Almost Too Tired to Post!

Yesterday was a half day with kids and today was our first full day. When I look at the list of things we did today, it doesn't seem like much....but we were busy every spare second!

1) Started organizing student binders. We use clear pocket protectors with labels so the kids know exactly what goes where. It makes it easy to say, "Turn to your Important Paper Pocket and add this note."

2) Introduced two new students and took their pics for our pirate door. My mini-Black Beards wore my pirate hat and I framed them in black mats from Dollar Tree.

3)  Reading Benchmark Test  (Now I have to grade it!)

4) I PICK lesson....kids looooved it! I used The Sisters' suggestion of bringing in a variety of shoes to talk about "Good Fit Books." I also showed an I PICK video I found online at TeacherTube.com.  (I've been rapping I PICK in my head ever since!)

5) Kids picked out three books for their book buckets......hopefully we will read tomorrow!

6) Journal writing and sharing

7) Lunch

8) Activity Period -- PE

9) Short break with other Third Grade classes

10) Dismissal

Woo to the Hoo! Classroom Library!

I've done all I can do on my classroom library for now and I'm pretty proud of it. I posted an earlier picture of my daughter labeling and leveling all of my books for me. Now they are all organized in baskets by author or topic. Each book has the Lexile level written on it and a label to match the label on the basket so it's easy to put the books up.

My new cool chairs are from Lowes. The kids are going to looooove them! And check out my new READ sign. It came in just in time for our first day on Monday.

The basket on the table holds materials for Buddy Reading. The sign lists options for the Buddy Reading Station. I have some of the You Read to Me, and I'll Read to You books in the basket, as well as lots of joke books (especially knock, knock jokes)!

I'm sooooo proud of my pirate lamp! I added pirate wall decals to a plain blue shade on my lamp from Target.

I also have task cards for Readers Response stored in baskets in the library. These are coded with different color stars so that I can differentiate for my students. They can then make their own choice from the appropriate cards.

Here is our new Listening Station. Last year we only listened to the stories on our basal in the Listening Station. I've added songs on CDs that correlate to our curriculum. There are various levels of task cards clipped to the station for the students' responses, as well as a notebook with other ways to respond for their choice. Again, I have these coded with different colored stars to help me with differentiation. I'd love to hear your ideas for Listening Station activities.

How Do I get it All In?

School starts Monday and I have to get my daughter packed up for her return to college on Sunday......a wedding tomorrow morning.....birthday party tomorrow night.....have to cook birthday lunch for my sister/going away party for my daughter on Sunday... Why does the outside world expect to go on when teachers need every spare moment getting their rooms ready????

We did our home visits this afternoon. I saw most of my kiddos. They all looked a foot taller since I last saw them as second graders in May!

My room is close to being ready. I've posted a few pics to share. Many of the things you see either came from ideas or free downloads on blogs, are from pins on Pinterest, or are things I've been using and have just re-worked.

This is my bucket fillers chart. I've ordered free business cards from VistaPrint to use to fill the buckets. You can't tell by the picture, but the sign is held up by Scotch Restickable Shapes. One of the walls in my room is dry wall and we cannot use anything that makes a mark on the wall to hang materials.  These little babies are SUPER for hanging!

The other sides of my filing cabinets hold my Poetry Station. The task cards are in magnetic photo pockets. The file folder holds different response forms and bookmarks the kids need to complete the tasks. Our poetry books are in the tub on the floor. It also holds a couple of rhyming dictionaries. The blue magnetic pocket holds copies of the weekly poem for the students to glue in their poetry notebooks. The markers and glue sticks are gathered in a shower caddy held up by suction cups. Magnetic poetry tiles and different response cards are also hanging on the cabinets.

This is our Word Wall. Looks bare now, but it will be filled up soon! The pirates are sticky wall decals I ordered off Amazon. You can see a little of my classroom library to the left. The lamp (from Target) has a plain blue shade that I added more pirate wall decals to.

The last pic for tonight is my Writing Station. I replaced the cards on another writing center I purchased from Lakeshore. The plastic pockets hold some of the materials needed to complete the task cards clipped to the board. I still have to add the rubric sheets. Other materials are on the shelves under the center. There are dry erase boards, dictionaries, different kinds of paper, pictures for prompts, I Spy books, wordless picture books, and lots of other goodies to inspire writing. I shared a list of some of these books in an earlier post. The circles above the center are dry erase circles that I can write messages on. These are from Office Depot, but I've seen lots more at different stores selling supplies for dorm rooms. This is still that dry wall side that I have to be careful with.

