Monday Made It! Classroom Reveal!

Hello everyone!! This week I'm linking up once again with Fourth Grade Frolics for Monday Made It! And since I'm all finished with my classroom, I thought I would share my classroom reveal at the same time! All of my decor this year was made by me and I can't be more excited about how it all turned out!! Get ready, because this might be a lengthy post!!

First off, my outdoor bulletin board is all Minion-ized. Since I don't have a Cameo or anything, all of those minions and lettering were printed and hand-cut by yours truly.. I have a blister to prove it! I love the way it turned out and can't wait for the kiddoes to come in and see them!

Inside the classroom, I only have one bulletin board--but it runs the entire length of the room. That big thing gets split into all sorts of configurations, and it ended up looking like this!

Our daily schedule is on the far end, and the larger section is where I will post all of our learning objectives. The white sheets are just laminated posterboard. All of the headers and such were printed on cardstock and laminated with my handy at-home laminator.

This is where my students will chart the number of A.R. Points that they earn. Each time they meet a level, they will move their nametag down the wall. Each level earns a small prize until they get to 100 points--and that's when they get to pick the big prize! A free book from the book order!

Our math fact wall--The kids have buttons with their names on them that they will move to the different levels as they pass them. At the end of the year, if they pass them all, they get to have a Fun Day!

And our class rules take up a little space on this display.

Next up are two bulletin boards that we use daily for Flex Math and Guided Reading. I didn't necessarily MAKE these, but I did put them up!

To learn a bit more about how I run my math groups...click HERE.

 Almost done! Here are just a couple more things that I made for my classroom. LABELS! I love organized materials, so I label things for my kids and for myself to keep us in order. First up is my math carts. These carts store the things we need for math stations. Fact cards, our timed tests, and any manipulatives or sheets we need are in this cart. The kids will be responsible for getting their own things ready for the period and it all comes out of this cart.

And all of our folders needed minion labels too, so I made those as well! 

And I was finally able to hang up some of my TPT goodies, like these  Subway Art Synonym Posters that I got from The Brown Bag Teacher.

And that's about it... I also made some yellow curtains for my room as well, but I forgot to take a picture of them... I'm not very proud of those since I used my stapler to make them!! But you can't even tell because they hang at the top of about a 10 foot tall window.  I've got a couple more things in store, but right now I'm going to enjoy being home with my husband and my girls...because work starts again on Tuesday. Where did my summer go??

See you next week!

Click here to head back to Fourth Grade Frolics for more Monday Made Its!

Two for Tuesday! Math Bundle and Poetry Unit

Howdy ya'll! I'm back again today for another link up with my good friend Cyndie from Chalk One Up for the Teacher for another Two for Tuesday! Today you are privy to two AMAZING deals from my store. One is a big ole bundle of math goodies, and the other is my most popular literature unit in my store. Make sure to check them both out and grab them up while they are half price!

The first product up for grabs is my bundled set of Interactive Word Problems for Third Grade! Every standard is included, and my students last year loved them! They provide an excellent opportunity for students to write and draw their thinking while working out word problems. Click on the image below to grab them! Original price was $10.00,  and it is now marked down to $5.00!!

The second product that I have marked down 50% is my Poetry and Figurative Language Unit. It includes 13 days of lesson plans and is designed for an interactive experience. All poems referenced are linked within the document and all sheets, etc. are included in the bundle as well. The original price was $8.00, and it is now marked down to $4.00.  Click below to grab that one!

As always, thank you for dropping in and I hope you'll visit again soon. I'm getting ready to start releasing some new materials and will be sharing even more ideas right here on the blog!

An InLinkz Link-up

Keeping It Together

See that little picture down there???

Yeah, that's me during the school year...Drowning in a sea of papers to grade, progress monitoring to record, test scores to keep up with, and parent conferences to plan. 

Now let me just admit it, I am probably the most disorganized teacher in the world when it comes to paper! Most of the important stuff gets buried on my desk, or (gasp) chucked into the trash by accident. I am always losing data or hunting for it in between parent-teacher conferences. This year, I've decided to do something about it. I am going to put all of my data in ONE place--which includes meeting notes, progress monitoring, class grades. and appointments. I made myself a little planner to get me through the year and I thought I would share!

