Adventures on Track in Day

Some of you may wonder (or maybe not) what its like for me to track in four times a year.  This time I took some pictures.  I'm always moving into another teacher's classroom.  There is a period of time where both of us have stuff in the room and it's a mess everywhere.

When I came in yesterday morning at 7:00, this is what the room looked like.  The other teacher had already pulled a bunch of my stuff off of the track out room shelves so she could put her stuff on them.  Basically, you have everything set up to be easily put up and down.  Pocket charts, stick on magnets, tri-fold presentation boards, rolling carts.  There still is a lot of work putting things up, and a lot of teachers don't bother to do as much "decorating" because of it. 
I finally finished setting up around 6:45 in the evening.  Not bad, considering I had meetings half of the day.

This is the view of the room from behind my desk. 

Got this idea off of Pinterest (got addicted to that thing over track out).  I dare my little cuties to try and move their desks now!

Notice my desk accessories.  I got tired of the old random plastic stuff and decided to pretty it up.  Love the Container Store!  The kids baskets are ready to be filled with books!  One thing to make track in and out easier is all of the teachers have the sticky side of Velcro stickers on the backs of the cubbies.  Then we all put the fuzzy side on our own cubby tags.  When its time to track in and out, just pull 'em off or stick em on in seconds!

This is the view of my desk from the other side.  I found the owl wall sticker at Target.  School desks are so ugly, but this makes it cute!  Notice my big black cart.  I invested in that years ago, tired of packing up all of my math manipulatives and what not every single time.  The funny thing is, the idea spread and a lot of teachers now have their own!

This is one side of my double sided book shelf.  I lucked into acquiring it a few years ago when it used to be a grade level cart and the items were moved elsewhere.  These are my personal books, organized by genre.  On the top shelf is a framed "I Pick" sign.  I also made a little photo album of pictures of my kids through the years. 

My word catcher, waiting to catch some vocabulary words.  Each week I read a book and choose good vocabulary words to focus on.  Last year, my kids loved "catching" words in their own reading to add to the word wall.  It got so overwhelming, I had to give them their own "word catcher" books to keep in their reading baskets!

My CAFE board is easy to put up and take down for track out.  We will be setting goals next week.

My "carpet area."  I got the ideas for the seats off of Pinterest (again).  I had leftover striped fabric from my window cornices and Scott cut the boards from leftover wood from our book case project.  My Daily 5 I-charts have inspiring words "create" and "imagine."  My rocking chair folds up easily and I put it on top of my cart for track out.

Check out the desks.  I've never arranged them this way before, like a pinwheel.  We'll see how it goes.  I think its pretty cool! I use electrical tape for their name tags.  It stays on pretty well, and comes up super easy for track out time.  I used to spend time laminating and making cute name tags, but the kids pretty much destroyed them within the first 9 weeks, so I gave  that up last year.

The other side of my double sided book case.  Yes, that is a lot of books.  Years and years (13 to be exact) of collecting books with book club points.

Anyway, I had fun decorating.  I'm asking the kids next week to bring in 4"x6" framed family pictures which I'll place around the room.  I always tell them we're a family, especially being on a single track and pretty much staying together from kindergarten through 5th. I want my kids to feel cozy and like this is their home away from home, which in a way, it is!