Tables are essential for what Harwell-Braun calls her “project-based classroom.” They allow for a greater variety of activities and for students to collaborate and discuss.
Students leave notes and money from home on a table near the entrance. They also sign in here every day. Under the table is a file for their take-home work.
The only place in the room where students must ask permission before entering is “teacher country.”
Students each have a cubby in the back of the classroom. This helps keep the tables in the room free for a variety of activities during the day.
Harwell-Braun tries to use the space outside the school as well. The class uses the thermometer and rain gauge shown here, and also goes outside to find necessary space for certain activities, projects, and games.
When it is time to clean up and change from one activity to the next, the students sing. The songs help them to know how long they have to get from one activity to the next.
A student works on a math problem sheet using manipulatives. The students have access to the manipulatives and understand the importance of putting them back where they belong when they are done.
During math center time, some students work in groups on math problems, games, and activities.
Students do math on the computer. If she needs to, Harwell-Braun can turn on the television above the students’ heads to see what they are doing from the other side of the room.
During math centers, Harwell-Braun uses plastic tiles to help students understand perimeter and area.
In these labeled containers, math manipulatives are both readily accessible and easy to put away.
The reading corner has research materials as well as pleasure books and self-selected readings for each student.
The display shelf in the reading corner holds books students can read for pleasure.
Each literature circle has a clipboard with all the paperwork necessary for them to work independently. The clipboards are kept on the wall in the reading corner so students can access them easily.
Harwell-Braun has been collecting paperbacks for a long time. She buys them secondhand or when Scholastic has a sale.