Goodies I have made for my classroom!

Thanks to Create-Teach-Share for sharing this great idea for a super cute organizer. I went to Lowes today and bought the organizer drawer thing then I printed off the labels she shared, added a little of my own decorations and TA-DA!!

I am SO excited and can't wait to put this in my classroom and get rid of the ugly bins I have had this stuff in currently. Now I just have to figure out where to put this. I have two ideas so as soon as I get in my classroom I will figure it out.

I am hoping to relax and enjoy my weekend. Then on Monday and Tuesday I get to work in my room. I can't wait to get started!

I have also completed my Clip Chart for this year as well. Thanks to Teach-A-Roo for the printables. I am VERY pleased with how it turned out! I can't wait to get it all set up in my classroom too!

I am SO thankful that my friend Jackie from Sister Teachers introduced me to the teacher blogging world and Pinterest! These are just two of the awesome ideas I have been able to garner for my classroom! Plus I have learned how to make my own printable posters and labels and all sorts of other goodies.

Advice for New Teachers Linky Party!!

After spending a lot of time helping my daughter prepare for her classroom, and talking to my student teacher from last year who just got her first teaching job I started thinking about all the advice I give out to new teachers and was wondering what other great advice other experienced teachers would give them! So I thought this would make a GREAT topic for my very first Linky Party! 

So its time to dig back into your past and think about what you wish someone would have told you when you first started out teaching! Give us your best advice from your experiences!

Mine is - 

Say what you mean and mean what you say. 

Be consistent

Set aside at least one evening during the week to not do anything school related at all.

Can't wait to see what advice all you great teachers have for those who are new to our wonderful profession!!

Blog Button

I am playing around trying to make my own blog button!  This is what I have come up with for now. its cute for a start and once I collect a few more graphic sets and a little more experience I will update it. Thank you SO much to Jackie over at Third Grade's A Charm for sending me directions and making it SUPER easy for me to make and add my own blog button!!

Only a few more days...

Wow, I can't believe how quickly this summer has gone by. Each year they seem to go by faster and faster. I also can't believe how much STUFF I have gotten for my classroom over the summer as well. You would think that with this being my 12th year teaching that I wouldn't need to buy more stuff but each year it seems I find something else I just have to have. I am going to blame my daughter this year, since she is a new teacher and is getting ready to set up her own classroom she has inspired me to buy stuff, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. At least that's what I am going to tell the Hubs when he comes home and sees this on our bed

I have done a good job of keeping it all sort of "hidden" in plain site, I have had bags laying around the bedroom for a few weeks now but I had to get it all organized before I take it to my classroom next week. This is not even including the two boxes of books I also have to add to my classroom library. 

I am trying to enjoy the few remaining days of summer break while they last although that will not be easy to do since I seem to have something to do almost every day starting tomorrow. 

Tomorrow - ESE meeting at school )hoping to get a chance to sneak into my room and at least get the desks arranged

Friday - Dentist appointment to get 3 fillings

Saturday and Sunday - relaxing

Monday - working in my classroom FINALLY

Tuesday - Working my classroom

Wednesday - Dr. Appointment for my son

Thursday - NOTHING

Friday and Saturday - Driving 2 hours to Port St. Lucie (and staying the night) to help my daughter set up her classroom.

Then Monday the 15th its back to work for me for our preplanning week. So much to do so much to do!

