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An InLinkz Link-up

Classroom Reveal

I'm linking up with The Primary Gal, Just A Primary Girl,  & Laugh Eat Learn for my classroom reveal.

I'm just going to start by saying that this is not my favorite classroom. I've been in 9 different classrooms in my building, but this is not my favorite. There was flooding in my room several years ago.  My cork walls are wavy, I actually have to have posters cover up plaster that was left on the wall from a moved fire alarm, and in the front of the room I just have a piece of hanging/ broken plywood for my electrical outlet. The worst part is that the air conditioning unit doesn't work correctly so we are hot constantly. I have 2 fans in the room to try to cool it down, which is not great to talk over, but they help. It's a small room with not a lot of options for arranging things due to the outside door & placement of cubbies. It stressed me out quite a bit when I moved into this room.

 I finally decided that due to the small space everything in my room needed to be in the same color scheme. I felt that by focusing on 2-3 colors for everything that it would help the space look larger. I painted all of the items I already owned, and purchased or made a lot of new items. I think it turned out ok, even though I still don't like the room itself. The room now has a calming feel to me & I've been able to camouflage the flaws & make the room feel like me.

 Our school has a music theme this year. I tried to keep mine with the same color scheme & went with a 50's music theme.

I created this new slide to display each morning for our morning routine. I LOVE it.

 This is our 3rd grade AR bulletin board. My friend Lori created the words and border. I created the piano board. Then we had wonderful assistants at the end of they year that put it up for us. We covered it & left it over the summer. Each of the 5 third grade classroom has a different color of music notes. Students' names go on the music notes & they are moved down the keyboard based on the number of AR points they have.

 This is our 3rd grade Rocket Math bulletin board. This rocket took me HOURS to make. I am not an artist at all.  My teaching friend Emi, spent several hours with me stapling up the red strips and trying to shape it. Then I found ribbon to border each section, aluminum foil, and cellophane to finish it up. Last year our amazing assistants took it down, laminated it, and reassembled it for us. Then I added the cute scrunchy border. Each classroom has large push pins in a different color. Students move their push pins up the rocket once they pass a specific level.

 I found these cute placemats on clearance for less than a dollar at Hobby Lobby. I laminated them & put them in the hall to display my students' work. It's not finished yet. I'd like to add each student's picture to their own mat, but it hasn't happened yet.

Monday Made It August 25th

I'm linking with 4th Grade Frolics for the Monday Made it!

Wow! Now that school is back in session, I am exhausted. It seems I barely have time to make dinner or clean my messy house. So I haven't made a lot of things. My first item I actually made the week school started & just finished it up this week. I got the idea from HERE.  Last year I had a math word wall, but I didn't like it. I felt it was too "busy" and really wasn't helpful. I saw this idea & knew it's what I wanted. I already had the vocabulary cards. Therefore I just had to create headings. Indiana is not teaching Common Core anymore so I created my headings based on the Indiana Standards headings. Then I spray painted my yardsticks, hot glued the clothespins on, and used a staple gun to attach it to the cork wall.I used Command Hooks to hold the sets of cards. (I don't actually have them all sorted yet.)

We've been working on place value the last week. My students really liked playing this game using cards. I've played this game for years in my classroom. I just updated my boards a little bit since some of them were getting old. I have two versions I use. The first version we only go to the thousands' place. The second version I use larger construction paper and we go to the hundred thousands' place. Students use a deck of cards and the mats I created. They take turns drawing a card from the pile. The object it to make the largest number. I require the students to write their number down on their scoring sheet to compare. Then the student with the largest number has to be able to say their number correctly to get the point for that round.

I am so excited about my third "made it". We are getting ready to start rounding in my classroom this week. Rounding is such a HUGE ordeal in 3rd grade. It seems like we spend an enormous amount of time on it. Therefore I need a lot of different activities to practice and teach the same skill. I decided to make a rounding 4 corners game to use in my classroom. I LOVE 4 corners games because it gets students up and moving which helps with the restless energy. 

I also love them because there is NO printing or laminating! It's a huge time saver. You simply download the game and you can play it instantly with your class.

Click on the picture.

My rounding 4 corners game is on sale for $1.00 for the next 24 hours.