Here is my Science bulletin with book boxes for leveled reading.

This is my student section.  I am going to add inspirational sayings (Hope King gave me the idea).  Underneath the table I stored all of my math manipulatives in tubs and labeled them.  I used to store them on top of the cubbies, but they looked so messy. I like this arrangement much better!

I added fabric to my overhead cart to hide anything that I need to store below...I always hated that you could see everything.

Here is my new square colored carpet.  I have been wanting this to help with assigned seating.  

I have been crazy busy organizing my room.  First, I put everything back where it belonged. Then, I pulled EVERYTHING out of my cabinets and files, big time purging going on! This took the most time of all.  Finally things are organized nd starting to shape up!!  Here are a few pics of how it looks now.

Lions, Tigers, and Bears OH MY!!!

Just went back to school for the first time today and OH MY is it a mess!  I took a few "before" pictures of my classroom and will post the "after" sooooon! It is such a mess, I couldn't even think straight.  I decided one thing at a time, put the furniture back first, and then I will be able to start generating some creativity!  Would love to hear from others about what they are doing in their classrooms to organize and get ready for the school year.

Daily 5: Chapter 4 & 5

Three Ways to Read a Book: Using pictures to read the book is always something I feel is important when previewing the book, I have always called it a "picture walk" to help students get an idea of what the book may be about.  I like how Daily 5 talks about using the pictures to be sure the words match up to what they read when reading with pictures...this is a piece I need to include.  Be sure to check out The Teacher Wife  for some really cute posters for this section of the book. Very cute, I will be using these!



Daily 5: Chapter 5
Read to Self: The way the book introduces this part makes it fun and exciting for kids.  I agree, helping and encouraging students to want to read with partners aloud is so important.  I think the part I liked best about this is the way it is introduced to make students feel excited about reading to others, which in turn, helps increase fluency and gives them an opportunity to model strategies for each other as they read.

I am loving this book...lots of great ideas!

Here is a checkmark I made to help students remember to check for understanding.  Instead of making them out of wood as Daily 5 suggests, I am going to print on colored cardstock for each student and laminate them. Click here to download.

Daily 5: Chapter 3

 I loved the shoe activity to introduce the "good-fit book". I will definitely be using IPICK in the library this year. I always talk to my students about using these sme strategies when checking a book out in the library, but not in depth the way the book explains. I am excited to try this in my classroom.
I am learning so much already from this book, but I am still not sure how I will be incorporating this in my classroom. Does anybody else out there teach reading with SFA, Success For All reading? This is already a 90 minute program....how might this work?

Back to School Goodies

I have purchased several items from TPT.  I am so excited to use them in my classroom!

Abby's "Super in Second" click here

Lindsey's "Back to School" click here

They both have great activities in them! I love Lindsey's paper doll with an "all about me" book included.  Abby's unit includes the recipe to "jitter juice" along with pages to record the recipe.  These two units will be so fun to kick the school year off with a bang!