Under the Sea Classroom Tour

Classroom Reveal Time!!

We will start in my favorite area, the library. My wonderful husband spent a couple hours helping me cut and staple the plastic tablecloth in the shape of waves. I love this so very much and it really ties the whole ocean theme together! Plus, each of my library book bins have an ocean label as well. I have too many books (not a problem at all for any teacher) to fit into the bins, but the collections are housed together.

 

Onto my desk area! Here is the view from my desk and the lantern fish that hang above me. Then a quick pic of my actual desk.

 

 

Writing Area: This area will be added to throughout the year. I will be doing mini-lessons about various writing activities and types of writing. Then, an example of that writing will be added to this bulletin board.

 

 

Hallway outside my classroom: My third graders are Swimming To Success!

 Front of the classroom, guided reading area, calendar area, & birthday fish bowls:

 

Bulletin Boards

     

Classroom Management:

  

Student Resources

 

 

Reading & Guided Reading

Who's Got A Fancy Planner? ME!!

Let me tell you a little story:

My great friend from college (who teaches in a nearby district) ordered a wonderful Erin Condren planner for this school year. She got it in the mail, but it was the wrong one. Sad day for her, but lucky for me. After she called to let them know the mistake, they promised to send her actual planner quickly. But they told her she could keep the planner that isn't hers or get rid of it.
Here's the happy part for me: SHE GAVE ME THE PLANNER!

Here is the beautiful (and free to me) planner:

Meet the Teacher Night

Last night, the evening before school, Moonlight hosted Meet the Teacher Night (or Sneak Peek, as it is also called). Students bring in their supplies and I am able to meet them and their parents. It's a wonderful time to have the first interaction with students and teachers.

This is what the students' desks looked like before they came last night:

On their desks: Important Points for Parents (includes specials schedule, homework requirements, contact information, brief content explanation), Bare Book note (students make a scrapbook of their writings over the school year, read about it here), Third Grade brochure, where to put supplies, and the students' first h/w assignment (All About Me bag)

 

Signups for the parents: conferences, parent goals for their child, party signups, contact information, volunteer information, and classroom donations

From Summer to Work

This was me on Tuesday:

This is what I was working on today:

We are officially back to work from summer. Today was our first day back to work. We had our welcome back district meeting this morning. It was a great, inspiring time! We had two fish mongers from Seattle's World Famous Pike's Place Fish Market come speak to us. I can't say enough good things about the speech. One quote from them I especially loved is "No day is a bad day, just tough moments within the day". This is inspiring to me because the each part of the day can be looked at as moments in the day. If our reading time does not go well, that does not mean that math won't go well. Each of us, me as the teacher and all the students, are there to make the decision to create the best environment for each other.

Can't wait to meet the kiddos next Tuesday night and the first (half) day next Wednesday!!

New Product: Teambuilding Questions

This product includes 60 teambuilding questions for your students. They can be used in a think-pair-share activity or as a writing prompt. Students answer a question about themselves and hear how others answer the same or different questions.Questions can be printed to Avery labels or printed on cardstock and cut apart.

Example questions:
-What is one thing you want to learn more about? Why?
-If you could get rid of one food, what food would it be? Why?
-What is one thing you are good at doing?
-What is your favorite sound? What is your least favorite sound?
-If you could be great friends with any celebrity, who would you pick?

Writing Bulletin Board

I am working on my Writing Bulletin Board. Like many of you, I'm sure, I am adding an "I Can Write..." section to my writing instruction. I have made it into a bulletin board. Miss Maharry has some great materials for my to use on this bulletin board for free. I am excited to have these along with my fish for my students to have examples of what they can write.

The Classroom is getting there!

I have been working about one day a week all summer long to get my classroom ready. Each section of the room is starting to come together!

First up, the front of my room! My desk area and my students' mailbox area. There is still some tidying up that needs to be done of course. I am excited about my blue walls! All the bright colors of my fabric and boarders just pop right off the walls and I love it!!

I have some cute fish on each of my cabinets for labels. I love these fish!

Here is the back wall of my classroom. I will have six bulletin boards: writing, Common Core, Social Studies, Jeopardy (starting with Geography in August/September), Science, & Math. They will look much better after I have finished them.

Organizing My Classroom Library

I am moving back into a full size classroom after teaching in a modular classroom for two years. Yay for room to move around! So I am working on organizing each part of my room so that I maximum space for my students.

Today I began to organize my classroom library! I headed to the store to get ice buckets for my books. I'm sure you have all seen that idea on Pinterest and I wanted to try it out. I started with just 14 buckets and know I will have to go back and get more now.

I had downloaded some cute fishie box labels from TpT and used them to create library labels for my library buckets. I labeled all the boxes I have and need more boxes and more labels now. I can't wait to see what the end product is going to be. My students will have a much easier time finding books in our classroom library and I hope it will stay organized all year long (fingers crossed!).

I have lots of books to go through, might have to have the store restock the ice buckets!