Getting It Done

With all this extra time on my hands I decided to be productive. Our district has been closed since August 27th because of Hurricane Isaac. My family was lucky and we had very little damage.


Besides the few gaps in the roof from missing shingles the only other inconvenience was no power for 3 days. I can't complain because we have a generator that ran everything but the A/C and some people still don't have electricity or a home.

High up there so it's hard to see

I have written 3 weeks worth of math lesson plans, mapped out the math curriculum for the year, and updated a few pages on my blog. I'm so excited about the updated pages...they look so much more organized! I decided to use Glogster to showcase various videos and online games.

Take a look at the "Math" and "Videos" page to see the full products.

My Math and ELA Focus Walls in the classroom are looking great...so proud :)

The students love having a reference during instruction. For now, I have a picture of Math and when we return to school I will take a picture of the ELA wall. I will be including a Writing Genre spot to it, as well.

The Kids Are Back!

Yes, today was the first day with the students. I got to work early and put the finishing touches on my room.

Each desk contained a water, a guitar-shaped bag {filled with 2 erasers, 2 pencils, a bookmark, and a bag of Cheese Its}, and a word search. 

The students busily worked on their word search as I gathered supplies. Then it was time for PE. After PE, we worked non-stop until dismissal.

First on the agenda was going over class routines and procedures. The students and my co-teacher discussed and created classroom rules. In pairs, the students were given a tree map and various events. The events were cut out and categorized as one of three rules: Be Safe, Be Respectful, or Be Responsible.

Ms. Gros, my co-teacher, read the story Today I Feel Silly: and Other Moods That Make My Day. This is a great story and the kids enjoyed listening to the main character's moods. After the story, they illustrated their moods about the first day of school on a circle.

I introduced centers and discussed expectations. To get the students familiar with daily rotations and what each center will entail, they completed activities in each center.

At the teacher center, the students listened to Ms. Gros' instructions and designed an About Me necklace. Sorry, I didn't take a picture. I don't know why I didn't??? Then, they used a flow map to sequence the steps.

At the IWB center, students played a back to school game.
The game was a mixture of math review questions and misc. questions {principal's name, name of school, school mascot, etc}


















The students listened to I Feel Silly again at the listening center. Then, they wrote about a time when they felt silly and a time when they felt sad. Details had to include who was present during that time, where did it occur, and what caused the mood.






The final center they visited was the computer. At this center, the students completed a Reading Interest Survey on Google and wrote their first post on Kid Blog. The post was about their summer vacation.

Oh! Did I mention that they electricity went out? A severe thunderstorm came through and knocked the power out. Right in the middle of centers!!! Even though the internet was nonfunctional, the laptops were charged and the students continued writing their posts. :)

Time to plan out day 2. Hope you enjoyed reading about our first day!

**Update**
Found out after I posted that Julie at Math is Elementary is hosting a "First Day Stories" linky.
Swing by her blog and read other first day stories :)

First Peak Into My {Almost} Finished Classroom

These past three weeks working in my classroom have been super busy. I know what you're thinking, "Three weeks and you're still not done!?" Let me explain why this process has been a slow one for me. First, I moved to a different grade and room. That meant starting fresh with everything -- changing bulletin boards, cleaning, rearranging, reorganizing. I'm sure I don't have to continue, y'all know what changing rooms entail. Also, our school has a reading program towards the end of the summer and my room was in use. That meant I could not go in until they were finished. Well, I could have gone in but that would have been rude disturbing the students while they were trying to learn. Three hours a day is what I worked. I may have missed a few days, as well, because my "out-of-school" life took priority.

Are you ready to see?????

My door.

Not the best picture...I know...sorry. 

Each child's name is on a guitar.

Behavior cards, PBIS steps, and calendar

Job chart

Closer look. My daughter did a fantastic job painting the clothes pins!!!

ELA Focus Wall.

There is a spot for story title, spelling words, vocabulary words, genre, grammar skill, and comprehension skill.

The other half of the board will be for the Math Focus Wall. I have not decided what components to include.

Cart for math centers. There are 2 drawers for each Math strand. I have 3 of these and plan to put activities that pertain to each center in it's place.

Since I had 2 extra drawers I decided to place ELA center work there. I have space for word work, listen to reading, and working on writing.

It feels great to have this much accomplished before I am officially back!!!!!

I plan to showcase the entire room towards the end of next week. 

Make sure to check back.

Monday Made It, New {School} Year Resolutions, and Vista Print Fever

I know there is a lot going on in this post, but I didn't want to break the unofficial "no more than one post a day" rule.

*SMILE*

I was doing so good at staying current with my blogging up until 2 weeks ago. That is when I started working in my classroom. I have accomplished a lot, but I still have a few loose ends to tie up. Guess that's not too bad considering my official start day is August 6. I can't wait to have it complete so I can share with y'all.

