Quick Classroom Pictures {2013-2014}

My sister and I went in to school this past week to put up some bulletin boards. My dining room was starting to fill up at home and I needed to clear up the space so we loaded up the SUV and off we went! Sorry for the quick pitures. I did not have my good camera with me. I also want to put in a major plug here for Teachers Pay Teachers and for those that post items on there for other teachers, like me, to use in their classrooms. SO MANY cute things on there to print. Thank you, thank you!


The CRAFT board for reading strategies to be posted.  In front of this board will be my reading workshop table and supplies.  The school is still being cleaned so the only furniture I have in my room right now is my desk and a few shelves.



I share my room 3 afternoons a week and another teacher ends the day with my class.  We both want to keep the same routine for the students so I made a 2 minute checklist for packing at the end of the day.  My sister also hung up the clock numbers.  I used these for the first time last year and they really helped when it came to learning how to tell time.

I don't often have homework sent home (except for reading for 15 minutes each night and practicing spelling words and math facts), but if I do, I have a few sneaky students who like to hide it in their desk or mailbox.  So this year I made these homework folders out of scrapbook paper and file folders.  They are hanging where I can see them to know who how homework to take home.  I still have to put the students' numbers on them.

This is one of my favourite boards this year.  It is so bright!  It houses our classroom rules, behaviour clip chart, and learning objectives. 

This year we are using a new English curriculum - Bob Jones University Press...so I have put away my beloved VOICES board and have made anchor charts to match the units that we are learning.  I do have a Writing Goals poster to put up that the students will use to track what they need to work on in their writing assignments.

Math board - Problem solving pencil, place value chart and a hundreds chart.  I have math word wall cards to put up the next time I go in that match our curriculum - also Bob Jones University Press.

Another plug for Teachers Pay Teachers - the Great Pencil Challenge from Ladybug's Teacher Files and No name work.  This door is magnetic, so I will magnet the students work to this door if it is missing a name.

Voice levels and pocket chart for our daily schedule.  Inside of this cupboard are my leveled library (A.R.) books.

AR goal tracking board.

This board is serving 2 purposes right now.  The anchor chart on the top will be an activity that we do together on the first day.  The scrapbook papers on the back will be each assigned to a student to hang up work that they want to show off.

This is the writing goals board that I will hang up the next time I go in.  The students will place a sticky note beside the objective they are working on.  The objectives on here match the curriculum I am using and will change with each unit to match the writing assignment they are working on.

I still have to finish our theme bulletin board in the classroom as well as 2 in the hallway - a Twister board and our jobs board. I will post pictures as soon as I get in again and hang them up {hopefully this week}.

Teacher Binder Update

After teaching for 10 years you would think that one would have it together. And I'm sure that I do, but until I see everything in place I continue to feel like I don't. Yesterday, my sister and I went into school - boys & dog in tow. "Zoodle", my 5 year old {youngest} son and my sister, Jazz, touched up the paint in my room while I laminated oodlesof classroom decor and folders. Afterwards, Jazz cut out all of the laminating while I tackled my MO of the day - my teacher binder and my Reading Workshop Binder. I just don't feel ready until these two binders are ready for the year. I have attached pictures of my teacher binder below. Once I update the cover of my Reading Workshop Binder I will post pictures of that too.

First section houses the weekly schedules for both my classroom and the students that are in resource so I know when they will be pulled out of class.

The next page is my beginning of the year letter.  I keep this here because believe-it-or-not many parents and students will say  "You never told us that!"  This way I can easily refer back to the letter that was sent home at the beginning of the year.  This year I am planning on turning it into a brochure style of pamphlet (thanks to some ideas I've seen on a few blogs lately!)

The next section is a year calendar.  I am so thankful for Teachers Pay Teachers, where I found this calendar that I absolutely adore!  I have this calendar in here, a copy in my Reading Workshop binder and a copy hanging on the info bulletin board by my desk in the classroom.

I also found this "Peek of the Week" on Teachers Pay Teachers.  This will be the first year that I use this set up.  I am putting it in front of my daily plans for each week.  This way I can see any important things in a glance.  I also have a picture of it on my phone so I can pull it up anywhere.

I started using this day plan format last year and LOVED it!  I found it on a teacher blog as well and then adjusted it to suit my needs.  I save the template right on my icloud account so I can access this anywhere (like in the dentist office which seems to be a place I spend A LOT of time with the kiddos).

At the back of my daily plans section I keep a copy of the classroom newsletter.  This year though I am planning on implementing a class blog for the first time with daily homework updates as well as upcoming events and possibly fun classroom pics.  I would love that all of my parents subscribe to this blog via email so they will receive all of the updates each time I enter new information. 

This next section - my pride and joy - is my curriculum map for the entire year down to the day.  After 10 years of teaching, I know that things don't work out that way, but at least I have everything planned out so I have a great guide as to where I should be in the curriculum.  Places that I usually am a bit behind in are socials and science - we get so into these lessons that they tend to take a bit longer than planned.  Flexibility is key!

