Classroom Reveal: Morning Meeting Area

Today is the first day of my classroom reveal and I am so excited to show off my morning meeting area! This is the main focal point of my classroom. Anyone who walks by sees this area first. This houses our class rules, class jobs, schedule and main student work storage.

.

 

We use these class rules from Especially Education. We already had and loved her whole body listening set (more about that tomorrow) so when she posted these I bought them without even looking. That’s when you know you trust a seller! I love these rules. It has a huge variety, it’s super interactive and it looks pretty. Functional decor is the best decor!

 

 

I bought this bookshelf off of Amazon over the summer and I absolutely love it! It’s short enough that all of my friends can reach the top shelf and the bright colors go perfectly under the class rules sign. I also love this type of shelf for adapted books. If a piece falls out of the book, the sling catches it and we can find it easily. No more lost pieces! I store my monthly adapted book sets here, as well as the adapted books from my weekly packs.

 

 

We use this classroom jobs set from Learning with Visuals. She has a ton of options in the pack! I just chose the 8 that fit best for my classroom! In the bottom of the photo you will see my aides’ binders. I will do a post on those soon and link it back to this page!

 

 

We use the schedule pack from Autism Adventures of Room 83. I actually pulled pieces from several different schedule packs to create this display. Her bundle is the best way to go. That will give you all of the options she has at an affordable price.

 

 

 

We keep a very simple calendar on this board as well. When you have multiple staff members working in a classroom, this is key. We write any leave we have and any special; events at school we need to remember. Concerts, field trips and special activities go on this calendar. I also write all of my IEPs so my assistants know what is going on. It’s such a cheap and simple way to keep everyone on the same page.

 

 

This is my main storage cube. I got this Kallax Shelf unit from Ikea. Make sure you check their section of imperfect furniture. That’s not what it’s called, but its the area where items that have a chip, scratch or other problem go. I got this cube from that section. There are some minor scratches on it and I saved a ton of money! This stores a lot of our teaching materials, all linked below!

 

.

 

On the top left shelf, I have 4 large binders. They are all 3 inch. These binders can get expensive, so ask around. I actually got all of my 3 inch binders for free on a yard sale site. I find that not a lot of people outside the education world need 3 inch binders and are happy to pass them off. I store the morning work for my 4 lower functioning students in these binders. We are using this morning work from School Bells N Whistles; it has been the perfect fit! I printed off the whole year back in September and I am so glad I did. It was a ton of printing but now morning work is taken care of through the end of the year! I made the covers myself in PowerPoint.

 

 

In the other set of 4 binders I store materials from Unique Learning System. I print off all of the papers we need for a month. Using ULS is a requirement in my district, so I find that when I prep all of the materials at the beginning of the month I am more prepared. I keep an extra large brown envelope in the front pocket of each binder. This is perfect to store any cut out pieces in case we take more than one day to do an assignment (which happens often).

 

 

I have two blue bins that I bought from Target over the summer. These bins from Amazon are similar. I store any current teaching materials in these bins so I can find them quickly. We are working on graphing in math, electricity in science and past, present, future in social studies. I also have the materials from the homemade maraca music project we did last week. I’ll do a blog post and share the set as a freebie next week, so come back and check for the link!

 

 

I also store 2 blue magazine holders that hold our morning calendars and our adapted music materials. I use my morning calendar pack. These spiral bound books make it so easy to make the first 30 minutes of my day run! We also use the adapted music binders from Mrs. D’s Corner as the base of our music lessons. I have not assembled her binders. I just print off the pages I need and store them in these bins.

 

 

This is my beloved Trofast from IKEA. In fact, I love this storage system so much I did a whole blog post on it. Read more here. We store all of the student work in here. I give you some sneak peaks below. I started this system in October and we have not lost any papers since! My kids know their color and know to put any work back in their bin. I can find anything at a moments notice. Above is our crayon storage. We store each crayon color in a separate drawer in these mini Sterilite containers. The label is just colored pieces of paper held with packing tape.

 

 

I also store my Xacto pencil sharpener here. If you don’t have an electric pencil sharpener, you don’t know what you are missing! One of my best classroom purchases.

 

Here is a better look at the IKEA system. Each student has a bin with a piece of duct tape on the front indicating their color. Look below for a peak at what is currently in the bins of a Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 student in my class.

 

 

This is what is in my Level 1 bin right now. Level 1 are my lowest learners. These are mostly non-verbal, pre-writing students. We use the Autism Helper leveled daily curriculum for Math, Language Arts and Social Studies. It is a HUGE purchase, but one of my favorites. Their books for each section are stored in here. I just print one level at a time. I also bought her Daily Homework set and use that as classwork for my kids. I love these journals from Tools for Busy Hands and the tracing books from 3 Dinosaurs.

 

 

 

This is what is in my Level 2 bin right now. Level 2 are my mid-range learners. These learners can communicate, write and complete basic academic skills. They have their Math, Language Arts and Social Studies work from The Autism Helper in their bins. They also have spelling activities from Just a Primary Girl to use with their spelling lists and their science materials from my electricity unit. They are using the reading passages from School Bells N Whistles, the ELA book from My Special Learners and the sentence pack from School Bells and Whistles. This student is also still finishing his journal from my School Supplies weekly pack.

 

 

 

This is what is in my Level 3 bin right now. Level 3 are my highest functioning learners. These learners are on a rough first/second grade level.  They have their Math, Language Arts and Social Studies work from The Autism Helper in their bins. They use the morning work from Just A Primary Girl. They are also working through these phonics based journals from Teaching is a Royal Adventure. They have their past, present, future pack from my set and my visual support worksheet pack. Their last item is the CVCe no prep packet from The Designer Teacher.

 

 

 

The last thing I want to highlight is this You Are Loved binder from Especially Education’s Kindness kit. This is a freebie in her store!

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this first segment of my classroom reveal! Check back tomorrow to see my Classroom Expectations corner (Especially Education will pop up again!!)