A Few New Things

Ok, so now on to the new stuff I am trying this year!  Reinventing and tweaking seem to be never ending for me.  How about you?  It is really important to me that "systems" in my room are quick and easy, and also meaningful.  I pay attention to student behaviors during independent seat work, group and partner work, transitions, and our whole group time at the carpet area.  I tune in to their voice level, how easy it is for them to gather and return classroom materials, their attentiveness, and the overall "flow" of the room.  Many times I like what I see (and hear), but sometimes I don't.  I spend some time over the next few days trying to target what it is that's "broken".  I've learned over the years to not rush in and "throw the baby out with the bathwater".  Sometimes students are just going to have off days due to exciting upcoming events like assemblies and field trips, holidays, and I SWEAR this is true...phases of the moon.  Have you noticed the "full moon" phenomenon?  If you have, PLEASE leave a comment.  The point is, I give myself to study them and pinpoint exactly what's wrong.  That's where some creative thinking, along with a little help from my blogging and Pinterest friends come in.

Problem:  Daily Five "Word Work" materials area is messy, bogged down, and unorganized.

Solution:  Create a color-coordinated basket system so students not only know which materials are most appropriate for their current goal, but also how to keep the area organized.

I absolutely love The Daily Five.  One of my kiddos' favorite choices is "Word Work".  As mentioned in one of my previous posts, "A Few of My Favorites", my students learn very quickly how to set goals for themselves in all academic areas, including phonics (and sometimes phonemic awareness) goals. 

My goals for Word Work:

1.  Students enjoy playing with fun and meaningful games and activities.

2.  Students choose games and activities that are appropriate for their own personal goals (not too easy/too hard...think Goldilocks here).

3.  Students know what to do when they are missing parts or pieces.

4.  Students can clean up quickly and quietly, and they know exactly how to put their materials away.

5.  Teacher gets 15-20 minutes of blissful, completely uninterrupted time to work with small groups because her students are so darn efficient and independent!

Here's what I came up with...

My word work area is now color coordinated.  The red baskets contain materials ranging from beginning and ending sounds to short vowels.  The blue baskets house blends and digraphs materials. The blue baskets are for long vowel activities.  The type of basket is a big deal in this system, too.  The baskets on the far left (with handles) house multiple materials.  The handle baskets are meant to be pulled out so the students can choose one or two baggies.  All of the other baskets are meant to be grabbed from the shelf, as they contain just one game or activity.  No more stuffing baggies where ever they might fit.  No more putting materials in the wrong spot!

*Tip:  Have a designated "Missing Pieces" spot in your room.  When kids find parts or pieces on the floor throughout the day, they simply put them in the Missing Pieces spot (and not in a random bag or basket that you won't find until they graduate).  This tip is a life saver!  You know what it's like when you've just settled in to start your small group during The Daily Five and some little...sweetie...comes up to you and whines, "Mrs. Mahaaaaaaaar, I can't find the diiiiiiiiice to this game."  Ugh!  With a Missing Pieces spot, the students know to just check there and move on.  If the piece is there...great! If it's not...well, I haven't seen it either, so either pick a new choice or decide if you can still do the activity without it!

Problem: Not enough bulletin board space for all my cool stuff!

Solution:  Make my own for less than $10!

My new classroom is UH-MAY-ZING (word misspelled for dramatic effect), but it is really short on bulletin boards.  I need one for math, spelling, our Cafe Menu, birthdays, and our weekly focus goals.  My new room only had 3 bulletin boards, so I had to be creative!

I moved my Cafe Menu to the cupboards.  I think I'm gonna like it!  I found cute Daily Five and Cafe signs here.

 With a home for all of the others, that left me with birthdays.  I decided to make my own using this cool stuff...

I bought mine at Walmart, but I think you can find it pretty much anywhere.

First, my little assistant helped me put a dab of hot glue in each corner.  The cork came with adhesive tabs, but they looked like the "These won't come off until you're collecting social security-Maintenance is going to black list you forever" kind of tabs, so I just stuck with hot glue.  If this board ever needs to come down it will only require a little bit of elbow grease.

Next, I just stuck them up on the wall!  Originally, I was going to make it bigger, but then I kind of liked its quaint lil presence.  

I covered it with a black vinyl tablecloth (Thanks, Dollar Tree for all of your lovely tablecloth colors). Do you do this?  I LOVE IT!  No more fading.

Last, a cute border.  It's as good as I can get it right now because I have to wait until the first day of school to take their cute little pictures.  I'll post all that cuteness later!

