Morning Check-In

With the morning hustle bustle, sometimes it's easy to forget to ask your students important questions pertaining to their home life. Each morning I stand by my door and greet my kiddos with a "high five, handshake, or hug." This is also when I check their planners to see if mom or dad signed his/her child's planner for the previous day. Since my third graders LOVE to share (who doesn't?!), I decided to post up a daily question outside my room door. While students are waiting to check in with me, they can think of their answer. So far, my students are loving it!  Here are some other questions I plan to use:
-What did you eat for dinner last night?
- What does your family do for fun?
-What is your favorite home-cooked meal?
-Have you ever been on vacation? If so, where?
- What does mom/dad/guardian do for a living?
-etc...

I'm excited about incorporating these questions int my morning check-in because this also let's students know that they have someone who cares about them. Thanks for reading!

Paper Station!

Today I completed my paper station for students. I used to simply put ALL (and I truly mean all) extra copies into my "Extra Tub."  As you can imagine, this wasn't always the most organized space or even that easy to navigate through on any level if we're being honest here. I never liked it, but I was determined to fix it this year. In the picture shown above I labeled my new organizer for students to easily turn in their work. In the left side, students will be able to turn in their guided reading work based in their levels (O,W,L,S). The middle section is dedicated to spots for homework, StoryTown tests, in-class reading/math/SS/Social Studies as well as writing samples. The right side is the "Pick Up" station for students to, well, pick up last week's homework, this week's homework, important notes/forms. I like the idea of this area because my kiddos (and I for that matter) will no longer be sorting through random worksheets with the hopes of coming up with the right one. This will eliminate that! 

I can't wait to teach my kiddos how to use this station, so it will make all of our lives easier and more functional. 

Gearing Up for an Amazing Year!

School season is in full swing. There's just something about going to stores and seeing the school.supplies out that gets me all kinds of excited! Don't get me wrong: I love me some good ol' fun in the sun, but I cannot help myself when the new school supplies hit the shelves! It doesn't matter if it's simply buying a new notebook or several items...I absolutely, positively CANNOT pass through a store and not buy SOMETHING. It's kind of a problem, but hey, it makes me happy:)

I took a few pictures of my classroom to share as I gear up for the new year and Meet the Teacher Night. My class list won't officially be ready until later this week, but I'm planning on about 23 or 24 students to start the year. Much like many of you, it seems like every time I take one thing off the list, I add 3-5 more. That's just the way it.goes, right?!

As I get more done, I'll post more pictures!

Organization Station!

I chose a section in the back of my room to serve as my students' organization station. This was an area that I have been SO excited to set up, as my previous classroom had virtually no spots to do this in. So far I have reused and repurposed miscellaneous containers (including old Tupperware and Clorox wipe containers) to create the space. The crayons (far left) are stored in 2 clear boxes that can easily picked up for groups to use if needed or storage for those lost crayons we tend to find at the end of a busy day. ;)

This station is set up for students to be able to grab markers, crayons, colored pencils, glue, erasers,  scissors, rulers, highlighters, or dry erase markers quickly without disrupting the class or asking me for the item he/she needs. My helpers of the week will be in charge of sharpening pencils and making sure the entire station is tidy and ready to go each day. This gives my students a chance to be more independent and clears me of being interrupted in the middle of a lesson!

Desk Drawer Organization!

I am in the midst of tackling my desk and its functionality. I FINALLY got my drawers organized in a way that I can easily keep track of office supplies and items I use on a regular basis. Here is a picture of one of my top drawers, which features three tuna cans to hold rubber bands, tacks, and brads (yes, I cleaned them thoroughly of course! I don't even like tuna!! Thanks to Laissezfaire for the tip!)) I keep my extra staples, staple remover, poster markers, district copy slips, tape rolls, whiteout, and push pins here. Each item has a spot of its own. I'm ashamed to say that my drawer didn't look anything like this for the past two years, and it ALWAYS drove me crazy. Better late than never to do something about it!

What I really try to do when I'm organizing a space is look around and reuse or repurpose containers that I already have. You can see down below that the magnet holder box is simply an old sidewalk chalk container, and the clothespins were stored in a basket I had that I wasn't using.

The next picture shows another one of my drawers, where I store clothespins and various cards. It's important to keep thank you notes or blank cards handy when a co-worker or student does something nice or gives you a gift. I absolutely love my colorful cards as well as my W cards. These come in super handy throughout the year!!

Now onto more organizing for the rest of my desk:) I'll be posting more pics of my tricks and tips for the spaces I organize next!

OWL Binders!

So I've been seeing ADORABLE binder covers all of over the place, and I was just getting ready to print myself off some binder covers when I looked around and saw some extra owls amd scrapbook paper I had on my bookshelf. It was then that it dawned on me that I should just whip my Cricut machine out and make my own! It took only a few minutes before these were thrown together.

I made binders for Student Information, Common Core, Student Data, and Substitute Teacher. I need to get a couple more made for Homework copies, Green Team, STUCO, amd Parent Communication, but this is a start!

I'm linking up with Teaching Heart!
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Daily 5 I-Pick Owl Cart!

      
I finally finished the cart for students to store their books. I cut super sturdy cardboard into pieces and then used fun-colored duct tape to finish the look. Finally I tested out my creation, and it works splendidly! This should be a nice addition to my classroom and will hopefully create more space in students' desks.

I also added the I-PICK chart shown below to the side of my cart:)