playing catch up

So... it's almost Friday and lemme tell you... the weekend CAN NOT come fast enough!! It's been an insane week!! Whew. So all of this blogging I told myself I was going to do obviously hasn't happened. Although, this is my second post in a week. Be proud. :)

Topics to cover:
1. Guided reading stations: At our school we do a mixture of Jan Richardson's Guide to Guided Reading and the Daily 5. Since we are pressured to up our testing scores I am requiring my kids to read 40 straight each day to build their stamina for the EOG. I have made my rotations so that each group will meet with me, the reading specialist, go to a station, and then read silently for 40 minutes. We do one station a day. It will either be listening center, computer station (my kids are going to be blogging!! Go to kidsblog.org), buddy reading, or word work. To transition my kids to their next activity, I have a powerpoint set up with all of the group names and their assignment for their rotation. The powerpoint is set to chime and change every 20 minutes. When the students hear the chime, they move on to their next activity. It works well because it also keeps me on track with time.

2. Work work activities: I found some really awesome word work games last year on ProTeacher that works a lot with parts of speech. Go here to find them. They all come with cards and game boards as well as a set of instructions so you don't have to do any of that stuff!! Also, since science is such a big focus in fifth grade, we do a lot of science vocabulary games like concentration or guess my word during word work as well.

3. Math materials for small group instruction: I'm not really sure what to do here... I was hoping someone could help a sista out in this area. I have a lot of math manipulatives in my classroom, I'm lucky to be working at a school that sees a need and the need is met! I always have my math materials easily accessible for the kids and they can use them anytime as long as they are problem solving!

On a side note... setting a date for the wedding is stressful.

Have a FABULOUS FRIDAY!!!

good news in a quick post...

So... what was the most exciting thing that happened to you this weekend?? I'll go first! I got engaged!!!! That's right, my precious boyfriend FINALLY popped the question! I said yes, of course :) I will for sure post pics and stories later! This blog may take a drastic turn from all about teaching stuff to all about wedding stuff here soon! Soooo excited!

On to my challenge: favorite management tool. My favorite management tool would have to be the clip chart that is pictured below in the classroom pics post. It's so easy and effective. I have found that on the days that I really try to catch kids doing the right thing, everyone else catches on and I suddenly have a class with no behavior issues!! It's wonderful! I know everyone does it differently, but in my class if you get on parent contact OR on outstanding, it is written in the student's planner so I can keep a record of it. If they get to outstanding, they get a sticker on their clip and a piece of candy. Once they have 5 stickers on their clip, they get a fishbowl coupon and their clip gets put into the "hall of fame." If they get above outstanding one day, I will wear their clip on my shirt or lanyard. Since pretty much our whole school has adopted this system, it's easy to compliment the students who are doing a great job when you see their teacher with his/her clips on them. What is your favorite management tool??

procrastinators...

unite tomorrow!! Seriously, school takes over my life. It should be an episode on MTV's True Life. Mine would be entitled True Life: teacher has no life outside of school! I NEED AN INTERVENTION!! Or maybe a vacation... oh wait, I'm going on vacation TOMORROW!! Don't be jealous :) On the flip side though, I had to make sub plans and I HATE making them! What do you do for sub plans? Emergency sub plans? I need ideas. Help a sista out.

Since I've been a bad blogger due to my obsession with my job, I've decided to challenge myself. Next week (since I'll be on vaca the rest of this week) I'm going to try to post everyday. I would LOVE it if you would challenge yourself as well, because I love reading what you guys write! Here is how the schedule looks if you want to join in:

Monday... What is your favorite management tool?
Tuesday... How do you run your stations during guided reading?
Wednesday... What kind of word work activities do you use?
Thursday... What tools do you use for math small group instruction?
Friday... What do you get excited about while in the classroom? Is it a subject you teach? Activity your kids love? etc.

We shall see how that goes! Keep me in line people, make me do it!!

One last thing, you won't even believe it... my very tiny blog got an award!!! YAY!! I'm sooo excited! Lindsay from My Life as a Fifth Grade Teacher. Her blog is FABULOUS!! Thank you so much :)

Which brings me to my last question: how do you make a button for your blog?? Please and thank you... have a great and restful weekend! :)

LOTS of classroom pics!

So, as promised... here are lots of classroom pictures from this year. I decided not to do a theme this year because I have found sooo many cute things on Pinterest that I wanted to do, none of which were connected enough to create a them. So the theme is just pinteresty cute things :) Enjoy!

The first couple of days of school, my class came up with a list of things we DID do instead of the normal do NOT list. Every kid signed the poster to show they would do these things. This was completely done by the kids and I was so impressed with some of the things they came up with.