"Being organized isn't about getting rid of everything you own or trying to become a different person; it's about living the way you want to live, but better."

Andrew Mellen

A Few of My Favorite Things

I got a few more things done in my classroom today.  Do any of you feel like there's always just ONE MORE THING you can do to get your classroom ready for a new group of kiddos?  I thought I'd use this post to share a few of my favorite tried and true tips, tricks, displays, and procedures with you.

First, this magnetic 100 Chart.  I've had this baby since my first year of teaching in 2000, and boy has it ever proven to be a loyal friend.  Seriously, if you can possibly find or create one of these, it is so worth it!  Each card has a little magnet on the back (it didn't take that long) so I can take groups of numbers off the chart and stick 'em right on the whiteboard.  It makes number patterns, ordering numbers, and ALL counting standards so much easier to teach. Also,  I rearranged my chart last year so it started with zero.  It's so much easier for the kids to understand patterns this way.

Do you see that little sign in the window?  It says "I am ready to be tested!".  My kids use it to tell me they are ready to be retested on any goal they didn't quite master the first time around.  I'm a huge fan of feedback after any type of formative or summative assessment.  It takes a couple weeks of coaching, but it isn't long before I start hearing, "Yes!  I only got four wrong!"  Next thing I know, they run off and make a plan (most of the time with each other) to practice the skills we discussed during our conference.  When they're ready, they put their name on a sticky note and put it on the window.  And let me tell ya, they're pretty persistent about scheduling a time to meet with me!  Kids taking charge of their own learning.  Winning!

So this picture is really about the "I am ready to be tested" poster, but check out those curtains!  Aren't they cute?

Before I can expect my kiddos to turn into little goal setting (and reaching) superstars, I have to incorporate the expectations of the standards in a kid-friendly, manageable, BIG FAT DEAL sort of way.  This board is perfect for displaying classroom goals.  Each week I display our five sight words, the newest reading strategy, a writing goal, a math goal, a science or social studies goal, and one mathematical practice from the Common Core (check out this link to see the super-cute mathematical practices posters I use, and check out my TpT Store for the "I can" cards I use for writing).  Some of these cards stay up for longer than a week, while others get swapped out at the end of the week for new ones.  "Old" math, mathematical practice (I call them "Math Behaviors" with the kids), and writing cards get moved to their permanent home on the Math and Writing bulletin boards.  The spelling words get added to our Word Wall. The reading strategy gets added to our Cafe Menu.  This board is displayed right at our carpet area, so it is highly visible.  The goal is to get students (even our youngest) to talk about, work with, and deeply understand the standards.  Trust me...it really works.

P.S.  My posts always end with a quote...check out what good ol' Einstein said about deep understanding!

This board keeps students focused on the week's goals!

I head back to school next week.  I can hardly believe it!  I am trying a few new things this year and I can't wait to get started.

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

Albert Einstein

On the Road Again

I teach in a PreK-2nd grade building that uses a co-teaching model to offer full inclusion of all of our students with IEPs.  That is, we have no self-contained special education classrooms in our building.  All of our kiddos are together in regular education classrooms all day-every day, and the special education teacher pushes in to co-teach with my teaching partner and I (and ALL the other inclusion teachers in my school).  There are A LOT of benefits to this (I'm sure you'll hear me talk about it a lot this school year), but this post is really about why (and how) I moved my classroom.

In an effort to make life easier for our poor, harried special education teacher, and to deliver the best, most targeted instruction we could, my teaching partner and I decided to go "all in" and embrace a true co-teaching model.  In other words...Your kids are my kids, and my kids are your kids!  In order to do this, however, we needed to be "geographically" closer to each other in the building so we could experiment with grouping kids strategically for Daily Five and Math. When the classroom next to my teaching partner became available, I asked to move. I was SO excited...until I realized just how much work was ahead of me.

Do you want to know something about 99.9% of teachers?  WE ARE PACK RATS! All of us!  Don't even try to deny it.  Sure, you might not be one of those "I have a collection of 300 toilet paper tubes-I just rented my third storage unit-I buy 25 of everything because you just never know" kind of pack rats, but chances are you're at the very least a stuffer- an "I'll keep that just in case" kind of pack rat.  I prefer to call myself an "Organized and Purposeful Pack Rat", but I digress.  I moved into a classroom formerly inhabited by a teacher who got hired a week (seriously, a WEEK) before school started a few years ago.  Do you want to know what happens when a brand new teacher (as in FRESH out of college) has to get an entire classroom ready the week before school starts?  You guessed it...Every teacher in the building gives this poor soul a little of this and a little of that, and you end up having junk, I mean treasured hand-me-downs from 15 different [well-intentioned] teachers.  

