Step Inside My Room - A Classroom Reveal

It's done! It's done! It's done! Our classroom is finally set up and students have arrived. You know what that means......time to get busy, get learning, and makes some messes! So before that all starts lets take a look at what the space should look like :) To do so, I've joined up with Ashley Schroeder over at Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd as well as Angie over at Lucky Little Learners to link up because just like at the beginning of August, #2getherwearebetter !!!!

So let's jump into our classroom!

The hallway and outside of a classroom is the first space that students, family, and staff see. It needs to be encouraging, welcoming, and functional. Welcome to our class!

Here's a quick view of our classroom bulletin boards. I fully believe that bulletin boards should be educational and functional. They must go beyond simply being cute. If students and teachers can't benefit from their use then what's the point? For a more in-depth look at our classroom bulletin boards take a look back at our August post here.

We LOVE centers in our class. Between daily literacy centers and a rotation of math centers weekly we are constantly rotating through our activities. Students have designated areas for center materials, center order, and center groups. While reading centers locations are designated by material locations, our math center locations are designated by hanging shapes from the ceiling.Tip #1 for center management: color coding! Reading is yellow and math is blue! Check out our blue center location shapes, math tubs, and we'll even have blue math folders next week!

Organization is key. Somebody important said that once, right? Does organized chaos qualify? When walking in you may quickly scan and see chaos but believe, we know exactly what we are doing, where we are supposed to be, and how to get our materials!

 After our school went through construction and renovation, our classroom lost it's closet doors. Not only did this mean that we had to get creative with our storage (no one likes looking at things crammed in closets) but we also lost a ton of display space. This year we are using every nook and cranny of our wall and whiteboard. From focus walls, yearly information, Whole Brain Teaching materials and class motivators, our walls are packed full of knowledge and tools!

Last but not least......Welcome to my little corner of the world! Where I stock treats, cram resources, and make magic! It's a work in progress. I mean, can a teacher ever have enough resources or ideas? ;)

Thanks for taking the journey through our room! Be sure to check out the link-up and tour some other awesome classrooms! Welcome back to school everyone! Let's make this year AWESOME!

Bulletin Boards - Borders, Placement, & Content....Oh My!

Hey all! We are getting closer to the beginning of the school year. What does that mean for teachers? That means we are in our classrooms moving stuff around and getting ready for a new group of kiddos. One of the first things I tackled this year were my bulletin boards. I found some great fabric for curtains and tied all my boards into it with colors and grey borders. Thanks to Ashley over at Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd and Angie at Lucky Little Learners for creating this Link-Up. We are all blogging about our bulletin boards. Be sure to click on the banner below to find the post with all of the other bloggers who are joining in! Is there any better way to get a ton of bulletin board ideas, tips and pictures in one place? I dare you to check it out and find something better ;)

Before I show my bulletin boards let me give you a few tips I've come around to learning (some the hard way).
1. Make the content meaningful: Don't put things up just to cover space. Make the material count and be useful to students.

2. Use pushpins and don't staple material down if you plan on taking it off to utilize and demonstrate with students.

3.If you are going to be moving materials often invest in fabric! Paper or plastic table cloths work but will rip eventually. Fabric will last and can be washed and then reused.

4. It's okay to start the year with blank bulletin boards and add to them with your class as the year goes on.

5. If students are going to contribute to the bulletin boards or will use them for reference then make them accessible! Put materials where they can reach and see easily!

6. Don't over do it and clutter the space. Many times, less is more!

Now let's get onto my boards:

This is the first board you see when you walk into my room. This board is the focus of many class meetings. We start with this base and then add strategies as the year progresses. The 5 point scale is one of the first pieces we utilize in reference to our feelings. EMAW will be expanded as the year goes on to include E(everyone participates) M(minute to think) A(all agree on plan) W(work the plan).

Directly next to the Problem Solving Board you'll find this split board. We post our monthly Author Study materials above the book rack. We will include the author's name, pictures, book characters, and interesting facts. The writing materials remain up all year and are referenced almost daily.

At the front of the room we have an entire board dedicated to math! Students help build this wall as the year goes on. As we work on different math activities we post them and expectations on here for reference. The space in the middle is used for posting content vocabulary from our math series (Math in Focus). The math strategies are on pushpins so they can be taken down and referenced when needed. Above the board are school-wide strategy posters that are used in every grade. I connect the primary-looking strategy cards to the school strategy cards as we touch on them.

