First Week of School

Honestly, I don't think I have ever been more intimidated by a first week of school than I was this year.  I have been (and still am) so excited about this multiage adventure, but when it came time to start, it was very scary!

The first two days were such a whirlwind that I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, but regardless, I am very pleased with how they went.  Friday was our third day of school, it was what I considered a real 'first' day.  We had every student there, and we were no longer doing those introductory activities, but where attempting to hit the ground running.  I know that if this multiage thing is going to go smoothly, I have got to train my babies on how reading (and math) rotations work.

The whole concept of moving independently is not an easy one.  It wasn't easy for my third graders, and I KNOW it won't be easy for my littles either.  We began today by introducing and practicing our basic rotations.  We have word work (stamping, writing on white boards, and using the magnet board), writing, and reading.  For those of you familiar with The Daily 5, this is simply a modified version.

  When we begin rotations for real, I won't have all 3 word work stations available at the same time, but wanted them to have an opportunity to practice all three.  Once they ARE completely trained, I will exchange these stations for different word work stations, but since we are still rolling it out, i'm limiting their options.

The stamping station was a big hit.  Right now, students were 'stamping' sight words that we had written on index cards, just for the purpose of practicing.  When we are actually rolling with these rotations, each student will have their own set of words, which will provide immediate differentiation for each child.  

This is a new station for me.  I purchased this giant oil pan (magnet board) from Wal-Mart for only $12!  It is huge.  I actually think it is 4 feet tall.  My kids were allowed to spell their names at this station, but as mentioned above, they will have more specific instructions when we are actually doing rotations.  I plan to use this station more for kindergartners to practice spelling each others names, or to build word families (a very tactile way to see that ending sounds don't change when working with word families)

Read to Self - I have a great leveled library as well as a thematic library.  I think this is my easiest to roll out, but scariest for me, because I want them to be soooooooo trained in how to return my books.  I hate to put that much work into leveling a library only to have all the books go back into the wrong tubs.  I let them look at a limited selection of books today.  Next week, one of our reading rotation minilessons will be on how to select and return books. 

Finally, our writing station.  I want my children to learn how to write and to enjoy writing.  Right now, that means free writing.  Simply the act of putting words on paper.  I had one kindergartner who got upset at this station, and when I got him to talk to me, I learned that it is because he 'can't draw a person'.  Luckily there is a SUPER book I have been reading called "Talking, Drawing, Writing: Lessons for our Youngest Writers" which focuses on helping beginning writers to learn how to draw pictures (one of their biggest hurdles) and then how to write about it.  

This is just a snapshot of our reading rotations, which I'm sure will have to be tweaked, altered, and changed before I am completely happy with them, but for 3 days of school, I think we are off to a pretty good start!!!

A Change is Gonna Come

Well folks, it is time.  The big reveal.  The Change.  New beginnings. I am leaving the third grade world and am going to be starting the new year as a K12 combination class.   A K12 combo is exactly that, a Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade combination class.  The dynamics of this class are going to be perfect to help scaffold for students who need it and will provide individualized learning for those high flyers.

Before I could get started on this new adventure, I had to tackle my classroom library.  I am a self admitted book hoarder.  I love books.  I buy them at Goodwill, I get them from Scholastic, I circle the discard pile in the library like a hungry vulture.  I LOVE books.  In third grade, I had them leveled on the back in a way that made sense to me and my kids.  Unfortunately this way was not appropriate for my upcoming little people.

I took every book in my class and dumped them in a giant pile (gasp).  It was scary, yet surprisingly cathartic!!


This is just a small sampling of my book pile (when I ran out of floor space, we started using desks and tables)  Please ignore all the undecorated/covered walls.  We had just finished state testing. . . blech.

In our district, we use MClass as one of the testing tools to help determine our students' reading levels.  I wanted my library to mirror this.  It was very important to me, however, to make sure that my little people, my kindergartners specifically, weren't limited to those easy, predictable texts.  As good as those are for building reading fluency, they aren't always the most exciting of stories.  

