Tips to Keep You Organized

This is how I keep my sight words organized. Each child has their own ring of words. I have baskets to keep up with how many words they missed. If a child misses one, it goes in the "1" basket and at the end of the day I will add a new word from their list. The same thing happens if they miss 0 or 2 words. If they miss 3 or more, we do it again the next day.

Here is how I keep organized during the day. If its something I need to make, it goes in the to make drawer. If it is something that is ready, it goes in the ready drawer. If its ready to be put away, it goes in the put away drawer.

Here is where I organize for Reader's and Writer's Workshop. The kids house their individual writing folders in the plastic filing bins. They keep their individual bags of books in the book bins.

This is where I house my math "can do: centers. Each draw holds a different activity for early finishers. I have 5 of these, one for each of my groups.  I love the paper inside the drawers. No mess!

I have a very tiny desk in my room. This is where I keep up with all of my paper work and student folders. It's the top of a cabinet. I use every surface during the day. No wasted space. This cabinet is right by the door. This makes it easy to collect things as they come in. I also keep things there that I want to be sure get sent home. That way, as we are leaving I can take a quick look to be sure nothing is there.

 

Almost every child in our school brings their lunch. The kids put their lunch inside this tub when they get to school. Lid goes on top! No messy lunch boxes all over the floor.  Also keeps all the "food" contained to one area I can easily clean at the end of each day to avoid unwanted visitors! :)

 

I keep our schedule posted right by my desk. This helps keep me on task and focused! 

Classroom Tour Before and After

I am out on maternity leave until the end of October. My plan was to get in and set up the room and get out! We all loaded up and headed to the school. We even convinced Andy, my dad, to go! This is what greeted us!

After about five short hours....we were finished for the day. With Andy there to move furniture and Kim there to organize and keep people moving we got it all done!

So what is all that? Well most of it is literacy centers and stations. The biggest part of my room is the carpet area. I order foam mats about every other year and I LOVE THEM! I am convinced that there is nothing better. Each child has their own square and their own space on the carpet. It is worth every penny for my sanity!

Here is my center chart on the left, before I added any of the pictures. On the right are the center buckets that house activities that my students complete before they can make a center choice. We call the things on the left "can dos" and the buckets on the right "have tos." You can see a post by Kim {here} that explains the way we do our centers a little better.

I believe in students always having access to books! Here are the five reading areas in my room. I have them divided by fiction, non fiction, unit books, big books, and miscellaneous. You can read more about our class library in this blog post: Classroom Library

 

Here are some of my abc and phonics centers: stamps, abc toys, playdough, magnetic letters, and pocket chart. My kids love Deedee Wills' Stamping Words Fun and use it all the time in the stamp center. 

Here are a few of my writing centers: write the room, overhead, and mail center. We also love Deedee Wills' Overhead Stations. Check out her first one {here}.

 Here are a few other centers: read the room, puzzles, music books, and sound books. Kim has a TON of music books. That is the favorite center in my room. It is so quick and easy! Here are a few of my favorites:

Jack Hartmann Music Books

Shari Sloane's School is Cool Music Books

 Shari Sloane's Get Ready Music Books

 And now for a tour of my wall space...Here is where I do calendar. I also keep up with our current vocabulary word on the right hand side. See how I do vocabulary {here}. I make my kids accountable and require that they follow along by filling in their own calendar. Check out Kim's post about the calendar notebook {here}. You can also find it on TPT {here}.

 Here is where I post my anchor charts and standards. I love Deanna Jump's I can statements. My whole team bought them and uses them! Check them out {here}.

 On the left is my environmental print word wall. On the top right is my name word wall and on the bottom right is my main word wall where I put all my sight words as I introduce them.

 Here are my color words and number words.

 Here is my birthday caravan.

 One of my favorite things about my classroom is the bathroom! I share a bathroom with the teacher next door. I have a policy in place...if the hallway door is propped open then you may go, when it is closed nobody goes.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my room!

