Oh, The Cleverness of Me!

My Expo Marker container. This is how I made it:

I first found old Expo marker lids that were no longer needed.

 

I purchased fake flowers and a large fake leaf as well as a tin pot off the clearance isle at Big Lots!

 

I plugged in my hot glue gun and got busy! 

Then, cut through the middle of the fake leaf and detached it from the stem. I glued it around the front edge of my tin  pot making sure that it was high enough to see but short enough to not block the pretty flowers. I put an old lid on a fresh Expo bottom leaving the fresh Expo lid on the top and eyeballed it...  I glued it at the bottom and at the top so it would stay in place well. 

Then, I cut the flowers of the stem and glued them to my fresh Expo marker lids. 

Then I took my old lids and glued them point side up in my tin pot. 

When the glue dried I connected the fresh Expo's to the glued in lids flowers up! the Expo's just pull right off the old lids glued in the pot when it is time to use! 

Note about the front,: I used some left overs and found a place for them instead of throwing them away!

Easy Peasy!!!

Welcome To My Classroom

Welcome sign magnet for my portable building classroom door.

Indoor bulletin board shared with another teacher my frogs are on the left.

Been  a while. I got the keys to my classroom and been working hard getting my new school/year off and running. It has been quite a journey finding all the things I want and need for my new room. I was really given a lot of freedom in how my classroom was to be put together and even what I do as far as instruction as  long as it is grounded in standards I am good.

What a dream, I think I have my dream job at my dream school! What could be better than that! I am hoping that you enjoy the pictures I am sharing of my classroom. Let me briefly describe the process in which I chose what I chose. Let me start with my carpet area. The best way to describe this area is to admit I am addicted to Velcro. I put a felt wall up and bought two rugs to try to fit my students on a teacher chair that I have used since I broke my knee in two places a few years ago. So far I have a place value depositor, coin and bill changers. ordinal number depositor, number line to144 in an ABCDEFGHIJ pattern, count by book based on pattern of the number line, calendar, 9 weeks Fry words,  story retelling, Whole brain teaching rules, and CAFÉ menu.

   

Teacher area. Coming from kindergarten really helped me understand the use of space being driven by the needs of children. I was so glad to see that my classroom did not have a teacher desk! I was able to put my two pink file cabinets that have one small supply type drawer each on it for pens ect underneath my horse shoe table. They lock too which makes it nice desk like feature. I also have several small metal shelves to put my supplies and the students reading group supplies on. I put the teacher computer directly behind the horse shoe. I have also have a fridge and microwave. Also have a small grey shelf to fit my copy machine on. Instead of having a desk top calendar I found a dry erase wall sticky one. I also put all my degrees, high school diploma, and two university honor society certificates up.

Daily 5 Centers:

Reading center is always the corner stone of my classroom. I believe the reading center should be the place where all the children want to go because it is so inviting and well loved.  It is where read to self and read to someone starts, where IPICK takes place. Where my students grow a love for reading and learning! I have always had the two kimmi Ikea chairs and they are the focal point when designing a new reading center in each of my classrooms. I found them at a thrift store, as well as the purple round chair. I also have a small coffee table for my center, often putting special books on it for children to look at. The shelves are all grey in my classroom so they do not overwhelm the children with color as I like colorful things, grey goes well with everything.  I found a rug at Big Lots that fit my area perfect and matched the color of my Kimmi chairs perfectly. I had two areas between the shelves so I fit a tree in each to go with my outside pondy critter theme.  I have printed and hung cute frog daily 5 reminders around the room.

Writing center is more of a supply center. There is not a lot of room in my classroom and with the importance of reading center to my philosophy of teaching so goes writing as an important counterpart. First I wanted to start off with a writing desk with a lamp that would hold supplies for my students to use during daily 5 times. They will have to take it back to their desks for working on but that should work fine.  I got the cute lamp at TJ Max on the clearance isle for $10! I have book making supplies, fancy scissors, pencils, sharpener, colored pencils, markers, special papers, pads, glue, construction paper, and an electric stapler.

Word work is a supply shelf a bulletin board and a pocket chart. The supply shelf will have the activities on top each week that I want them to do during work time. There are supplies hidden behind the froggy pink and white fabric curtains so I can easily sit them out.  The bulletin bard will have a boggle/word twist the kids can do, and the pocket chart is for our weekly spelling words.

Listening center has a radio and a few supplies in it. The school is really lacking in supplies and activities for listening center; thank goodness I have a chapter book on cd that we can start with.  I have a record player but at some point the needle got broken now I have to find a new needle to play music with L.

Word work and listening centers are the two grey shelves on the left wall.

I am lucky to have one white board and one chalk board. I have a projector and screen but right now it does not work at the moment.

Other areas of interest: My focus wall, and my made from scratch closet with word wall doors!

inside of my closet

word wall hides the interior of my closet

So that is my classroom, I hope you enjoyed looking!

