large whiteboard that I can slip off and back onto command hooks, so that I can take it down to write up homework, and put it back again. Much easier to write out homework looking at a lesson plan at my desk, instead of having to stretch to write it on the board, and continually glancing back and forth.