Teacher Week '13: Meet the Teacher Monday

I'm linking up this week with Blog Hoppin' for their Teacher Week Topics! Each day there is a different topic. 

Blog about the daily topics on your blog, grab the button above {Thanks, Amy Lemons!}, link the button back Blog Hoppin' and then add your post to the linky at the bottom. 

#1 I am a GAM! My daughter just recently had her first child and our first grandchild. It truly is a love like no other!!

#2 I have two great kids. Megan and Tyler both still live in the same town as me. It is so great getting to see them so often. Megan, part of Kindergals, is a kindergarten teacher. She is currently out on maternity leave and is loving being a mommy! Tyler works at our local air force base and loves to cycle. We are all fortunate that he loves to cook. He makes some yummy meals!

#3 I have two great in-law kids. Ginny and Tyler have known each other for a very long time. We really enjoyed getting to see Ginny grow up! Ginny is currently a pre-k teacher. She enjoys bargain shopping and hanging out with her family. Nick and Megan met on eharmony and knew it was meant to be! Nick loves the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Falcons and the Georgia Bulldogs...Did we mention he likes to watch golf, tennis, racing, and....

 #4 I have been married 29 years. My Andy is my end all be all. We have been together for so long I do not remember life before him! He is my right hand man and my best friend.

 #5 I met my husband at a local square dance event. Andy asked my Momma to dance but, she offered me instead. The rest is history.

#6 I live in the same town as my whole family. We really enjoy getting together to grill out, swim, or just eat dinner.

 #7 I love popcorn and diet coke. These are my two staples in the pantry!

 #8 I travel all over with my job. I've been coast to coast trainig teachers. The BEST part about traveling is getting to see my blogging buddies! When I am not traveling, I enjoy volunteering in Megan and Ginny's classrooms. 

 #9  I enjoy working in my yard. When I am not travelling, I really enjoy getting down and dirty in the garden. 

 #10 I love to travel for pleasure. Give me somewhere warm and sandy and I am set! Next week, Andy and I are headed on a cruise!

I can't wait til tomorrow to see all of your classrooms! Remember to hop over to Blog Hoppin' and link up!

All About the Number

We all remember the day of letter of the week, number of the week, color of the week, etc. Research has shown us that this is not a very effective way to conquer these skills.  So when I was thinking about teaching the numerals, I turned it around to thinking about number. Each week we turn our focus to one number. We think all about the things we know about that number. When teaching kids All About the Numbers, I use this chart. This is the chart that I use for numerals 0-10. There is a different chart for numbers 11-20 and student recording pages for 1-20. At the beginning of the year, I do the anchor chart with them one day. Then, the next day I call them for small group during math time to fill out their pages. As the year goes on, the kids are able to do their pages right along with me while I am doing the anchor chart.

Dice Storage and Games to Play with Dice

Do you have all of those dice in a bag thrown in a closet? Can you find them quickly when you need them? This post will help you get those dice organized!

 Dice Storage

• I picked up this storage unit in Wal-mart. It is back in the section where they have the light bulbs, paint, etc.
• I sorted my dice. Usually when I purchase dice, I purchase 8 of each kind. This makes it where I can use the dice in a small group and still not stress if I lose one or two!
• Make a label for each kind of dice and tape it to one of the drawers.
• Put the dice in the correct drawer.
• You are done! Ready for use!

Using the Dice

There are many ways to use the dice when playing games. I love open ended board games. You can easily differentiate the game just by giving different children different dice.

Give them a dot dice and they say how many dots. This is called subitizing.
Give them a numeral dice and they say the numeral.
Give them a dot dice and a numeral dice. They say the number then count on the dots.
Give them two dice, or a double dice, and have them add the two together.
Give them two dice, or a double dice, and have them subtract the two.
Give them a dot dice and have them say how many dots, now move one more than you have dots, two more, one less, two less.
I could go on and on…..

