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Surprise! I’m heading back to 2nd grade for the 2023-2024 school year, and I couldn’t be more excited! Not only am I going back to the classroom after several years at home with my girls and focusing on curriculum and professional development, but I get to have my daughter in my class, which is super special and fun! In this blog post, I’m giving you the official classroom reveal and tour of my new classroom. You’ll find inspiration, links, and a sneak peek at my classroom setup. Let me preface this by saying… my classroom is not perfect. Not every space is Pinterest-pretty or super organized, but I think it’s important to remember as teachers that that is okay! Let’s get started!
This post contains affiliate links. You can see my disclosure here.
Before we get started, I wanted to mention that many of the items you see in this blog post can be found in my Amazon storefront in my Classroom Tour category. If you want to see the classroom reveal in action, you can watch my YouTube tour video below!
There are 2 doors to my classroom, but when students first enter the door, this is what you see. I have table groups for my students’ desks with table signs above each group.
I have 20 students with 2 students per cubby. Each student has a name tag hot-glued onto the inside of their cubby with their number and name on it.
Above the cubby area are my math manipulative tubs, which you can learn more about and grab a free label for here. Their book boxes will go across the top of this space.
Above the cubby area is this adorable “In My Second Grade Era” saying, which I printed on white paper with this font and cut out with my Cricut. This font already has the circle around each letter, which is nice! I added fun pom-pom cutouts for a little accent.
This is where my classroom jobs and helpers area is going to be as well as my pocket chart of stickers, which will be one of the rewards my students can earn. I hung the pocket chart with these clear hooks off of Amazon, which are comparable to a command strip, but they don’t peel off the paint when removed. You’ll see these in many areas of my classroom!
Above this is my “Be a Light” sign, which I designed as part of my collaboration with Simply Stained Shop! My clock still needs the numbers that go around it. I also have a small pink basket on the floor for my students’ lunch boxes, which I snagged at Goodwill for 50 cents.
The next part of the classroom tour is my ELA shelf. This is definitely still a work in progress, but we’ll get there! We are using Journey’s for our ELA curriculum, so I have all of our curriculum books and teacher workbooks on this shelf. I also have my supplemental Journey’s units down below, with our leveled readers in baskets. This area is likely to change as the year gets going, but this is what we’re working with right now!
This area is going to be my reading and writing center space. I have a pocket chart with clear hooks that holds my spelling activities for any word list. Every couple of weeks, I will swap these out. I have the laminated direction page in the front and the recording sheet behind it.
Below that is my writing bulletin board and the basket of all of my fun pens, markers, and writing utensils. There is a little container for our writing folders, which is labeled from my classroom label set. I also have a little basket for our monthly photo writing prompts, which is below my sound wall, which I got from Mrs. Richardson’s class here. These editable burlap pencils that I used as headers are in my TPT store here.
My bulletin board background is an off-white shiplap and my borders are a cow print theme. Throughout my classroom, you’ll see a bit of cow print accented by bright colors.
The next part of the classroom tour is the student work bulletin board. Each student has a file folder with a two-pronged brad attached, which I got off of Amazon. I cut them in half and each student has a display throughout the year. We can hole punch and add their work to the folder to showcase in our classroom, and at the end of the year, I’ll turn that into a scrapbook for them to take home.
Above this bulletin board are my signs that say “You Are Loved,” which I created with fonts on my computer and printed off on colored paper.
My classroom library was one of the biggest changes from my previous classroom setup. I used to have huge bookshelves, but now, I have 2 giant tubs of books. On the black shelves, I organized my books by theme and types of books, which I labeled with these labels. Each book has a sticker on the inside that matches the sticker on the basket so students can easily locate them and put them back.
The next section of my classroom setup is my main classroom storage area. This is where I keep my student mailboxes, which you can learn more about and grab a free sign for here. This section also includes my student turn-in trays. I’m trying something new this year and having students highlight their name before turning in work in one of three colors:
These highlighter labels are also from my classroom supply labels set. I’m hoping this will help students self-reflect on their learning and help me see how they’re feeling about their work.