Hope you are having fun getting your room ready!

Readers' Response Cards and Blog Link

Here are some Readers' Response Task Cards I made today for my classroom. Click on the picture below to download them from Google Docs. I've gotten so many great ideas that I wanted to pay it forward!

I just found out today that one of my friends has a blog. It's Third Grade Meanderings. Click on the button below to visit!

New File Folder Games and Activities

I've spent waaaaay too much time of my summer "vacation" making new games for my kids. Since I'm looping with last year's second graders to Third Grade this year, I want my room to have new activities to inspire the kids. Here is a shot of some of the new games I've made. Most of these were made from "freebie" links I found on blogs. It helps to find them if you do a Google search and click on the arrow next to "more" above the Google Search Box. Choose "Blogs" from the drop down menu to limit your search results to what can be found on blogs.

Post-it Linky Party

This is one of my most favorite Linky Parties ever!

Create-Teach-Share is hosting a Post-it Linky Party. Join in and add your favorite idea for using Post-its in your classroom.

I ask my students to write one important event from a story we are reading on a Post-it. We put all the events in the middle of the table. Each student takes a turn pulling one event from the pile and putting it in the correct order. What a fun way to review the sequence of events!

50 Followers Giveaway -- Target Booty!

I am going to try to do a Giveaway when I reach 50 followers. I think I have figured out how to get my comments numbered, so I will use the Random Number Generator. Please leave a comment to this post that you have been following my blog or have just started. When I reach 50 followers, I will send the winner a $10.00 Target gift card!

You can also grab my button and leave another comment for a second chance to win!

Grade Level Linky Party

The Teacher's Lane is hosting a Grade Level Linky Party. You can link to your grade level so that you can find other teachers with great ideas specifically for you! Go try it out.

Vocabulary Word of the Day

Each Second/Third Grade Looping teacher at our school has a Word of the Day posted outside the classroom. The kids all look at each other's Word of the Day as they travel from room to room and down the hall. We laminated a file folder to use.

Photo Ideas for Classroom

I take a lot of pictures in our class to document our learning. Walgreens' website has an option to make a photo collage that is 8 1/2 x 11. I use pictures to show what we did during a project. The first picture below shows our school secretary helping our class decorate a pumpkin to look like our principal. We gave her a copy as a thank you for helping us. The second shows off our symmetry pictures. (Sorry about the quality...a picture of a picture doesn't always work!) I also use the collage to teach main idea. The students help me come up with the main idea of the pictures and we use that for the caption.

I also put only one picture in the collage to get a poster. We use these as anchor charts. The kids refer to them all the time.

A sentence

 must start with a capital letter, 

 end with punctuation, 

and make sense!

The students in the posters are acting out the motions we make when we talk about sentences.

The next four posters show our motions and facial expressions when we are discussing the different types of sentences. 

I keep extra copies of pictures at the Writing Station to use for prompts.

Another Pirate Freebie

Make several copies of this and glue to folders to organize makeup work for your absent students. Another student can be in charge of gathering papers and recording assignments for the absent child.

Pirate Makeup Work Folder

Free Writing Station Labels with Pirate Theme

Here is a link to my first attempt at uploading to Google Docs. I wanted to share my Writing Station labels with a pirate theme. There are eight different labels, as well as the Header. I hope you will enjoy using them. It's my late attempt to join the Christmas in July Linky!

Writing Station Pirate Labels

                                                        

(I wasn't able to get the Google Doc to show in my post. Any ideas?)

First Days in Classroom

I spent today and yesterday in my classroom beginning to get everything ready for the year. My sweet daughter is helping me label all of my books with a Lexile level.

Since we are moving to Common Core, our State is talking about Lexile levels. Our district does not have any test to determine a student's Lexile level. What does your district use? Is there a free instrument out there? (Probably wishful thinking!) Here is a shot of my reading corner right now. It was in a different area of the room last year, but since I am looping with the same group of kids, I want the room to look different for them this year. I'll post again when I get it finished.

Bibbity, Bobbity, Boo -- Cinderella in the Classroom

Be sure to check out my page on Cinderella books and activities for using them in the classroom. You can reach this page by clicking on the top menu bar.