Writing Center Update

Here is a quickie post about the writing center in my classroom! Last year I posted about writing and my writing center here. This year, I have changed quite a few things this year! Check it out:

We work on writing (mostly) every day in my classroom. (I say mostly because, quite frankly, unplanned things happen on occasion!) My students have a writing folder that contains all of the things they are working on and some helper pages that I got from my Writer's Notebook Package. Some of the students' notebooks are kept in these cute magazine boxes from Target:

Other students keep them in their desks.

I actually recently added some new things to our writing center. Here is a whole center view!

On the wall, you will see work from some amazing authors!

My students use the writing center during Writing Workshop and Daily 5.

All of our writing paper and graphic organizers are kept on this best-$3-I-have-ever-spent shelves I got from a garage sale like 6 or 7 years ago.

The students also have access to some prompt pages that are changed often and some helper charts for spelling that are changed monthly.

LOVE LOVE this new caddy I got from Office Max! In it, we have colored pencils for revising and editing, slinkies for stretching out our words, vis-a-vis pens to use to fill in writing checklists, and erasers. There is also a stapler next to the caddy for students to use.

Paper clips, writing checklists, letter paper and envelopes, and list paper. Underneath (which I COMPLETELY neglected to take a picture of!!) are a few more prompt pages and vocabulary cards on rings.

Thanks for coming by! Enjoy your Sunday!

I Like Smart Choices!!

Like any teacher, I LOVE when my students make smart choices. I believe in rewarding students at random so they do not always expect a reward for doing something they probably should be doing anyway. I have always given out random rewards (like pencils, pens, treats, special privileges, etc.). I decided to make it a little more formal and create a "SMART Choice" bucket.

(With frogs, of course!) The container is not very big at all (you probably can't tell from the picture); it's only about 7 inches tall.

Right now I only have what is left over from the treasure box I used for the Summer Technology Camp I taught in back in June. I plan on hitting up The Dollar Tree, Target, and Wal-Mart to restock with items such as pencils, erasers, pens, stickers, and small toys in order to keep it simple.

I am going to implement Beth Newingham's classroom economy system for my homeroom class, so the SMART Choice bucket will be a little added bonus. My other 2 classes will only use the SMART Choice bucket.


You can download my label, plus 9 others below!:




July 4, 2013: I have updated the freebie so it now includes 22 labels!!

Enjoy!!!

Where Did July Go?!?

Grad School is k-i-c-k-i-n-g my butt right now and I have FINALLY been granted access to my classroom. This equates to one busy week!! My room is still a work in progress but I have a sneak peek for you! I probably won't be able to post again until after life winds down a bit. :/

P.S. I have enjoyed looking at all of your pictures! I love to see other people's classrooms!!

View from the door

Here it is!

 

I'm going with tables this year--VERY excited about it.

One of two new nooks :D

Nook 2!!

Still have a little ways to go but I am very pleased with the progress. I'll update as soon as I can :D

Organization Week: Day 2

I actually don't have literacy centers since I just teach math and social studies. However, I do happen to have some pictures of my math center. I took these a few months ago. They have since been updated. I'll have to take some pictures this week and update it for you!

I have 4 student computers in my classroom that take up a pretty big amount of my space. I had to improvise to find a location for my math center. This is my solution! It's a wall on wheels. Again, this picture is not updated. This is what it looked like in the early stages. I have since applied cute little labels and rearranged.

Here are some of my math baggie games (in the drawers) and folder games. The blue bin of folder games is brand spankin' new, so I haven't made a label yet.

Hope you enjoyed! I can't wait to see your centers!

-Productive, while wasting time :D

Organization Week: Day 1

Mrs. Patton is having a week-long linky party on organization! I'm actually not part of the party, but will post anyway. :)

Organization is one thing that I am VERY passionate about!! I am still working on being 100% organized at school. I'm about 85% there. (I did mention how OCD I am, right??) It would be SO much easier if teaching didn't get in the way ;)

I just so happened to take a picture of my daily materials crate on Friday, so here it is:

This is where I keep all of the worksheets & materials for each day's lesson. I have a folder for each subject for every day of the week. (You can pretty much tell how it is organized from the picture.) This works VERY well for me! It also makes it very easy for a sub to find.

I can't wait to see what everyone else posts! Long live organization!!!!!


....yes, I am a nerd.



-Super happy and relaxed

Gosh, I Love Target

My students use individual white boards fairly often during my math lessons. It's always a pain to pass out a tissue (for erasing purposes) to each student, each class period (not to mention a waste of tissue!). I know I'm not the first to come up with this idea, but while on my weekly Target run (borderline addiction) I had an idea! I've been wanting a classroom set of cute little fabric squares (with frogs, of course!). It hit me when I got to the bathroom decor section--why not use wash rags, which come in fun prints and colors?!? So that's what I did:

(Please excuse my poor quality iPhone photo)

I bought 24 wash rags, more than enough! I splurged on the middle set--I figured I could have at least one super cute set of wash rags :) The green and blue sets were $2 each! I used them for my after-school tutoring group today. The kids were very excited to break them in for me. Money well spent. :D