Reading Area

I have been back up at school this week starting to organize. My school will be implementing the suggestions Max Thompson gave us when he visited our school in the Spring. (If you haven't heard of him yet, look him up.) He said we have too many things up in the classrooms for the
types of children we have in our school. (I work at a Kindergarten-2nd Grade school.)

So, we had to remove EVERYTHING from the walls in June. They set up some "Model classrooms" and we are to make our rooms look similar to those.

I don't mind reducing the visual noise, but I must say, it is not as much fun getting ready for the new school year for me. I always enjoy decorating and coming up with a theme and colors to use. I am keeping some of the last theme- "Jungle-theme" and I am using color where I can.

Yesterday, I worked some on the Reading Area and where to keep the Book Baskets. For the last 2 years, the children used tote bags and kept them in

their cubbies. But, I have decided they won't have cubbies this year (due to a lot of stealing the last couple of years) and I will use the cubbies for storage. The kids will put their backpacks in 2 large tubs I will put in my office and lock. (I am one of the lucky ones that has an office:)

Here is a picture of my Reading Area.

This will also be where we do our group Reading lessons. Before, I had 2 separate areas.

I think I have decided to keep the book baskets on the back side of the book shelves. They are the colorful baskets. I had these from when I used them a few years ago. I went yesterday to the Dollar Tree and they still sell the same kind so I got more so I would have 20.

I found these adorable (free) numbers on Teachers Pay Teachers done by Michelle McIlhinny.

Since the kids will all be assigned a number, I thought this would be the easiest way to mark the Book Baskets. Here is where I think we will keep the Reading Baskets.

I have used Book Baskets before and they worked very well. We'll see how this set-up works.