This is a really bad picture of my oh so cute reading center. I will get a better picture, because this doesn't do it justice!


Here are my math and science boards. In my room, I virtually have NO wall space for anchor charts or anything else, so I'm going to try using these boards this year for my anchor charts and other things we do throughout the year in math and science.


Computer table with a cutesy skirt around it so I can hide junk under it.... tricky tricky!


Of course I have my Essential 55 posted!! Love me some Ron Clark! :)


Here is my CAFE board. I'm going to hang the strategies on the ribbon.


Behavior clip chart.


These are above my whiteboard. All of the EOG terms will go up here once they are discussed.


I totally stole this idea from my cooperating teacher when I was student teaching. I say "super focus" and the kids look at me with wide eyes. I tell that if they are super focused, nothing can take away their concentration. They LOVE it!!!


I have all of my word wall words for math and science on these nice flippable (yes it's a word in my world) poster format. I love not having to change the words each unit!


Another idea I stole from my cooperating teacher is fishbowl coupons. There are tickets inside with "prizes" on them. The kids love this too! :)


This is the check in area. All homework and papers are turned in in the labeled folders stapled on the board. Also, my calendar is a framed piece of scrapbook paper that is changed with dry erase marker. Saves a ton of room!


Each day, I pick a boy helper and a girl helper. I made this sign on vistaprint and glued cut off sheet protectors on the sign so the helpers can be easily changed out. I write the daily jobs on the index card beside the names as a reminder.


Lunch count and lunch tags.


Writing board. With their clips (not shown in this picture), students move the clip to where they are in the writing process. This also helps me know who I need to conference with.


Another stolen idea (I'm starting to see a trend) from my cooperating teacher is "mystery envelope." Each time the whole class does something good, they get a letter of envelope. Once the word is spelled out, the class gets to draw out of the envelope to get a treat.


I always tell my students to dream big (from Ron Clark), this is just my reminder to them that stays above the Smart Board.

My version of the bored board found on pinterest.


Pledge of Success is said every morning after the pledge to the flag. This was stolen again from my cooperating teacher, but it's origin was a Sports Illustrated magazine. Sign from vistaprint


Drawers with laminated scrapbook dry erase labels.


Labeled math manipulatives.


All of the math manipulatives.


My desk organizer.


Easel for guided reading made with a framed piece of scrapbook paper.


My picture board and spray painted cookie sheet for notes and pictures.


And last but not least... my dirty little secret!! Looks like a map to me...


But, really it hides all my junk from the world. I know, I know, I'm sneaky!! :)

That's all of my classroom! If you have any questions about anything, please ask! I will be going into more detail about some of my organization tips later this week. Have a fabulous four day week!! :)

so... school's started back

Can you tell??? I haven't had time to breathe, much less blog! I LOVE LOVE LOVE my class this year! I have such sweet and well behaved children. :) There aren't any HILARIOUS stories to share yet, just everyday giggles. Although, a spider did go down my dress the other day on the playground. But, no worries, I shook it out without showing anyone my goodies. I may have flipped out for a moment, but all in all it was ok.

I've been much more organized and on top of things so far this year. Of course, it couldn't have gotten much worse from last year! I have several "tools" for organization that has helped me out this year, which I want to share. Knowing the curriculum and how things work sure does make a big difference! I have made a TON of notebooks over the summer and the first few weeks. Notebooks are my BFF in the classroom. They just make life so much easier!! So... in the next few posts (coming this weekend) you will see:

1. Classroom pictures
2. Organization tools
3. Teaching the scientific method ideas

Hopefully, you'll come back to enjoy those posts. But, since it's First Friday and I'm a die hard Clemson fan.... I'll leave you with a GGOOOOOOOOOOOOO TIGERS!!! :) Have a happy long weekend!

i have a sickness

Wednesday was the first day I could get into my classroom... and I forgot my camera :(
My goal was to get all of my furniture in place and focus on organizing and decorating next week. I didn't want to spend all day at school since it was my "official" last day of summer. But since I've been in my classroom, all I want to do is go back and organize and decorate. I must have a sickness!! I mean, who wants summer to end?? My project for this weekend is to work on my bucket seats for my guided reading tables. This picture from Pinterest is what inspired me:


I will post pictures when I'm done and I will most definitely take pictures of my classroom and post them next week.

Ron Clark

Kasey (BFF from post below), my sissy, Leslie (college friend and hopeful co-worker), my precious niece Kyla, and myself went to the Barnes and Noble in Greensboro to see Ron Clark and have him sign our books! He is such an inspiration each time I see him... he's my hero!! :) Here are some pictures from the night:

He insisted on holding Kyla's bear... she didn't mind.
We even got to get on the tour bus!! :)
Proof that we were on the bus!

