My Teacher Digs

It's taken awhile, but my room is finally complete!  Good thing because students arrived today!  As always, I was tweaking until the last minute, so even these pics are out of date already!

This is year 15 for me.  I've tried to do themes throughout my career, but I've found them too hard to keep up with and maintain.  So, I've settled on bright colors.  It makes my room happy for me, especially after some of those days we all have where all we want to do is close the door and have a moment.

Blog Hoppin' is hosting Teacher's Week this week, so I'm sharing my home away from home there with a ton of other teachers!  Make sure you head there to see all of the other great spaces!


This is my door from the hallway!  My dear husband took a pic of me in the yard on Sunday afternoon and I added it to the balloons.  Since then I've added signage that says, "Reaching New Heights with Mrs. Looper."

In the windows beside the door, I have happy memories of years gone by.  That picture of the nerds is one of my favorite teams.  

And this...this is me in the 5th grade.  Whew!  Terrible

I'm focusing on geography as an underlying skill with my 5th graders.  So, each time we read a book, or study an area in Social Studies, we have a little robot named AJ that we will move around the maps.

Instead of a list of jobs that I have to keep up with each week, I've divided my kids in half and 2 kids get to do everything!  Those are Pantone paint chips from Lowe's on book rings.

 Our school is an engineering school, so everything we do utilizes the steps of the Engineering Design Process.

  My back counter set up for Meet the Teacher yesterday.  The tops of my cabinets have foam board covered in fabric to hold student work.

School wide behavior guide - GEAR
Give Your Best
Exercise Smart Problem Solving
Act Responsibly
Respect Yourself and Others

Check out these fabulous pencils my husband made from balsa wood.  Aren't they great!

This is the whole board.  The Editor's Checklist will be added soon.

My status of the class.  Students move their number to the pizza pan that reflects the step of the writing process they are working on.

I've sprinkled my expectations and school rules around the room so students will always see it.

Word Wall Words and Cubbies

 Student Work Center and the What Stuck With You poster

The Calendar math board and reading group chalkboard.

Guided Reading Table

 View from the back of the room.

See ya over at Blog Hoppin!