Manic Monday, Wishful Organizing!

I store each day's Math Daily Spiral Review/Enrichment in the metal trays labeled with the days of the week.  I also keep any tests or other items I need for the week in that day's tray.  I write each subject's topic and any page numbers necessary by the schedule, this is for me as much as it is for the students!  This also makes it easy for them to write our agenda down in their planners each morning before specials.  How do you organize your daily paperwork?  Do you write your schedule down or just go subject by subject?

Each student has a drawer in which to keep small items such as crayons, scissors, etc.  I make copies of all of the E.O.'s, Math Daily Spiral Review and Enrichment, etc. ahead of time and store them in the unused drawers.  I have trays on the top of each set of drawers to organize items to be copied, items to be turned into the Science teacher, and any notes from home or lunch money.  How do your students store their loose items?

 

2014 Classroom Set Up

I didn't take any pictures of my classroom last year.  It was my first year of teaching 5th grade, having moved up after teaching 2nd for five years and then 1st for seven years.  A big jump, that's what everyone said.  And it was!

When I first went in (in July, of course!), I only had fifteen desks in my room.  Now, I knew I couldn't be lucky enough to have a class that small!  So, I asked and was told that I would be getting brand new desks and chairs by the time the teachers started.  The next time I came in, there were NO desks.  Still, I was assured that I would have desks by that Friday.  Friday morning, no desks.  They would be coming on Monday morning.  Monday morning, no desks, but they would be there that afternoon before Back to School Night (which started at 4 pm.).  About 11:30 am, the custodians started bringing in some old tables and (loud) metal folding chairs.  A nightmare way to make such a big change.  No place for books or pencils, no where to tape nametags. 

Long story short, I finally got desks and chairs about a month later.  Now, I love them!  At the time, it was not the best way to make a fresh start. 

This year is different.  I still started working on my room in July, but I did have desks!  Most of my ideas have been culled from Pinterest (like most teachers!), but I love it.  It's fun and bright, it just makes me happy.  I hope the students like it too!


Our Back to School Giving Tree didn't go over quite as well as I hoped.  Maybe we'll have more success at ParentU Night!

Here's my No Name area, as well as my "While You Were Out" Folders where students can find any work they've missed.  I found this *rare* black hanging chart at Target (and it even included the folders!  I laminated them to make them last a little longer.).



I bought this black bookshelf at Target a couple of years ago.  We use it as our "supply shelf."  I got the green tins in the Dollar Spot at Target and the supply bins at the Dollar Tree.  We'll use the large green ones as group trash bins.



I also found this saying at the Dollar Tree.  We have this large air duct above the whiteboard that has always bothered me, so I decided to make use of it this year with some inspirational words for my students (and me!).



my sink, microwave area with storage and birthday balloons



Revamped storage!  I've used these for years to store copies, always trying to stay ahead of things.  I just added alternating  double-sided Perfect Paisley border and a few Words Their Way labels to organize copies of the word sorts.

Each student has a drawer with their number on it for crayons, markers, glue, etc.  Extra copies are stored in the unused drawers.  I use the trays from Really Good Stuff on top for items I want to copy, notes from home or lunch money, or Science homework that needs to be turned in to my teaching partner.

My idea is to write the current objective for each subject on this.  We'll see how that goes!   I found this frame at Wal-mart and just added scrapbook paper and letter stickers from Hobby Lobby.

Here's my Math cubby with Rocket Math, calculators, dice, playing cards, dominoes, and flashcards.  Social Studies for both classes is turned in to the top paper trays.

This will eventually hold Guided Reading materials along with the dictionaries and thesauruses (and yes, I did look that up!).  We will turn in our Reading, Math, and Work Study (Words Their Way) to the baskets above).

My desk... since I never actually sit here, I often think about giving it up. 
Everyone talks me out of it though!  Maybe someday...  I plan on putting my name across it, just haven't had time.

Reading Focus Wall... a work in progress!

Math and Writing Focus Wall along with our "Something to Tweet About" board

Boys Town Skills, Words Their Way Chart, Student Mailboxes, and Computer Center (I got this lamp from Lowes, the colors match the rest of my room perfectly!

Subway Art above coat rack

Area behind my desk, a student made me the crayon "M" when I taught first grade (Thank you, Logan! <3).

Revamped Teacher Toolbox:  Again, I just removed the old scrapbook paper and added border, Dots on Black and double-sided Perfect Paisley to coordinate with the rest of the room.

That's enough for now!  More later, and hopefully I'll be able to add some credit for the things I've found and used from other teachers!

New School Year, New Classroom!

School starts in just two weeks!  I can't believe how fast the summer has gone... and yet I have already been to school and have most of my classroom set up.  Of course it looks a lot different than those Super Kid classroom pics I've posted in the past!  Didn't think those would "fly" in 5th grade!  I loved it, but time to move on.  My classroom had to grow up!