Lastly, here's my board! This board is behind my desk and is part of my central hub. I've got my curriculum map for the year to help keep me on pace and structured. I've also got some district tech policies I've written up. As the year goes on I'll add our class schedule once I can get it finalized. I'll also add any important docs that I'll need to constantly reference from my administration or colleagues. The upper corner is dedicated to student work. I can't wait to see the creations they gift me :)

So those are the boards in my room this year (and hopefully years to come). The material might change but I plan on keeping the themes the same for a while. Please be sure to click the picture below (or the banner at the beginning) to check out some other amazing blog posts about bulletin boards. Get excited ya'll! It's almost time to start school and things are getting real!

Here's to successful work days as we all get ready for school whether you be a teacher or a parent. There is work to be done and as always #2getherWeAreBetter !

Tackling my Super Improver Wall

Hey there! Let me tell you, I have been a busy bee today. Not only did I get to the park for a little while but I've managed to do breakfast and lunch (my busy friends know how hard it can be to fit multiple meals into a day), laundry and a TpT item! I am so proud of myself today for tackling my Super Improver Wall cards.

So what is a Super Improver Wall (SIW) anways??? Good question! It's a bulletin display of different levels and comes from the great minds behind Whole Brain Teaching (WBT). Students move up the levels as they show improvement on their goals. This isn't a reward system but more like a gaming system. Think about it...When you play a video game you don't get a reward when you beat a level, you simply get to go up to the next level. This works the same way with one catch. There is a photo opporotunity at levels 5 and 6. (I got this idea from the wonderful Mrs. Shipley) Student's goals are academic and behaviorally based. So in order to move up through the levels they must be showing improvement behaviorally and academically! Some people choose to give their levels different names like "Learner, Rockstar, Genius" etc. I chose to stick with simple levels.

 I also made some student cards to go along with it. Students will use these cards as they move through the levels. I plan to print them off in the color of the level they are on. Then as students show progress on their goals they'll get to cross off one of the 10 owls at the bottom of the cards.

Once all 10 owls are crossed off they get to take that card home and will move to the next level. Those that reach level 10 get a slightly fancier card that will be printed in color!

I am super excited to jump into Whole Brain Teaching. If you are as excited as I am and would like to grab these owl themed resources click on the picture below to head to my TpT store and grab them up! The level cards and student cards are both editable! Just make sure you've downloaded the mentioned KG font (Which you can do for free!)

Happy shopping and enjoy your Thursday evening ya'll!

The ABCs of First Grade (A Link-Up)

As I was scrolling through Instagram today I noticed that First Grade Stripes posted a link-up party with other first grade blogs. You might be asking yourself, "What is this?". Well let me tell you, it's AWESOME-SAUCE! This is where different bloggers all link together and blog about the same topic. So I thought, "Hey self! We've got time today. Let's do this!" So stop reading this and get to scrolling down to see my ABCs of first grade. You can click on the banner below to go to an original post about this or scroll down to the bottom for a chance to join!

Here we go!

Active- 1st graders are constantly active. We have to be moving!
Balls- Recess balls are plentiful at the beginning of the year....not so much at the end.
Centers- We do these daily for reading and as often as possible for math!

DIRT- This is our Daily Individual Reading Time.
Eraser- "Do you have an eraser? Can I have an eraser?" Are there ever enough?
Friends- We are all about making friends and learning how to be a good friend

Gonoodle- One of the best internet inventions ever! Free brain breaks and activities.
Hands-on- We. Must. Touch. Things! You know this is true.
Illustrate- I push kids to express their writing with detailed illustrations.

Jokes- They are always being told. We work on having them make sense ;)
Kindness- #kindnessmatters and must be taught
Laughter- Always acceptable (as long as it's not meant to be hurtful)

Messy- Scraps, and pencils, and papers, OH MY!
Non-Fiction- This has been a big push and my kids eat it up.
Owls- This has been my theme for the last couple of years.

Pencils- We never have enough sharpened.
Quality- We learn that quality is better than quantity.
Recess- We will take it any way we can and any time we can!

Smiles- Nothing makes your day better than a 1st grader smile!
Talking- Yes we talk, and we talk a lot!
Up- Remember how I said we are hands-on? We are also always up & down!

Victory- We celebrate everyone's victories, big or small.
Whisper- Such an important concept but so hard to master.
eXpo- If you love a teacher, get them Expo markers!

Yes- It is perfectly okay to use this word often. "No" is not always necessary!
Zippers - While wonderful....nothing says frustration like trying to get 22 winter coats zipped while they are wanting to get outside to recess.

So there you have it. My ABCs of first grade! I hope you've enjoyed them. I'm sure you were thinking of your own words as you went down the list. If you'd like to participate you can grab the image below, click on the picture of the frame I used to get my frames, or create your own! Be sure to go back to First Grade Stripes post so you can link up with us!