Last Summer Five for Friday

Linking up with Doodlebugs for my last weekday of summer vacation... *tear*

I have a few classroom updates since last week to share as I say farewell to a wonderful summer!

Loving the addition of book jackets to my library. I saw this idea last year towards the end of the year and just didn't have the time or energy to put up some string to hang book jackets on. I always take book jackets off when kiddo hands will be all over the book because despite keeping off dust, the covers get absolutely destroyed!

So now, books that are available in the library with covers taken off will have their covers hidden & a sign that says "Can you find these books in our library?"

 

The super improver wall is ready to go! Looking forward to name cards being all different colors as kiddos make improvements & move up the wall. I also can't wait until next year where the second grade number poster has to find a new home because I have faces of living legends in its place!

I finally took a picture of my picture book display. Normally I wouldn't post something as simple and classroom typical as well-loved books but check out the tag. I put a velcro dot on the book display and as I switch out different themed books throughout the year I will put the theme card on the book display... hooray for labels & organization (it really is the little things in life).

My mom made me curtains for my classroom and I have to say it makes a HUGE difference! The blinds in this classroom & the classroom in my old classroom are SO ugly and these curtains hide them perfectly and are fun and bright while doing so. The past 2 years my mom has made curtains to cover up shelves in my classroom closet, this year curtains for the windows, what's next year? haha!

Sorry for the poor quality of the picture (& Read on the Computer/Listen to Reading is cut off in the picture), but my Daily 5 i-charts & anchor charts for launch lessons are ready to go! So excited to start Daily 5 from day 1 with my grade level. I think it will be a success for sure and I am excited for the collaboration that will go along with it :)

Did you put your finishing touches on your room this week or are you already back at it teaching those kiddos?

Teacher Week: Where?

Linking up again with Blog Hoppin' Teacher Week for: Where?

I posted last week revealing my classroom, check it out here. Today, so I don't seem too repetitive, I will show you what I find to be the 3 most important parts in my room...

First: our meeting area...

Here is the meeting area in my classroom. This year I moved it to a more centralized location within the classroom. I felt it needed to be at the center of our community as it is such an important place during the day. Our meeting area is where we have our morning meeting, read alouds, lesson introductions and brain breaks. It is also where I meet with small groups of students, especially during math. Students can also use the meeting area as a work area when I do not have a group there. It is probably the most important part of our room!

Second: my "desk"/ group table

I went deskless last year since I almost always spread out on my reading table to get any work done anyway. My desk was more or less a "dumping ground" for papers I was too lazy to file. I can't stand clutter so getting rid of my desk not only created extra space in my room, but forced me to file papers rather than dump them on my desk. Myself, parent volunteers and my paras use this table to meet with groups of students during different parts of the day. When there isn't an adult meeting with a group, kiddos are welcome to use this as a work area. They love the crate seats (that you can't really see in the picture) and it fills up anytime it's free.

Third: our classroom library...

I mentioned when revealing this year's classroom setup how proud I am of my library this year. My chapter books were pretty well leveled with handwritten labels last year. This year I made chalkboard themed tags that are velcroed to the book bins. I also organized picture books by themes and created labels for picture book bins. I have SO many picture books between those within our curriculum to all the others I have been accumulating since I knew I wanted to teach. The past 2 years my kiddos probably only had about 1/4 of those books available to read throughout the year. This year I plan to not only display books on the wooden display I have (I need to take a picture of it!) but also rotate picture books through the book bins as well! On the top of the white book shelf (next to Garfield) I'll display books I've read aloud that students can read on their own.

There are tons of other important, cute & fun areas in my classroom but we certainly couldn't do as much learning without the 3 areas I shared today. What are the 3 most important parts of your room?

5 for Friday: Classroom Reveal

This is the classroom reveal version of Five for Friday here at Teacher Will Run for Books!
Thanks to Doodlebugs Teaching for providing a link-up that can be anything we want it to be :)

Alrighty, here we go... classroom reveal 2014!!!

I am most proud of my library this year! I spent nearly a full day organizing my picture books. All my chapter books were pretty well organized, but the picture books were a mess, which meant I didn't always have as many picture books out as I wanted to. Now, I not only have my wooden picture book display but also baskets of picture books with labels. I also made much prettier labels for my chapter books too indicating the level and/or series.

I also put up cute Daily 5 reminders in the library such as 3 ways to read a book, EEKK, Good Fit, IPICK and helpful Just Right Book hints. We'll have anchor charts for each of these hanging when we first introduce them but I want to have some reminders up all year such as these in the library.

This is a new idea I had for this year... The top of this bookshelf will serve as a "preview" of read alouds that will be happening soon. I always display read alouds at the top of a shelf in my library (next to Garfield in the top photo) but thought it might build anticipation to see the upcoming read alouds a week or so before they're read.