In this area, you’ll also find our pencil sharpeners, sharpened pencils, broken pencils, crayons organized in drawers, etc.
I have a sink and cabinets for storage here as well. I organize all of my guided math units in this cabinet as well as other binders and miscellaneous items. My large cabinet here is going to display my birthday board and I’ll be adding a flexible seating display below that. Inside the cabinet are various craft supplies and extra decor items.
I’m really excited about this next part of the classroom reveal, which is something new I’m implementing this year… the affirmation mirror. I got an inexpensive mirror from Walmart and printed these affirmation cards to hang around it. Each morning, the kids will choose an affirmation to say in front of the mirror when they come in.
My math wall is my favorite area in my classroom setup. In this area is my teacher table, which I’ll be getting a dry erase horseshoe table for soon, which I am SO excited about! This is where my students’ math station folders will be as well as my math station rotation board, which you can learn more about here. I have all of our math station rules posters in this area as well. You can grab the free set of posters here.
I also have a math talk area where I may put our anchor chart that we create together or vocabulary words and other things that are pertinent to what we’re working on.
This next area of the classroom setup is a little bit of math as well as my teacher area. I have shape posters and number posters with ten frames and base ten, which come with a cute cow print accent option.
I have my beloved teacher toolbox with all of my teacher and desk must-haves. Once our small groups get going, I’ll use the turquoise baskets to store different small group materials.
The 6-drawer cart from Walmart is where I store all of my small group materials. I use 3 baskets for math and 3 for reading. My rolling organization drawer cart has baskets for each day of the week, as well as drawers for filing, copying, grading, next week, and miscellaneous. I also have my wireless doorbell for classroom management in this teacher area. I decorated with a couple more signs from my collaboration with Simply Stained Shop.
The next part of my classroom reveal is the math shelf. My school uses Envision, so our curriculum workbooks and my guided math curriculum are on this shelf. These tubs organize my math manipulatives and are labeled with my math manipulative labels.
My guided math curriculum is my pride and joy and is stored in these turquoise scrapbook containers. I get these containers at Michaels when they’re on sale (plus, you can use your teacher discount!). In these containers, I place all of my prepped materials for my guided math units, including any centers or activities that pertain to that unit and any concept-specific math read aloud books. Read more about how I store and organize my guided math curriculum here.
The front of my classroom has our cart of Chromebooks and a number pocket chart on the side that I hung with these magnetic hooks. Each student will store their stylus and login card in their designated pocket.
On the whiteboard, I have back to school books on sturdy magnetic shelves and my classroom management board puzzles.
On the black bookshelves from Walmart are morning tub materials. The shared supply station has crayons, glue sticks, pencils, etc. I’ll have a basket of my work there as well as a classroom timer, voice level posters and lights to indicate which voice level we’re on.
I have a flip calendar with ombre date cards, which I’m excited to try this year. Across the top of my whiteboard are non-verbal hand signal posters.
One of my favorite additions to my classroom this year is this cow print math-themed alphabet line. Our classroom rules posters are in this area, too.
The focus wall is the next part of the classroom tour, and again, I used my editable burlap pencil accents to create the header. These focus wall headers are free in my TPT store here.
I am using pocket charts and these dry erase pockets to slide each week’s focus skill poster in so I can easily swap them out.
Below the focus wall is my VIP table and a 3 drawer storage bin with dry erase boards, extra journals, etc.
There you have it… my 2023-2024 classroom reveal! I am so in love with it and it’s definitely a work in progress, but one I’m really proud of and excited to watch my students learn and grow in.
If you have any questions about any part of the classroom tour, feel free to leave me a comment and let me know!
Math should be fun, not stressful. Ditch the timed math fact tests and replace them with math games that will help your students learn and retain information more effectively.
© Saddle Up for 2nd Grade • Website by KristenDoyle.co
