Wednesday Wisdom (Setting It All Up)

 It is time for another Wednesday Wisdom.  This week the topic is "Setting It All Up".  Have you been in your classroom yet?  If so, have you arranged and re-arranged your furniture about 7 or 8 times already, then decide you liked it the way you had it the first time?  Have you decided where you want your calendar?  Have you found the right spot for your rug so that students can see the word wall and SMARTboard?  Decisions...  decisions...
We have the luxury of being able to go in and out of our classrooms anytime during the summer.  We have spent many hours already trying to get ready for back to school.  This is a view from the door when you walk into my room.
The following is a closer look at my calendar and morning meeting area.  I used my Rock Star Decor Pack and Kim Adsit's All About The Number Pack.

I have an area with a pocket chart for my poem of the week, classroom jobs, and even have my roll cart ready to read The Recess Queen to use with Hello Two Peas in a Pod's Phonological Awareness.  I bought the stand hanging on the cart from the Dollar General.  It works great!

I use the chart below for literacy and math station rotations.  I refer to it as "Discovery".  The numbers are free from Deedee Wills TpT store.

 

 

Table numbers are above each table.  I also put writing notebooks and clipboards in their cubbies.  I still need to add student names to name tags on the lockers.

Stephany made my color words for me.  She has an assortment of sizes and shapes in her TpT store.  Click here to get the same set shown below.

Below is the chart I use for behavior with the yard stick clip chart hanging next to it.  Click here to read more about this in a previous post.

I have already written out my goals and left room below to hang quarterly benchmarks and classroom data graphs.

I used The 3am Teachers Ripped Letters on all my headers.  I like to keep things simple and uniform.

Last, my word wall is up and ready to add words to it.  I love having a "useable" word wall.  I keep it low enough so students can come grab words off as they need them.

 If you want to create a clock like the one I made below, I have the free template in my TpT store.  Just click here.

Well, how is your classroom progressing?  Link up your post below.  Share ideas, pictures and a glimpse of your classroom.

Monday Made It!

First, here are the winners for our Classroom Theme Giveaway!  We are giving away a classroom theme of their choice to the winners!

And the winners are...

 Here are a couple of projects that I have been working on this week for my lunch choice area.  I used to use these to hold my lunch choice sticks but I found other awesome classroom uses for them... These magnetic caddies from the Dollar Tree were AWESOME a few years ago...

Then they switched to these and... NOT so awesome.  They fell apart and the magnetic strip fell off the back all the time, even after I glue-gunned it back on. So Dollar Tree please bring the others back and make teachers everywhere happy.

I decided to redo my whole system when I saw this board at Ikea which fits perfectly at the end of one of my shelves.   I think I should buy stock in Ikea.
 
So I made these numbers below to go on the board.  Students will just place their number in the part of the magnetic board that has their lunch choice.  I got the skinny mini duct tape to divide the board and of course plan to use Stephanie's lunch choice pics which are a must for my kiddos!   

The numbers are super easy to do.  Just pick a background and print some numbers on it.  Put Modge-Podge on the back of the jewel (available at the dollar tree... mine had over 30 jewels in one package) and place it on top of the number.  One tip that I have is to check on them every couple of minutes... they have the tendency to slide a little and the number won't be centered.When they are dry, you just trim around the edges and add some magnetic tape to the back.  You can also put your students pictures behind the jewel and use them as a magnet on your student work board.  They find their face and use that magnet to pin up their work!

 My next Monday Made-It are these tubs.  These were a great find at the Michael's which has become the go-to store this summer for a lot of teachers.  You can find SO many great deals there.  I got these tubs for 70% off.  The vinyl is something my BFF gave me awhile back and I was just waiting for a project to use it on.  I printed out the words on paper, laid the paper on top of the vinyl and then pressed down hard as a traced the letters.  I then cut along the impression, peeled and stuck  them to the tubs.  It was super easy to do!  I may even go back and add polka dots!

 Finally, I just want to add that I finally finished my CCS math journal prompts for first grade.  I plan on adding a set of Kindergarten review prompts and some money prompts (seriously no money in first grade CCS?  Come on!) to this packet this week.  I am so excited to start using these this year and amp up my math program!  You can download a freebie sample by clicking here.  I love that they are going to be so easy to use!

 Less than 2 weeks until school starts here!  I am super excited to meet all of my new students and my old students!   It's funny how they are always "your" students even when they leave your class!  New crop, new personalities, new needs, new imaginations... new possibilities!

Endless Possibilities, 
Stephany

Indiana Goes Back to School!

We are so thrilled to be participating in the "Indiana Goes Back to School" blog hop with all our our Hoosier blogging friends!  We are each sharing a freebie that you can enjoy as we all get ready to head back to school!  I still get excited for back to school time even though this is my 8th year teaching... so if you also count all the years I went to school this will be my 25th first day of school.  I still think the first day smell, sounds, nervous jitters and seeing how the kids have grown is exciting.  It's also exciting to try new things and add more to your curriculum to challenge your students even more than the year before.

Stephanie and I both plan on implementing Daily Math Journals into our classroom for this new school year.  However we do plan on doing it a little differently.  Stephanie's math journals for Kindergarten will be by month with each day covering a different standard.  To prep for her math journals, all you do is copy the whole month, staple and then cut in half to make half page booklets.  She has her August journal up as a freebie so that you can get a sample of how she has her journals set up.  She currently has September and October all finished and will have the rest of the months up soon!  Click on the picture below to go grab up the August Journal for free.

 I decided to go the cut and paste route.  Each page in my packets have 6 copies of the same prompt with 5 prompts per Common Core Standard.   So if you have 18 kiddos you just make 3 copies of the standard you want to practice and cut them apart.  I have a little math prompt basket and when they come in from lunch recess they will know to go to the basket grab a prompt and then glue it into their math journals.  I plan on using composition notebooks for their math journals.  They are very easy to find and super cheap at back to school time.  There is little prep and you can choose what standard is best for you and when you want to teach or review it. You can download a free sample of my math journals by clicking here.  You can find the complete set over in my TpT store by clicking on the image below.

I plan to include this little form inside of the math journals.  Every 6 weeks, I will have the kiddos glue this page into the next blank page in their journal.  They will take it home and mom and dad will review the pages listed for the 6 week time period, sign it, make a comment, and then send it back to school.  It's nice for the kids to know that they will be held accountable for their work and for the parents to see all the hard work their child is doing at school.  Click on the picture below to go to the Google Doc to grab up this freebie!

We hope you all have a great back to school!  Now head on over to check out what Linda at Kindergarten Doodles is sharing for Back to School! (Oh and don't forget that there is an awesome giveaway at the end of this blog hop!)