Five for Friday (with a classroom tour)!

First week of the school year = done! Five days without kidlets should have been enough time to get everything ready and organised... but meetings, catch up chats and general procrastination meant that Friday afternoon saw me madly rushing to make sure that my classroom was set up ready for next week.   I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs (for the first time in ages!) to share some random moments from my week back at school with Five for Friday.

1. After moving all of the furniture into piles in the middle of the room for the carpets to be cleaned over the holidays, it took me a while this week to decide where I wanted everything to go.  It was tempting to set the room up just the same as it was last year - but changing the layout and look of the classroom always helps me to feel excited about the new school year.  I don't think I've ever shared photos of my room before (apart from the odd one here and there of specific areas) so I took a few snaps before I left yesterday.  Please excuse the bare pinboards that are waiting to be covered with art and crafts when the kidlets arrive!

This is my main teaching area.  The kidlets sit on the coloured mat, and the board above the whiteboard is home to the calendar (free on TpT), birthdays, rules and soon will have our monster manners (from Growing Kinders pack, also a freebie!).  The Share Chair lives in the corner to the right, and that's the Writing Corner to the left.

Storage shelves - the glass panel looks into my office.  The yellow sheets on the window are sticker charts. :)

Small group table and reading corner.  The white door leads out to the foyer.  

 Looking back to the desk area.  From the left - home corner against the wall (goes around the corner too), Creation Station (those white baskets won't stay there!), door to the outdoor area, smart board, door to the TA office, kids' lockers.

Almost the whole room, looking this time from the back door.  Word wall on the purple board. The door on the right leads into the kitchen.

2. iPad storage has always been a bug bear of mine. Previously I had just piled them on the shelf, but they always looked messy which annoyed me.  Turns out that one of the file storage racks (I call them toaster racks) I had sitting around was the perfect solution! I'd seen this idea somewhere, probably Pinterest, and am so glad I remembered to try it out.  It's super easy to plug the chargers in when they're stored like this, too!

3. After my first year of using the peg chart as a behaviour management strategy, I made my 'Super Kid Hall of Fame' poster to display the pegs of the sweeties who earned themselves 2 jewels during 2013.   I make it very, very tricky to earn a jewel so they are a super special reward.  I'm hoping that the chance of appearing in the 2014 Hall of Fame will be a great motivator for this year's Preppies. :)

4. Bargain of the week - $1 Jump Frogs to use in fine motor activities!  These froggies are perfect for little fingers to play with.  Either have them jump the frogs onto the plate that comes in the pack, or create paper/card 'ponds' with letters, numbers or words on them and have the kidlets read whatever their frog lands on.  They look easy, but some children really struggle with using their pointer finger to make the frog jump. (Aussie friends can find them at Big W.)

 5. To celebrate the beginning of our school year, I'm having a sale in my TpT store!  Everything is 20% off until Monday night.  Pop on over to grab a bargain!

Well folks, that's all from me.  Happy Australia Day weekend everyone! :)

Lauren