Teacher Share: Print Rich Environment

Are you wondering how to make your room a print rich classroom? Thankfully we are going to get a tour of a beautiful First Grade room that is well organized, with print surrounding the students as tools to their learning. A special thank to Ms. Shoemaker for allowing us to see her beautiful First Grade Classroom at Passages Elementary School.

The classroom is organized into two sides of the room. The first side is the class meeting area with a rug and dry erase board. The second side is the desk area for students to work independently. Notice how all the student desks are facing the front board. There is a guided reading table for small groups to meet.

Next to the rug area, is a small reading nook with leveled books.

Classroom Management : The room reflects the structures and organization that exists within Ms. Shoemaker's managment system.

Her rules are posted, and cards evident to show students if they are making good choices in their behavior.

The Heart Chart is an incentive for students to use good manner. Students in this classroom are consistenly saying, "Please, thank you, excuse me, I like the way you..." When Ms Shoemaker hears someone using good manners, she adds a talley to their name. This reinforces how to use tally marks.

Students sign out with a dry erase and dry erase board when they go to the bathroom. This way the teacher knows exactly who is out of the room. Also, next to the computer is a laminated class list. To give each student a chance to use the computer, they slide the paperclip down to the next name.

Ms. Shoemaker motivates the class to complete their homework by keeping track of the number of days every student in the class turns in their completed work.

Learning Objectives: Walking into this classroom, you know exactly what the students are working on. In addition to the daily schedule, the teacher posts the learning objectives for each subject being taught that day. It is written in student friendly language so students know what they are expected to learn that day.

Math Board: Many times teachers buy materials from the teacher store to fill the classroom, notice what a different effect it has when the materials is teacher created. Again, this is not a pretty display board, but a teaching took. Remember to be creative and use velcro, sandwich bags and magnets to make your bulletin boards work.

The Piggy Bank

Organzing and Labeling: The room is visual appealing and all manipulatives are easy to find. By labeling tubs you are not only helping label things but these words became more familiar to students and they are able to read the words in other texts and environments. Think how all students can read the work "McDonalds." This is because they have been exposed to it many times. The same is true for labels in the room.