So I started with Dots on Black from Creative Teaching Press.  It's very versatile for a 5th grade classroom with bright green cabinets!  Tones down all that green, but has lots of colors for me to pull out in other ways.  I have all of the borders, labels, desk plates, computer paper, everything!  I love their new chalkboard Inspire U posters.  Would LOVE to have those!  I haven't ordered them yet, but they are definitely on my wish list.  CTP has a lot of new stuff, I can see a lot of teachers wanting their new mustache line (I know students would get a kick out of that!). They are also having a HUGE giveaway, giving ten $200 classroom makeovers for Back-to-School.  And who doesn't love a makeover?

I must say, our room is looking pretty good!  I still need to tweak a few things, so I'll post pictures as soon as I make it over there again. Even though it was hard to give up the superhero theme (I did go to Comicon in June, after all!), I do love the new look.  Hope the kids love it as much as I do!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

It's been a long time.  A lot has gone on and there have been a lot of changes, both good and bad.  My mom passed away after a long illness, and my brother-in-law passed away after a very short illness.  So 2012-2013 was a very difficult school year for me, then 2013-2014 became another year of change as I switched from first grade to fifth.  No one could believe I made such a sudden/huge jump, but I said I needed a challenge...and boy, did I get one.

I've learned a lot in the past couple of school years, none of it has been easy, but then life never is.  And as we learn, we grow.  Right?

So backtrack a couple of years with me, won't you?  Indulge me as I reminisce about my first graders and just some of the fun we had...

Calendar Supplies

Math and Reading RtI Activities

Pointers

Gifts from past students <3

Super Kid Buddies and Tattle Turtle

Super Kid Backpack and Folder

First Day Treat:  Super Hero Lollipops

Math Focus Wall, Lunch Count, etc.

Super Words!  Word Wall

Science:  Mammals

Mrs. McGuffey's class knows...

We also knew...

 Birds

 Reptiles

and Insects!  Oh My!

We made frogs (amphibians) too, not shown here!



We wrote to Veterans to thank them for their service. 

And more to come later...
Man, I miss those little ones!

 



And I miss you, Mom.  I love you.

4 Days of Summer

What?  Four days?  Crazy!

On the way to my Six Traits "refresher" (which sadly turned out to be more about scoring than teaching), I heard something interesting on the radio...they were talking about being parents and the first day of school, and they started playing, "It's the most wonderful time of the year..."  Not really the song I'm playing in my head!  If I had a theme song, what would it be?  I'll have to think on that...

Recently I was wondering what to do about restroom passes for my new theme.  Then I saw some little wooden figures at Hobby Lobby that look like your traditional boys' and girls' restroom figures.  Aha! 

I painted them, added some felt capes and some leftover rickrack and...

made restroom passes!  There were smaller wooden figures in the package as well, so I had another great idea.  I attached them to wooden sticks and made pointers. 

I'm getting closer to being ready, but I still have SO much to do!

By the way, anyone out there have their own theme song?  I'm still searching...

8 Days of Summer

Congratulations to ALL of the athletes at the Olympic Games!

August already?  Well, I am working on accomplishing all of the goals I've set for the remaining days of summer.  I already have four bags for Goodwill, so reorganizing is going well.  I am probably annoying people by posting every day for the last three days, but one of my goals was to catch up on my blog.   So, my apologies for overposting.  And I went in to school again the other night.  I worked on my class library, put labels on notebooks and folders, passed out books, and did some cleaning.  Do they really think we can get everything we need to get done in three days that are packed with meetings?  Crazy!

One thing I've been working on for my superhero themed classroom is an idea for a skyline.  I bought a black trifold, but was reluctant to actually start cutting on it.   Then Sam's daughter-in-law, Megan, told me about a shower curtain they got from Target with a skyline on it.  So I got one and cut it down for my front window.

Okay, so now I had half a shower curtain.  What am I going to do with that???  Our kindergarteners have a habit of peering into our back door to see what's going on in first grade.  Many times they even start knocking on it while we are working.  Needless to say, this is quite distracting for six and seven year olds.  So, I decided to cut the shower curtain panel in half and attach it to the top and bottom halves of the door to minimize some of these distractions.  Finally, Megan (smart girl!) gave me the idea of adding a searchlight signal (think Batman!).  I used a die-cut of a paw for our school mascot...leopards, attached it to some yellow cellophane, then placed it as though it was coming from one of the buildings (rediscovering in the process that cellophane is really hard to cut!).

Front window

Close-up view

Back door

Back to the trifold.  I decided that since I had it, I might as well give it a try.  I started to sketch a (horrible) skyline and was becoming incredibly frustrated, when Sam brought me a piece of paper.  He had quickly drawn a perfect skyline!  I knew marrying a comicbook geek would come in handy!  He knocked it out in no time, all I had to do was add a few windows.  I am going to use it when I call students to my table, and I don't want them peeking at each other's papers!  I've been thinking about using it as a backdrop for their first day pictures as well. 

I also found a Paris cityscape in the wall decor section of Target, but haven't decided whether or not to use it.  Too much?  Maybe so...