Random Happenings

Have you ever had a week where you are just trying to play catch up? That's what the last 2 weeks have been for me. Always something to do yet the list never gets done. I'm finally starting to make some headway though!

Here are some random things I've been loving in my classroom!

I love how my word wall turned out! I decided to use my cabinets so that it could  be on the kids level. I laminated construction paper and used electrical tape to make the divisions.  For the headers I used the super cute word wall headers from Amanda Byrnes. Click the picture below to download!

The kids have been noticing and reviewing all the letters we have learned as well as identifying the ones we haven't learned yet. It's great to see them get excited about learning!

I have also been loving Tara West's KinderPhonics! I downloaded this unit to use the letter sound motions cards with my kiddos and we LOVE it! The kids have so much fun doing the motions and it really has helped them remember the sounds! In fact I've caught a few of my kids making the sounds and doing the motions while playing in centers independently. Always a good thing! Click the picture above to download it. You won't be disappointed!

Hope you enjoyed learning about what we've been up to!

Classroom Tour 2014

Hello everyone! It's FRIDAY! Totally my favorite day of the week! As promised here is a tour of my classroom this year!

 This is the view of my room looking from the door. Other than an area to the right, this is pretty much it. My classroom is small compared to many Pre-K classrooms but with our 3 year old classes maxing out at 14 the space suits us perfectly!

 This is a small reading area and our morning command center. When the kiddos unpack their bags they come in, drop their folder in a bucket and flip their card in the pocket chart. One side has their name and the other has their face. Every morning it starts on the name side and they have to find their name and flip it over to find their face! I mix it up as the year progresses to make sure they are learning their name and not just memorizing their spot. The pictures make it self checking and its a great way to see attendance at a glance!

Our cabinets where all my important teacher resources are kept - note the Keurig Machine! ;) I've been organizing my teaching resources into binders this year and I LOVE it! I keep one binder per letter of the alphabet and one for our monthly colors numbers and shapes. This helps me find things so much more easily and makes planning with my coworkers a breeze! 

I also love using the plastic drawers for organizing weekly work. I have one drawer for each day of the week and one To-Do. I put all the things I need my assistant to do in the last drawer and as she finishes them she files them into the weekly drawers. Each day I just need to open the drawer and everything I need is there!

Our whole group area. Here we do morning meeting and calendar every day as well as do alot of fun things on our Eno Board! 

Want to know one of my favorite things about whole group time? Using pointers!Its just one of those things that I couldn't wait to do as a kid and I get a kick out of it still! I started making pointers out of pre-painted wooden shapes after seeing this post on First Grader... at Last! a few years back. This summer I decided to add a pointer for every letter of the alphabet to reinforce the sounds each week. Now I have a big bucket of beautiful glittery pointers that the kiddos and I both absolutely LOVE!

 This is a closer look at my small group table and our focus board. I put the skills we are working on each week as a visual reminder for the kiddos. At this table I do work with 3-4 students at a time in differentiated groups during our center time.

 I work in a Catholic school so we have a prayer table integrated into our room. Next to that is the kitchen center. One of the struggles I have with such a small room is center time. There is not a lot of room for kiddos to spread out and play so I mix some permanent centers like the kitchen and reading  with other more portable tabletop centers.

 I hope you enjoyed getting a peek into my home away from home! Before you leave I want to show you what I made today. I present you with Mr. Muncher!

Isn't he the cutest? I made him using a small swing top trashcan and laminated card stock with a little hot glue. I plan on using him each week to reinforce letter sounds. I purchased these letter cards on Amazon to use with him which are very sturdy laminated small cards perfect for little hands! If you'd like to snag the sign I made for his front you can get it here.

I hope your weekend is getting off to a wonderful start!

Classroom Tour & Freebies

Hello bloggy friends! I’ve been super busy getting my room ready for Monday. I just finished the physical setup yesterday and now I’m working on lesson planning and getting beginning of the year stuff taken care of.  I am so excited about this year! I really think I’m going to love 1^st grade. I have a great team of ladies I’ll be working with and a lot of fun ideas!

So here’s a little tour of my classroom…

This is the hallway outside of my classroom. I will be creating an interactive bulletin board on the large board and hanging student work from rings on the clothespins. The plan is to write the kiddos names on the clips and add their pictures above their names. I want to keep adding work each month to the ring to create a portfolio of work that parents and other teachers and students will be able to see. The great thing is that the whole hallway belongs to 1^st so we can use the other spaces to hang work as well!

 My door which I totally love! I’ll write the kids names on the owls when I get my roster.

 This is the wall to the left as you walk through the door. Because of the position of the reading loft, I decided to use the small space behind the door as my desk. I love how cozy it is! I never sit at my desk when the kids are in the room so it’s nice to have it tucked away but still accessible if I need something. 

 A horribly blurry (sorry!) close up of my desk! I'll post a better picture when I get in my room tomorrow.

 This is the door to the bathroom between my room and the room next door. Since the door is metal, I plan on applying magnet tape to my reading and math workstation cards and organizing the kiddos that way.  You can also see my math manipulative shelf & sink area.

 This is the wall directly opposite the door.  I’ve since rearranged the desks so it looks a bit different now. I love the huge windows and all of the light they provide. I’m going to try and see if I can do something about the frosted coating on the lower windows. I’d love to be able to have a bird feeder or something like that outside the room for the kids.  The whole group area will be in right corner. I have a rug coming that I plan on putting there.

 The front of my room! I used flat sheets from Walmart to cover my boards. After seeing this post on the Clutter Free Classroom blog, I decided to use all black borders this year. I love how organized it makes everything look.

 My class library! I have a cute rug coming to soften up the area. I also plan on painting the metal shelves white sometime soon. I have A LOT of things to say about how I organized and leveled my library over the summer so be prepared for a more in depth post soon!

 I love how these boards turned out! They are foam board covered in paper and border hung on a nail by a ribbon. I plan on using them for spelling words, Social Studies & Science, vocabulary words or whatever else I might want to do.

This is the wall by my door. You can see the animal goodbye rhymes, my rules and some signs I previously posted.  I think the flower clock is my favorite. Thank goodness for Pinterest!

So as promised, I have freebies for you! A lot of these things are things you can see in the photos of my classroom.

Can’t Sign – I really don't like it when kids say that they can’t do something. I'm all about letting kids know that some things will be difficult but with work, we can get through them. I’m using this little sign as a tool to reinforce that.

Welcome Letters – I printed these on colored paper and hung them in my window. You will notice in the document that instead of a W for welcome I have a M. This is because the W in the font I used is very wide and got cut off. I just hung the M upside down and it looks fine.  I've made them for K-5.

K 1 2 3 4 5

Classroom Rules – This year I plan on using Whole Brain Teaching techniques in my classroom and I tweaked my rules accordingly. You can get more info on their website here.

Brownie Points – I use the as a whole class incentive. I use these with the cookie sheet hanging on my whiteboard. Every time the whole class makes a good choice, a brownie goes in the pan. When the pan is filled I bring in brownies as a special snack!

Sub Binder Form – I’m currently getting my sub binder together. This is a form I made for the sub to fill out for me.

Brain Breaks – I laminated these and glued them on popsicle sticks. I plan on using these small activities to help my kids when they need a little break.

Thank You Letters – I plan on taking a class picture with my kiddos holding these up. I will then print the picture on half of a sheet of paper and fold it to make a thank you card.

I hope that everyone is having a great week so far. I hope you can use these freebies in your room. Thanks for letting me share my classroom with you!