For the Love....of Teaching!: Open House/New stuff

Today was our Open House! It was so fun to meet my kids and their parents. Everyone showed up! There were so many papers to be sent home etc, but our school just sets up Open House as a meet and greet which is really nice, you don't have to give a speech or anything! :) Phew...

So I have been working really hard on my room and getting things organized and putting better systems in place than I had had before!


Were you absent and brain builders-both inspired by pinterest!

So here is my "Were you Absent" files and my "Brain Builders" files. The were you absent file idea was taken from here. I love it because you have a Monday, Tuesday....etc folder so that kids can pick up the work from when they were gone. One of my classroom jobs includes the responsibility of ensuring the missed work is placed in the correct folders.

Brain builders are essentially fast finisher activities. If students finish early (and accurately), they can pick a stick from the "Brain Builders" jar and then go to the Brain Builders file to pick out the activity. So they get what they get and they don't throw a fit. I am only teaching social studies and math this year, so I have a can with craft sticks for each. Each craft stick says a specific activity, such as "Multiplication War." If you pick Multiplication War, then you go to the Multiplication War file and pull out the directions and materials...make sense?
I love this idea, I meshed a couple different ideas from pinterest on this one! :)

Crate Seats

These crates were also inspired by pinterest. I found a couple different people who had made these, but I used the instructions from here. Now I did not do any sewing. I just cut up the mattress pad, hot glued it to the plywood and then wrapped it like a present and staple gunned the fabric to the wood. They are way more comfortable and sturdy than I expected! :) Also, I highly recommend going to Home Depot first rather than Lowe's if you are going to have them cut the wood for you. At Lowe's they were not willing to help me out and at Home Depot they were MORE than helpful! They cut it exactly to the size I needed and were very kind about it. If you have your own saw, it doesn't matter though. I am storing all extra supplies like boxes of tissue and things that don't weigh much inside the crates so that they are useful but also light enough for my fourth graders to move around when they need too.

I am going to do a daily rotation for mini lessons where half of my students sit on the carpet and half (well 8-almost half) of my students sit on the crates! I love it!

Here are my expo marker and eraser storage. They have magnets on the back.

Just my cute storage cups!

I made these from bean cans and scrapbook paper and I have a bunch more to make for storing supplies in. The ruler storage is a lysol wipes container that works great too. I used tuna cans for storing smaller things.

Classroom Job Chart

Here is my classroom job chart! I love it. I got the idea from here. I changed it quite a bit for it to fit my needs. I also read here about having your students APPLY for their classroom jobs! I love it. I am totally doing it. What a great life skill and how wonderful that they can keep their jobs for an extended period of time (trimester/semester/whatever you decide) so that each week I don't have to keep saying, "Who is the janitor this week? The floor is a MESS!" The janitor will be the janitor for long enough to get good at his/her job. We are also going to talk about picking a job that fits your strengths and one you think you will like. I have an job description chart made up and everything. I think it will be really fun for the kids and help me keep my sanity. I think all my classroom jobs will really help keep me organized as well.

Here is my self made calendar. I decided that I didn't want to pay for a calendar this year, so I used a pocket chart, these monthly labels and these numbers from the pick me pot!

Organization and pick me pot!

Can't wait to hang student work on here.

This is only half my math super star wall. There are 10 clips on each side where students will hang the work they are proud of. It is self selected student work and they can change it out whenever. I think I will say they need to change it out at least every other week though. I think I am going to have them make fun name signs to put above or below their clothespin!