Official Classroom Reveal

Now that the PD is over and open house is complete, I'm ready for my complete classroom reveal. I worked incredibly hard to change things up so that it wasn't the same old set up and I am extremely pleased with my outcome. Here's the official classroom reveal pics:

Outside. I had to move the owls over because we got mailboxes this year. 

My name tag from Kasefazem. Love it!

What a student will see upon entry to my classroom!

A wonderful and very crafty colleague of mine created a curtain to go over this bookshelf that holds multiple copies of guided reading books. This way I can access them for groups but the students won't get in to them before hand.

This is very similar to last year. Organized bins, lots of Peanuts posters, and my board that I got a couple of weeks in to last school year.

This is my student work board. I use sheet protectors so that I can slip their work in and out each week without stapling it up and ruining the paper each time. Because of this, I didn't even have to change my bulletin board paper this year, just the border to change things up!

My main bulletin boards and classroom library and reading area. Students love the "Opening Soon" signs. It makes them very curious about when this marvelous library will open!

Side view of the reading area. 

Side view of my desk area. I am obsessed with the idea that I will keep the space behind my desk neat and organized this year! 

Front view of my desk area. Hate those cords but that's about as ruly as I can get them to be. 

View of the front from the back. 

Last year's end of year book reports became this year's open house book preview! 

One of my favorite areas. My behavior chart, daily schedule, objectives, my clock with awesome hands (bye, bye digital clock), a Snoopy poster given to me by a very sweet colleague, and a peek the place value owls that I created!

My cubbies! I bought little containers for their extras for each cubby and put a sticker on the front with their number on it. I'm going to put photos that I take throughout the year on the decorative squares on the cupboards. Again, I have my crafty colleague to thank for the awesome curtains!

We've come full circle: my mailbox and supplies area. 

When the students came in for open house they were excited about everything that they saw, which made me feel really awesome and told me that my hard work will definitely be worth it. I can't wait to get started with them on Tuesday! 

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I've Been Working on the Writing Prompts, All the Live Long Day...

You know how little ideas seep into your head and then they become big ideas? Well, one of those little ideas became a big idea that's been keeping me busy for the last few days!

As some of you already know, I teach in Virginia, one of four states that did not adopt the common core. Though we are not adopting those standards, the state has been changing our state standards to be more rigorous as well. Our fifth grade students have always taken a writing SOL (standards of learning), which is split between multiple choice and essay. Last year in late fall they released the prompts that students could potentially have for their essay portion. Well, there are 44 prompts and the students will only get one on testing day. Of course, we don't know which one, and not all students get the same one on testing day! Suffice it to say, it's great to have all of prompts in front of you, but it can be a bit overwhelming when you are thinking about exposing your students to each one! Last year, I worked diligently to prepare sample essay after sample essay, and I think that I've completed about 20 at this point, but God only knows that I can't expect my students to write 40 essays in a year. Since will be the first year that we have the prompts before the year begins, I'm trying to be better prepared.

So last week, I was chatting with one of my favorite colleagues and an idea popped in to my head: What if students completed a prompt a day at the beginning of writing each day with just one task in mind? There are 44 prompts. If I give them a prompt a day for 44 days and just have them do a five-minute brainstorm, then they will have been exposed to each at least once by Thanksgiving! Then, for the next 44 days they can fill out a graphic organizer for each prompt, which will mean they are exposed twice! AND THEN (bonus points if you get the Dude, Where's My Car? reference) they will do a paragraph each day for 44 days. Essentially, I have the potential to expose them to each prompt THREE times, and that's not even counting the explicit writing instruction and practice they will complete with several of these prompts. Sometimes I love these ideas that pop in to my head.

So for three days I've been working on days 1-44, creating a prompt slide for each prompt that I can display for the whole class, and then creating prompt strips which students will get to glue in to their writing journals (hi ho, ho ho, it's off to Walmart I go for 17 cent notebooks!). Alas, I still have two more sets to create for the remaining days, but I've got days 1-44 covered.

In addition, I did get to spend some time in my classroom this week. I've made enough progress to say (right now) that I am going to enjoy the next week off. That doesn't mean I won't be working from home, but it does mean that I might be working from home by the pool!

One of my accomplishments this week was that I bought a small bulletin board (24 x 36), wrapped it in cute black swirly fabric, and created my jobs chart from it. I don't have a ton of bulletin board space and need a good amount of space for word walls so I stole an idea from a coworker and got the board, which can easily lean against the windows!  Here's a couple of pics. My cat Brewster insisted on being in the "before" the owls picture. Seriously, he wouldn't leave that board alone!

I had to condense two jobs to make all of these fit, but I'm quite happy with the outcome. These are large owl cut outs. The students will each get a small owl cutout with their name on it when I introduce jobs during the first week. When they select a job their little owl will get pinned next to the owl with their job on it. As you probably guessed, all of those students without jobs for the week will be "on vacation".