Here are a few fun games for dice:

Let's Take Turns

• Collect a piece of bulletin board boarder. Or, create a strip using clip art or stickers.
• Put a unifix cube on the center monster.
• Give the first child a dice. They roll the dice and move the cube that many spaces toward themselves.
• The second child rolls the dice and moves the SAME cube toward themselves.
• They keep moving the same cube back and forth until it comes off the end of the strip.
• Put in the middle and start over.

Racing Game

• Make a game board with 3 strips of boxes.
• Make three game pieces, or you can use cubes. These game pieces have rabbits.
• Put the rabbits along the bottom by the title.
• The child rolls a dice.
• They move the rabbits toward the carrots.
• They can move one rabbit all the spaces, or they can split the roll between the rabbits.

Number Line Races
Create a number line from 1-10 or 1-20.
Collect tiny pieces to place on each numeral.  I am using bird clip art.
Make a game piece or use a cube.
Invite the child to roll the dice.
They move their game piece that many spaces down the number line and remove the bird on that number.
Now, they roll again. This time, they can move forward or backwards on the number line.
The object of the game is to collect all of the birds.
This is a great strategy game!
Looking for more games to play with dice? You might want to check out this unit:

Reader's Workshop Framework

Have you heard of the Workshop framework? I get a lot of questions about the structure and exactly how it all works. I hope this blog post will help you to understand the structure of the workshop model.
First...What is the exact structure of this time. Each lesson is divided into three parts:

• Part 1: Mini Lesson
• Part 2: Application or Work time
• Part 3: Share

The mini lesson is also divided into parts...there are 4 of them.

Connect

Here is where we remind the kids of exactly what we did yesterday.  This helps get all the kids in the same place. This has them ready for the new learning.  If you have ever heard me present you have heard me say, "The brain learns by pattern, but seeks novelty." The workshop model provides a great pattern. The lessons are predictable. One way to ensure that predictability is to do the same 4 steps each day. Another way is to provide consistent language. For this step I say, "Remember yesterday when we..." I finish the sentence by reminding them what we did the last time. 

Teach

The next part of the mini lesson is the teach. This is where the new learning occurs. First, I name the new learning.  Then I model.  Modeling can be difficult. When I first started teaching, I thought modeling meant that I told them what they should do. But, I should have paid more attention to the word MODEL.  When I model a lesson I become the reader. I have to show the children what it looks like when the reader is doing the concept I am trying to teach. For the teach portion of the lesson I say, "Today, I am going to show you..." and I name the standard. Then, I say, "Let me show you what I mean." Here is where I do the modeling.

Active Engagement

The next part of the mini lesson is Active Engagement…Here is where the children practice what you just taught them .  Right there on the carpet in front of you, have your children complete show you they understand the new concept. This is a great time to collect data of who is getting it and who you need to pull to your table for more practice. For the active engagement portion of the lesson I say, "Let me see you try."

Link

As you are finishing up your mini lesson (they should last only 10 minutes total), you move to the Link. Here is where you remind the kids of exactly what they just learned. For the link part of the lesson I say, "Remember boys and girls, today and everyday, good readers...."

Application

After the 10 minute mini lesson, it is time for the kids to get to work. During application time, the kids may or may not apply the mini lesson. Application doesn't not refer to their ability to apply the mini lesson.  Application is a time when kids apply WHAT THEY KNOW! It is a natural time of differentiation. Here are a few key points.

• Each of the kids has a bag of good fit books. They are all reading independently. 
• During this time they are also building stamina. That means, that at the beginning of the year, the children might be able to sustain their reading for 2-3 minutes. But, each day you add on 10-15 seconds. Then, in a month, they will have added 3-5 minutes to their stamina!
• Once children can sustain their reading for 15 minutes, you can begin to pull kids for small group guided reading lessons.

Share Time

At the end of application, we call all the kids back to the rug. This is a share time.  You can invite children to share things they are reading about, things they noticed when they were reading, things they tried to help them, etc.