Classroom Day 4 and a Surprise for Me!

On Friday, I went in to the classroom for just a few hours to try to work on some boards in my room that I wanted to have ready. Here are a few of them:



This one is simple. It is the white board behind my guided reading table. I hung two clips with velcro dots because it isn't a magnetic whiteboard. This way I can attach chart paper if I want to for my groups. I also hung a small pocket chart from the Target Dollar Spot for sight words, vocab words, etc. I hung 2 command hooks below the board and they are holding 2 of the reading bags I created. If you want to know more about them you can visit here.



This is my calendar area. The blue pocket chart is used for word sorts, vocab picture and word cards from our HMH vocabulary program, or whatever I need it for. The red pocket chart is our place value chart. I just still need to add 3 ten-frames for the date.

Below that board and my ENO board I hung my genre posters.

This will be for my word wall. It took forever for me to get the boxes as even as I wanted them. I got those word wall cards with my Bright and Cheerful Pack from Clutter-Free Classrooms. I really like the patterns with them, but I don't like that from far away they just look white. :(

Here is a close up of one of the cards.

This board is right behind my mom's table. I hung 2 clips for her chart paper too and also a pocket chart. You can also see my travel ribbons hanging there. Her area is right by the doorway so I wanted them to hang close to where we would be dismissing.

This board is right next to my mom's area also. You can see her teacher tool box there. :)  This is our math wall with a few cute anchor charts that I found last year that give some strategies for solving math problems. To the left of the picture you see my pocket holder that will hold our Tiger Paws (PBIS).

This is where the students will let me know they are ready for an AR test by putting their number card into the pocket chart in a line.



My mom also worked on organizing our cleaning cabinet too. This cabinet holds cleaning supplies, light bulbs, paper towels, baggies, paper plates and silverware, and a few art supplies.



So, after we did all that we left for the day....and on to my surprise! My husband had told me not to make any plans for the night. He whisked me away around 7 p.m. to head out for our surprise evening after he came home from work and completely cleaned the inside and outside of our truck to make it look amazing! He wouldn't tell me where we were going until we arrived. Now, it is important to know that I have been begging to go to a drive-in movie FOREVER and we finally went! I was so excited! But the fun didn't stop there....when we got there he reached in the seat behind me and pulled out these:

AWWW!! He is so romantic! He also gave me a sweet card and this was for absolutely no reason!

So, you can imagine I was a happy girl already. Well, as I was working the other day on preparing some center activities for Word Work, my little trusty buddy broke...

My little sweetie daughter passed this information on to my dear husband and suprise!! He had this new baby in the truck that night too!!

I am such a lucky girl!! If you're reading this...Thanks Sweetie!!

Well, I am not planning to go to my room tomorrow. My student teacher from this spring got a job and I am planning to help her for a bit in her room and then I have an RTI summit to go to in the afternoon. Good luck to any of you who have your first day of school tomorrow!









Classroom Day 3

Well, today was completely spent on organizing my classroom library books. I wanted to put out 6 baskets for student choice based on AR level. The rest of my library is sorted by theme, author, or genre. I have a lot of books that I like to use with our units and things and I always say to myself, "I have the perfect book....where did I put that?" So, I tried to come up with a system that will help me stay organized. :)  Here is what I accomplished today...



Still need to add labels to my tubs...

I am storing extra books to trade out the books in the bins.

Here are the books for my monthly themes and units.

Going back tomorrow to see what else I can accomplish. :-)



Classroom Day 2

Yesterday I had training for  6-Traits writing all day, so I didn't get to go into my classroom. But, today I went back in to work for about 4 hours. I already had my furniture placed around the room, so today I tried to unpack some of my tubs and set up a few areas around the room.

 

This is the area between my teacher area and my mom's small group area. You can see my mini-fridge with a lamp and my scentsy on top. The pink polka dots are those wall stickers that are dry erase. And I plan to keep extra supplies and small group supplies in those sterilite drawers.

 

I plan to write our daily "I Can" statements on these polka dots. I originally was going to use the large poster frame I found, but I didn't really have a good space for it. You can also see my tattle monster there. :)

Here is my teacher area. I still have some organizing to do but I did bring my teacher tool box and I have my those folders on my filing cabinets to put in my daily work.

This is my ENO board area. My laptop will sit on the tall shelving unit and my document camera is there on the small desk. Under the desk is my crate of clipboards I decorated last year. You can learn more about them here.

This is the other end of my carpet meeting area. To the left you can see my calendar area with the place value chart and a pocket chart. I haven't finished this area yet. On my cabinet doors there are 2 blue small pocket charts from the Target Dollar Spot. These will have my daily schedule in them. I have my easel and a new stool I got at Walmart, but I don't think I'm going to keep the stool there. I also found a new pink chair at Office Max and I think I might use it there instead.



