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One Lovely Blog Award and More Pics

Beth Ann from Taming My Flock of Firsties gave me this lovely blog award.  Go check out her blog!  She is awesome!  See the rules for the award below. 

The rules:

1. Link back to the blogger who gave it to you.

2. Pass the award on to 15 other lovely bloggers.

3. Follow the person who sent it to you. :)

Here are the lovely blogs I have chosen:

Marvelous Multiagers

Mrs. Freshwater's Class

  Third Grade Rock Stars (couldn't find the button)    Primary Perspective (couldn't find the button)  

Congratulations to all the lovely winners!

Now for more classroom pictures!!

 

Mystery Walker

I bought this poster and the mystery walker bands from Really Good Stuff (I think).  Anyway, the line leader gets one mystery walker band and gets to monitor the rest of the students.  It is the line leader's job to give the band to the best walking student that has their hands lock-it or pocket and a bubble in their mouth.  

 Bathroom Monitor Log

I apologize for it being sideways.  I was trying to cut off the names.  My kids get to use the restroom once before lunch and once after.  They just have to check off when they've gone.  It's on a clipboard right by the door. 

 Inquiry Reflection Journals and Learner Profile Books (see more about what these are in this post

 PYP Learner Profile and Attitude Board

 A whole view of the door area from the middle of the classroom.  The green wall with the brain and the lightbulb in the hallway symbolizes 3rd grade.  In my earlier post I mentioned that green is 3rd grade's color.  As you walk throughout our building, you will come to identical parts in the hallway that look like that, but they are different colors for each grade level.  So-1st grade is red, there is a red head with a brain thing like that in their section of the hallway. 

 HEROES Chart

HEROES is an acronym that stands for Honest, Eager, Responsible, Outstanding, Excellent, Students.  It is a school-wide program that our school uses to promote doing homework.  Every quarter, our school takes a field trip somewhere: movie theater, pool, bowling alley, etc.  Students may not miss more than 9 assignments in a quarter in order to attend.  We are required to put up a poster to keep track of homework.  This is mine.  It is hanging on the door to my closet.  See below to see what my closet is used for. 

 Book Bag Closet

I bought 3m hooks on sale at Target at the beginning of the year.  The green plastic tubs were on clearance after the move-in college sales in August.  Students put their book bags in the green tubs and their coats on the hooks.  One of my student jobs is to keep this area neat.  The grey cabinet on the left is something my principal was giving away.  I keep my DRA testing kit, art supplies, and other various teacher supplies in it!

 Inside the grey cabinet.....

 The view of my classroom from inside the closet...

Every classroom in our school has a Smart Board.  That ugly, humongous black cart next to it holds my laptop, ELMO thingy, and other wires.  You can also see my CAFE board on the left and other posters/white board on the right. 

 To the right of the book bag closet on the back wall of the classroom is my reading table (kidney table) and the sink and more storage behind it. 

 Things on my reading table.  The pile is my reading binder, reading group material, book study packets.  Note cards for problem words or sight word practice.  A timer for AIMS web progress monitoring, fluency practice, and running records.  Then my dollar pencil organizer from Target - sticky notes, sharpies, pens, highlighters, line highlighters for reading, etc.

 This is kind of behind my reading table.  See the book bag closet again.  You also see my classroom phone which is used to keep contact with the office or call parents.  Then my massive pile of books I have checked out from our Literacy Library for reading groups. 

Bulletin Board directly behind reading group table. 
You'll notice almost every bulletin board is on cupcake fabric.  *yay for my cupcake theme*  On this bulletin board I have:

• Calendar
• Birthday board
• School Rules
• Debug Poster
• PBIS Matrix for school wide behavior
• RESPECT bingo chart 
• Amanda from One Extra Degree's Job Chart - Kids Hard At Work {source}

On the counter are my homework trays.  Left tray=loose leaf paper.  Right tray=homework tray.  The pile in front? = No name Pile.  You'll see the loose leaf is being held down by a basketball man trophy.  My class currently has this for being the most behave 3-5 classroom for the month of Feb.  I also store Clorox wipes (my desk cleaner uses them everyday), Kleenex, Ziploc Bags, and the sink off to the right.

I didn't take pictures of what's in my cabinets.  But the two pull out drawers are stuffed with materials, letters, various things to put on bulletin boards.  The cabinets below the drawers are where I store my board games, indoor recess materials.  

 My Schedule.  It's on the door to the cabinet that you'll see in the next picture.  Our school has the following specials:

• Art 
• Music
• P.E.
• Mandarin Chinese

All four of the 3rd grade classes are split into four groups: A, B, C, D.  Each group goes to a different special each day.  It is a really good way for students to hang out with students from other classes. 

Inside my closet to the right of the sink. 

