Sneak a Peek

Teachers don't technically have to go back to work until Monday. But, of course my OCD prevents me from actually giving myself a FULL vacation and I've been in to visit my new classroom a few times.

I started by recovering this old stool. It was in my classroom when I moved in 3 years ago but I actually use it a lot! Sadly, I didn't think to do any before shots but I'm SO SO SO stoked about the finished product! 

This is the first time I've moved classrooms since transferring to my school 3 years ago AND the first time I've taught a grade other than 3rd. Next year, I'll be moving down to big, bad, scary (for me, at least) FIRST GRADE! So, needless to say, my anxiety and over preparedness have been out of control...

My math board has gotten to say FAIRLY the same as in my old room. I had to move my calendar to the math area and add a few things to it. Let me tell you, packing up I made sure to label my fabrics with what size boards they fit and kept the borders together with the fabrics. It made recovering my new bulletin boards SO. MUCH. EASIER!

I've never had to have a proper word wall before, so I spent a lot of time on Photoshop perfecting the letters for this one. You can't see here but they have super cute little beachy borders all around! And luckily, for whatever reason, the chalkboards in my school do not really like chalk. So, we all use whiteboard markers on them instead! It easily wipes off with baby wipes whenever you're done, so that will be how I will be adding the words to the word wall! 

This photo also shows my workshop board. I will end up putting their small group rotation schedule on the board, as well as workshop responsibilities. Here's a closer shot: 

First of all, let me make it clear that this sign up chart was not exactly my idea. I found the general format for it on another amazing teachers' blog but sadly cannot remember which one. I have been finding so many amazing, useful and creative ideas out here in blog world that I've lost track! So, if this is your creation, please comment and take credit! 

Anyway, I'm very OCD about order in the classroom. So when small group rotations begin, I like to know exactly where every kid is AND exactly what they're doing there. With this system, I can mark on the laminate cards what students should be doing in each center. Then, they will clip a clothespin with their names to the edge of the card to show where they will be during center rotations. I did it a little differently in 3rd grade, so I'm hoping this will be a little easier for the little ones.

And, since every center is not open every day, I added velcro to the backs of the cards so that they can switch in and out easily - please excuse my need to be painted in a bad way nails. (I am a total velcro FOOL this year!!) 

 Although it may seem like I've been so hard at work that I must almost be ready to roll, the picture below shows that this is far from the truth. I feel so OVERWHELMED already!

Well, I guess it's time to lavish in my last THREE official days of summer vacation! Is it sad that I get in such a depressed little funk around this time of year? 

Welcome to Ms. Ambs' Class!

As promised, I finally took some photos of my new classroom. I'm still not totally comfortable at the new school but it is getting better. I just keep trying to remind myself that every school is going to be different, this is only the first week and as soon as I get a more defined schedule down for myself, I will feel much better. Anyway, without further ado, here is your personal tour of my 3rd grade classroom!



This is my area. My desk, filing cabinet, planning guides, copies, binders of junk, one computer, teacher books and all my personal items are back here. In my old classroom, all of these things were scattered all over the place and it got sort of tiring to plan, because I had to get up and walk across the room 12 times. It is much better to have everything all in one place again!
Here is my other area. This is where I teach from all day long. My projector, document camera, second computer, plan book, and current planning guides are all here. It looks a little cluttered but almost everything I need all day is here on this table. It is so cool to have so much technology in this new room! I never had a projector or a document camera before and I already and getting so much use out it! If I have a paper I want all of them to look at, I just put them on the document camera and it projects it onto the board. Last year, if I wanted all of my students to see the video during math, they all had to huddle around the one small computer in the room, but now, they can stay in their seats and watch it on the big screen!



This is my library area. To the left are all the books I have for the kids to read throughout the day. To the right is the SUPER comfy chair that my Aunt gave me. I teach the reading portion of the day from this chair, which is a great break from standing all day long! I also LOVE LOVE LOVE! Dr. Seuss, as you might be able to tell from my posters here.
Here is the math center! We haven't gotten to use this area very much, but it's basically where math happens! There are math games and vocab words in this corner, to help kids get more involved in math since it can be pretty boring sometimes.


Here is the workshop area. This is where I meet with my small groups for math and reading throughout the day. Not too much to say about this spot...

Here are my awesome homework and concept/question boards that *L* and Kristi made for me! I was so thankful to my amazing sisters for coming in and helping me out with set up. I don't think it would have all been finished in 3 days without those ladies! On the door to outside, you can see my behavior chart system. I kept racking my brain about how I was going to set up this color/clip system. At my old school, every teacher had a train that kept the colors, so I didn't have to think about it. Then, this weekend a brilliant idea came to me - ribbons! Hopefully the ribbons and clips will hold up for the whole year!

Well, that's it! I hope you enjoyed having a small glimpse into where I spend so much of my time each day!

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