So, I took all of my books and sorted them first into thematic book tubs.  These will be used by every student in my class, regardless of reading level.  If your school does Daily 5, this would be a great option for 'read to self' time.  I want to foster a love of reading, and providing them with options by theme will hopefully be a good way to start that.  

These book tubs are a sturdy plastic.  You can get them here

I leveled all of the other books from A to Z (A-D being Kindergarten level and so on).  Most of my books could be leveled using scholastic.com.  For the ones that weren't there, I googled the title with "guided reading level" and just hoped for the best. 

 These books each have a letter on the inside of the front cover and have a bin to match.  With some training, my students will be able to self select books that are on their appropriate reading level. 

The labels I used for my book bins were just nametags from a local teacher store.  You can get them here  Any label would work, these just matched my chalkboard decorations in my classroom :)

Spring Break and a Staple Gun

One of the joys of working at a year round school is. . . well. . . the schedule!  We are in session for 9 weeks, with 3 week breaks in between!  This happens to be week 1 of my 3 week spring break!!!  A magical thing happens to my brain while on break.  I am no longer spending my creative energy on my class, so I have to find some way to channel all of my creativity!!!

I went to an estate sale a while back and bought a stepstool for $2.  I saw it.  I loved it.  It was hideous and I had to have it!  My then boyfriend (now husband) shook his head in shame as I loaded it into my car.  But I could see past the smelly, mothballed exterior.  I saw the potential for greatness.

Isn't it a beauty!?

I started by taking out all of the little nails that were holding the fabric on.  The padding underneath was fine, so rather than replace it, I decide to just cover over it.  If you decide to recover something like this footstool, it is a good idea to keep the original fabric to use as a template for your new fabric.  It's way easier than trying to eyeball it. 

I painted the legs white with gray tips to match the awesome pink and gray fabric I picked out.  I have way more fabric than projects, because I can never decide on which pattern to get!  I end up with one project and 3 different fabrics.  So I just store them away and wait for another project to come along.

Once the legs had dried and I had cut out my new fabric, I broke out the big guns.

I had never used a staple gun!!  If you haven't either, trust me. . . it's addictive.  I want to upholster everything!!  I flipped my stool upside down on the fabric and started stapling my way around it. The biggest trick here is to pull tight as you go, so it doesn't have any wrinkles in the fabric when you flip it right side up.

After a few staples and lots of love, this is the final product!

See. . . there's nothing a little paint, fabric, and a whole lotta love can't fix!

Dr. Seuss Week - The Butter Battle Book

Read Across America week is one of my absolute favorite weeks of the year.  Each year we take a few of Dr. Seuss' books and do different literature (and science integrated) activities with them.  I teach third grade, so I really try to use the books that my kids might not already know.  I also try to do activities with them that are fun, but also allow me to maintain my instructional time.  As a teacher with an EOG at the end of the year, time is precious!!

We began our first big Dr. Seuss activity by reading The Butter Battle Book.  I did it as a read aloud to allow my struggling readers the same opportunity for comprehension as my higher readers.

After reading the book, we did a little hands on activity to go with our book.  We made BUTTER!!!  For third graders this is a huge deal!  They still think that milk comes from cartons and eggs come from Walmart.  The whole understanding that butter can be made in front of their very eyes is absolutely astounding to them. 

To make butter in your class, you need the following items: 

Okay. . . so the main ingredient is heavy whipping cream.  Any container will work.  I chose this one because it has a screw on lid (less mess) and because it was cheap ($3 at Ingles).  The bread is optional, but seriously. ..  so yummy with butter :)

I put the whipping cream in the container, screwed the lid on tight, and set the kids to work. 

Shake Shake Shake!!!

If you can see in the picture, I set this up as one of my reading rotations, so students just visited it on their own.  When it was open, they could go over.  They had a timer set to 2 minutes.  They pushed start, shook the jar until time was up, and turned off the timer.  It worked great, and with a class full of kids was much more efficient than having them all sit and pass it around.  After the butter is all shook up, it will start to pull away from the sides of the jar.  

