Show and Tell Tuesday!! =)

Happy Show and Tell Tuesday! 

Today was felt like a really LONG day. We switched specials and lunch with 4th grade, so they could take their FCAT writes test. I don't envy their schedule... at all. I like my afternoon specials... makes for a quick end of the day. Thank goodness we're back to normal tomorrow. =)

I'm linking up with Denise from Sunny Days in Second Grade for her very awesome  Show & Tell Tuesday linky party. This week's topic... our classrooms! Click the link below to check out some amazing classrooms!! 

Here are some pictures from my classroom. I moved into this room after being in my old classroom for six years. I LOVE this classroom. It's really spacious in comparison to a lot of the classrooms in my school. My sister has the same exact classroom, but just on the opposite side and corner of the building. She has her room set up a little different than mine, but not much. 

Ok, so below is a picture of the area that you walk into upon entering my room. I have a little "office" type area set up with my filing cabinet, desk, and shelves. I'm a type A personality when it comes to organizing my space, so all of my papers are in their correct spaces, I have quite a few binders, and everything is labeled with my label maker. My students also have their own mailboxes where they can find their homework and fliers each day. Student workbooks are in the baskets next to and on top of the student mailbox. I don't give them their own books. Their desks don't get as messy, and their papers are always pulled out of the books neatly if I do it {or if I have a volunteer pull them}, I also can check papers quickly if they're pulled out as apposed to keeping their books intact... again type A. =)

Below is the view of my whole group meeting area. I have a carpet {I'd like a prettier one... zebra striped maybe??}, and a rocking chair {it needs a makeover!!}.  My kids were doing Daily 4 as I was snapping pictures. They were pretty focused... they're always impressing me. =) 

Below is my low circle table... they use it for word work or work on writing. They love sitting on the floor around the table. It's probably a nice change for them. The picture on the right shows a bit of my classroom library and my little white bench. Next to the little white bench is where my math workstations are kept. Can you believe I found those shelves on the curb? Awesome find!! 

In the picture below left,  is my other circle table. I frequently pull small math groups here, and during Daily 4 time, my kids like to sit here and read, do word work, or write. On the picture below right is one of my table groups. I have three of them with six desks in each group. At the very beginning of the year, I tried to do a "u" shape with my desks, but they were always out of whack by the end of the day. It was driving me CRAZY! After about a week of the madness, I switched to table groups. This is MUCH better. My favorite part is the hanging paper lantern with the table group sign.  I would hang so much more stuff from the ceiling if it wasn't so high!

The picture below left is a picture of my library. I have about 32 baskets with books separated by genre. All of the books are numbered with the number and name of genre on the front of the basket. The pictures below right are of my guided reading area. I have guided reading books that range from level d through v. My highest leveled readers are old science and social studies readers that were going to be sent to surplus last year. I jumped on them before they were sent away!  As you can see, I don't use my cubbies or hooks for my kids... they store their backpacks and lunchboxes in laundry baskets below their mailboxes {see top picture}.

All of the pictures below are of my front board area. My schedule and common board are on the left, my word wall is in the middle, and my calendar and number of the day are on the right. In the space below my front board are my students' reading logs. I find that if they display their reading logs, they'll use them more, rather than out of sight out of mind. =)

So there you have it... my home away from home. I took a ton of pictures, but I think this is a pretty good representation of my space. I hope you enjoyed it!!  If you have any questions about how I organize my space, please ask!! I'd LOVE to answer your questions. =) 

In other news... we're SUPER close {1 friend away} from 400 friends {OMG!!}!! I haven't put together our 400 follower giveaway yet, so if you're interested in being a part of it, please let me know by leaving a comment below with your email address! Thanks in advance for your help!! 

Have a FABULOUS rest of the week!!! Don't forget to check out all of the BEAUTIFUL classrooms... click below! 

-Jackie-

breakin' the law... breakin' the law

Hi Friends!
It was bound to happen in this pinterest inspired time we live in. I broke the fire code! {GASP!!!} Oh no!!!

