Classroom Tour 15-16

Normally my classroom would have been finished a month ago but I made a promise to myself to rest this summer and not spend time in my room but time working on resources at home instead.

Sign In Table- email address and room mom sign ups

Welcome Bunting

Welcome Bunting

View from the Door, sorry it's blurry

Reading Group Bulletin Board with Thirty One Oh Snap Pockets

Reading Group Table

Back Wall and Counter

Classroom Library

Focus Board

White Board

Above White Board

White Board

Super Improver Board

SMORE Folder

Welcome Treats- Hand Sanitizer, Fruit Snacks, Stickers, Slinky, Pencil

Those were my pictures as of Thursday, before they added 2 new students to my roll and before the nervous breakdown of century. I have a total of 27 third graders this year, ranging from first grade level to fifth grade level, while my teammates are averaging 23-24 students each. Here's to a new year...  

Summer Projects Part 2

It's August and I report back to school in 22 days. Summer school is over and I've had my family vacation at Massanutten Resort. I'll spend the remainder of the month at home creating resources as I promised myself I wouldn't work in my classroom this summer.

 

For the last couple of years I've spent part of my summer working tirelessly in my classroom but not this summer. I intend to do it all during teacher work week, so between the meetings and professional development this teacher will find out if it really is possible to put an entire classroom together during work week, before Open House. Good news is I've done my first week planning and already made my copies, so the clerical work is done.

  Here's what I'm currently working on.

I'm making headings for my focus bulletin board, it has purple fabric with green chevron border so I think these will coordinate with it.

Remade my Whole Brain Teaching Rules, wanted something more simple and chic.

Remade the WBT Call Back Reponses as well.

Made these color posters for a K-Teacher friend of mine, she wanted to update the posters in her classroom. I used the Color Kids from Krista Wallden. You can download these at the Teaching Oasis.

I made a Welcome Bunting Banner for the hallway, I'm going to run them on brightly colored paper and tie them together with ribbon.

I also gave my library labels a makeover. Frames courtesy of Krista Wallden.

Super Improver Wall {Whole Brain Teaching}

Current Super Improver Wall

Super Improver Wall in August

Let's just say this is the best thing I've ever implemented in my classroom! It comes from the Whole Brain Teaching book.

I run the template above on the correlating color copy/construction paper. All my students started off with a white sheet of paper and they have to earn 10 stickers (the mini chart stickers you can find at the teacher store) to level up to the next color. So they've gone from white to green to blue and so on. They absolutely love it, who knew a sticker and sheet of paper would be so motivating!?

Ways students earn stickers:

1 sticker a week for having appropriate behavior
1 sticker if you're my helper for the week
1 sticker for every five AR points they earn
1 sticker for reaching the highest level on our classroom clip chart that day
1 sticker if they can reflect on their week and tell me how they've used one of the 7 Habits of Happy Kids
1 sticker if I see them demonstrating our Life Skill of the Month
1 sticker for homework, I may do this once a month with one particular homework assignment, anyone who turns that one in gets a sticker

Basically they can earn stickers for anything I want them to earn stickers for. I have contracts with certain students. With one if she finishes all her literacy tasks that day she can earn a sticker. With another if he gets less than 3 redirections a day he can earn an additional sticker.

As you can see I have three students at the Pro (brown) level. From time to time I ask certain levels to complete certain responsibilities. For example I may tell all the Team Captains (yellow) to clean the floor. Or ask the Specialists (pink) to run errands for me. Or have the Whiz Kids (purple) be the monitors in the bathroom.

Super Improver Wall Levels from Tonya's Treats for Teachers,
click picture for link

 

Classroom Sneak Peek

If you follow me then you know that I will be having surgery on Monday which means my room had to be arranged in decorated before summer school ended because I'm not sure how long my recovery will be. I took a few pics before leaving today to give you a sneak peak. I'll probably post more during teacher work week, assuming I'll be well enough to report back to work by then.

Writing Station, Whole Brain Teaching Board

Behavior Chart

White Board

Super Improvers Board, Calendar, 7 Habits

Math and Writing Wall

Carpet Area

Classroom Library

Vocabulary Word Wall, Organizational Items

Reading Group Area {please excuse the table, those are my back to school copies and story books, all ready for me to lesson plan}

Guided Reading Bulletin Board

Whole Brain Teaching Part 1

According to Amazon my professional reading books should be delivered today! I haven't had to create many resources for this because there are "tons" of free quality items out there for you to download. Here are my favorites so far...

I downloaded the Super Improver's Wall from Tonya's Treats for Teachers. I was going to make my own, but hers hit the nail on the head and I wondered, why reinvent the wheel! They're colorful and the clip art is adorable! It's from Melonheadz and I have this set on my wish list right now. I am going to purchase matching cardstock paper to cut up and use as the students cards for them to earn stars and level up.

 

 

I really like the rules from Amy Groesbeck. It has Chevron and the same Melonheadz clip art. So I printed these out and laminated them.

 

I chose Christie from First Grade Fever's Call Back Set. Love the Polka Dots and again, it has the Melonheadz clip art.

Professional Reading

There are several books I intend to read for fun this summer... the Divergent Series, new books from Mary Monroe. Then there are the 3 professional books I intend to read this summer. I've got them in my Amazon cart ready to purchase.

Each habit has a story that illustrates it, a little tidbit for parents or teachers to read, discussion questions, and several suggestions on how a child can implement that habit. I look forward to implementing this in my classroom this year. I've already created some posters and I'm in the process of creating a clip chart and a leadership binder for each student.

I've seen many ideas on Pinterest about Whole Brain Teaching. I decided it was finally time to read the book. Not sure if I'll implement the entire program next year but I may implement parts of it.

This is the perfect resource for Christian teachers, it provides tips and strategies to help you do just what the title suggests: create the classroom you've always wanted. This book contains fifty daily readings designed to help new teachers conquer the learning curve and to bring fresh ideas to veterans.

What professional books are you reading this summer? Have you read these, what do you think about them?