Current Favorites

I've seen a lot of "five favorites" posts lately and I thought I'd join in on the fun!  Here are five of my current favorite things, plus one that I'm not super fond of!

Five: Healthy Choices

I am trying to make healthier choices and I can notice the difference it's making.  I started a vitamin routine with supplements and feel less tired in the morning.  I switched to an organic, coconut oil based shampoo and conditioner and my hair feels softer.  I started doing a coconut oil mask weekly on my hair and using coconut oil on my cuticles and those fine lines that are starting to appear around my eyes.  I'm watching portion sizes and starting my day with a glass of water with lemon.  I picked up a pretty glass water bottle (BPA free) to carry with me to motivate me to drink more water throughout the day.  I'm trying to cut back on soda and ensure that I have a glass of water before I have soda to quench my thirst.  Plus then I won't gulp my soda and can savor it.  We are doing more meal planning and eating at home, which is better for our budget and our waist lines.  Don't worry, we've still got cheat meals planned too!

Of all my healthy choices, I think what I'm most excited about is my water pitcher.  I found one similar to this at Marshalls:

It's great! I cut up some fruit and my water has some natural flavoring in it.  The pitcher lasts for a day or two, which I learned the hard way.  I left  some lemons in there for three days and when I had a glass of water, I felt like I was biting into a lemon.  There was way too much flavoring.  B however thought it was great and had the rest for me.  Lesson learned, there's a time limit!

I've done lemons, lemons and raspberries, and strawberries.  I'm excited to try mint, blueberries, and pineapple.  Any other combinations you'd recommend?

Four: Patio Chairs

My momma is awesome.  When we were visiting her last weekend, she gave us two metal rocking chairs from her patio so we could have more furniture on ours.  She'd inherited them and they didn't quite match with her patio set, so we adopted them!  

B is going to re-spray paint them (a surprise he doesn't know yet!) and I'll be picking up some new cushions at Target later to make them feel like our own.  We eventually want to purchase a patio set where everything you know, matches but that's not high on our priority list right now.  We've got two lime green metal chairs, a small stone table, two folding chairs, one camping chair, and now the two rockers.  I'll be looking for a patio set when it's on sale, but we're living within our means (crazy concept) and it's just not a right now priority.  However, there is a pretty nice hammock on Amazon that I'll be purchasing next pay check because that's a necessity! 

It's ridiculously hot right now (more on that later) but I'm excited for the October through March periods when we can comfortably turn off the AC and sit outside for an extended period of time.

Three: Craft Time

I've somehow managed to lose another glue gun, but I'm still loving craft time!  A few years ago, I made a crayon V for my classroom while binge watching Gilmore Girls one afternoon:

And decided to make a crayon wreath to go with it!  Read more about the process {here}.

I love craft time!  I'll be adding a black and white polka dot ribbon to hang this up in my classroom.  The "dream big" sign is at Target in the dollar spot (although it's $3).  I used a wreath frame, a jumbo box of crayons, and a hot glue gun to assemble this.  Total time? Maybe an hour (after I'd organized the crayons into the pattern I liked).

Two: Being Organized

Last year I really struggled with being organized.  Between moving both homes and schools, I never really fully unpacked.  As a result, I felt disorganized and it was frustrating.  I also lost my planner more than once, so I had to start over.

I vowed this year would be different.  I ordered a teacher planner off Amazon (for the first time in my teaching career) and already mapped out a rough sketch of my long range plans for the year.  I feel ready to start next year organized and prepared, which is a lovely feeling.

I also realized my Jamicure totally matches my planner....oops!  

But hey, I know what I like!

One: Girl Time

Moving to a new school means making lots of new friends.  With teachers, this also often means figuring out the cliques and who really wants to be friends outside of work and who is just there to be friendly.

I've been fortunate enough to find some really great gal pals at work and met up with them for weekly Starbucks dates over the summer.  As an added bonus, two of them have newborns that I get to snuggle with!  

I've also had lunch adventures, some shopping time, and line dancing with my ladies.  It's nice to have girl time.  It keeps me sane!


Um...not acceptable: the heat.

We're having higher than normal temperatures in Nevada.  It's 114 outside today.  Thank goodness for air conditioning!


What are your favorite things?  

Simplicity, part 4 (ideas 11-13)

Continuing the new ideas, simplicity trend, here are three more ideas for next year.  I'm excited for small tweaks to make a huge, positive differences.

Idea 11: Beginning of the Year "I am" statement for writing notebooks

This would be such a cute first page in their writing notebooks.  It'd be great for students to see themselves as multidimensional people and an easy way for them to get to know each other!

