Classroom Is Done!!!!

 

After many weeks of planning, my classroom is officially ready for first graders! I'm now at that point where I can't think about adding anything else to my room or my brain might explode. It's definitely time for students to come! Thanks to many great ideas from Pinterest and other bloggers, I think the room came together great. We will see how functional it all is in the next few weeks.

Here is my finished teacher corner. The objective chart is from Think Share Teach. I took our state objectives and reworked them to fit the margins of each subject's bordered page. Then I laminated them and added velcro to the back so I can quickly change out objectives when needed. As you can see, I have a lot of cinder block walls and the hot glue gun worked great! I also love lamps.

Here is a view of my classroom from the carpet in the front of the room.

Here is the front of my room and where I feel like EVERYTHING happens. I added boundaries to my word wall with painter's tape and love how it came out. I feel better looking at it, so I think it will make a big difference for my kiddos who have a hard time focusing and finding words. The green bins will house finished work throughout the day and during both literacy and math stations. The shapes correspond with the table they sit at. Last year I had students turn in work in baskets labeled according to their reading group, but then I could only use those baskets during literacy work station time. I'm hoping these updated work bins will be used more often. Grab your own set of labels from Mrs. Wills here.

Here is my finished calendar board. The date portion at the top is all velcro and I plan on adding tens frames to the right of the calendar to count how many days we've been in school and tie in with number sense. Later I'll add tens and ones, but a team member of mine pointed out that it can be very confusing to first graders who are still firming up basic number sense skills to see hundreds, tens and ones on the first day of school. A lot of our students are still working on one to one correspondence.

Another VERY important part of my classroom...the station boards. This is where students check to see which stations they are going to each day. From left we have literacy stations, math stations and then yes....science and social studies stations. More on how that will work later, but for now I think it's safe to say I'll be teaching a lot of station expectations in the next few weeks.

A little dark, but here is the Welcome banner on my door looking into my classroom. Grab your own Welcome banner here.

Classroom Library: New pillows and a new lamp this year. You can also see my terrariums that I used in my inquiry staff development last week. Let's see how long they live!

Classroom Library closer up.

And last but not least...the part of my classroom that has been getting the most "ooos and ahhs" are my lovely felt chair covers. THEY ARE SO QUIET!! And since we will be spending so much time in stations pushing in chairs and moving around the room, I can't wait to see what a difference they make. It's the small things in a teacher's life : )

Room Reveal (Part 1)

I finally got into my room today and I got so much done. Here are a few pictures I snapped before I left...

Before

View from the back corner looking towards the front of the room

Classroom Library: Work in progress

View from the door looking towards the back of the room

Math Wall: I love the space for anchor charts, pennant title and minute labels on the clock!

I made this bulletin board larger and love how it came out. I still need to make the rest of the calendar pieces.

View from the door of my teacher corner back there

LOVE LOVE LOVE my transportation chart and birthday board (From Erica Bohrer)

How to Make a Teacher Binder

Binder cover courtesy of Teaching in Flip Flops.

Phew! This Sunday has flown by...a little church, lunch with the hubby and my latest obession, creating my teacher binder. I got this idea last year from Ladybug's Teacher Files. I even used her freebie tabs which were great for my first run; however, after using the binder for a year, I realized I needed to come up with different tabs. I'm on a limited budget (who isn't) so I wanted to complete this project with things I had at home already (aka use up some old paper and a cheap Target binder etc.) So here is my own version of how to create a teacher binder.

Step 1: Make a list of what items/resources you keep or think you will keep and need to reference frequently throughout the year. Think of this binder as your "teacher bible" that you can take home if you need to and still be able to plan, grade etc., without lugging home a bunch of binders or folders. For this purpose, I chose a 1 1/2 inch cheapo binder. (I take out my lesson plans after every 9 weeks, so this binder is big enough for me).

 Step 2:  After you come up with a big list of resources you think you need to keep in your binder, group them into major headings. My headings are Planning, Behavior, Grades, Meetings, and Info. Then using Powerpoint, I created circle tabs for each of these headings. I printed them on colored paper and cut them out.

Step 3: I attached the circle tabs to a piece of blue card stock. Before attaching the tag I listed and printed the sub-sections of each tab. For example, under Info I have "Student Information," and "School Information," under Planning I have smaller tabs that say "Lesson Plans," "To Do Lists," "Calendars," and "SOLs, Pacing Guide Etc."