Chapter 6+ My New Room!

This weeks hostesses are:

Looking in from a door at the south east corer

looking from the north east corner

It was an amazing week for me! I finally got to see my room. I am in a portable building, That’s great for me I love not having the distraction of the hallway. I was right next to the office last year and I had visitors and interruptions all the time.  Previous to that I was in a portable and loved it.  Seeing my room was like going to Disney World I was so excited to see where I am going to spend my next school year with my students! I can see it is going to be challenging place. There is no water, sink, drink, and toilet. There is no continues awning from building to portables, there are tons of steps, steps up to the building steps down to playground.  The portable itself is smaller than the other two classrooms I have had, but I can deal with that. I am going to have to be really selective on what and who things are put away. Storage is going to be an issue as well. I was told starting 8/1 teachers can come and work in their rooms and I cannot waste any time. I have to get in there roll up my sleeves and get started. I have had the D5 centers on my mind so I am going to talk about all three…

Classroom Storage

One of the reasons I started off with my new classroom is how concerned I am about having a listening center.(I know last week’s chapter right) I am hoping I will get listening center items checked out to me as there was not one listening center activity or piece of equipment in the classroom.  I am not going to have tons of money to sink into my classroom as my former district was on a year round schedule and my last pay check and first pay check is two months apart.. However, if there is no listening center things to be had it is an opportunity for me to seek out new and innovative listening center items for the students.  One of the problems I had in kindergarten was that books were never long enough for me to get through the guided reading rotations we were doing and the kids would need something else to do. With older children they can listen to chapter books, hopefully we won’t have the same problem. I also reread Diller’s Spaces and Places this summer and she had a box of things she called the “instead” box. If technology is not functioning, if you are done early do something from the instead box! That would have solved my problems in kindergarten.  

This week’s chapters were work on writing and word work. I like that the writing center is suppose to foster a love for writing I think all too often we expect children to love out lessons and our lessons should foster a love for something… I think the human brain loves to be creative; stifling this need to create makes things less enjoyable. I know it works that way for me now. For example, at my last school we had very little freedom in anything even our bulletin boards were cookie cutter! I never looked forward to putting together bulletin boards, lesson plans, and other forced or coerced activities thrust upon me in a dictated way. I know children feel the same way.  

Word work is going to be more challenging. I really need to dig into the reading curriculum at the school to wrap my head around what we are going to be doing. I know I can come up with games and other word projects that are appropriate to what we are learning even if I have to spend some money (I don’t have) for my word work center. Some of my kindergarten things will likely still work like my spill and spell game I found at a thrift store. I have an up words game also found at a thrift store. I guess this will be a wait till 8/1 and see when I start arranging my room and start the fun task of unloading all my school stuff in my tiny room with no storage J think positive thoughts Gebhart, you got this!  

Finished a project!

Wfeeeww, I am finally finished with a few new projects. I have been working on items for my new classroom. Working from organization up. I am starting a new grade, in a school with more freedom. Before where I taught kindergarten we were dictated pretty heavily. Everyone’s bulletin boards were exactly the same. Everyone had the same issued and tabbed data notebook, we were suppose to do the exact same thing as all of our grade mate teachers. My new school has some creative freedom I have longed for and will enjoy! I couldn’t wait to get started.

First I make my Pensieve for CAFÉ. I used some scrapbooking paper for it, but Ii must confess I am not a scrapbooker.  I also used prefab letters and a few computer prints here and there and regular 3 ring binder with the clear opening in the front. I have enjoyed making them I hope you enjoy the pictures. I have one thing to add.. I can’t get to my feathers because all my school stuff I had to bring home, the communiqué dossier will have a peacock feather top on it after I get to move into my new classroom!

For logging parent communiation I have two forms I use one telephone call sumary form and one face to face meeting form. I also keep a calendar to make sure I have contacted each parent at least once a month. I have other documens I do put in the file, like emails from parents an notes from home. I have a tab for each student.

Cafe Pensieve

Lesson Plan Master Copies

This will go with a file bag with daily copies.

Chapter 5

Thank you for letting me be a part of the blog hop, I am really loving it. I hope you are gaining something from my posts.  I know I am from yall! This week blog hopping lead bunnies are:

Previously I posted using a door bell to signal time's up! Well, I found one. Check this out, 8 different rings, seasonal and one traditional wireless, and battery opperated. all for $16 at Lowe's! Can't wait to use it!

Chapter 5

The difficult skills

I had so much trouble teaching this to my students in ELL kindergarten. I decided to group my children myself and to teach only I read you read. NOW that I am looking at a 3^rd grade classroom I do not see any reason that my older students should be able to master all these skills. I know it will take time and practice of these skills over the first month, but I think mastering this skill will be super beneficial to my students. I can’t wait to get started! Although I think It will likely take more time over every skill day mastering all of these important tasks in 6 days it a lot to ask of an adult.. Anyway I really like teaching children these skills. I hope they use them at home with parents and siblings as well, oh~~in a perfect world!!