Idea Twelve: Clothespin revival

I've tried the push pin strategy with clothes pins, but I like this one for more permanent places:

Since I moved recently, I seem to have a plethora of extra command strips!  I could easily decorate the clothespins to match my classroom colors (once I you know, determine those).  Thanks Fifth in the Middle for the idea!

Idea Thirteen: Morning Memes

 To be fair, this isn't entirely a new idea for next year.  Last February, I started doing a morning meme to add some positivity in the morning.  They were a great way to connect with students and reinforce various topics (rules, grammar, being nice, etc).  The memes would inspire my students to talk with one another and start our day on a positive note.

I've been pinning ideas to my Pinterest morning meme board, which you can follow here!

What new ideas are you excited to try?

Small Groups

Small group reading is my favorite part of my day because I love watching my young scholars get so excited about their novels!

I really like researching about new strategies and trying them with my small groups.  This week we used the stop and jot strategy with post-its:

I had my Number the Stars group focus in on the Nazi soldiers' midnight visit.  They recorded their thinking while reading and then used their recordings to guide their own discussions.

Homework:

I wish I had time to meet with them daily but I simply have too many groups to make that possible.  So we meet every 3 days and they have independent reading and homework in between:

I give them four or five questions to respond to and use evidence from the text to support their answers.  I love when they do such a great job with details!

They also are taking more ownership and creating charts about their novels:

Which we store in a magnetic bin at the front of the room.

I used a regular plastic bin and hot glued on magnets to make it work for my classroom.

I like how my students are so open to new ideas and strategies as well!  It's wonderful to keep learning together :)

Responder Cups

One of the things that drives me nuts as a teacher is hands raised to go to the bathroom.  Or when students just shout out an answer rather than raise their hands and wait to be called on. (That wait to be called on thing is rather tricky!)

So I use responder cups:

These are just plastic cups from any dollar store.  I purchased red, green, blue and yellow ones for my classroom.  They usually come in packs of a dozen but I could supply my whole class for under twenty bucks.  We have had to have many, many conversations about not poking holes in the cups or drawing on the cups, but it doesn't bother me enough to purchase more.  A set of cups will last a year or two (tops) but hopefully your students would be slightly more respectful of supplies.

We do have conversations about not playing with the cups during instruction and 99% of my students follow this norm.

The cups' primary use is for independent or group work.

Green: I'm good. I know what is expected of me and I am fine.

Yellow: I'm a little stuck and have some questions.

Red: I'm confused and need help immediately.

Blue: May I use the restroom?

We also use them to vote and respond in class.  Instead of shouting out answers, I can get a quick (and silent) response from the class.

We use them for A/B/C/D questions, true/false, agree/disagree, math operations and to vote on other class matters (lights on or off, choices for stations, etc).

To help my students, I have the color coded signs at the front of the room in case they forget:

My favorite function of the cups is the restroom issue, especially during independent writing or assessment time!  (Or when I'm conferencing with a student or progress monitoring)

I'll send one boy and one girl out at a time and when they come back, they pick another boy or girl to sign out and go to the restroom.  Students know to keep working until it's their turn and no one is wasting time with their (writing) hand up in the air asking to go.

I love how these responder cups help my classroom run smoothly :)  

(Well, as smooth as a fifth grade classroom can be!)

Well that's cute!

In a previous post about creating a display wall to showcase student work, I talked about a clothesline with painted, polka dot clothes pins.  

Then I found this:

I've revised my previous procrastination...err, craft time project!

I'm thinking about a thick, black & white polka dot ribbon with a rainbow colors of crayons :)  Pictures coming soon!

Upcycling for social studies

So I'm all for centers that give a fun twist on authentic, meaningful work.

My favorite new idea is taking an old "Guess Who?" game:

And upcycling it for social studies or book characters:

I think it'd be challenging for students but they'd love it!  I'd probably laminate the cards for durability but I think the few hours of teacher prep would be worth it.

Let's put the joy back in teaching :)

Elf on the Shelf, Classroom edition

Perhaps I'm a little behind on the times, but this was the first year I heard of the "Elf on the Shelf" phenomena.

I don't have children of my own yet, so I didn't see the point in purchasing one for myself.

However, after browsing pinterest, I kept seeing lots of ideas for a classroom adaptation.  Granted, there are blog posts like this that discourage the Elf, so you might need to treat it cautiously.  I'd set up the elf as a winter visitor without religious ties and send a note home to parents & families before hand to cover my self.

Fellow teachers at my school used it this year and said it was very helpful with management!