I taped the circle to the card stock before laminating.

Here are all the things you will find behind the planning tab.

Then I used tape to secure the tab to the card stock and ran it through my laminator...homemade, totally customizable binder tabs! (The edge of my tab stuck out of my laminating packet a little bit, so I just used some scotch tape and covered the exposed parts.)

Then after each of the larger tabs were laminated, I 3-whole punched them and repeated a similar process for the smaller tabs that go behind each main section. So behind each of the 5 main tabs are a few sub tabs. It took a while but I know it will be worth it judging on how beat up my binder is from last year. There are so many great teacher binder resources that I have pinned... and a lot of them are free. Check out my Pinterest boards here. 

Fantastic Friday Finds!

I can't believe it's August already! With a week before our next vacation (to the beach this time instead of a farm), I figured I'd better get moving on the to do list I posted about last time. Today was a great day. It took me all summer to "pin" all my ideas, but I finally feel like I know which ideas I'm going to create. I spent the morning printing, cutting, laminating and cutting. My guestroom/office has been transformed into craft central...at one point I had the laminator, hot glue gun and printer all going while I was Mod Podging...needless to say my husband left me alone for the day. He knew I was in my element!

Then I visited every teacher's favorite places: The Dollar Tree, Target and Michaels. I stuck to the Dollar Spot and clearance aisle for the most part and found some great things. (These are just the Dollar Tree finds)

 Here are the projects I completed today and can now cross off my ever growing "to-do" list!

Pinterest Project # 1: Pencil Management (adapted from Peacelovelearning.blogspot.com or here)

Pinterest Project # 2: Welcome Banner & Math Wall Banner (adapted from theschoolsupplyaddict.com or here)

Pinterest Project # 3: New Word Wall Letters (adapted from fabulousinfirst.blogspot.com or here). You can see the letters in the picture above.

Pinterest Project # 4: New Work Station Icons & Signs (adapted from Mrs. Jones' Creation station or here)

 

I also made these cute signs that I plan on hanging on 3M hooks somewhere in my room. I found the printables here. While I was at the Dollar Store I picked up 2 black frames and some colored ribbon and the whole project came together for $4! 

 

I stocked up on bright colored plastic bins for the classroom library and table book baskets. My students only have a few minutes before they go to resource in the morning, so I have found that having them read from the book basket is enough to keep them quiet in the morning (and easy for me!)

Tomorrow's Projects:

1. SOLs with ribbon
2. Writing station 
3. Transportation Display
4. Job Chart
5. Birthday Board

Ikea Finds and Other Randomness

I have finally started working on my endless list of summer projects for school. It took me June and most of July to compile the list, so I better get moving! Today my Mom and I took a trip to Ikea. I forgot how great the prices are there for everyday stuff that I use in my classroom. Here are two things I picked up today. I can't wait to use the hangers (which were only $1.50 a set) for my Pinterest inspired poetry hanging system. Last year I used a 3M adhesive hook and one of those skirt hangers with the clips. It worked well, but you could only hang 4 poems before it got too heavy. This year I'm thinking of getting some more 3M hooks and using this Pinterest idea. This would also be great for anchor charts if you are low on wall space.

My other great bargain was this lamp for my classroom library. My old lamp bit the dust this past year and my kids felt so bad. I am a big fan of lamps in the classroom...it just makes it more homey feeling. I picked up this little white base and colorful lamp shade for $12! I don't think you can get much cheaper then that. I also decided that I am going to go with a black/bright color theme for the room. Other bloggers have shared such cute ideas for this color scheme that I can't wait to get started. 

 

 My other bargains came from the 50% off aisle at Michaels. I plan on using this bright orange tub for clipboards and whiteboards or maybe for my listening or buddy reading station...not sure yet. I also loved these lanterns to hang somehow. 

Here is the look I'm going for ...

You can check out the rest of this great blog by 2 sisters here. I love the black bulletin boards and simple use of color. Now onto finishing The Daily 5 book...I can't wait to try some new ideas in my work stations this year!