• Hangers for my coat
• Green teaching bag (Gretchen Courtney supplies)
• Extra notebooks (underneath green bag)
• Books on CD (for listen to reading)
• All my Good Habits Great Readers Curriculum: Guided Reading Group Lessons/Books, Shared Reading Curriculum and Books, Making Meaning Curriculum
• Lucy Caulkins Writing Curriculum
• Letter Tiles
• Cookie Sheets
• Markers
• Thin sentence strip white board thingies from Target
• Pocket Charts
• All other literacy manipulatives
• Group Creator Sticks (sticks that students pick when I need to randomly put them in groups)

 The doors to the aforementioned closet.  See my classroom rules on the right. 

 A brief look at my desk area.  More on this to come later! 

For now, it is time for me to go to bed and prepare for a 7:45a.m. staff meeting tomorrow!  Good Night blog world. 

Permimssion to Pin

If you find an idea you like on my blog you have my permission to Pin It. Read more about the terms of use for pinning and Pinterest here Happy Pinning from my blog to YOU!

*More pictures of my classroom coming this weekend.

Bulletin Boards and Class Tour Pt. 1

 Outside my classroom - looking down the hall.  The green represents 3rd grade.  It's our color.

 Amy Lemons Black History Month

The above bulletin board was created by my student teacher and I.  The resources and ideas come from Amy Lemons.  We have it up for Black History Month.  We read George Washington Carver: Peanut Wizard during shared reading.  After talking about George Washington Carver for a week, the students wrote biographies about him (peanut men).  The peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are How To's.  On the peanuts we wrote titles that GWC had: teacher, inventor, etc.  There are also a few peanuts that have quotes from GWC.  My staff has given us so many compliments ~ so thanks Amy!

 Source - Pinspiration

 This was pinspired.  We changed it a little bit.  Our school is an IB School and we have corresponding Learner attitudes and profiles that we incorporate into daily routine.  The attitudes I wrote on the snowflakes: tolerance, responsibility, etc.

The snowmen (see below) have the learner profiles: risk-taker, knowledgeable, thinker, etc.   

 I used this bulletin board for Kindergarten registration and visiting families to our school.

Part of becoming an IB school means that we need to take our curriculum and from it develop 6 transdisciplinary themes over the next 3 years.  So we have a social studies unit that we teach in government.  We took that unit and per IB made it more inquiry based, etc.  Our students this week have been researching different types of governments around the world.  These are the posters they made and used during their presentations.

 Door to my classroom:  CAUTION!!  THIS ROOM HAS BEEN "LIVED IN" FOR 5 MONTHS NOW.  IT IS NOT CLEAN.  DON'T JUDGE.

 View of my classroom from the door.  My students are in groups - for the most part.  I have two big groups of 7 (one here to your immediate right and the other one across the room).  Then I have a small group of 3 in the middle.  My student teacher likes to have those little darlings close to her.  Then (you can't see them now) there are two students who get to sit off by themselves.  I have 19 kiddos. 

Lunch Count Spot

Magnetic Bathroom Passes are from Beyond the Blackboard in Colorado.  The magnetic pockets are from Lake Shore Learning.  The star sticks inside of them are from Beyond the Blackboard.  Anyway, each student has a stick and a pocket.  If they would like hot lunch, they move their stick out of their pocket into the boys or girls pocket down at the bottom.  I have a lunch counter job that does lunch count for me.  

Inquiry Center

So like I said earlier, we are an IB school.  All those attitudes and learner profiles are on the bulletin board.  We refer to them all of the time.  The trifold is for students to put stickies on if they ever want to inquire anything.  The wicker basket has the books that we receive to teach the learner profiles.  For example this month's learner profile is Risk-Taker.  We read Jackie Robinson-Testing the Ice.  The books is about Jackie's father who couldn't swim...and well I won't spoil it, but we talk about how the characters were risk takers.  Then in the beautiful green basket from Target - I ended up using it for the PYP reflection journals.  After we read Jackie Robinson and talked about how the characters were risk-takers, then the students had a journal prompt about how they could be risk-takers in their own lives.  We reflect about the learner attitudes and profiles every month.  The students take this reflection journal with them throughout the course of their time with us.  In fifth grade-they have a pretty cool journal.  

I will put up the rest of the pictures tomorrow.  It is now bed time.  Good night blogging world.

Update

Classroom News

I finished my  bulletin board based on Amy Lemon's Black History Month Packet  I will very soon be posting pictures of the bulletin board, the use I found for my lime green container, and the tour of my classroom.

Silly Question

So when you leave a comment on someone else's blog....

I see teacher's leave a link to their blog below their name.  How do you do that? Hopefully that question makes sense.  I type my name and e-mail but I don't know how to add the link.  Any help would be appreciated.