Learn More

40 Hour Workweek

Uncategorized   |   Aug 9, 2012

Tour Mrs. Moorman’s 5th grade classroom

By Angela Watson

Founder and Writer

Tour Mrs. Moorman’s 5th grade classroom

By Angela Watson

Check out the classroom photos from Mrs. Moorman’s 5th grade classroom!

Pictures of a 5th grade classroom

Hi everyone!  My name is Stephanie and I am from Teaching in Room 6.  I teach 5th grade, so my room is set up with 30 students in mind (this was a particularly light year).  I try my hardest to put all of the work the students do on display, so you will see many displays of student work.  My intention in this tour is to give you a view of the room as a whole, and the things that help make the room run smoothly, not necessarily a view of the actual work.  So without further ado…Room 6.

Here is the view from the front door. You can see my storage cabinets, my desk in the back corner, and my back door.  I also have my little round table with the black ottomans I bought (instead of making crate seats…I just didn’t want to spend the time)

015-1

When the students walk in, they see this organization station.  Everything they might need to interact with throughout the day is here.  The white stand has every type of paper imaginable on it.  There is also an “extras box” at the bottom where the kids can find any extra copies they may need.  The black bins at the bottom are all of my previously copied homework, morning messages, Calendar sheets, etc….any materials that are premade.  I also have the INBOX and OUTBOX.  Kids turn in papers to the INBOX always.  The OUTBOX is where I put papers to be returned to them.  Homework for the week has a place here, as well as the Incident Report forms.  Basically everything the kids would need is found in this central location.

013

Next is our Daily Schedule.  I update it each morning when we come in so the kids know what to expect for the day.  I also write the exact objectives next to the subject sign.  These are on magnets (since my whiteboard is magnetic), so I can move them around, and change them out for things such as specials and assemblies.

134

Along with the Daily Schedule are these other organizational features on my white board.  Homework is always the same, so I have a magnet from Vista Print.  The other magnet is an attempt to work on statistics.  My idea was to have the students use the numbers to figure percents, work on fractions, etc…but it sort of got away from me.  This coming year, it is on!  I also have a perfect attendance section with the students names.  As they are absent, I cross of their name on the year section.  The month section starts fresh on the first of the month.

135

The Word Wall, with Greek and Latin roots on it, is here underneath the whiteboard.  I put it here because 1) I want the students to be able to interact with it a bit more and having it low facilitates that and 2) there is no where else to put it   In all seriousness though, when we are playing the Root Word Memory game, the kids are accessing the wall all.the.time.  Having it at their eye level (since we play the game on the rug) is very, very helpful.

014

My rug.  I love my rug.  Many people don’t even *think* about having a rug in the upper elementary grades, but I personally couldn’t live without it.  I call my students up to the rug area as a whole group at least twice a day (during Calendar time and for our daily read aloud) and I use it for small group interaction throughout the day.  Even when kids want to get a bit closer to the screen during lessons, they come right up!

006-1

All of my behavior management stuff is kept in this one corner here.  This is in the front of the room, so everyone can see it, but it isn’t obtrusive.  First, the rules of the class are hanging there.  Next to it is the information for the Classroom Economy.  You can see the circle maps of Productive Students that we created on day one of school…still hanging as a reminder for how students should behave.  In the very bottom left corner you can see the behavior book.  All of the labels the students write their card changes on are in there.  What you can not see are the Color Change cards.  Those are behind the cupboard, so really no one can see them.  The kids know they are there, and when students need to change the cards, they quietly do so.

last-beach-day-of-summer-2011-001

My table points are also located at the front of the room, so the students can always see them.  They are algebraic in form, with the students earning points in either +1 or x increments.  The x’s are highly sought after since they multiply up very quickly.  This is a great way to get a bit more math into the day.

002

From the front of the room, you can see my classroom arrangement.  I actually have JUST gone back to pods like this after many, many years in a modified E horseshoe thing.  Even with the horseshoe, my students did still work in cooperative groups though.  They just turned their chairs around!

016

I teach from the front of the room (hence another reason for the rug…teaching space!)  Because of this, I have my “teaching station” front and center.  It really just turns into a second desk for me, but it is nice to be able to sit in front, do the teaching, and monitor everyone all from a central spot. (this picture is an up close one…the one above is the overview of it!)

009

My small group table is a FAVORITE amongst my kids.  They love the little Ottoman chairs that I have there for them.  These chairs are part storage, part sitting space and 100% a sought after sitting area in my room.

001

My library is sectioned off into three main categories:  Fiction (black), Non-Fiction (pink), and themes (blue).  Then, the bins are further categorized.  I LOVE it.  Since the books are all labeled, it makes it easier to put the books in the correct bins.  Honestly, since doing this a few years ago, my life has gotten SO much easier when it comes to the library!

010

This math workshop area has moved since this picture, but you get the idea of what is going on here.  My students use this area to access the information they need during workshop time.  Similar to the organization
station  at the front of the room, this is where all of the materials for Math Workshop are kept.  Keeps me organized as well as the students.  The timed multiplication tests are also here.

006

This is my science corner.  I like to put all of my “like” work in one area of the room.  Just makes me feel better when things aren’t spread all over the place.  I have a math section (where my math workshop stuff and calendar area is), a reading response section near the library, etc….And since I integrate most of my subjects, I don’t really have a “language arts section” as language arts sort of falls in all of the sections, if that makes sense.

015

So that is it.  There is a basic photo-tour of where I spend most of my day.  I hope you were able to gain some sense of where I am blogging from and how it all is flowing together.  Thank you for joining me on the tour   And I will leave you with the picture I exited my room with for the summer.  A clean slate for the new year!

021

More Teachers’ Rooms

classroom_tours

Please share YOUR classroom photos!

Email the link to your Flickr, Tumblr, blog, or other site, or put the pics in a Word or PDF doc which I’ll upload to the site!

Angela Watson

Founder and Writer

Angela created the first version of this site in 2003, when she was a classroom teacher herself. With 11 years of teaching experience and more than a decade of experience as an instructional coach, Angela oversees and contributes regularly to...
Browse Articles by Angela

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion? Feel free to contribute!