The Fashionista Teacher: Classroom Tour (Part 1)

Welcome to my owl themed classroom! When I moved to a new city and district this summer, I knew I would have a chance to decorate a new classroom. I immediately decided I wanted to try a theme, which I had never done before. I stumbled upon a seriously amazing blog called Schoolgirl Style and fell in love with Melanie's owl theme, which is where I got a lot of my inspiration and owl themed printables. I can't wait to show off the "roost"!

One of the reasons I love my room is because of all the bulletin board space! I knew I wanted to use cute sayings on each of my boards that would tie my theme together.

This is the board where I display exemplar work. I laminated white sheets of paper, hot glued green polka dot ribbon to the top of each sheet and attached a cute binder clip. I wish you could see the cuteness under the student work. Maybe in a future blog post! The students love seeing their work up on this board. I try to make sure every student has an opportunity to have work displayed.

This board is dedicated to reading concepts, which is why it is titled "The Reading Nest!" :) Identifying genre has been a big focus this year in 4th grade. Each student completes a "Genre Challenge" throughout the year in which they have to read 20 books that fit into categories set by the teachers (historical fiction, realistic fiction, chapter book-choice, fiction-choice, biographies and non-fiction). Not only do the students become genre experts, but they find out they even love to read books outside of their favorite series or author. Can you believe it? :) I have the most wonderful teaching partner who came up with this great idea, and I can't wait to use it again next year!

Our classroom library is categorized by genre. It makes it easier for the kiddos to choose books for their Genre Challenge and to learn to identify books in each genre. My book baskets are from Really Good Stuff and labels are from Schoolgirl Style. The picture makes it look like I don't have very many books, but the baskets really fit a TON! I also have a picture book display case that I will try to post a picture of.

Every student needs their name displayed in the classroom as much as possible. I think seeing their name or picture up around the room helps students to feel a part of the "community." Another way I create a "community" is by having a weekly "V.I.P." The V.I.P. creates their own poster and is the helper for the week. I would love to think of an owl themed name for the star student for next year!

The front of our room...I almost died when I found out I had a SMART board! My goal for next year is to find more ways to incorporate technology into my lessons!

A couple of my management tools... (More to come! I believe a classroom that runs smoothly is much more conducive to learning, so I have many different "systems" in place, most of which the kiddos LOVE!)

Students have a magnetic owl that goes up on my file cabinet if they leave the room. They do have to ask first, but if I'm missing a student and can't remember right away where I sent them, I can glance quickly at the file cabinet and account for everyone.

I used a green, yellow and red card system last year for one behavior management tool, but found this idea on Pinterest this summer and had to try it out. Students move their clip down for negative behavior and up for positive behavior. I love it and will definitely use it again! Maybe I will even think of cute owl sayings for each level next year! :) Students receive a homework pass if they end the day on "outstanding." I love that it also rewards positive behavior!

Here are our classroom (and school) rules! Easy to remember and they seem to cover everything!

Our mailboxes. I'm not sure what I ever did without them!

Every fourth grade classroom needs test-taking tips, right? :)

I realized that today's tour would be SUPER long if I showed you everything, so there is more to come tomorrow!

Today's outfit matched my classroom, so I thought it would fit perfectly with the classroom tour! :) Oh, and the skirt is fourth grade girl approved...I received lots of compliments today!