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Welcome to My Eric Carle Classroom Tour

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I have to say that I LOVE my classroom this year and I am really excited to give you this virtual classroom tour!  I used the same Eric Carle classroom theme as last year, but it just feels different this year.  I don’t know what it is, it just works for me.   I love the colors, the setup and the open feeling I have when I walk in my room.  I’d love to show you around.  My upfront warning – there are a lot of pictures in this post.  Sorry if it takes longer than normal to load.

Eric Carle Inspired Classroom Tour

BEFORE

This is what I started with after my room was cleaned. It was just a little overwhelming!
 
My awesome helper!
 
 
So after taking a deep breath or 2 I just got busy.  I always start with my big furniture set-up.  I need to have a “space plan” that I like before I get to the decorating part.  This year, it took a couple days of moving and rearranging before I got something I really liked but it was totally worth it.  I try to be very purposeful with my space.  I think of how I want my students to move around the room and make sure there are appropriate walk ways.  I think about where I want them to work and there are plenty of desk, floor and table areas for all of our learning centers.  I think about where I want to be during small group teaching and make sure that I can see every nook and cranny of the room from there.
 
Once the overall space plan is done and I like the big furniture placement then I get to decorating the room – the fun part!  I really try to think through everything from viewing the alphabet on the wall, to making the word wall useable and accessible, to having a place for anchor charts where they can be seen and used by the students.  I am very purposeful in my classroom and I think it pays off in the long run.
 

AFTER

So without further ado – here’s the finished project – My Eric Carle Inspired Classroom.
 
Here’s the view from outside the door.
I always want that first impression to be inviting for the students.

 

The circle hanging on the right side is our Where Are We? chart.
You can see the edge of a tiered bookshelf on the left side.
This is for morning reading when the students arrive.  They
grab a book and read in the hallway.  I like that the kids can see
the books easily.

 
This is the view from right inside the door.There is one more large seating area of desks just to the left.
Right behind the door is our new Magnet Center for
magnetic letters and numbers.  I really tried to use
the space that is generally unusable.
The back of the door has our How We Go Home
chart and our Clean-up Jobs for the end of the day.

Now let’s start walking to the left and I’ll point out things as we go around the room!

Step inside and turn left to find our mailboxes.  I use these for
Take Home Folders.  I teach the students on Day 1 how to find
their slot and put their folder away when they unpack.
Keep Walking left to find this:
 
Left wall of room has student lockers.  Above the lockers is
my number and color wall.  Since it is so high and hard to
get to, this wall doesn’t change all year.You can find these number posters by clicking on the image.
 
Our friendly caterpillar hangs in the corner over the lockers.
Above the lockers on the other side is a make shift bookshelf.
Last year I didn’t pull out the books I wanted to teach with.
It was very difficult to find what I wanted, when I wanted it.  This
year I have them organized by subject and theme.  It’s already
made things easier.

 

The front left corner of the classroom has this shelf.  It holds
all our Language Arts manipulatives.  The white drawers will
be our Word Work tubs.Look at that book on the top shelf – if you don’t have it I promiseyou that you need it!  Too Much Glue is the perfect way to teach glue rules and procedures!  Click on the title to see it!

 

Same view from further back.  Notice the ABC
chart on the wall.  This is right next to the lockers
and will be a Word Work Center.

 

My birthday display is on the wall above the ABC chart.
Here’s the front middle of the room.  I extend my bulletin boards with fabric so that the only part of my white board showing is where my projector hits.
This is more than enough space for me.  The area to the right of the projector space is for our daily calendar routine.  Click the picture to see the different things I used to put together this calendar area.
 
The extra space on the front bulletin boards will be for anchor charts that we are using.
 
Right before school started I got a new friend for the front of the room.
 
