A Little Bit of This.....A Little Bit of That.....

Wow! Have we been busy this week! Here are a few pics of what's been going on in our classroom.

We have had some trouble with catching on to rounding to the nearest ten and hundred. I started with the Rounding Rollercoaster that lots of you use. I also found several rhymes on the Internet to use, but like the one on the chart below the best. 

Mark the place. Look to the right.

Four or less, just sit tight.

Five and up, you add one more.

Now toss those "righties" out the door.

In those empty right-hand places,

Zeroes keep the proper places. 

(Click on the pic below to go to the original site for the poem.)

We also wrote the following chant (sung military-style):

1 2 3 4 (1 2 3 4)

They're little and small so make them fall (repeat)

5 6 7 8 and 9 (repeat)

They need to grow so make them more! (repeat)

Rounding! Rounding! Estimating! Estimating! Go! Go!

(I am now singing this in my sleep!)

The Helper chart I posted before just wasn't working out. I decided to simplify it so that I have two helpers instead of every child having a job. Those two students run errands, take lunch count, whatever needs to be done. Since we sit in groups of students, each group has a table boss. These students come get any papers or supplies I need to hand out to all students and take them back to their group. They also bring me work notes from home, lunch money, etc. I just wrote the names on the magnets I ordered from VistaPrint and attached them to the cookie sheets that are velcro-ed to my cabinet doors.

This is one of my favorite new things in my classroom. We have been talking about expectations and how we can make our work the very best it can be. We talked about cupcakes before the icing is added and how much better they are with icing! Each student then wrote on a pink post-it at least one way they can put the icing on their own cupcakes (work). They had great ideas!

Here is our character map of Robbie from How To Be Cool in Third Grade. One of our skills has been identifying characters and character traits.

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!