There’s still 2 weeks until school starts but I wanted to give you a peek into my classroom.  I was able to decorate with a lot of new things this year that I’m really excited about.  It’s the first time I had a bulletin board to decorate and I’m also using anchor charts for the first time, so setting up has been fun but deciding where to put everything was a challenge.  I can’t re-arrange the desks to make a reading nook by my bookcases until the extra desks are taken out of the room which won’t happen for another week.  So until it’s all finalized, here are a few peeks into my classroom.  These are my favorite parts so far.

#bestclassroomever BTS 2016

First up is my Why Study History board.  It has quotes from various people throughout history on it, and as a first week of school activity, the girls will write what the quotes mean in their own words and what can be learned from them.  They will then create a bulletin board outside the classroom with their own reasons for why we should study history.  I know it’s not a huge pop of color, but in the room it actually stands out for that exact reason.

why study history bulletin board

I have 3 anchor charts (plus class rules) ready to go for the first week of school.  A friend suggested what can we learn from the past and how do we learn about the past so we’ll have a class discussion on both of those (my classes are really small so the girls will write the answers themselves on the anchor charts), and then I made one based on what an effective historian does.

first week of school social studies anchor charts

What has not changed is my student center, though my decorations are more in line with what’s appropriate for middle school girls.  They turn in their work in the black stacky thing (I still don’t have a good name for it!), they find what they missed in my absent bin (I finally labeled it as such), and they still have a one-stop shop for pencils, erasers, scotch tape, etc.  What’s new this year is a small binder for “finished early” work.  In the binder are activities that will work for any of my 3 classes (map skills, writing prompts, vocab practice, activities to review any topic, articles about current events, etc).

student center with supplies, absent bin, and organizer to turn in work

I still have my classroom library, though it is divided into 2 spots (they form a little L-shape in the back corner of my room).  One has reference books and the other has books about many of the topics we’ll cover throughout the year.  The girls can read them when they are done with their work.  I also have a stash of National Geographic magazines they can browse throughout the year.  Once I can rearrange the desks, this will be a little reading nook with a rug and some beanbag chairs/pillows.  Did you notice the map is “upside down?”  I’ll be writing a post on that map in a couple of weeks on how I use it to start a conversation on perspective.

This is a section of the bulletin board outside my room (I’ll be teaching Geography, TX History, and US History), the girls will finish the rest of it.  This pigeon poster has always been one of my favorites so I wanted to show that too (some days you’re the pigeon, some days you’re the statue).

the start of my exterior bulletin board

What do you love about your classroom? 

Credit for many of my decorations goes to: Elle Madison, Addie Williams, and Julie Faulkner.