I didn't do it on purpose, I swear. I really thought the the fire rule was 70% wall covering in a sprinkler building. Apparently it's only 50%. Whoops! My bad. I didn't get in trouble, but I had to remove some of the coverings. It stinks 'cause the walls aren't the prettiest, but what can you do? So here's my before picture of the bulletin board that I was so proud of a few weeks ago...

...and here's the after. Notice the sign missing from the top, and the bulletin board literally cut in half! I had to smoosh some stars in there too. Oh well! I'm all about complying and being a good rule follower, so I guess it's not that bad! I've learned my lesson, and I will no longer have floor to ceiling bulletin boards {even though they look cool!}. 

Taking down the title of this board left me with little dilemma. If you walked up to it, you'd have no idea what you were looking at, so I updated the board by adding speech bubbles above their pictures with their personal reading goals. MUCH BETTER!!! They are going crazy with their independent reading goals! Especially these two!! 

So that's my story about "breakin' the law". Have you ever gotten yourself in and out of the hotseat? =) 

-Jackie- 

A New Year, a New Challenge...

Happy Saturday!

I am so thrilled with the progress my class has made this year in reading. Everyone has put forth so much effort and their hard work is really paying off. I wanted to continue to accelerate their momentum by giving them a challenge. They were so good about picking out and reading their "good fit" picture books, but I wanted to see them use their stamina toward reading "good fit" chapter books.

During our first week back to school, I challenged them to think about how many chapter books they would like to read by the end of the year. We had discussions of attainable goal setting and how to chose "good fit" chapter books. Thus our class' chapter book challenge was born. Each child in my class has set a personal goal which they think they will be able to attain by the end of the year.
Yesterday during our teacher work day, I was able to put the finishing touches on the bulletin board that we are using to keep track. It's located outside of my classroom. They are actually tracking their books on a reading log inside the classroom and at the end of the day, I write the name of their book on a star a put it under their picture. As you can see, I have three eager kiddos who devour books. They are loving it, and I think they secretly love the competition. As you can also see, I have a few kids who need some extra encouragement to get moving.

I think I am going to add something their pictures which tells what their goals are. Maybe speech bubbles? We'll see. For now I am happy that they are so excited about this challenge. I know they'll all rise up to it. =)

One more thing... I'm not a huge fan of A.R., but we're required to do it. Before my kids write their books down on their logs, they have to take a test first. It's like killing two birds with one stone. =)

There's only a little over 4 hours left to enter our 300 follower giveaway! I wonder who the winners will be??

Have a great night!! -Jackie-

Crossing things off the list.....

I've definitely been crossing things off the list for sure! It feels great getting back to work again. Believe me, I love summer vacation just as much as much as the next gal, but I also love Back To School time! New beginnings, a fresh start, brand new supplies, new decor......"it's glorious" (my Will Ferrel from Old School voice). After I unpacked my last box, I felt a great sense of relief. Time to decorate!!

I did a few things since I last posted:

1)Updated all of my library with all matching tubs! (I did half last year, and completed the other half this year.) All together I have 33 categories of books. Yippeee!!

2)Got a shoe box rack for my word work and math center supplies.(Big Lots has them for $10.00 each.)

3)Made my CAFE bulletin board, put up my Daily 5 and genre signs. Thank you to Teaching In Flip Flops blog for the wonderful polka dot print signs! My theme this year is........you guessed it, polka dots!

4)Today I bought 2yrds of polka dot fabric to use somewhere in my classroom. I didn't quite know at the time exactly where I wanted to use it, I was thinking on my round table as a table cloth but it didn't fit....whah...whahhh...whahhhhh.....I got over it and decided to make it into a bulletin board!


