We’re a little less than a week away from the first day of school and our building has been bustling with parent work parties and teacher busy-ness. I’ve been sorting supplies, getting my shelves organized and thinking through how the students will move through the space.
Our second grade classroom is definitely less spacious than the first grade (which, I must say, is the most beautiful room in our building!) so I was a little sad to say goodbye to that room, but as the summer has worn on, my new room has grown on me.
Orange is the color of the Waldorf second grade classroom and I’ve realized that there are so many different variations on this color! When I first saw the rust-orange color of the curtains, I wasn’t too fond of them, but we took them down, washed and ironed(!) them and they’ve brightened up considerably.
I always enjoy going through the boxes of new supplies, labeling them with my students’ names and getting them ready for us to use throughout the year. These pencils are a new addition this year. We’ll just use them for writing (I kept our beeswax crayons from last year for drawing) but I’m excited to have a variety of colors to choose from.
This bookcase with file folders is probably what I’m most excited about. These files are our “book boxes” and each child will have their own to fill with 6-7 reading books ready for our reading practice time. I got this idea from The Daily 5, which is all about encouraging independence in language arts lessons. With their book boxes ready to go, we’ll have a period of weeks to build our stamina for independent reading work. This way, I won’t have to give regular reminders about staying on task and I can be freed up to work with individual students on their reading.
I’m also excited about this shelf because on the other side is a nice little cozy corner. I’m trying to create two alternative cozy areas in the room so students can have a little more choice about where they do their reading.
This whole approach is helping me to create more academic choice for my students, which is something that doesn’t exist much in the traditional Waldorf classroom (at least in the lower grades.) They will still have to follow expectations and work their way through all of the activities, but I’m seeing how it works to give them options about the order and details about engaging in the activities. I’m really excited about it.
These little galvanized tins of chalk have been following me around for years. They’re sitting on top of the mini-fridge that holds our paint and I really kind of like it there. When I look down on it the rainbow of colors are so inspiring.
The chalkboard was surrounded by a pair of orange velvet curtains hanging down on either side. I was on the fence about them and took them down just this morning. The Halloween-orange just didn’t look right now that the curtains are up. So, tomorrow I’m heading to the fabric store to get some fabric to drape above and on the sides of the chalkboard. I don’t really need proper curtains because the chalkboard closes up. If there’s every a drawing or something I want to “reveal”, I can just do it on the inside of the board.
Without those orange curtains the front of the room definitely looks a little bare. Before I left today (after taking this picture) I hung a couple of watercolor pictures of saints above the cozy corner on the right and one above my desk on the left. The draping fabric above the chalkboard will also certainly help. And it’s funny — the shape of the chalkboard surround seems to be asking for a valance above.
My tried-and-true chore chart technique lives on. I can’t remember how long I’ve been working with the clothespins and painting paper. One thing to note if you try this yourself — make sure you write the students’ names on the pins in different directions on either side of the clothespin so it’ll work on either side.
Things are feeling remarkably ahead of schedule — I’m not even planning on going in to school tomorrow! But I’ve got plenty of work to do at home to get ready for school starting, which is just as important!
When the finishing touches are done I’ll post again with some more of my favorite things about our second grade classroom.
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