While on the topic of Daily 5, here is my Daily 5 focus area. I will also have large anchor charts up for each of the Daily 5 choices until our stamina is up to 20 minutes plus. These small posters will stay up all year though. (Sorry, a little blurry)

I am loving my CAFE board! As we introduce strategies, they will go under the poster for that heading. When students have a focus strategy they will write their name on the laminated card at the bottom of the board.

Next up is my writing station. Here is where kiddos will be able to get paper, supplies & inspiration for their writing. I'm hoping to get 2 stools so kiddos can sit at the counter and work at this station too.

Next up is math... I have a "math board" this year with the Math Daily 3 choices, math strategies and lots of room for an anchor chart or 2!

I have struggled the past 2 years to store math games and activities. This year I bought a second set of colorful drawers, made labels for all my games in each math unit and used velcro so I can easily change out games throughout the year.

This last group of photos is other random stuff in my room...

Here is my super improver wall! My grade level partners will be using the same exact one and the third grade teacher across the hall will be doing a "star themed" wall. I'm hoping the super improver wall will catch on in the building as I think it is SUCH a positive behavior system :) Kiddo's names will go on white paper in the pocket chart. In the empty space I plan on putting a poster with kiddo's names and their classroom numbers. In the future, it will be where I put my "Living Legends'" pictures.

Here's our meeting area. I hope the fact that part of our morning meeting routine board is behind a book shelf won't be an issue haha.

Loving my labels for the drawers where kiddos will get their word work supplies from!

And finally (for now) here is what my kiddos' team tables look like... all organized with supplies & book bins!

I'll have kiddos a week from Wednesday and I'm feeling pretty ready both to start the year as well as fit in a beach day (or 2) before we start! Have a great week, hope you enjoyed getting a peek into my classroom.

Going Deskless and Letters

As promised back in a mid-March Five for Friday link-up, here is my post about going deskless...

I am also linking up with Five for Friday today :)

I am also linking up with Friday Freebie. You'll find a letter writing freebie on number 3.

I've wanted to go deskless for a while. Last year, I felt my desk area took up too much space and this year it was my "dump off zone." I used to sit at my desk last year because every teacher had a desktop and my desktop was on my desk. This year, each teacher has a laptop (I have my personal laptop hooked up to everything because it's easier to have everything in one place) so I NEVER sit at my desk. My reading table is so much roomier, and after a couple months I even moved my comfy desk chair to my reading table.

Here is my desk before the year started. I didn't even have my beloved mac set up on the school network yet...

In a pretty small room, my desk just took up way too much space. So, after much reorganizing, and my new easel holding our meeting area supplies instead of my rolling drawers, going deskless was possible!

Here's what the area looks like now... I'm thinking I have lots of possibilities when I rearrange my room for next year!

Wondering what I did with all the stuff in and on my desk? Well the drawers in the background of the above picture as well as the drawers near my reading table pictured below. The drawers used to be by our meeting/rug area, but with my new easel I didn't need the drawers.

I also found that rearranging the closet in our coat room opened A LOT of space for the things I didn't use on a daily basis/extra supplies.

I am LOVING the deskless-ness of my room! The room feels more open and I don't miss the desk at all, I mean honestly, I NEVER sat at it. When I use my reading table, I just put my laptop on the back counter and boom, we have a reading table!

If you aren't a facebook follower, you probably didn't get to hear about the April Fool's prank one of my grade level partners pulled on me. We had our common planning time and he decided while going to drop something off, he'd stop in my room and hide my new and beloved easel in the teacher's room across the hall. Those third graders played it off SO well when I came around asking where the easel was (it was hidden in their coat closet!)

Sorry for the terrible quality, I was probably shaking with anger when I took it ;) Did I mention I reallllly don't like April Fool's Day!?

We started our letter unit in writing and we are reading Dear Mr. Henshaw in reading so we are all about letters! Here's a fun anchor chart I modeled off one I found somewhere in the world of pinterest.

Check out a letter writing freebie I created for one of my grade level partners here.

I downloaded the Daily 5 book to my iPad to read over April vacation while we're flying to our cruise launch destination! I couldn't help myself and read a couple chapters and am HOOKED... I might end up having to download the CAFE book for the flight because I'll be done with the Daily 5!

One of the teachers in my grade program brought in Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson for our weekly book review. I loved it so much I bought it at our book fair.

In the story, a new girl moves into a school and the main character and the other students are unkind to her because she is different than them. The girl then leaves to go to another school and the teacher demonstrates the "ripple effect" with a bucket of water and a stone, telling students that each kind thing we do ripples into the world. The main character then realized the missed opportunity in having not been kind to the new girl because she could never take the unkindness back.

This week we had conferences and I must admit I am very happy for it to be Friday. And in even better news, I get to meet my new niece tonight :)