Since returning back to work I have been making some really awesome changes to my classroom. I never got around to taking pictures of my room earlier on in the year, but now I am excited to share with you some new photos of my UPDATED ROOM!

First off, here is my Reading Corner:

The books for my students to choose from are in the pink and green bins. The left shelving unit has my science, sports, comic books and chapter books, while the right one has my picture books (levelled from A to E) and some of my favourite series/books in their own bins.

The center bookshelf has their book boxes which contains their 3-5 books for the week, a personal dictionary, their “Journal de ma fin de semaine” and their Daily 5 duotang. I also have the books for “Écouter la lecture” in bins, as well as some other Daily 5 supplies and dictionaries.

I store my Brag Tags (on the top of the left shelving unit in small drawers) and Brag Tag Necklaces (on the right bulletin board) here as well. They are accessible by the students as I want them to be independent when getting their Brag Tags. My classroom rules and whole brain teaching rules are also posted here (on the pink bulletin board). For more information on Whole Brain Teaching check out my post on “Whole Brain Teaching – The Basics“.

This area also has one of my new black IKEA couches and a round table. I’m not sure I love the round table here as it can get a little crowded when students go to get their book boxes, but it works for now.

In my classroom, students can sit wherever they like for various activities, so this corner is also used for doing regular classwork. 

I will post some closeup pictures of the Reading Corner soon!

Two years ago, I was introduced to this wonderful project called “Reading for the Love of Reading”. It is essentially a book bag that goes home every week (or every second week) containing a book and an activity. The main purpose of this project is to create a love of books, to explore the magical worlds created by words, and to discover that there is more to reading than phonetics, tests and homework. It is meant to be read by a parent TO their child as this is not meant to be a decoding activity for the child. If the child WANTS to read WITH their parent, that is fine.

My Grade 2 Team and I worked hard to put together this project for our students. Every two weeks, the students take home a pouch that contains a book and a reading activity. They have the pouch at home for one week. The books are to be read by a parent to their child, and the activity (game, writing based, art based, etc.) is to be completed together.

I cannot get over how much the parents and my students love this project. My students look forward to receiving their book bags and having the books read to them by their parents. They also thoroughly enjoy the activities that go along with the books. It was a lot of prep work, but it was so worth it! I think we as educators can all agree how important it is for children to develop a love of reading, and this project fosters just that!