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We all know that teachers spend SO much time in their classrooms!  Knowing this, I wanted to make sure I loved walking into my classroom each and every morning.  Being a first-year teacher, it took me a while to settle in, but I figured a classroom tour in March was better late than never!  With that, come check out my room and let me know what you think.
Side note:  you can pin any of these images by hovering over them and clicking the button in the top left corner OR you can follow me on Pinterest to see even more!
Out in the hallway, I have my students’ papers on display in a few different ways.  I always have our latest writing work on the main display, but I also like to show off their math creations.  Plus, the clothespins make everything super quick and easy to switch out!
Like I said, clothespins are my best friends for the hall.  I can have so much on display, but it doesn’t take any tape or time to change it up.  I also added Velcro to the bottom of these display ribbons so that they wouldn’t swing back and forth when students walked by them!
This is the view when you walk in!  I chose a bright color scheme called “Isabella” from a Christian educational store called Mardel because I thought it would appeal to both boys and girls.  Many things in my room were purchased at Mardel during their annual 20% off sale.  You can find their Isabella collection, HERE.
Past our anchor chart easel, is the whiteboard I use to display our “words of the week” and other things we are working on.  I use the SMART board for most things, so I don’t write on this whiteboard a whole lot.  If you are looking for word wall words to teach, or my “Chunk Neighborhood” houses, they are available in my TpT store

Being organized makes me super happy, so I was pumped when Walmart had storage bins that fit perfectly above my cabinets.  They were about $5 each and bins 1 & 2 were 18-Gallon size (available HERE), while the 3-5 bins were 10-Gallon size.  Inside one of my cabinets, I have a list of what is in each bin so that I know where everything is without having to get them all down.

These are our writing goals, which are on the inside of our classroom door.  Students choose a weekly writing goal and can move their classroom number each Monday to help them work on a specific area in their writing!  If you want the posters, they are available for free HERE, but I just bought the numbers from Mardel.

Having these two filling cabinets have been great for storage as well!  I have all my paper, professional development books, extra student journals, and science tools stored in them!
Past that is our word wall!  We use the word wall for so many things, so it’s definitely a focal point. I also have two extra desks that students use for work spaces, and our “scoop rocker” chairs that I bought for $4 each at Walmart.
I got the marquee letters from Target on clearance, the alphabet letters from Mardel, and I made the word wall words!
This corner has our clip chart, student mailboxes, and a few posters!  The black mailbox sorter is a complete lifesaver.  It is from Amazon, available HERE, and the reason I picked it is because they advertise that you can stand on top of it and it won’t break!
This is the back wall of my classroom and obviously where everything is stored!  It is sectioned off into “Math,” “Word Work,” and “Reading,” and then it turns into the classroom library!  I bought all these bookshelves at Walmart when they were on sale for $15 each, and I got the two plastic shelving units from our school’s storage unit that is basically a free-for-all.  The “Chunk Neighborhood” above the bulletin boards is something I made, and it is only $2 right now– available HERE.  
Anyways, students have 10 choices for a math center and all of the materials/tools are out in the open for them to help themselves to.  Likewise, there are 10 choices for Word Work, and the resources like magnetic letters are to the right of that.
This is where students can grab a word work practice sheet, magnetic letters, or an extra word work worksheet.  My students LOVE doing Rainbow Write, Funky Letter, Secret Words, Times Three, and Highlight the Vowels.  There are example posters on the “Word Work” bulletin board, and the practice sheets are in these cardboard boxes.  This Word Work for ALL YEAR is a lifesaver, and it’s only $1 in my store– available HERE.
This is my classroom library!  All of the bins were purchased from Dollar Tree for $1 and I made labels for the books/baskets they go in.  I’m working on getting those in my TpT store soon, so follow me if you are looking for a way to organize your books!  Something else I really like about the library is that students can store their reading baskets on the bottom shelves.  They are in “number order” and my firsties grab their basket for guided reading and then just put them right back.  I also let my students keep two of my classroom library books in their baskets (along with their 5 small group guided reading books) so that they can finish a whole book before putting it back for others.
When “designing” the classroom library, I knew I wanted to include some fun touches.  So in between each large basket on the top of the book shelves, I have things like: class pictures, a lamp, books on display, pencil buckets, and so on.  I think this gives the library more of a “homey” feel!
Since Math, Word Work, and Reading all have their own bulletin boards and space for materials, I had to have a spot for our writing posters and papers too!  This is in between the classroom library and the reading tepee.  Many of these writing resources are available for free in my TpT store.
The tepee was a gift, and I have a blog post about how we use it and where to get it.  You can find that post HERE.
Back to the front of the room– here is the other whiteboard on the opposite side of my SMART board.  I use it to post our daily schedule and write our weekly objectives.  I refer back to these every day before each subject, so my students really know what we are doing and WHY!

This is just a small detail, but I love storing my dry erase markers facing down, because they have lasted ALL YEAR (so far).  I got the magnetic basket at Michael’s for about $7.  I think it was in the back-to-school section intended for locker organization, but I like it better for markers.  ðŸ™‚  The skip counting posters are from The STEM Laboratory and can be found HERE.

Lastly is my desk area!  I have a stool that I set my purse on, and above it is this canvas with words to live by.  One of my friends made this for her apartment in college and I bought it off of her when I noticed that it would be perfect in my classroom!  She just stapled the fabric over a cheap canvas of a giraffe and then painted the words on– she’s great and I’m glad I was able to snag this for my classroom.

This is where I store my papers for the week and ALL MY BINDERS.  I have a binder for each first grade standard or subject and that is where I keep all of my master copies.  It makes my life so much easier, and when I find cute stuff online that I won’t need for a few months, I can print it and I have a place to put it that I will be able to come back to when I need it.
Well, that’s it!  I hope you enjoyed my classroom tour even if it was in March!  If you are craving more classroom pictures, hop over to Instagram and check out my account @TheSimplifiedClassroom.  Also, if you have a link to your own classroom tour feel free to add it in the comments.

9 Comments

  1. Erica I love your classroom. You have done such a great job! You are so good at organizing everything and I love the teepee!

    1. You're too kind! I'm hoping to post a new classroom tour in a month or so since I'm moving classrooms! 🙂

    1. Hi Kristin! I'm on my third year with them and they are still going strong! The tops are starting to sag a little since I have book baskets on top that are somewhat heavy, but I'm not surprised by that at all!

      My school has big industrial shelves that I may eventually try and use in my classroom, but they are like two feet deep so I worry about them taking up too much space and stuff getting shoved back behind my book baskets lol!

      Have a great day 🙂

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