Classroom Reveal 2015-2016

School is just a week away... CRAZY!

I wanted to show off my classroom... so here it is!

Book shelves... students will put their book boxes here.  I also have my sets of books for guided reading and our games are on the bottom.  When I'm tired of looking at it, I can close the curtains!

My BRAG TAGS board!

Library and meeting area.  The pocket charts will hold Daily Five rotation info, spelling words, and vocab.  My Homework Club and CAFE Menu will be back here also.  Check out this BLOG post about my library...

Writing center!  Check out this BLOG post all about it!

Shelf holds stuff for my writing center...

Listening center...

Partner reading station... check out the BLOG post all about it!

Facing my desk...

View from the corner...

This is where I organize my grammar activities...

Work on words stuff...

More of the Partner Reading station...

Bad lighting, but I LOVE the Detroit Lions!!!  I cut these pics from an old calendar and they're above the windows!

I also made these curtains... I'm in LOVE with them!

The pink and purple baskets have books that I use for read alouds...

More of the library...

View from the meeting area...

My area for hanging up notes and stuff...

Birthday display and where I will hang my mini-anchor charts for Daily Five...

Shelf with my daily read aloud, free choice minutes (BLOG post), and other "down time" activities...

My small group table!  Kiddos LOVE writing on the dry-erase circles!  Find them on Amazon.

We compared/contrasted texts during summer school.  They were so psyched to do it on their circles!

So, there you have it!  My classroom for this new school year.  Can't wait to fill it with kiddos next week!

Student Welcome Pennants {Freebie!}

I'm LOVING these cute pennants I put up in the hall to welcome my new kiddos...

Jessica Saunders {who has a fabulous blog, by the way} posted pics of her welcome pennants that other day and I KNEW I had to make them too.  I'm so thankful that she allowed me to share this with you all too!

So, click the pic above to head over to TpT and download an editable copy of this file!  Open in PowerPoint, add text boxes, and you're good to go!

Let me know what you think!

My Little Hoarding Secret...

Anyone else have something in their classroom that they feel like this about...?

My little hoarding secrets are containers...

And pocket charts from the Dollar Spot at Target.

I don't even use those containers!  But I can't part with them!

And, don't even get me started on the pocket charts!  I moved classrooms in June and had my students help.  We counted FIFTY pocket charts when I moved rooms!  I am proud to say that I purged all of my non-turquoise pocket charts AND I haven't bought a single pocket chart from Target this summer!  The first step is admitting you have a problem, I suppose!

Ha!

What do you hoard?  What's your precious?

Three-fer Thursday! {Literacy Units}

Increase student engagement with these fun literacy units!  They connect with the texts in meaningful ways and are 20% off today!  Perfect for whole-class engagement, easy for subs to use, or great for small groups!

 

Brag Tag Bulletin Board {freebie rewind!}

My kiddos LOVE Brag Tags!

I've been doing them for several years and pass them out during my classroom awards assembly every Friday afternoon.

Here's the display I have for this year:

Each student has their number on the board.  The numbers are stapled up and then a push pin is in the middle of each number to hold the brag tag necklace.

When my kiddos get here, everyone will start the year with a "3rd Grade Rocks" tag!

Here's a pic from last year:

I also give out tags for holiday gifts.

You can click below to download a FREE set of holiday tags!  Just print, laminate, cut, hole punch, and there you go!  I shared this freebie last summer so it may look familiar!  Let me know what you think in the blog comments!

Organizing Pages for Reading Responses

I can't WAIT to start using my new Reading Response Tasks this school year.  They are Common Core connected, fit on one page, and really have students applying their comprehension skills!

I had a parent copy and cut 100 of each task page out at the end of last school year.  She organized them in file folders for me so it will be super easy for students to grab these on Monday morning, glue them in their composition books, and be good to go for their Reading Response task homework for the week!

Looking to beef up your students' comprehension skills?  Check out the Reading Response Tasks for grades 2, 3, 4, and 5!

  

The One Dollar Motivator!

Do you (can you?) use candy in class?  I don't give out tons of sugary treats, as I really try and help my students become intrinsically motivated to work hard, have pride, and make good choices... but, every year, I do invest one dollar in something that is a MEGA motivator to my kiddos...

A giant box of "Nerds" candy...

This is a dollar well spent.  The first week of school, I give out ONE, UNO, singular Nerd when students make good choices.  Students can earn ONE, UNO, singular Nerd on Monday mornings when they turn in their homework sheet with parent initials on each night for the previous week.  Sometimes, if participation is down, I just shake my container of Nerds and everyone sits up a little straighter and talks a little louder... for ONE Nerd!

Would you be able to do this?  Do you think it would work for you?

One tiny Nerd!  Sometimes it's just the motivator my kiddos need!

Cheap No-Sew Classroom Curtains {They're SOOOO Pretty!}

I just made some classroom curtains!

I made two types of curtains...

using tension rods, burlap "ribbon", scraps of fabric that I roughly cut into strips, glitter tulle, 2 1/2 yards of new fabric, and a hot glue gun!

For the curtains on the top, the part you would typically sew, I ironed down across the top to make a nice crease.  Then I hot glued the fabric!  I hung ribbons on the sides because it wasn't quite wide enough.  I LOVE how it turned out!  Since the fabric is chevron patterned, I cut the fabric at the bottom to follow that chevron... looks cute and saved me from having to trim, sew, or glue up the hem!

The bottom tension rod just has fabric scraps, burlap ribbon, tulle, and ribbon scraps hung on it.  I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

I had one tension rod and some scraps left over, so I made this little beauty to put across my classroom doorway!

EEEEEE!  LOVE!