Wow is all I can say about the kiddos I have this year... they are quite different from the group we had last year and I am thankful!  The first two days were crazy with all of the meetings and going over the campus rules, but finally we got down to the nitty gritty today.  I teach both Reading and English to 3 period of kiddos and wanted to share what we did today.  It was cram packed, but we got everything done and with a smile on our faces.  :)
 
During reading we started our reading spirals for the year... which included the table of contents, 2012-2013 Texas Bluebonnet list, and Real vs. Fake reading.
 
 
 
The table of contents will be a huge timesaver later in the year...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The students can use the Bluebonnet list to check off as they read and take AR tests.  They can earn rewards for reading and passing a certain number of tests.  Our goal is 10... pizza and ice cream party!!
 
 
 
We had an awesome time brainstorming and making an anchor chart for real vs fake reading.  After we discussed it thoroughly, the students got to move around the room and "model" real reading.  They also wrote this in their spirals.
 
 
 
 
 
We also put together our Writing Notebook. Today we focused on what authors do and the writing process.
 
 
 
 
 
We thought about the process that writers go through and wrote them in order in our spirals.  Some of the students even learned the word "jot".
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
On the next page we glued in the writing process.  We didn't talk too much about it today.  All we did was look at the order because we were going to use it in a GAME!!
 
 
 
 
We played battle with the writing process.  The farther in the process the more the word was worth, so rubric beat everything.  The students had such an awesome time playing!!
 
 
 
 
 
Wouldn't you want to end your day with these faces?!?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hope you enjoyed our day... I am tired just thinking about it!!
 
 
 
 
I am so excited to share my new classroom with you... I can't change up the desk arrangement too much from year to year (tiny small room), but I have done several things to try and make it look bigger.  Here we go!
 
This is the view walking into the classroom.  Elmo, projector, and Eno board front & center.
 
 
This is what you see to the right as you walk in.  I LOVE having a classroom library even though we go to the school library every week.  I also have the schedule, rules, and menu on the class info board.
 
This is to the left side of the door.  I have some more books (non-fiction and BIG chapter book like Harry Potter, City of Bones, and Hunger Games).  There is also the turn in box and library checkout.  The two computers are used for AR testing or Study Island.
This is right above the turn in tray.  Awesome poster to have in an upper level classroom!!
This is from the other back corner of the room.  You can see my desk area in the corner.  I am trying really hard to organize it, but sometimes its too much... lol!!


My front shelves that hold reading games, dictionaries, and small group books.  I bought the curtain this year and I think it covers up the clutter perfectly!
 
This is the front left corner of the board.  This holds my daily objectives for reading & writing and also my mystery lexicon board.  Below it is my small group table with my writing drawers and M-F containers for mystery lexicon.
This is the right corner of my front board.  I have my hall passes and no name board I made over here.  The far right side is where I write the daily homework.
 
Here is my desk area... I told ya it was a hot mess!  I will work on this throughout the year to try and organize it even more.  I just need to figure out what all I will use on the shelf.  If it has been used in the 1st 6 weeks then away it goes into the closet.
 
 
3/4 of my walls are blank chalk boards.  They are split up into sections and will be covered in anchor charts before too long.  I know my room looks a little blank, but I don't like to hang anything up until we have discussed it in class... so I like to say that my room is always a work in progress. 
 
I hope you enjoyed the tour!  I love seeing everyone's rooms!!  Let me know if you think there if anything I can do to make it more user friendly...
 
TIFFANI
 
 
 

So I am joining in on the Blog Hopping fun...
There are several things that are must-haves for me to have a classroom that runs smoothly.

1.  Flip Charts and "Smelly" markers... did you know that the "Smelly" markers are shown to automatically brighten you day if used?  Ok , not really but they make me happy! :)
2.  My cute Target calendar... I am horrible at keeping days and meeting straight, so it's all in one.  Yay!!

3.  Either a Diet Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper... I have really been on a Diet Dr. Pepper kick.  I know you are thinking choose one, but I just can't!  The caffeine get me through the day...

4. My Teacher Binder... I have all of my essentials in here.  Lesson plans, benchmark scores, etc... I always have it ready!

I hope you have enjoyed hearing about a few things that are must haves for me.  I hope to post pictures of my revamped classroom soon and even share a few freebies if I have time. 

 

Hope everyone has had a Marvelous Monday!!





Back to School Jitters Linky Party

I go back to school Thursday and I am lucky enough to have over a week before the students come... I found this linky and thought it was perefect for back to school!!



FYI - This is not my original idea, but I wanted to make a page to print out that the students could complete the activity on. 

Every year we do some sort of back to school activity that we can hang in the hall for open house.  For the past 2 years we have been doing an all about me poster, but it reminded me of something I would have used back in 2nd grade.  I decided to scour Pinterest because I knew I had seen an idea before.  Here it is...  Jennifer even has a rubric you could to your students to have as they work, which I long.  All I did was make a page for them to complete the activity on.  Here ya go!

Let me know if you have any Reading/ELA back to school activities I would be interested in!  And please comment if you use... :)  
I know... I know... I am breaking all kinds of rules for posting twice in one day, but I wanted to share a freebie.  I know that's a good reason to break the rules! 

Well, I worked in my classroom today and after I got tired of doing manual labor I sat down and tried to look at my lesson plans for the 1st couple of weeks of school.  Last year I did a Back to school Scattergories game, but of course I have no idea where it is so I decided to make something of my own.  I decided to do a scavenger hunt.  I know, I know you are thinking really that's as creative as she could be... Well, I decided to do this because all of the 5th graders are new to our campus so this way they would get a tour.  (They got one at the end of the year, but they were so freaked out that they would have to change clothes for gym that I don't think they retained any information after that.)  Also, I am only teaching Reading and English / Writing for my 3 periods this year so I figured I could also see if they knew what nouns and adjective were and I could check out their spelling. 

I hope you enjoy my B2S Scavenger Hunt!!

Well, August has arrived and so has this month's currently.... so link up!!
I spent the day working in my classroom, so I hope to share some updated photos and ideas soon.  Hope everyone has a good weekend!!
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