The front right corner looks like this:
 
This is our classroom library.  My Mom had a Hungry Caterpillar comforter
that she wanted to get rid of.  I think it’s just perfect as a rug!  I did put some of the “no slip” stuff under it to help hold it in place.  I love the Eric Carle book covers on the wall and hanging from the ceiling.  The white drawers on against the wall will be our Math Tubs.
The right wall, next to the library is our Word Wall and computer station.You can find these word wall cards and others by clicking the picture.
Next to the computers is a shelf that holds all our Math manipulatives, puzzles and games.  The empty shelves on the bottom will be for book boxes.  I like to spread them out around the room so the students are not all going to the same place at the same time.  The black frames on the window are all of my class pictures from previous years.  The kids get so excited when I add their frame at the end of the year.
Along the back wall is the bathroom and then this little table.  This is the
Science Discovery Station during our Math/Science centers and the Writing
Station during our Literacy block.  I am all about dual purposes!You can find the center cards by clicking the picture.
Right in the middle of the back wall is the
closet.  I decided to display Star Quality
Work here.  The blank area at the bottom will be for anchor charts.
 
The side of the cabinet is where I display our
Class Helpers.  I choose this space because it is easily accessible by me and I do the changing of the name sticks, however, the kids can still see it too.  But – it doesn’t take up prime real estate in the classroom that I like to save for things that are directly related to our lessons.  You can find these job cards by clicking on the picture.
 
Next comes my teaching table.  I am in love with my new stools that I re-did this summer.  Inside is storage for my centers that I am not using.  I have one of the colorful rainbow carts behind the table.  These will be for storing books and supplies for reading groups. Each of my reading groups will be color coded to the match the drawer just to make it a little easier.
 
The remaining part of the back wall is a sink and counter space.  I obviously took this picture before I finished cleaning!  I am using the small pocket charts to display our Focus Wall and weekly objectives. You can find this Focus Wall Set by clicking on the picture.
 
Under the counter space I have open shelves for storage.  I covered
them with the blue fabric.  I am using a section of this space for
my Pocket Chart Station.  This area will include any activities that the kids will do using the pocket chart.  I put the red rug there to help define the space.
 
Got a little distracted one day and decided to organize my construction paper.  I found a wire rack that is used to hold file folders.  (Usually stands up on a desk).  Instead of throwing it away I bent the legs up, hot glued it to the back of the cabinet and used it for construction paper.  I love being able to grab just what I need without rearranging an entire stack.  All my school supplies and art supplies are in the cabinets above the counter.
 So that above covers the perimeter of the room.  So what’s in the center of the room?  Not too much actually.  The desks are put into 3 tables.  Tables 1 and 2 are on the left side of the room by the lockers.  Table 3 is on the right side of the room near the computers.  The middle of the room looks like this:
 
The front is our large carpet where we do most of our whole group meeting
times.  Behind that is a small shelf with supplies for our Building Center.
 
Out in the hallway, I have started my bulletin board.  Right now it looks like this:
 
 I love how this Welcome Banner is one of the first things that my students see as they enter the hallway.  It was so easy to put together but really helps to fill the blank space above my hallway bulletin board.  You can find this Welcome Banner by clicking on the picture.
I will be adding the students pictures and decorated clothes pins to hold their work.  Last year I got tired of stapling and pulling out staples, so I decided to do something different this year that I saw on Pinterest.  I love the way the clothes pins turned out.
 
I love that this washi tape just looks like the Eric Carle dots!
 
Well, that’s about it.  I hope you enjoyed the virtual classroom tour of the room.  If you made it this far – thanks!  I hope that you found some ideas and tips to make setting up your classroom easier.
 
Every year I got lots of questions on where I found my Eric Carle Inspired Classroom things.  Well – I couldn’t find very much at all so I decided to make it myself.  You can find everything I’ve ever made for this classroom theme in the Eric Carle Inspired Classroom Bundle.
 
 

Comments

  1. Michelle says

    Oh Amy I love it!!! You organize everything so well and the magnet station behind the door is amazing!! I have had my before photo up on my blog for weeks now, I gotta take some after pics to show. Hope you had some time to relax and enjoy the holiday weekend!! Have a great upcoming week!!!

  2. Michelle says

    Oh Amy I love it!!! You organize everything so well and the magnet station behind the door is amazing!! I have had my before photo up on my blog for weeks now, I gotta take some after pics to show. Hope you had some time to relax and enjoy the holiday weekend!! Have a great upcoming week!!!

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