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. 

Monday Made It

Monday Made It August 11th

What a week! We started back to school on August 1st and students returned on August 5th. This week I've had 2 open houses, mine & my daughter's at the middle school. I've a had a first week back without air conditioning for 2 days. Then the rest of the week is "worked" but my room team was easily in the 80's all week. Ugh. It was so bad that the last 2 days I just went to work with my hair wet because I decided styling it was a waste of time since it was plastered to my face by 11:00 anyway. haha. It's sad, but once schools starts I'm just ready for fall weather. I HATE being hot when I'm wearing dress clothes & trying to do my job. It seems like it's always like this. I have to think that if administration had offices as hot as our classrooms things might change. :) So this week I didn't get a lot accomplished on the "Made It" front.

I hot glued pom poms onto my dry erase markers. I've seen this all over Pinterest & decided to give it a try. They look really cute! We'll see if they last all year. 

I made a Clip Hall of Fame frame. This year I'm going to give my students little sticker gems to put on their clips when they make it to "outstanding". When they get 5 I'm going to let them "retire" their clips to the hall of fame. I like blingy things, so I hot glued sequined ribbon on the edge of the frame & used glitter ribbon to make the string down the bottom. I got the idea HERE. 

I repainted my homework club pizza pan. I then made new numbers & a new sign for it. I think it turned out cute. I'd really like a better ribbon for the top, but haven't found one I like & am to lazy to make one right now.

The final thing I have is a morning work display I made for my husband's classroom. It'd editable and it's FREE for today ONLY. If you download it PLEASE leave a rating & feedback. Thanks.

Click on the picture to be taken to my store for the freebie.

 

Save Fred

Save Fred

Today my students did such a fun activity. It's called "Save Fred." You can get information on it HERE.

Fred is a worm (gummy worm) who goes out on his boat (plastic cup). A strong wind blows the boat over & Fred is stranded on top. Fred brought his life preserver (gummy ring), but it's under the boat. To "save Fred" students must find a way to get the life preserver snugly around Fred. The trick? Students may not touch Fred, the boat, or the life preserver with their hands. They may only use their oars (paper clips) to do this. If Fred falls in the sea (the desk) more than 1 time then he drowns. Fred also can't be injured in any way. (Think stabbing Fred with the paperclip.)

I put the online timer on the screen, gave students the instructions, and set them loose. Students had to be able to problem solve and work together. This activity gives you a good idea of how strong your students are at problem solving and how to participate in a group. You can quickly see which students are "leaders" in the room, bossy students, and students who are content to sit back and just watch. Without the entire group participating it's unlikely Fred will be saved.

I know after doing the activity with my students today that problem solving is not something they are skilled at and we will need to spend a lot of time working on and discussing strategies to solve problems.  They still had a lot of fun and I gave them all worms to eat afterwards.

Afterwards I had students fill out a flow chart & rate how well their group worked together. We then discussed the different strategies & challenges their group faced as a class. I found a great free flow chart. HERE,

When I do this activity next year I"m going to use the SOUR gummy worms instead of the regular. The brand I bought this year were really sticky & I believe that played a role in them not being able to get Fred through the life saver as easily. I think the sugar coating will make them less sticky. I will also consider giving them maybe 6-7 minutes instead of 5 minutes. It was a great activity though & one I didn't have to worry about my peanut allergy students having to sit out.

Do you Noodle?

Do you Noodle?

If you haven't heard of Go Noodle, then you definitely should check it out.  Go Noodle is a way to use Brain Breaks in your classroom without having to do any work or put any thought into it.

Click on the picture to go to the website.

Go Noodle is a website where teachers can sign up for a free account. Once you have set up your free account you are ready to go. You can play in a "demo class" to see the different brain breaks and classroom champs. The first time you log into your actual class you will get to pick a "champ". Students will get the opportunity to pick a different  champ later on.

There are different types of brain breaks. There are brain breaks to calm, energize, or to focus. 