Turning Kyla into a "Ron" fan. They were on a first name basis by the end of the night!

All in all... a great night!!

crafting with the BFF

I'm staying the night with my best friend who just so happens to be a first grade teacher and super-de-duper creative. So, as we were pinning a couple of weeks ago we saw these teacher gifts where someone had taken a wooden letter and hot glued crayons onto it. It was really cute so of course we had to make one! I made mine tonight while she was working on something else for her classroom. Here's the final product:

ikea

Some of my teacher friends went to Ikea on Monday to do some school shopping. I got lots of goodies that I can't wait to get in my classroom. I will post pictures of all of them later when they are actually in my classroom and not still in the package. A few things that I got that SUPER stoked about is a Lazy Susan. I'm thinking of something like a wheel game OR something like this that I found on Teacher Tipster. Some of my other treasures include a floor lamp, some fake plants (so I'll have them live longer than a week), a spotlight for a "spotlight" on writing or behavior, a holder for files, and some frames for my CAFE board.
Here are the frames that I bought:

I am thinking of really cute CAFE pages and then attaching some ribbon to the bottom so that I can put up the strategies as I go. Cute?? I think so! I'm excited.

End of Molasses Classes

If you haven't heard, Ron Clark has a new book out. It's called The End of Molasses Classes. I've started reading it and it is FABULOUS!! I highly recommend it! Of course, anything this man writes or says you should do if you're a teacher because he is A-MAZE-ING!! seriously. Go buy it if you haven't already!!
I found out today that he is doing a book signing in Greensboro at the Barnes and Noble near Friendly Center this Thursday! I'm so there!! :)

read canvas

My most favorite summer project has definitely been my read canvas. One of my very first pins on Pinterest was this picture:
It was so simple, yet I thought it made such a statement. So, I got a canvas and some Christmas lights and went to town on making this baby:

All I did was paint the word "read" onto the canvas in a gray color, then I took an ink pen and poked holes in it from the back. I stuck the Christmas lights in and hot glued them to make sure they would stay. Easy as pie!!

I can't wait to get this in my classroom! :)

lanterns

So, as stated in previous post... I'm addicted to finding things to fill up my summer break, which has included crafting thanks to Pinterest. I decided that I wanted some cute lanterns to hang in my classroom this year, but I didn't want to pay a lot of money for them, so I found a couple of blogs telling how to make cute lanterns for cheap. And, that's what I did!

I found some plain jane white lanterns at The Christmas Tree Shops, I think they ended up being 89 cents and it came with a little light already in it! Sweet! After that, I went to my tissue paper pile (I hoard this stuff like nobody's business) and grabbed a few colors I liked.

Next, I traced a candle onto the tissue paper and used this as my stencil.Then, ever so perfectly... I folded the tissue paper so that I would have several creases that I could draw half moons on, like this: After that, it's time to fold the stencil you made earlier in half and trace the half moons onto the tissue paper.Once you cut out all of the half moons, you will have several full circles and a few half circles, but don't throw away your half circles. Instead, use those to "line" the top of your lantern. Then, it's easy peasy from there. Whip out your hot glue gun and get busy gluing those circles on until you have your lantern filled up. Then your final product will look something like this:


Now, wasn't that easy! I made three cutsie lanterns for less than $3.00!! :)

addiction

So... I've recently discovered Pinterest and it has been both my BFF and my enemy this summer! I am CONSTANTLY on there!! I mean, it's ridiculous how much time I waste on this website... but I can't stop. Hi, I'm Ashley and I'm a Pinterestaholic. I need help. The new addition to my life has made me want to do all sorts of little projects throughout the summer for my classroom, my house (or my mom's... whatev). So, just in case you and Pinterest haven't become BFFs, let me introduce you. :) Pin with caution. Side effects include... addiction, time away from your family and friends, extreme creativity, and an obscene amount of money spent at Hobby Lobby.

Here are some of my Pinterest faves from the summer:

I can not wait to get back to school and make this! Organization... here I come!!


This is what I used to organize my millions of math folder games. I am going to use the little cup at the front for dice and chips and other needed materials. I'll post pics when it's in the classroom for you to get a better idea.

This is one that I haven't made yet. I went to Ikea today in search for the perfect guided reading stools for my table, but it was a no go. So, I found these on Pinterest and they seem pretty simple to make!
ANDDD.... just because I'm hungry: here are some food items that I've found! :)

These are biscuits made with 7-Up. I know... it's true though and they are DELICIOUS!!! You must try it!

Can't wait for Christmas to make these!


If you want to links to these all the other creations I've found... check it out here

Happy pinning! :)