Do you have a classroom theme? I've had many different themes, but this year I decided on a crayon themed classroom. I liked the idea of using a rainbow of colors and what better way to do that than with crayons!
Welcome To My Crayon Themed Classroom
As you enter my room you're greeted with a brand new quote on my door. A friend made this for me with her Cricut machine. I loved that she added a little crayon to match my theme!
Morning Chores
The first thing my students do each day, before entering the room are their morning chores. They use this morning chores chart to help them remember what they need to do. They have four things on their list of morning chores.
The first chore is to sign in on our pocket chart. This is where they choose if they are buying or packing lunch. I also use this as a quick way to scan for attendance.
Next, they put their daily folder in the basket. My students have a folder that goes back and forth each day with all their papers and work. They put it in the basket each morning and I quickly check them for notes from home, before I put them in their mailbox. At the end of the day, they put all their papers from their mailbox into the folder and take them home for parents to check each night.
Then, they go to the bathroom and wash their hands. I find that if I have kids use the restroom right before class begins it cuts down on bathroom interruptions in the morning. Plus, I always like them to have clean hands before entering the room. It cuts down on germs and helps keep away the sickness!
Finally, they come into the room and they can take their seat and begin any morning work or use morning tubs at their tables.
Classroom Library
Here's a photo of my library. I keep all of my books organized by both level and genre. I use these free labels on each of my books and put them in books bins with matching labels. This makes it so easy for my students to put books back in the right place.
In this photo you can see my leveled books and on the other shelf are all of my books that are organized by author and genre. I found a cute rainbow umbrella and hung it over our reading area to give it a cozy effect.
Spelling Center
I love my spelling center because it's one of the easiest centers for me to maintain. The only thing I have to do is change the words in the pocket chart each week.
I have 20 different activities that work with any word list for the students to choose from. I usually begin with 2 activities at the start of the year and then add more activities as the year goes on. They can choose from things like rainbow writing, fancy writing, ABC order, magic words, typing words, stamping words, chalkboard writing and more.
The kids love it because there is always something different and fun to do at the center, but it's super easy to maintain. So I love it too!
Writing Center
My writing center sits back to back with our Big Book Center. I keep it very simple in the beginning. Just some different sizes and colors of paper, crayons, pencils, a word book and some mini word walls.
As they year goes on I will continue to add many things to this center. I change out the writing activities with monthly writing center activities. Students can choose from the following types of writing templates and activities:
- Making lists
- Labeling pictures
- Letter writing
- Post cards
- Writing greeting cards
- Writing stories
- How to writing
- Opinion writing
- Making mini books
- Writing book reports
My students love to come to the writing center because there's always a variety of options for them to choose from. And the best thing about first grade is seeing the progress they make in their writing by the time May rolls around!
Crayon Themed Classroom Bulletin Boards
I have a huge bulletin board across the back my room. I never know what to put here because it has a big shelf and computers in front of it, so it's impossible to make it interactive. It's also very hard to get to because of the shelf and computers.
I decided this year it will be a display board for the kids creations. I found a crayon bulletin board set that says Welcome To First Grade with a giant box of crayons. I wrote the kids names on the small crayons and put that in the center. On either side, I will hang the students work.
I made some cute crayon clothespins to hang the student work. I simply hot glued a crayon on the front of the clothespin and a thumbtack on the back. They worked great for hanging papers.
This bulletin board is just outside of my classroom in the hallway. I covered a cardboard box with yellow paper and made it look like a giant 3 dimensional box of crayons. I attached it to the bulletin board with push pins. I also found some giant plastic crayons and hung those on the board too. I love when a bulletin board pops!
I added the words We Are The Brightest Crayons In The Box. A simple tip to make your bulletin board letters pop and look different is to cut them out of wrapping paper. I did this with some rainbow wrapping paper for the letters in the word “brightest”. Back them on black paper and it makes them look great!
Big Book and Retelling Center
My firsties love to come to this center and use the pointers to read the books with large print. As the year goes on, I add things like flannel board pieces, puppets, cool pointers, etc.
Book Boxes
I used some crayon themed numbers for our book boxes. The students read silently to themselves every day. We start the year building our stamina to be able to sit for long periods of time, reading. We begin with 1-2 minutes of quiet reading. We continue to add to the time minute by minute, every day, until we are able to read quietly for 20-30 minutes every day.
Crayon Themed Classroom – Clip Chart
Sometimes I use a clip chart for classroom management. I find that at the beginning of the year it's an extremely useful tool as children are testing their limits and learning the rules. As time goes on, it becomes less important as students simply understand and follow the rules on their own. But in the beginning, its a great help.
I love that I can reinforce positive behaviors on the clip chart. Whenever a student clips all the way to the top in one day, they get a little “diamond” jewel sticker on their clip.
They love earning a “diamond”! When someone has earned 5 jewels, their clip is retired and moved to the Clip Hall of Fame and they get a brand new clip. My firsties are super proud to earn a diamond and even prouder when they go to the Clip Hall of Fame!
Math Bulletin Board
This is our Math Board. It's at the front of the room and we use it daily during our Math lessons. We add new vocabulary to the Math Words chart and refer to our Strategies for Addition and Subtraction daily.
Art Center
Our Art Center looks pretty boring right now….but as the year goes on it will be full of creativity and wonderful creations made by the kids! The wooden drawers are filled with things the kids can use to create – play dough, bingo daubers, stamp pads and stamps, chalk, paint, yarn, ribbon, macaroni…..you name it, we have it!
Big Big Goals Bulletin Board
This is our Big Big Goals board and one of the most important places in our room. It is at the front of the classroom, right next to our carpet area and we talk about this board every day.
It is a requirement for us, as it is for so many of you too, to post our standards. I wanted this to be a really simple area that the kids could understand
I think it is ridiculous to post a bunch of standards that children do not understand or care about. YEP I SAID THAT. So I made this bulletin board.
We have 3 BIG BIG GOALS that we are trying to reach by the end of the year. And we talk about these goals every day. Then, we have little goals each week that will help us reach our BIG BIG GOALS. That's where I write my very simple weekly standards like ” I can read my sight words” or “I can add numbers up to 10”.
Each day, during our morning meeting we discuss our big big goals and what we are going to do that day to help us reach that goal. And it works. The students understand why we do what we do. We know we have jobs to do to reach our goals and we work toward them every day. I love our Big Big Goals Board. ❤️
Guided Reading
Finally, one of the most important areas of the room is our guided reading area. I keep everything I need (leveled books, word cards, magnetic letters, vocabulary cards, games, etc) on the open shelves behind the table and in my toolbox on top of the table.
Crayon Themed Classroom – Welcome Kit
I was so excited when I found these Crayola gummy candies. I made this cute little tag that said – It's Going To Be A Colorful Year – and set those at each students seat for our meet the teacher night. These rainbow suckers were another cute treat for the kids.
I also made a parent welcome letter for each family for our meet the teacher night too. This editable welcome pack was super cute because each page had the crayon theme and gave parents all the information they needed about our classroom. It includes information about our class schedule, lunch and snack routines, our classroom rules and expectations, volunteering information, dress code and more.
Are you ready to rock your own crayon theme classroom? Click here to grab everything you need for your own crayon classroom decor.
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