I hope everyone is having a great school year so far! This will be my 4th week with students. We spent the first week and a half making it a safe place for our students, getting to know to know one another and giving them a chance to get to know the space. I teach K-5, and this week was my first full week with my K students. Everything is so new for them that our school principal and their teachers feel that for specialists to start teaching them subject material from day one could be terrifying! I love this new approach of getting to know our students before we dive into our curriculums.
I have been working on classroom routines, classroom rules and encouraging them to use hand signals when we are in class. I have decorated my classroom with some input for them but will be adding more little by little. I feel that it doesn’t make sense for me to fill every space on the walls of my classrooms with signs that they don’t yet understand, and I know I am not in need of them yet.
I have been making some changes around the room according to the needs of my students. I have a deskless classroom. My K-2 students sit on the rug, and grades 3-5 have assigned seats. Each chair has a pocket where we keep our notebooks and pencils. That saves me time when we do writing activities.
I have a calendar, but I mostly use an online version projected on the board. The online version of the calendar has links to guess the day’s temperature in different Spanish countries.
I have about 115 students, so this poster has been helpful to remember dates. Every month we change it, and the children quickly write their name and date of their birthday.
I have a class list and have assigned a number to each of my students in each grade. I use these popsicle sticks (not a new idea!) to choose participants in the different games we play, since sometimes it is hard to choose. Students also have the choice to say “paso” to indicate “I pass.”
I added a reading corner to my classroom. I haven’t use it yet, but I plan to add copies of the TPRS® stories we do this year. I have some students who are heritage speakers, so I think they could benefit from other stories as well.
I also like comparing the time zones in different countries. I have a clock that shows Colombia, one for Austin and one for Equatorial Guinea. I might change the countries later.
I have decorated the classroom with some useful language, question boards and signals, and classroom rules. At the top of the board, I keep the flags of the countries of study. We do about 8 per school year with grades 2-5. One more thing is that this year the interactive board comes with a microphone which is great for the little ones. They can hear me better and are more engaged.
I have a projector that I can use to work on rewriting stories together or simply filling out worksheets in class. Best thing to have ever!
Next to the projector, I have a table with different props and with some Yoga cards that I use as brain breaks with my students.
I also keep a chime handy when the attention getters I use don’t work. Voice saver!
I have decorated the classroom with art from different Spanish speaking countries. I wish I had one to represent each country. So far I have a lot from Colombia, Panamá, La República Dominica, Guatemala, Ecuador, México, and Chile. I write the name of the country under the piece of art so students know where it comes from.
I also have have other small decorations around the room, mostly around my computer. I have a chair next to some furniture that is part of the classroom.
I use this chair for students to sit when we sing the birthday song.
This is a Friday selfie! Feeling ready to go home!
How is your school year going? Do you have a classroom, or are you traveling? I used to be a traveling teacher and wrote a post a while back about how I used to roll! You might find the post helpful! ¡Feliz año escolar!
Yay! This is why I have a blog, so we can inspire and help each other. I hope you had an awesome school year!
Your classroom is definitely wonderful! Thanks for sharing that beautiful place.
Thank YOU for stopping by to read my blog!
Wow! I’ve been teaching Spanish for 30 years and I love your innovative and progressive style, fun activities and exciting methods. Thank you for bringing that to your students and your beautiful classroom space
Thank you so much! I appreciate your kind words. Thanks again for reading my blog!
Wow! Looks great. How old are your students? I love your little videos. Im going to do the tissue box colour one. Thank you x
Love the time zone clocks! Great touch.
Thanks for sharing your amazing ideas.
Hi, Carolina!
I am considering going deskless this year…I also teach K-5, but we have 1,100 students. Some of my classes will have up to 32-34 students, so setting up the chairs is what is giving me trouble. I have bulky chairs and it’s difficult to get them side by side like you have them without having to make two rows of chairs. Any ideas? I’m afraid of getting rid of my tables (5 altogether), and then not being able to get them back! Help!
Hola Cristina,
Thanks for writing! Is there a way to move the tables against the walls putting them in U shape? One of my colleagues has tables like that in her room, and it seems to work fine. Please share with me whar you decide.