Classroom Tour: Hallway/Coat Room

Today, we will continue along with a tour of my classroom.  I am going to cover my hallway/coatroom today.  Maybe not very exciting to you...but I spent a good chunk of time organizing/creating all this stuff, so figured I would share it with you.  Many of these little tid-bits really help me save time!

Starting out with my closet...I use my closet for my students backpacks/mailboxes as well as storing my teacher supplies.  

Here are my student coat hooks, I label each child's hook to help work on name-identification, and to help keep coats/backpacks organized.

For some students who cannot yet identify their names, I have color coded their name-tag around the classroom.  Everyone else has a plain white name-tag.  

I also have this nice storage rack which I use as mailboxes for each student.  The kids are supposed to check their mailbox at the end of each day to see if there is anything that needs to go home.  My assistant puts my student homework folders in these mailboxes which gets the kids in the habit of checking every day.

I also have this rack for students to turn in homework as well as forms/notes from home.  I have velcroed a checklist on, so I can keep track of who brings back the forms.

I laminated it, so I can just write in the needed forms at the present moment....then just make a quick check mark when they come back in.  

Here is some of my "teacher storage" in the closet.  I have a lot of my curriculum stored in binders in this built in cabinet.

These binders contain a collection of worksheets I have gathered throughout my teaching years and they make it so easy when I am looking for worksheets on a specific topic.  Just grab and photo-copy!  Now, when I find a few new worksheets I like, I just add them into the binder for a growing resource of worksheets/activities.  

In another shelf in my closet, I store all my file folders/work station tasks that are not currently in use.

And, I also have a tall cabinet where I store my thematic science tubs.  These contain all the hands-on activities that go along with my monthly science units.

And, this is where my true OCD comes out...I store all my extra student supplies in labeled crates in another cabinet.  

 And now onto the hallway.  I created this banner that says "Wow Work" and hung some top-loading sheets in the hallway right outside my classroom.

We don't currently have anything in our top-loading sheets, but this cute sign "fabulous work coming soon," is  a great place holder!  

And that is it for today and pretty much sums up the new additions to my classroom this year.  As I make other changes, I will definitely keep you posted!