Geez I think I need a nap just from thinking about it all! 

~~~~~~~~~~ Cindy ~~~~~~~~~~

Moments of Randomness and I WON SOMETHING!!

OK first off I am SUPER excited because I won a set of Hot Dots with the Hot Dots pen from the Back 2 School party over at Teaching Heart Mom! I'm so excited about this. I was really hoping to win this for my daughter and I can't wait to give it to her to use in her 1st grade classroom!! She will be so excited and I know she will come up with all sorts of ways to use this!


The one thing I LOVE most about being a teacher is that every year we get a chance to start all over again and make things even better than the year before. On that note, I have been working on how I am going to implement everything I want to implement this year, mostly how I am going to implement Daily 5 along with everything I have garnered from The Book Whisperer and still get in some of the class novels I want to do. I like the idea of shared reading that the author presents as an alternative to novel units and I think I will try to implement shared reading of the novels during our whole group reading time, and instead of worksheets and "novel units" we will do things like flow maps of the story, or bubble maps of character traits things of that nature. 


As for my reading block, I am super excited that the kids I am getting next year ALL had Daily 5 last year even though we only have like 3 teachers at my school who use this format. My friend, Danielle, from Sister Teachers is a 3rd grade teacher at my school and she is an avid user of Daily 5, so at the end of last year her and I approached our principal and asked him if we could basically conduct some action research next year and asked him to loop her entire class into my room and he agreed! So I will be getting Danielle's entire class and they will get their 2nd year in a row of Daily 5. I can't wait to see how much more they grow in reading with the combination of D5 for a 2nd year along with the added strategies from The Book Whisperer. 


One thing I am going to tweak with my Daily 5 is the Work on Writing component. Last year I thought it would be a good chance for my kids to practice what they have been learning in our writing instruction but that's not what happened. Work on Writing became a source of frustration for me because I found that last year with just free choice writing I was constantly reminding my students that they were supposed to be writing not just drawing pictures. I felt like they were not really working on writing soooo... I am going to change it to "Writing About Reading" and the kids can use this time to work in their reading notebooks to complete book responses and make recommendations. I think that with this structure they will stay on task more. 


Also last year I did not require Read to Self as a must do each day, this year that will be different - it will be a MUST DO every day. They will get to choose if they want to do it in Round 1 or Round 2 but it will be done every day. 


I created some Daily 5 posters (below) to go with my theme this year. I think I will make a bulletin board with my check in poster in the center and these posters around it. 

~~~~~~~~~~Cindy~~~~~~~~~~

Daily 5

Currently...

Oh how fun!! Oh Boy 4th Grade is having a super fun Linky party about what you are doing right now!! So go on over and check it out!


So here are mine:

 Currently...
I am listening to the sound of quiet in my house because I am home all alone


I am loving the book The Help it is my first "nonteaching" book I have read this summer and I am loving the story!


I am thinking about all the things I want to do with my new class when school starts back up again. 


I am wanting a little more vacation time, BUT also to start getting paid again :-)


I am needing some caffeine or a nap


I am stalking  Oh Boy 4th Grade and Teaching in Flip Flops and BBDish (I LOVE me some Big Brother but don't want to pay for the live feeds)

I am beginning to hate bananas

Yes that's right I am really starting to HATE bananas LOL I have punched out, laminated, and cut out about 350 bananas to use in my classroom as part of my AR display board - the kids each have a monkey and for every 10 points they earn their monkey earns a banana - and I still have about 50 to go ugghhhh

Not to mention the 36 monkeys, 7 genre posters, and about 40 book basket labels I have also laminated and cut out. I have scissor blisters on my fingers and while I LOVE having my own laminating machine I HATE cutting it out after it is laminated.

Despite the scissor blisters and hand cramps from all the cutting, I am trying really hard to enjoy this week because my summer basically ends this Thursday when I have a meeting at school, then I get to work in my room Monday and Tuesday of next week. So my plan is to try to squeeze a few more days of summer out of next week Wed. - Fri. I don't want to do ANY school stuff for those last few days, that is my plan but somehow I doubt it will happen LOL

I made the mistake of beginning my Classroom to-do list and had to stop because I was beginning to feel overwhelmed. There is SO much to do and it seems like nowhere near enough time to get it all done. I know I will get it all done because I always do. I always panic about how much I have to do and then I end up getting it all done with time to spare. BUT this year I don't have my daughter to help me, she is busy setting up her own classroom. I know she still has friends in college that are Elementary Education majors, maybe one of them will need some service learning hours and would like to earn them helping me in my classroom set up :-) Otherwise my poor 18 year old son is going to get roped into helping. He acts like he doesn't like it but I think secretly he does, he always volunteers to draw things for my classroom, last year he made an entire football field for my AR board :-)

One of the most daunting tasks I have to do is rearrange the organization of my classroom library from AR levels to genres. I have a LOT of books so I am trying to determine the best way to tackle this to-do. My daughter gave me the great wonderful AWESOME idea of putting a sticker on the genre label that is attached to the book bin/basket and then matching stickers on the books that go in that bin/basket so that it will be easier for the kids to put the books back in the right bin/basket so not only do I have to hot glue the label to the basket but I have to sort out the books and then put the stickers on them.

I'm glad I get excited about back to school, If I had to tackle furniture arrangement, book rearrangement, bulletin boards, and wall displays without being excited and motivated about the new year I would be miserable!