The butter will not look like your typical stick butter.  This is the real deal.  It is much softer and creamier (and yummier).  The liquidy part is actually buttermilk.  I pour it off first and let my kids taste it too.  Once they have tasted their buttermilk, we put butter on bread and chow down!  We discussed whether they were like the Yooks or the Zooks in the Dr. Seuss book and ate our bread with the butter side up or the butter side down.  Some of my anti-conflict babies decided to solve the problem and fold their bread before they ate it. 

This was a great way to bring in some real world examples to their Dr. Seuss story.  It also met my science standard for states of matter.  They could witness the change as it happened.  

Is there something special you do in your class to celebrate Dr. Seuss?  

The Binder Battle

I have been working with my third grade team lately on coming up with a way to organize all the things we have been buying/finding/creating to go along with our Common Core Standards.  We have all created file folders to hold everything, and up until recently it had been working splendidly, but as time goes by, my collection has grown.  I'm finding myself cramming papers into corners, building stacks, and never actually re-filing anything where it should go!  It's driving my crazy!!!

So. . . in the spirit of cleanliness and sanity, I am changing my file folder system out for something a little more organized (at least for me).  My teammates are still using their file folders, and it's going great for them . . . just not so much for me.

Welcome to the abyss that was my paper pile.  Not pretty.

I started by purchasing binders from Walmart.  No fancy binders needed. I just grabbed the plain ole (cheap) white ones :)  I WILL give you a heads up by saying that it was a HUGE lifesaver for me to buy binders with the little holes cut out on the spine.  They were the cheaper option and helped when I slid in spine labels.

Then I went online and found the cutest editable binder covers by BlogHoppin'.  If you plan on making binders yourself, this was a SUPER easy template and made my life so much easier!!!

I made a binder for each of my CCSS standards.  Some people would be fine doing it by strand (just using a bigger binder), but I seriously would end up with yet another mess.  Besides, this way, I can pull the binder for whichever standard I'm working on and it's all set!!

I also made a label for the spines of the binders, just to make it super simple when I go to pull a standard, I can see it without having to fish around. 

Aren't they CUUTE!!

Inside each binder I've put card stock and tabbies I bought at Walmart (way cheaper than buying dividers).  As you know teachers, cutting corners for the sake of price is a must!  On my tabs I've put things that I MUST have organized.  My worksheets and things like that are staying in my file folders in my cabinet, but the binder is where I'll keep my Interactive Notebooks, Exit Slips, Assessments, and things like that.  If I ever want to add something, all I have to add is card stock! Simple as that!

I was really proud of the fact that my tabs match the cover of my notebook!!

I added the final touch by printing off my unpacking.  If you haven't been using your unpacking documents, they are VITAL to teaching and understanding your curriculum.  I printed myself a fresh copy and cut it all to pieces.  These went in the back sleeve of the binder, just as a quick reference for me, whenever I need it.

The final result is a MUCH neater, color coded (I chose to do each strand a different color), ORGANIZED way to keep my math materials all together!

Happy Organizing!!!

Ice, Snow, and Pinterest

So the south doesn't get a lot of snow.  When it does snow, it is a major event.  This time, instead of the pretty, nice, fluffy snow we were supposed to get, we got ice instead.

                     Just look at that cute little puppy

It may look like snow, but I promise. . . ice, sleet, and general nastiness.  Since it was too slippery for us to go out, we managed to get not only a snow day, but a snowday and a WORKDAY!!!  I mean a real, no meetings, no PD, full day to work in classrooms!!!!  It was glorious.  And dangerous.  When I have time off, it leads to Pinterest, which leads to ideas.  

I am right smack dab in the middle of resorting all of my files. I am planning to reorganize all my math files into binders by standard.  The goal is that this will help me to keep things together easier than my filing cabinet system.  I've downloaded tons of things from TPT and really need to have a place to put them!  I'm excited to see how this all turns out!!  I have about 15 projects I've started because of this snowpocalypse and can't wait to share the final results!!!