This is the cover! I'm a bit of a cheapskate so I went with something with lots of black and white, along with a pop of color just so I'll be able to find it when it gets buried on my desk.

 Inside this one little book you will find every data sheet that I need for the year and I'll be whipping this notebook out at every meeting to keep myself on track. The interior pages are completely black and white...why? Because I could print it for free at school. Here are a few of the pages that I included. 

Gotta Have a Calendar! Hand written dates so that I can reuse from year to year.

Meeting Notes Pages- About 15 of these for all that wonderful meeting time.

Writing Exam Scores and Progress Monitoring Table, Also included pages for MAPS scores, fluency scores, and other important assessment scores. These I definitely plan on using! Progress monitoring is a huge pet peeve of mine because it's hard to keep track of, but not anymore!

Gradebook Pages--LOTS of these!

I also added in several blank checksheets, a list of my school computer login information (I always forget my passwords for stuff!. I think that this year is going to run a little smoother now that I have a place to keep everything. No more hunting for me!

The best part...it only cost me four bucks. I printed it at school and had it bound into a notebook at Office Depot and now it's all ready to go Back to School! (Say it isn't so!)

So I have a question...How do you keep all of your data organized? Please leave a comment letting me know how you do it all and keep it together!

Reading Journals Revisited! Brand New Unit!

For those of you who haven't seen this post, last summer I blogged about how I've integrated the Common Core Standards into a Reading Journal Format that my kids are absolutely loving. For the past two years, we have used composition notebooks and units, printables, and prompts that I have written to help us learn to analyze and respond to higher level texts. We no longer have basal sets at my school. Instead, we have class sets of some really great books..(Many of which I had to buy myself). Yeah, they were costly--unless I found them in the Scholastic $1.00 flyers, but my kids have absolutely outdone themselves with their journals and I love seeing their work.

I just finished up tweaking a unit that I've actually used for the past two years. At the beginning of the year, we read Because of Winn Dixie, and later on, we add in another of Kate DiCamillo's books called "The Tiger Rising". It is great for comparing parallel texts because there are so many similarities between the two books. It's also a bit emotional, and sometimes there are tears at the end, but the kids really learn to love her stories.

Here are a few excerpts and explanations of what we like to do with our texts!

For each unit, there is always a cover page. We also stick in one of those 3M sticky tabs so that it is easy for us to look back at all of the different units that we have completed. The pictures you see are from my own personal journal. I have found that my kids are more engaged and take a bit more pride in their work when I am doing the work myself! 

These are our vocabulary organizers. We take a word or two from each chapter (we read one or two per day, depending on the length), discuss that word, and students add it to their journals. I have lots of ELL students so we also draw to help solidify the meaning.

We also do a lot of work with Character Analysis. We work with the basics, who they are, what we think they may look like, and some of their character traits that are prominent throughout the story. But we also go further into the text and work with the skill of pulling facts and details out and using them to get to know our characters a bit better.

Settings are always evident in our studies as well. We like to watch how the settings in a story change and discuss how things might have been different had the setting been different. For this unit, we did a fun little flippable and then a larger drawing of the primary setting to accompany it. Underneath each flap we wrote what the setting was, and a few descriptive adjectives about each of the places we visited in the story.

I also always try to bring in some sort of art project into each of the units that we complete. For Winn Dixie, we created dogs out of TP rolls, for this one, since our main character was named Sistine, we painted like Michelangelo did. Students taped their papers underneath their desks and had to try to paint upside down. It was tough, and we got messy. But then we had to write! I always try to write after an activity like this one. We also did a bit of sculpturing with this unit as well!

And this is where our writing skills really start to bloom. Throughout the unit, there are several prompts and other writing opportunities that my kids participate in. All of those are done in our reading journals, and the prompts are added as well using a little tiny tag in the corner of each prompt. That way, kids who are absent, or do not finish will still be able to complete their assignments without having to wonder what it was they were supposed to write about. 

The writing portions take up much of the room in our Reading Journals but seeing my students grow as writers is well worth the time and cost of teaching reading in this manner. I love it, my kids love it, and the growth I've seen is tremendous. Not to brag, but I had 100% of my class pass our state Reading exam this year...and my room was home to 13 EIP students, and 12 ESOL kids. Our reading journals hold all of our precious work for the entire year and the kids love to share them when we have Parent Night. 

