Today is the FIRST of a 22 part (!!) installment of Sneak a Peek with a Peach! Each author from the Primary Peach will share a tour of their classroom or a specific area of their classroom. So, grab a drink and a snack and let's get started!!!!
I am in a little bit of a different position than some of our Peaches. I am no longer in the classroom and I am currently a stay-at-home mommy. While lots of learning happens around our kitchen table, it doesn't have quite the same affect as a classroom reveal! LOL! I have decided to share my most favorite area of my past classrooms: the library! So we are going to climb into our DeLorean and time travel a bit!
This was my VERY FIRST classroom. Ah, the nostalgia! You can tell from the quality of the picture that this was the Dark Ages. I was a rookie- and it showed. Look at the arrangement of the library! See the arrows? They are pointing to my CLOSED OFF library! Eek! Hiding places behind the bookshelves? I wanted a cozy little nook and created it with bookshelves....that hid the teacher's view. What was I thinking? Apparently, my first year, not much. Luckily, I was a fast learner! This arrangement didn't last too long. LOL!
A few years later I moved in to a double wide trailer. Space was at a premium. I had all kinds of things hidden and stuffed into corners!! The arrow points to my library. The chairs were stacked in the library after school- they were not there during the school day! You can tell I learned here! Still a nook, but always in my view.
I moved (again) and you can tell my library really expanded that year. I have always loved children's book and I hoard them. Even now! I kept recess games in the steamer trunk and pillows for kids to snuggle up with. The little rug was shaped like a school bus and I adored it. I also adored lamination! Holy smokes! Look at all those laminated posters! I will say, we DID create those charts as a class and then I laminated them. Most of the charts are from the Guiding Readers and Writers by Fountas and Pinnell's First 20 Days plans.
I loved again this year and changed grades. This was my first year in second grade and I adored it. This was one of my most favorite groups of kids ever. These kids are now in HIGH SCHOOL! Eek!
This view is from the classroom door. I decided to make the library line the classroom meeting area in front of the easel. This idea was okay. I will say, for the most part, my kids didn't play in the book baskets during whole group lessons. However, this was a great group of kids. When I lined the meeting area with our books other years, it did cause problems.
This was also the year I revamped my library organization. I wanted to make sure my little second graders could maintain the library and color coded it. You can read about that here and get a copy of the labels for free! The kids were able to keep up with the library and it actually worked well enough that I kept this system up for several years.
I loved those blue shelves. They were hand me downs from another teacher and I lovingly painted them with leftover paint from my parent's kitchen. The shelves were super heavy and sturdy. So heavy and sturdy, I had to leave them behind when I moved schools!
I moved to a new school in 2008. I looked, but couldn't find any images of my library. I think my mantra that year was, "Just keep swimming!" LOL! I switched to a new classroom and grade in 2009.
I decided to line my library under the board for more room. When I set the room up I thought it was a brilliant idea, since the space below the white board seemed wasted. Honestly, I did NOT like this set up. I found that a bumped against the books when writing on the board and dropped pens and things behind the books. I am a bit clumsy.
The next year I decided to stack the white shelves (from Walmart and could be rearranged several different ways) and line all the books against my back wall. I did like that the books were altogether and not blocking the board. I didn't like that the shelves were so tall, because some of my third graders had a hard time reaching books from the top baskets.
My last year, I think I figure it out! LOL! These shelves were inherited from another teacher and were awesome. All wood. Super heavy and sturdy. I didn't even have to paint them because they were already black!
The room was a great size. We made the library a separate area- away from whole group instruction. The baskets were color coded. The white ones were fiction, black were nonfiction and blue were poetry. I found a new cozy rug from Target and we had bean bags stacked in the corner.
Side Note: Our of the camera's view is my co-teacher's table. The library may look blocked off in the pictures, but in reality was in FULL view of a teacher.
I hope you got a few ideas! It was wonderful to travel down memory lane!
Every day, until September 22nd, a different Primary Peach author will be sharing his or her classroom! Check out the schedule below!
