Classroom Things I Can't Live Without... a linky party!

Kelley over at Teacher Idea Factory is hosting her first linky party and it's great for the end of the year, since we're all thinking about ways to be better in our classrooms next year!

Not only does this linky appeal to my love of perfecting my craft in the classroom... but it's also giving me ideas of ways to SHOP!

So, here are my favorite resources that I couldn't live without in my classroom... clicking on the picture for each one will take you to the vendor site so you can check them out if you want to!

1.) My Mimio Pad!  I love this thing!  We use it all day long, every day.  I was fortunate enough to have one sent to me after my proposal was funded on Donor's Choose and then the parent group at my school bought one for everybody else too!  If you aren't familiar with a Mimio Pad, it acts as a portable mouse.  You can control anything on the computer from anywhere in the room.  This, coupled with my document camera, has made my overhead projector and transparency film obsolete!  Not only that, but my students LOVE the Mimio Pad.  We use it for everything!

2.)  My rug!  This was another item funded for me on Donor's Choose.  I love that it gives us a clear area for group work, my students each have an "assigned" spot, and the squares give boundaries for bodies and personal space.  We do most of our learning here together on the carpet.  Love it!

3.)  My daily organizing bins from Lakeshore!  These live behind my desk and store the things I need for each day of the week.  It makes keeping materials together a cinch and I can *usually* find everything I need!  I am a planner and this helps me be able to plan things in advance (ie. projects and other things), toss them in the bin for the day I want to use them in a week or so, and then know right where to find it!  With 8 days of school left, it's way too messy behind my desk for me to let you see my actual bins... here's the stock photo from the Lakeshore website!  :)

4.) Daily Five.  Can I say that?  It isn't really a resource, but it has really changed and intensified reading instruction in my classroom.  This past year was my third year using Daily Five and my 2nd using CAFE too and I love it.  So do my students!  I've done loads of blog posts about Daily Five and CAFE.  Click those links to see loads of pictures and find out more about it in my classroom.

5.) Last... I would say my books.  My classroom books are among my most prized possessions.  When my school caught on fire in August 2008, my classroom was destroyed from water damage and all of my possessions were trashed.  The clean-up crew did salvage my books... which was AMAZING as I have a huge collection.  Reading and teaching reading is my favorite thing and I am very proud of my classroom library and my own personal collections of books that I use for teaching.  Here's a snapshot of part of my classroom library.  Oh... and my gutted classroom after the fire... just for kicks!

What are your favorite classroom resources?  Head over to Teacher Idea Factory and link up to share!