Classroom Reveal 2016

     My classroom is ready and done for now. I always move things around throughout the year. It may look completely different in a couple of weeks.

     My room is tiny, and we are packed in tight. It does help me stay organized because there is absolutely no room for piles or messes. 

      I keep my decorations to minimum, and only keep up current anchor charts. This helps students focus in on what is important and current. 

     The bulletin boards are new this year. They also hung a bulletin board for each teacher out in the hallway this summer. It has been five years since I had a bulletin board or a guided reading table. I was so happy to walk in my room on the first day back and see these things.

                                           
   
       They also bought me a rug, a teacher's desk, and two rolling shelves. I now have a decent amount of storage for my room.
                                             

     I'm thankful for my cozy, little room and all the learning that will take place in it this school year!

And So It Begins

     Wednesday was our first official day of school. I love that we start on Wednesday, it gives me time to ease back into our school routine. For the first time in two years, I have a brand new to me class, so we spent a lot of time practicing routines and procedures. We used the conversation starters from Amy Lemons and Hope King's Back 2 School Engagement Made Easy unit to get to know each other and practice our partner talk procedures. These students were really good listeners; they could always tell what their partner said when asked.

     Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes is one of my favorite back to school read alouds. Before we read, I told the students I wanted them to pay attention to how Lilly feels as different events happen in the story. As we read, I stopped at a couple of places to have them predict how Lilly was feeling after different events. Then we brainstormed Lilly's different feelings and added them to our chart. 

     We also started our self portraits. I love to do self portraits at the beginning and end of the year to see how much their abilities grow.  The students were pretty impressed with their drawing skills. On Thursday and Friday, we finished our portraits, created our all about me flap books, and then mounted our finished products on construction paper to display in the hallway. Both activities are from  Amy and Hope's Back 2 School Engagement unit. I'm so proud of how they turned out. 

      We review and practiced our rules using activities from my Classroom Rules Pack. 

     We also read Edward the Emu and used the predictions activities from Amy Lemons and Katie King's Rooted in Reading August unit. The students were excited to set up and begin using their reading notebooks. I can already tell I have a deep thinkers like this sweetie.

     My own boys started 1st and 5th grade this week. My step-son starts his sophomore year on Monday. Time seems to be moving so very quickly. 

                                      

    

     

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