Here are some of my favorites:

I'd need my sign to say Winter Break, not Christmas break but still a cute idea

I could easily hide him/her in my bookshelves...

In this case, it'd need to say "I will be a good listener"

The elf could totally hang out with our school supplies...

Or take a nap with a tissue blanket!

Perhaps the elf could use technology to leave us  messages...

Creepy...but in a fun way.

I can definitely see the elf blogging!

This would be easy to duplicate!

We already have jenga boards that have been upcycled to be character questions or multiplication problems...

He/she could be reading our grade level read aloud...

Or be mischievious!

I'm a fan of these simple (no mess ones) as opposed to these ideas:

My classroom is messy enough. I don't need to create additional messy areas.

I think I may need to pick up my own elf for next year!  Of course, I'll wait until after Christmas when it's on sale :)

I'm still debating between the "traditional" elf (which apparently can be dressed up!) and this version:

We'll see what's on sale!  Good thing I've got a year to think about it!

Upcycling: Tissue Box

Craft stores have blank wood tissue box covers for around six bucks, so I picked one up for my classroom.

Using 2 large pieces of patterned scrapbook paper, I covered the box.  I glued on the paper, used modge podge and then packing tape for the top part.  I used the 12x12 paper, but 8.5x11 inch will work as well.

Here's our end result:

I think it's a fun addition to our classroom!  

I've also learned during several cold seasons to have a back up box underneath!

My rock

My school door stopper is awful.  Absolutely awful.

I'm pretty sure it's as old as me and isn't very effective at doing the job of holding the door, you know, open.

So I asked my boyfriend to bring me home a rock and spray paint it to serve as my new door stopper.  I saw another teacher do this at school and hers has cute neon stars...but I wasn't getting that creative on something I'd most likely be stubbing my toes on. 

So he's awesome and brought it to me one day at lunch since he was nearby for his job.

Our office manager adores him so she came and told me he'd brought me my present.

The kids were excited.  A little too excited, those silly gooses, since it's a rock.

I told my principal she missed him when he popped in to bring me a rock doorstopper.

All she heard was rock and grabbed my left hand, searching for an engagement ring.

I laughed since she is like a work mom with a one track mind (marry us ladies off).  I clarified rock door stop, not rock ring.  Way less exciting.

Besides, I'd be a little annoyed if he proposed at school, during lunch time, on a Thursday.  

Rain Gutters

When I first entered my classroom five years ago, the place was a disorganized mess. 

One of the few things I kept from the previous inhabitant was a rain gutter.

I reinstalled it underneath my smartboard to highlight books of interest:

These books aren't able to be checked out because we are using them in small groups or during independent reading time.

Here is our collection of alternative fairy tales, which we used in writing:

These books are AMAZING for teaching perspective and point of view.  I snagged them on Amazon and my students adore them!

Here are our Greek mythology books:

My students are absolutely loving this unit!

Classroom Updates

Our classroom is a work in progress.

Our word wall, for example, frequently gets new academic vocabulary words.

The words are color-coded by content area.  I also moved our interesting words anchor chart to the word wall.

Here is our affixes anchor chart:

We are currently working on syllables and short vowels which is why our chart isn't very detailed.

I will be making a Greek and Latin roots one this week since we keep referencing geo in science.

Here is a snapshot of our classroom behavior expectations:

Here is the list of classroom jobs, which I borrowed from my awesome neighbor.

She is so cute with her creative names!  I'm lucky to work with such amazing women (aka my sister wives).

Here are some of our attention getting signals:

I saw what is in black and they respond with the magenta response.  I like the options :)  It keeps me (and them) from being bored!

I also utilized the magnetic bookshelves:

To hold fluency scripts, reader's theater and timers :)

Here is a super cute gift from another coworker:

She knows my love of football and even though she's a Cowboys fan, she supports my devotion to the Arizona Cardinals.  That's teamwork for you :)

Here is one of our mapping sorts:

 I printed the center in 5 different colors for each of my table teams and laminated it for durability.  The large ziplock bag contains all of the smaller ziplock bags and centers.  I find this double bag system works best for my classroom management.

Here is another example, but of our syllable sort:

Here are our new dry erase markers:

Each student has his/her name printed on an address label.  The address label is then wrapped in clear packing tape for durability.

I upcycled an old tackle box

to hold our classroom supplies!  Sticky address labels have so many uses!

I also posted our classroom norms:

Again, wordle is a great resource!

We talked about landforms today in science

then created them!

I discovered this note on my board at the end of the day:

It's the little things that mean the most.