Check out these pics. I'm still not done yet, but hopefully by Meet the Teacher it will be looking good.
Time to have an awesome 3 day weekend before pre-planning starts! Enjoy yours!
-Danielle

I did it!! =)

I did it... I finally got rid of my over-sized, junk hoarding, ugly desk!! I feel so free! This is a before pic... after pics are soon to come! =)
Today I was busy organizing and purging all of the junk that was shoved inside that thing. My horseshoe table is still covered in a mess, but I'll leave that for another day.
One big thing on my list of things to do before meet the teacher, is to die cut letters for my classroom door, and for random signs around my room. If you don't already know this fun fact, scrapbook paper looks AWESOME when you die cut it. Cut the letters out, get them laminated, and they look even better than the ones you find in teacher's stores. =)
Happy Blogging!!!
-Jackie-

Danielle's 5th classroom! ( the best yet)

Phhhheeeewwwwwwwwww! The day that I dreaded all summer has come and gone and I survived. Unpacking, unpacking, unpacking, moving big objects, changing my mind, moving them back, book shelves breaking, scratches, bruises..yep, that's moving! After doing this 4 other times, I knew what to expect. Moving, you never let me down.

On a happier note, my classroom rules!!! It's huge!!! It was pretty easy for me to figure out where to put things like my classroom library, my assessment area, science/social studies area, math centers, and my supplies. I just hope Mrs. Robbins likes it! I am by no means done with this process, so the pictures you are about to see are the BEFORES. I'm hoping by Thursday afternoon you will get to see the AFTERS! (My favorite!!)

The first picture is what I walked into this morning, a big pile:













A view from the other corner of the side the room (it's so spacious!):














I decided to put my classroom library in this corner. Jackie and I have the same box shelves that we bought at Target. I dislike them because they come apart very easily.














This is where the other desk was when I got in today. I wanted our desks to face each other so that we wouldn't have to scream across the room during planning times.












These are our teacher desks facing each other. I'm still not sure if I like this, but I do think they need to be close together. (All the boxes on the side still need to be looked through to find a home for their contents.












I decided to put the small group horseshoe table where the other teacher desk used to be. In later pictures you will see that our assessment area is all the way on the other side of the classroom for noise purposes.














This is our assessment area. Under the desk, there are files in file boxes for each student that are easily accessible. I also have assessment pieces like DIBELS, EASYCBM.com, Houghton Mifflin, etc.












The last picture of the day shows my classroom library and cabinets. I made sure I split cabinet space with Mrs. Robbins evenly, so that I didn't take up the whole room! I plan to lower a circle table and put it in the classroom library area. Oh, and the reason there are no books in the library area is because they were locked in my old room!














Stay tuned, more to come! BTW, Doesn't Jackie's classroom look great??? She always has such a print enriching environment!! My sister rules!

-Danielle-

Jackie's set up... Day 1

I've been so fortunate to have been in the same classroom since we opened our school in 2006. I've become accustomed to packing it up and getting it ready for summer school. When I come back in August, I know exactly where everything is, and unpacking takes less than a day. My very awesome principal let me stay in my classroom this year even though I am looping to Second!! What a lucky girl I am!! =)
Unfortunately, my sister hasn't had the same luck. =( Since she started teaching at our school in 2007, she's moved into 5 different classrooms in 5 years! She's our resident nomad and definitely holds the record for most classrooms!! This year is no different as she settles into a nice big corner room in which she will co-teach. Her pictures are soon to come.
In the mean time, here's my not so difficult set up...

This is the view from the door. For a first(now second) grade classroom, it's huge in comparison to other classrooms on the first floor.

This is the extent of the mess that I have to organize. Not too bad!! =)

This is the view from my whole group teaching area.

I was able to get a lot accomplished today. =) This is a pic of my library. I need something to cover my circle table... possibly a Zebra print table cloth?

Close up of my books... I would like to make some new labels. As you see, each basket has a number, and each book inside of the baskets have the same number on a colored circle sticker. This makes it easy for the kids to put the books back in place. Thanks to the "sisters" for that brilliant idea!! =)


These are pictures of how I organize my word work supplies, my math manipulatives, and classroom supplies. As you can see I use clear plastic shoe boxes and a wire shoe rack. I also got this idea from the "sisters".
I'm getting there, and I'll be back in there on Wednesday to set some more things up.
Happy Blogging!!
-Jackie-