 Each time your class does a brain break on Go Noodle the classroom champ will get a little bit bigger. When the champ maxes out, then your class can pick a new champ.

My students love to "Noodle" and I love that I don't have to spend time searching the Internet for appropriate brain breaks or spend time making things. It's been a great addition to my classroom.

Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals

I am so excited to announce that I am joining forces with some of my favorite bloggers to bring you a new collaborative blog called Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals! With this blog, there will be approximately forty teachers sharing their excellent work in what we are calling a Dollar Steal!

What is a Dollar Steal, you ask?  Each day, one of my bloggy friends will be sharing a post about one of their products.  In their blog post, they will share a link to their product where you can purchase it for only $1.00.  Now here's the catch, you'll have to act fast because their sale will only last for THREE days.  After the three days, you can still grab their fabulous product, but it will be at it's original price.

I would love for you to hop over by clicking the button above and follow our new blog through email or Bloglovin in order to ensure that you catch all of our deals in a timely manner.  We are also giving away a $25 TeachersPayTeachers Gift Certificate.  You can enter by following us!!!

Thank you for joining me on this new and exciting experience.

August Currently

August Currently

I'm linking up with Oh Boy 4th Grade for the August Currently!

Listening- August has gotten off to an exhausting start! My family is tired & still sleeping so my house is quiet. My daughter had her first cross country practice of the season yesterday. The team has been practicing all week, but she was as assistant teacher for the preschool class at Bible school so last night was her first practice. She's regretting not continuing to run all summer. :) My husband...well he'd sleep until noon if I let him. My son is awake but actually quiet, which is rare. So, I'm actually getting some quiet time to work on things this morning. Yeah me!

Loving- I am LOVING my new back to school Jamberry nails. I have a friend who sells them, but I just couldn't resist ordering these custom ones from another seller when I saw them. Aren't they adorable?

 Thinking- This summer just stunk! I had thyroid cancer last fall & had my thyroid removed. It has completely changed my life...and not in a good way. I've gained 30 pounds, my hormones are all over the place, and I'm just plain exhausted. I spent all summer running from doctor to doctor. On top of that a student tripped me at the end of the school year causing me to tear a tendon on the side of my foot. This meant a month in a boot. (I'm still supposed to be wearing the boot, but I can't stand it!) 3 days a week of physical therapy, a brace daily, and not able to take my morning walks with my dog around the park. So I've had a few pity parties for myself this summer, but have decided that I'm not going to allow this to control my life any longer! I'm going to control what I can...eat healthy, listen to my meditation apps on my phone regularly, and keep a positive attitude. To "celebrate" the first day of school yesterday, I reserved us a condo in Panama City for fall break & put the check in the mail after school. So excited!!

Wanting- I'm wanting to take the kids to the pool today & just sit and relax.

Needing- I'm needing to take my daughter to buy new running shoes, but the closest running shoe store is an hour away. I need to also pick up a few odds & ends for my classroom & open house. I NEED to buy Pop Rocks & keep forgetting. We're having a music theme this year & I wanted to attach a label to the pop rocks saying, "3rd grade is going to rock!"

Our first teacher day was August 1st! This year was especially stressful because we weren't allowed into our building to work until July 28th. Then yesterday the building closed at 4 for them to wax the floors & we aren't allowed back in until Monday, which is also open house after a day of meetings. I honestly just don't think administration & people who aren't elementary teachers truly understand what it takes to get a classroom ready. It's not something that can be done in only days. It's weeks & HOURS! They always tell us that it doesn't matter if our rooms aren't done for open house, but...it does matter. For some of our parents it's their first time in our building, for others it might be the only time in our classroom. First impressions matter. On top of that, if we don't have it done once the kids walk in the door, when will we do it? In our spare time while the kids are at lunch or specials while we have a ton of mounting paperwork that needs our attention?  Not to mention the time we need to plan for the first week of school & make copies. Oh my! It just stresses me out thinking about it. But, I will get it done & I will have a positive attitude about it! That's my new motto.