Great Room Building Website

Look at me back again in the same day. I couldn't resist. I found this awesome resource on Pinterest and had to share. I loved my room set up this year, but wish I had more space for a big calendar bulletin board. Unfortunately my bulletin boards are at the back of my room...so instead of drawing out 2 rooms I created each version on this great website, UrbanBarn (I know weird name). If you go to the site you can drag over and design rooms of varying dimensions all for free. Although its not meant for teachers, they have enough variations of furniture that I didn't have any trouble finding a kidney shape and all kinds of squares, rectangles, and circles. You can even add color if that makes you happy. It was super easy and together both of my designs took about 20 minutes to complete. Here is how they came out! (Sorry they are blurry...they look clear in their original form).

 Design your own classroom or play around with a new design here.

This Year's Class Set Up (with the carpet in the front of the room)

Version #2 with the carpet in the back of the room with more space (for some reason the carpet isn't showing up but it should be in the lower right hand corner.)

I love teacher work days!

We finally had a teacher work day today and I feel so productive. Not only did I de-clutter, I finished grades, put up new bulletin boards and prepared for next week. Now I feel like I can relax! I think I'll let the pictures from my new iphone!!!! (which I'm OBSESSED with...how did I ever live without it?!?) do the talking in this post.

THE DRAWER is decluttered! No more stacking containers on top of one another. Everything has a happy home now.

My new "Making Words" folders. I can't wait to use these in my guided reading groups on Monday. Check out the original idea over at Teacher Bits and Bobs.

Our "Schema" and "New Learning" chart from Deanna' Jump's unit. The kids were completely enamored with penguins. We watched March of the Penguins and when it was over they asked me if we could watch it again. This is such a great high interest unit!!

Our adorable penguin books from Deanna Jump's unit. They came out great and they are some of our best writing yet.

A Little Sunday Project & My New Favorite Resource!!!

Here's a peek at my newly organized and de-cluttered math station supplies. I love the way I reorganized all of my math manipulatives and 8 station tubs; however, I found that I still had bins full of random games, file folder games, and other laminated creations that needed to be better organized. After giving it a little thought, it made most sense to me to organize these materials into 4 bins labeled by the quarter. I wish I had taken before pictures. Now at least I have it narrowed down enough to see what I have to work with. This is the first time I've had enough materials to need to organize into multiple tubs. I have a spot under my computer table where I plan on storing these. Maybe some velcro and material around the edge of the table to cover them....hmmm.

 

I managed to squeeze this in between birthday celebrations for my hubby. When my students found out it was his birthday, they wanted to make him something. We decided to make him a book about what we know about dentists (since he is in his 3rd year of dental school).  Not the cutest tooth out there, but all I could find during my 20 minute planning time. This page below was my favorite!

I also purchased Mrs. Jump's Reading 101 packet and I am LOVING it. I love planning and teaching guided reading and hate it at the same time. There are just so many ideas out there and so little time to do them in. The Reading 101 packet has really helped me focus my plans and remember that I don't need to get it all done in one 20 minute guided reading group. I'm looking forward to using it this week! Click below to check out this amazing resource (great for new-er teachers!!!).

Clutter Free Classroom Week 1

I'm linking up with the Clutter Free Classroom Project to share some before pictures of some areas that need some serious organizing. I decided to link up and follow this project because I truly believe that staying organized and thus maximizing time on task is a crucial part of teaching young children. After 3 years of teaching in the school system I am currently in, I have learned that my students need seemless transitions and as little down time as possible. Thus I have to be organized and ready to go 24/7...which I'm not sure is really possible, but it's worth striving for. So here I am sharing my pictures of areas I hope to declutter by buying plastic bins and sorting through them next week. Becuase when you need a thumb tack or the magnetic roll of tape you need it NOW and you better be able to find it before chaos breasks out!



My teacher space in the back corner of the room needs some serious decluttering. It's the space I gave the least thought to at the beginning of the year and it's time to tackle the mess!



This drawer drives me crazy! Every time I open it I can't help but shut it right away. And I just keep throwing more stuff in there. My desk doesn't have any drawers so this is where I throw everything instead.



I love the look of this basket to hold files and other small notebooks etc,.

It looks like I'll be at the Dollar Tree and Big Lots this week picking up storage containers and maybe some type of shelves to put behind my desk on the counter. Hopefully I'll have a post soon proving that I decluttered this area. I'm also working on a "passport" that will help us learn how physical surroundings affect transportation, recreation etc (SOL 1.6 here). It was one of my favorite units last year and I'm looking forward to sprucing it up. Happy Friday!

To see other blogger's posts about their decluttering tasks click on the button below.