This is my math tub shelf and the student supply boxes next to it. I still need to make new labels to put on the supply drawers.

These are my student mailboxes and their book bins.

Here is my word work area. Different activities will be in the sterilite drawers. The little table is where a couple students can choose to work during Daily 5. And the book shelf has more materials for Word Work. The green tub holds our pillows for Read to Self time. But, I am hoping to get something new to hold my pillows. :)

Here is our computer area. We use this for our listen to reading station during Daily 5, although I am hoping to get a listening center this year. :-)

My final picture for you today, is my mom's area. I've told you all before that my mom is my personal volunteer all day everyday...yep I'm SUPER lucky! She is retired and enjoys spending the day with us. :) She will have some of my lowest students sit with her while we complete table work and she will also take 2 small groups during our Daily 5 rotations. You can see she made a teacher toolbox too. :) Also, my jewelry pocket holder that will be used for our PBIS Tiger Paws.

I plan to go back tomorrow and start working on some of my bulletin boards and things. I do plan to leave a few blank until the kiddos get there to help me, but I want to do my word wall and calendar area and maybe a couple others. I will be back with any updates!

Maniac Monday

What a day! It all began at 10 am this morning when 3 of my friends came over for our 2nd Pinterest day. Two of my friends still needed to make their teacher toolboxes. I had a few projects that I wanted to finish up so we had a busy morning! I am linking up again with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for the Monday Made it!



First, I saw this awesome little tattle monster at KinderGals and decided I had to make one of my own. The idea is that my firsties will learn the difference between tattling and reporting. Then if they decide that they need to tattle on someone they will have to tell the tattle monster. If they tattle they must remove one of the tattle monster's pieces. At the end of the day, they will earn warm fuzzies for all the pieces they have left.



Sorry my computer wouldn't turn it the right way!

Next, I found this cute attendance system from Teri at A Cupcake for the Teacher. I bought the pizza pans from dollar tree and we spray painted them black (for my tattle monster too). Then I printed, laminated, and used magnetic tape on the back of the numbers. I thought I could also change the tab at the top after the kids check in to the at the bathroom tab so I would know who left the room. :)

My computer is acting crazy today!!

My partner and I bought some tissue poms from an Etsy store. I have all 6 colors of poms so I made some table signs to hang with them for each of my tables. The circles came from the Bright and Cheerful pack I bought from Clutter-Free Classroom. Then I attached them to bright cardstock to match the table colors too.



Finally, I made these cute little birthday balloons that I found at Once Upon a First Grade Adventure. They turned out so cute! I found the crazy straws 6/$1.00 at the Dollar Tree. Just tape the balloons on, find a cute little pot and ta-dah!!

So, after we finished our Pinterest creations around 2 p.m. a couple of us decided to head into our classrooms to check it out. I spent about 2 hours in my room. I will give you a little sneaky peak to see what I accomplished today. :-)

This is what I walked into today...

Here is what it looked like when I left...



I plan to go back Wednesday to continue my work. :-)

I then came home and got ready for my Thirty-One party that I had this evening! So, I guess overall it was a Maniac Monday but very productive!

See ya soon,

Busy Busy Busy!

I have been busy trying to get all my crafts and creations done before heading back to school. We are officially allowed back in our rooms this coming Wednesday, August 8th. I plan to go every morning from like 9-noon and get started. That way I can still have my afternoons at the pool and relaxing before summer is officially over. I have to be back to school on Thursday, August 23rd and 24th for meetings, and then my new little firsties will join me on Monday, August 27th. That is coming WAY TOO FAST! I'm not ready in any way, shape, or form.

So, last Monday my daughter decided we needed to run to get her a new belt. This meant I would be near a Hobby Lobby, so I of course had to stop. :-)  I had been wanting to create those little how do I get home tags that you see popping up all over Pinterest. I found the circles from someone's blog and can't remember who it was?!? (If it is you or you know who it is....please tell me so I can give them credit!)



While I was at Hobby Lobby, I found these cute little bags in pink, lime, purple, and turquoise in the fabric decorating area. I bought them even though I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to use them for at the time.

After looking at them for a bit, I thought they would be the perfect size to store all my materials for my guided reading groups. My little Reading A-Z books will fit perfectly in there, along with sight word cards, word work games, etc. that I will need for each group. I changed my group colors from the primary red, yellow, blue, and green to pink, purple, lime, and blue. :)  Here is how they turned out!

I used puffy paint on them and then hot glued the polka dot ribbon to them to tie them in with my polka dots I am using in my room this year.

Let me know what you think!!  Also, some friends of mine are coming over tomorrow for our second Pinterest day. So, I will join in with the Monday Made It and show you what else we created!

See ya soon,