In the meantime, I wanted to share some simple posters/labels that I made. So, I'm linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It.. Don't forget to check out the other bloggers who have linked up. I am so jealous at their creativity. These people are AMAZING!!

Christina at Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge gave me this idea. I'm still trying to come up with components for the math wall. 

Last year I bought a couple of 6-drawer storage carts to hold the math center activities. In order to keep myself organized this year I created labels for each of the Math CCSS strands and put one on each drawer. This way I can separate the activities into strands. 

Trust me...it doesn't look as "busy" once it is cut out :)

I'm also linking up with Christina at Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge. She is hosting a linky party to share our Vista Print creations. YAY! 

Groupon was horrible placing another Vista Print deal...LOL

This is what I ordered:

Rack card that I will use for bookmarks.

Back

Front

Poster. It is a variation of a pin I found.

Another poster I made from a pin I saw on Pinterest.

Now on to my New {School} Year Resolutions with Amanda at Teaching Maddeness.

Resolution #1 - Place lesson plans, tests, any lesson-related materials in binder on Friday. Last year I kept up with this for the first week. After that, they started to pile up and I kept saying, "Oh, I'll get to it next week." I think I did it twice: in December and at the end of the year. That was time-consuming! And difficult because sometimes the material was not in chronological order and I had to search for similar dates.

Resolution #2 - Implement Daily 5 fully by November. This will be my first year teaching E/LA so I feel as if I need to familiarize myself with the content and teaching it before taking that step. Definitely want to do Daily 5 because I have heard many wonderful things about it!

Resolution #3 - Utilize my blog more often during the school year. I keep my phone within reach during the day so there is no excuse for not taking pictures and blogging about what my kiddos are doing. 

Resolution #4 - Make time for myself and my family. I always seem to neglect my family during school. I'm either blog reading, Twitter reading, planning and making activities, the list is endless. My daughter begins high school this year and I have been trying to teach her about time management. Maybe her mother needs to take her own advice ;)

What are your resolutions for this new school year? 

"To Do" List

As I'm scrolling through FB, I come across a post from Teresa at Confessions of a Teaching Junkie. She has joined a Linky Party to share what needs to be done before school begins. I'm hoping that if I have a list I may be able to focus and motivate myself to get started. :)

Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies is hosting this wonderful Linky. Here is my list:

1.  Decorate bulletin boards 

*Click here if you would like to give suggestions*

2.  Plan lesson for first day

3.  Research and set-up Interactive Student Notebooks to use in Social Studies

4.  Research text-mapping to use in Science

5.  Make material bins to go by each group of desks

6.  Print, laminate, and cut out classroom jobs

7.  Make welcome bags/ letter

8.  Create and print daily Mt Math and Mt Language questions

9.  Research and collect resources for ELA centers

10.  Review notes from Guided Math book study

This should be a good start. Has anyone used #3 or #4 in the classroom? I would love to hear your thoughts/stories about them!

Thank you, Lorraine, for hosting this party!

New Room

Have you ever stood in the middle of your classroom and said, "I have no idea what to do first?"

That was me this past Tuesday. I'm in a new room teaching a new subject and not sure what to put where. I took a few pictures and would like to share them with my blogging buddies. 

I guess we can call this the front of the room since the Promethean board is located on this wall. I'm thinking of putting Mountain Math on one board and Mountain Language on the other. {Ignore the decorations, I have already taken them down and will be replacing them with a different theme}

The board located furthest to the right was made on the wall. There is no actual board there. At this time, I am taking it down until I can decide what, if anything, should go there.

The bulletin board paper is misleading to the size of a board. It overlaps onto the chalk board. In reality, there is a chalkboard in the middle and a board on either side {same size}. So, the board to the left I'm thinking of placing a calendar and behavior cards. Not sure what to make the board on the right. As I was going through resources I found magnetic word strips. I'm thinking of using them on the chalkboard. Here is how: I'm leaning towards not having a traditional word wall. Instead, I would like to make the word wall geared towards more interesting words to use "instead of" boring words when writing. I found some ideas on Pinterest. See the picture below for an example.

                                                                       Source: julieballew.com via Patti on Pinterest

These bulletin board papers have been taken down as well. They were stapled into the wall.  I could use this wall to hang anchor charts with more interesting words to use in writing instead of the chalkboard. Or, I may use this space for something else. Oh, I do know that my classroom jobs will go on this wall by the door :) 

And here is the last picture. 

Alright, everybody. Am I missing something crucial? Have you seen a post, website, or pin that would help with this dilemma?

Suggestions are welcome and encouraged! :)