We have a board outside of our classroom that we share with our neighboring teammate. My teammate across the hall already came in the other day and put his board up. What's awesome is that he's a Charlie Brown fan, so our boards usually compliment each other quite well. This year I bought this awesome You Can Do Anything Snoopy Bulletin Board Set from Really Good Stuff. As mentioned before, I also invested in two giant rolls of fadeless paper in green and blue. I don't know about you, but I get pretty darn happy when my roll fits the length and width of the board! Woohoo! Anyway, I was inspired to get this up and I am thrilled to pieces with how it came out. Sooooooo cute! I just know our students are going to love our "Snoopified" area! Hooray for feeling accomplished!

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Open House Success & My 2012-2013 Classroom

Why is it that every year I feel like everything is ready until the day that Open House arrives? All of a sudden, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off as the clock ticked away towards 4pm. It wasn't big things, it was all the little tiny things like sign in sheets and welcome letters that kept me busy right up to the last minute!

Well, my open house was a great success! I had 20 out of 23 parents in attendance, my biggest turnout ever! I am sure that I am new to the school didn't hurt, as that always piques curiosity, but I was thrilled either way!

It was a tad overwhelming at first. I wanted so badly to chat with each parent endlessly as I am quite the talker, but because I had so many parents show up all at once, I tried to walk around and greet each parent and child, and then move on to the next. I received lots of compliments on my room. Parents loved the Peanuts and Polka Dots theme! Everyone thought it was colorful and inviting, a great place to learn and I have to say, I agree! My hard work has definitely paid off in what is now a beautiful classroom, probably my best one yet visually. I am sure I have Pinterest to thank for much of it :-)

Here are some pictures:

My entrance: used a bit of my dots on turquoise to keep my relaxing blue color theme. I attended a workshop last year that talked about the best colors for learning and they talked about calm colors so I went with lots of blues this year.

Couldn't get maintenance to come in and get
 that extra bulletin board for me...but it will be up and
decorated soon!

Their desks are ready! On desks I have welcome letters for students on polka dot paper, an All About Me paper for students to fill out - also on polka dot paper, and their welcome goodie bags with their poem on polka dots too. There are also other supplies on the desk. When students or parents asked what they could take home, it was easy to tell them to take anything with a polka dot, leave anything without! I also put their name on the cut out apples on their desk instead of writing them on their name tags. Because I buy the expensive removable adhesive name tags from Really Good Stuff each year, I always wait until the end of the first week to add their names to the tags in case of spelling corrections, name changes, etc.

 I received a lot of compliments on my reading area. I bought 5 ottomans and a dish chair from Target. We have lots of foam pieces for the floor so I put those together underneath, adding a couple of body pillows with covers (which I wash once a week), and found a bargain beverage tub ($5 - woohoo) that I filled with stuffed animals. The stuffed animals were from Walgreens. You know the ones that are always above the front counter area? Check it out next time you go...are there still bunnies and reindeer up there? Managers are happy to give you a discount to clear those items out. I love paying $7 for a $20 jumbo stuffed animal and students love reading with them!

 Here's another view of our reading area.

I've organized everything in colorful bins and have labeled as much as I can at this point since some bins are not filled yet.

 My calendar area above my desk filled with some of my favorite classroom posters. On the board are tons of magnets....hooray for having a whiteboard again! You will also see beads hanging under the magnets. I use these as recognition when students wow me. I make a big deal of putting the beads on them and letting them wear them for the day. At the end of the day they trade them in for a certificate to take home.

If you've read my blog for awhile, that chair should look familiar as my summer DIY project! My students have cubbies this year, which is new for me.

 Our Hopes and Dreams will go on the cubby doors. I plan to take pictures of the students holding up a wipe off board with their names on it.

At open house, I had a letter to parents and students displayed, and then various information including a sign in sheet, transportation checklist, a letter for parents, sign ups for classroom parties throughout the year, a communication info sheet for parents to fill out, and a list where students could list alternate student names or nicknames they go by. I also put out apples for the parents with cards on them.

If I could change one thing about my room, it would be that my reading area would be where my classroom library is, but I made it work! Books are separated by genre, then leveled with stickers and the front of the books is roped off with a Coming Soon sign. I will try to take a close up of this to share.

One last view of our fabulous classroom!

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Last Year's Classroom

Since I'm not quite ready to share my new classroom set-up, I thought I'd share some ideas from last year.

On the doors are plastic sleeves/sheet protectors. I attached them with Command strips and they stayed up throughout the year. I placed student work in them and then changed it weekly. 

My last school was older, and it still had chalkboards. Since I won't use the chalkboards and we had a Promethean board, I covered the board with fade-resistant paper and used it as my calendar/birthday/homework area. It stayed up all year long!

An inviting student library is the key to reading success. I've stocked up over the years, and each year I invest in updated collections. I also use book displays and label all books by genre. I know you are looking at the stuffed animals and wondering why I would have them in a fifth grade classroom? Well, it's because fifth graders are still children, and if you successfully make reading with a stuffed animal look cool, even your most mature students will do it. I promise!

Also, I always put an opening soon sign across my library and wait a few days to open it, and then use a classroom meeting to talk about our new rules, and how we can apply them to the classroom library. I have a contract that I have students sign to say they will be held responsible for any books they sign out. This is helpful for damaged or missing books. 

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