I have decided to go back and write my lesson plans for D5 to be more of a third grade lesson plan, for my new class. I started with this chapter because I think it is the most important chapter. I will go back and get the previous chapter in a few days.  I want to anchor the rest of my lessons based on how I get the ones from this chapter together. I am a by the book kind of girl, but here is where the sisters and I differ:

Choosing a partner:

 While writing the lesson plan for lesson day 5 how to choose a partner I am surprised as I read the sisters signaling description, (I guess I forgot over the last two years). I wished that more teachers would use real sign language to convey meaning without noise. After all if we are going to teach children to use signals shouldn’t we teach them ones with greater meaning and usefulness? I thought I would share a few essential signs for this particular lesson that are easy to use

Yes: http://www.lifeprint.com/index.htm

No: http://www.lifeprint.com/index.htm

Thank you: http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/t/thankyou.htm

For partner I use the sign for connect/member/join/own: http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/o/of.htm

Q:Now that I am in third grade, someone please share with me how they keep track of where each child is on a chapter book on CD? How do you handle the changing of CDs? It would be great assistance to me if you would share!

Happy Hopping

So I have started my pensieve...

So I have started pulling together my pensieve folder and I was wondering all you D5'ers out there stopping into look at my blog for the book club would be willing to share with me any of your wisdom and experiences in the contents. I will be starting to put the inside together as soon as I make a wise plan!

D5: Chapter 4

Thank you Daily 5 blog hoppers for including me in my very first blog hopping book study! The blog hoppers have inspired me in so many ways. I may not always comment on a blog but I try to visit every blog every week.

This week hostesses of the blog hop is:




Launching D5
I have followed the sisters word for word in kindergarten and it worked! I recommend following the launching guide entirely! USE THE GUIDE IN THE BACK OF THE BOOK! Put that in your lesson plan binder for quick reference.  I can't put in words how effective it was with my inner city children. This is a very thoughtful process. Use it or loose it!

Three Ways To Read A Book
Oh how I will miss my kindergarten song for the this lesson. For my kinders I had made up a little tune sounding like Frère Jacques that was an echo song it went like this: There are three ways (echo), To read a book (echo), Read the pictures (echo) Retell the story (echo) and sound out the words (echo).  I liked echo songs in my kinder class because it helped my ELL's access the language in the song much easier. If I am to use this in my third grade class it will need some updating. First it doesn't really need to be an echo song for these English only kids, second sound out the words needs to be changed back to read the words.  My kinders would go home on the first day of school knowing that they were already readers because they could read the pictures, and retell the story! I never had students who said "I can't read." That was amazing! I hope third graders will like my D5 songs!

Book Trader Time
One of my activities I added to my D5 kindergarten day was book trader day, also library day.  Once a week I would have students join me at carpet with their book boxes. in a cup I had Popsicle sticks with areas of the room on some of the sticks (one might say semi circle) or if it was not a location it was a shoe! Each student would draw a stick. If they got a shoe they were considered traveling traders, if they got a location they were to set up shop in that location. I had students set up shop by spreading out the books they were finished with and were wanting to trade for a different book. Traveling traders would travel from shop to shop and swap books. Book trading time was a favorite time for many of my students. It gave us an opportunity to access our book boxes every week for an upgrade of selections and gave an opportunity to separate their school library selection from classroom library selections. I would never make a student trade. This was a great way to help my kinders with social issues too. Often I would have kids say "do this or I wont be your friend!" After book trading was in effect often the children would transfer the experience into their everyday dealings with other children. It was no longer "if you don't play on the big toy with me I won't be your friend" to a new way "I will play on the big toy with you if you play on the monkey bars with me." This is part of my D5 classroom that is rally invaluable! This also needs to be launched and I charted too!


I Charts
As a teacher I am almost embarrassed to admit the following statement, I have terrible handwriting. When I was in kindergarten my teacher and my 4th grade teacher mom made a terrible decision. They decided the world was made for right handed children and quit letting me be a lefty! I have to word process my I Charts to make them more accessible to my students. We do write them but, I want things to look neater to my students. Last year I had a smart board and it would turn my writing into type. This year I will not have that to help me.

Stamina At Home
I encourage my parents to add time to the kids at home reading time. I recommend 67 minutes a day minimum of reading. However, I also tell parents that is the goal,  not the immediate reality. Time reading at home needs to be built up just like we do at school. We start out small and work our way up a minute at a time. Why 67? I read a research article in my masters program that said that we have statistical evidence that suggest those students who score highest on "the test" read a minimum of 67 minutes a day. Also, what I as a parent require from my own children, who both are exemplar students.

Happy Hopping!