My extracurricular duties list for the staff.  Mine are highlighted in green.

In this section I can easily find all of the cool printables that I find on teacher blogs or pinterest.  I have them listed by subject in here.  This way I can eaily pull them out and use the idea or copy the worksheet for the students to use.  They are usually "exxtras" that I pull out for review or to spice up an old lesson.

I do have one other section on student info in this binder - contact info, health concerns, etc. But my amazing Admin Assistant prepares all of that info for us and gives it to us sometime this month.

Curriculum Overview 2013-2014 {Freebie Friday}

After teaching for 10 years you'd think that summer planning would be almost non-existent, but I believe that  a great teacher still takes the time to shake things up and reassess the things that have worked or didn't work in the past.  Not to mention if the school has adopted a new curriculum (which my school did).

So without much ado, here are my curriculum maps for the new school year.  Guided Reading you will notice is a little vague, but that is because I teach reading in small groups so I focus on one skill for a month for my whole class lesson (September = comprehension strategies) and then get deeper into that skill in my small reading groups. 

For Math and most of our Language Arts we use Bob Jones University Press curriculum.  For my small reading groups I mostly will be using Reading A to Z

{Lots} of Classroom Pictures

Alright!  Here are my updated classroom pictures.  I have been so excited to be able to use a lot of new bulltein boards and classroom decorations from all of the ideas that I have been finding on the internet from many amazing teachers!  Thank you for sharing your wonderful creations!  They have definitely helped make my classroom very bright and cheery this year.

This shot is right inside of my classroom door to the right.  Normally I have a carpet here, but I am thinking of not having it back and using carpet squares instead - they aren't so permanent.  The blue chart is the daily schedule.

This wall is to the left of my classroom door.  It houses the students' mailboxes, behaviour chart, daily objectives, VOICES writing board and my math bulletin board. 

Close up of behaviour and objectives. 

I don't often use the centre chalkboard since we have LCD projectors, but I do like to leave a little space just in case.  Right now we have our voice levels chart, stamina graphs, and classroom rules. 

This is a close up of the math bulletin board.  The math word wall part will continue to be added to throughout the year.  I also still have to make number cards for the hundreds chart. 

This is the word wall.  LOVE this idea that I found on the internet. It fit the space I had perfectly.   

Word Wall close up.

Class writing journals. 

School theme bulletin board. 

A place to hang student work.  Each student will get a square. 

Writing bulletin board. 

AR Goals.  I still have to make the library cards to go into the pockets.  These cards will track the students' points during the year.  They are right behind my desk, so they will be easy for me to update. 

Student mailboxes and supplies

Full shot of CRAFT board. 

Thank you for looking!  And agian, thank you thank you thank you for sharing your many creations on the internet!!

Linking up with TBA's Freebie Friday

Sorry I haven't blogged in a bit...been camping!!  I have been back and forth to school a few times but keep forgetting the camera....this weekend I will try to remember it. 

In the meantime, I have been working hard creating my lessons/handouts for my Word Work classes. I will attach the document here....sorry the Guess The Covered Word Lessons are missing.  I don't know how to attach PowerPoint presentations yet - eek!  The document is 108 pages and it goes along with Month-by-Month Phonics For Third Grade by Patricia M. Cunningham and Dorothy P. Hall.  Hope they can help someone out!!  Be sure to check out all of the other bloggers on TBA!!

VOICES Writing Menu

So, I don't often blog twice a day {usually not even twice a month - though I am trying to be better at that}, but I am SOOOOOO excited about how my new writing bulletin board turned out.  I am extremely OCD when it comes to my bulletin boards and when I stumbled across Kristen's VOICES headers and coordinating lined paper on her blog, I jumped all over it.  Using some of the 6+1 Traits of Writing strategies that I found over on proteacher, I came up with this!!  Now I will be taking the time to sit down and create all of my writing lessons for the upcoming year based on this new bulletin board ~ hoping I can find lots of ideas on your blogs!!

Updated Behaviour Chart

For a few years now I have been doing a colour-coded {I am Canadian!!} behaviour chart.  I found that throughout the year, as it was used, I was FOREVER re-stapling it to the wall.  This year, I am planning on using the CRAFT and VOICES bulletin boards, thanks to Kristen at Ladybug Teaching Files{LOVE the colours and circles}, so I was thinking of sticking with the circle theme when designing my classroom this year.  I am planning on following the behaviour chart steps from Littlest Learners.  I love the idea of changing the colours of the clothes pins and adding stickers to them - so simple!! 

So here is my new chart so far.  I am going to attach all of the circles together with a thick black ribbion to hang from the wall to keep it very secure and therefore, no re-stapling.  I am really liking the way that it will take up a lot less wall space as well.  Oh, and I should explain that the red circle "SIR" stands for Student Incident Report...what the school sends home to the parents if the child clips to red - our school's behaviour policy.

Behaviour Clip Chart 2012-2013