Hopefully, you have come away with a few ideas for integrating a Reading Journal into your classroom. My units are all available in my TPT store at great prices if you are interested in purchasing one of them. The one you see in the photos can be found by clicking the photo you see below!

As always, thanks for visiting and I hope you all have a GREAT summer break! We all deserve a little rest and relaxation!

Field Trips...It's a Love/Hate Relationship

Hey ya'll! The school year is winding up for us with only three weeks to go and it is straight up field trip season! It seems like every grade level in my school has gone on one or is going on one in the next two weeks. My class took our yearly trek to Ruby Falls last week and as usual, I loved it/hated it for all the same reasons. I'm sure this list isn't complete, but here is my list of reasons why I love/hate field trips!

Why I love them...

Ruby Falls Underground Waterfall

• We're out of the classroom! Something about being free of those concrete walls just makes the day a bit brighter.
• The wonder I get to witness in the eyes of my students is priceless. Even the drive is a learning experience as many of my littles have never left the city.
• Everyone accidentally falls asleep on the bus ride home.

Why I hate them...

• The stench of a school bus...kind of reminds me of riding in a condensed version of a locker room, with 82 people inside it..and none of them wearing deodorant.. (Third graders don't do that.)
• All behavior plans, rules, regulations, etc. seem to be forgotten for that specific moment in time.We're not in the school, so let's go off the chain and run wild!
• Sack lunches...yeah..cafeteria packed us some broccoli florets in our sack lunches.. Really?? Why don't you just put us in a metal can and tell us all to fart harmoniously. (This relates back to #1)

And since our field trip is so much fun, and since I am so lucky to live and work near Chattanooga, Tennessee, I will share a few of my snapshots from the trip. The kids absolutely love it (except the time the elevator that goes down into the cave broke while we were underground and we had to wait it out). It's a fun trip but the 1/2 mile walk to the falls is brutal!

And that's it folks. I know you all have reasons for loving/hating field trips and I'd love to hear them! So tell me, what is it about field trip days that you love/hate the most? I love reading your comments!

Have a great week!

Randi

Snap It Up Saturday! Chalking Up Another Week!

Howdy ya'll! Another week back in school and I'm beat! The nerves are a little frazzled due to a bunch of new things that I have taken on but I feel like it may all straighten out pretty soon. I guess I need to drop that procrastination off somewhere and start jumping in as soon as something new strikes. We've been SOOO busy at school I thought I would share a few things that we've been doing this week, along with this week's Snap It Up Saturday! Giveaway.

First off, in math we've been working on remembering our addition with regrouping skills. It seems like those disappear during the summer between second and third grade. Most of my class jumped right in and had no difficulty pulling those old skills back into their repertoires. I still have a couple that need some intervention, but we'll get to that during our flex math block. This week, we grabbed up our iPods and went to work with some QR codes. I have a lively class and they aren't quiet for very long but the iPods held attention like a dream and they worked diligently. All you could hear was the random YES!!! when they solved a problem correctly.

I also pulled out an old Science lesson that I did last year with my kids to show them how water pollution affects animals and how difficult it is to clean up.You can read that post here. The different this year was that I had them put feathers in their pond to represent birds. We polluted our water with cooking oil and the kids had to rescue their "ducks" and attempt to clean them off with paper towels and cotton rounds. Needless to say, the kids realized that their "ducks" died from being covered with oil and that it was next to impossible to get all of the oil out of their pond. Here we are having a bit of messy fun in the classroom!

 It was a good week! We had a field trip to our local recycling center on Friday morning. The kids loved seeing how everything gets sorted (by our state prisoners) and remade into other products. But, even with all of that educational loveliness, their most favorite part...The flocks of vultures that seem to love the area so much.  

Now on to today's Snap It Up Saturday! giveaway. I whipped up a little set of chalk-esque frames for you today. There are nine and they have transparent backgrounds so they can be layered over just about anything. I think they look pretty cute against black and green backgrounds. Maybe you'll find some use for them!

As always, have a great weekend and thank you for following. And just so you know how happy I am to have a 3 day weekend, here's how I feel...

See you next week!