Mrs. Rachel's 4th Grade Classroom

Today is Monday and that means there are only 16 school days left. I can't wrap my mind around how this year is almost over! So before the decorations come down and the cleaning begins in a couple weeks, I wanted to take a minute (or blog) to share a little bit of my 4th grade classroom.

Let me start with this, missionary teachers do not have the luxury of JoAnn Fabrics, Michaels, U.S. Toys, School Box, and all those other stores that teachers swoon over. We have one office supply store on the island and lots of love shipped to us. Out of these humble classrooms we teach and we love, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Last year I was quite frustrated for a while at my lack of resources because I had already had a classroom in the U.S. and wanted this one to be equally as amazing and adorable. I finally realized though, that it's truly not the cute that makes students learn, it's the environment and attitude that I create in the classroom. Once I came to terms with that, my classroom started to take on its own homey feel in a unique mission-classroom way. Here's what mine looks like. :)

This is our "command center." It tells my students about important dates, our daily schedule, and our job schedule, all in one place. I had all of these elements last year, but they were all kinda floating around the room (It took me a while to figure it all out). I'm happy these pieces have all found each other because it makes for a perfect year-round bulletin board.

This is a white board that I use as an anchor chart center. I am blessed with lots of windows and natural light in my classroom, which also means my wall space is very limited. My white board also doesn't EVER erase so I was struggling with how to use the space. What better spot for my anchor charts than to have them front and center right where all of my students can see them at any time? Score.

A student enjoying the Writing Center. 

This reading corner started off so humbly with not even enough books for each student to have 2 at their desk. Now, thanks to some beautiful people and their generous donations, our library has overflowed to a REAL bookshelf AND enough for them to have 2 books at their seat! Praise the Lord!

Back to enjoying my room before it's all taken down!
Xo,
Mrs. Rachel