The joy I had upon entering the room for the first time was quickly replaced by terror as I slowly started opening cupboard upon cupboard of [insert your preferred word for clutter here]!  To quote my favorite lil animated fish from "Finding Nemo", "Good feelings gone!"  Don't get me wrong, there was a lot of great stuff as well; it was just overshadowed by copious amounts of...well, you know.  Long story short, I pulled up my sleeves, came up with an action plan, and went on a hunt for the nearest flatbed or cart. Well, as many of you know, a school in midsummer closely resembles a ghost town.  And while I didn't actually see any tumbleweeds, I couldn't find a flatbed or cart either.  Those that know me understand that once I make up my mind to do something, I'll get it done somehow.  I once made a late night decision to move our treadmill from the basement to our bedroom.  You know, so I would use it more often.  Sigh...  I wasn't going to let the fact that I was home alone stop me, so I dragged that sucker up the basement stairs, through my kitchen, and into my bedroom ALL BY MYSELF!  Needless to say, I did NOT work out that night.  When my husband came home he said I was nuts.  He says I'm stubborn- I say I'm determined! The point is, I don't let obstacles get in my way...unless I'm out of coffee creamer, and then I cry like a baby.

Think, Jen, think!  I quickly came up with an idea...THE LOST AND FOUND CART! This all-purpose, I'll do whatever you need me to do, friend on wheels quickly became my lifeline over the next several days.  I moved my entire room by myself with my new BFF...this guy right here...

"Though she be but little, she is fierce."  -William Shakespeare

After a few days of hard word, a little bit of cursing under my breath, and one [still] bruised knee, I moved into my new home.  I'm ready to rock.  My teaching partner and and I, along with our co-teacher are going to have one amazing year. I can't wait to tell you all about it.

A panoramic view of my new room.  It's not really this big, but panorama is the only way I could fit it all in!  I love how everything has come together so far.  Close-ups coming soon!

One more thing, I couldn't have done it without this little cutie.  This is our youngest son, who we've affectionately dubbed Dizzy.  This guy helped me so much!

“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” 
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

My Favorite Time of Year

I feel like I can make the best out of every season, but man, oh man do I LOVE fall.  Winter is beautiful (Don't ask what Michigan was like last winter, however), spring is filled with hope and sunshine and new life, and summer is...well, summer just plain rocks when you're a teacher- no explanation needed, right?  But fall brings football, crock pots, my AMAZING tall black boots, and BACK TO SCHOOL!  I have always loved this time of year.  Ask my mom!  She'll tell you I've always been excited to go back to school. Seriously, is there anything better than the smell of a new box of crayons?  Well, maybe coffee, but new crayons are a very close second.  Love it!  Being a teacher for fifteen years hasn't changed that feeling at all.  I love getting my classroom ready.  I stalk dollar stores, Walmart, and Pinterest religously.  Ridiculously maybe?  I so enjoy buying things and creating ways to use them that absolutely NO ONE but a teacher would possibly think of.  But most of all, I start thinking about my new group of firsties.  Although I know a few of them from passing in the halls last year, most of them are complete strangers to me.  I find myself praying for them, praying for our year together, and getting really exctied about being the teacher they need and deserve.  Aside from all of that, this is what I've been up to the last few days as the last couple weeks of my summer break dwindle down.

I worked on this parent handbook from Somer Bizzle that requires no gluing or cutting!  I think my parents will love this!  I'm going to glue a magnet on the back so they can hang it right on the refrigerator!







I also whipped up a few goodies for some of our first grade writing standards.  
I made this Five Star Sentence anchor chart with coordinating "I can" cards. We use "I can" statements A LOT in my room.  They are perfect for goal setting.  More to come on that later.  The Five Star Sentence is a great way to review some of the basic concepts of sentence writing.  

I also made anchor charts, "I can" cards, and vocabulary cards for the three types of first grade Common Core writing (narrative, informational, and opinion).  Check them out at my TpT Store!

Here's a preview...

I'll post pictures soon of how things turned out after my big move to my new classroom.  It's a funny story actually.  It involves me, our good ol' Lost and Found cart, and lots of stubborness...I mean determination.

"Teaching is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."  William Butler Yeats