Sharing Sunday

Hey all,

Hope everyone is staying safe from TS Issac... I've been busy uploading files to TPT and TN since there's no school for me tomorrow.

Also, I wanted to share some of the things I have been doing in my classroom. Check it out:

The "Facebook Wall" is in full effect. I took a class picture and made an 8x10 for the profile pic. It worked perfect!

We have been changing our "status" about once a week. Right now, it's about addition. I've used it as an exit ticket. Each child had to write and solve a math fact. Hello, differentiated instruction!

Each child has writen their favorite books and added it to the "What are We Reading" Wall

We are Bubbly About Math Facts!
An idea I found on Pinterest. Each child decorated a gum ball machine and when they pass a math facts quiz, they get a "gum sticker," which is just a circle color-coding label with the number on it. I will be doing this for a long time, so easy to track and maintain.

The wall is great, very easy to change and no staples to remove. We did trees for the branches of goverment last week.

I hate throwing away crayons, so the kids have been trained that if we find crayons on the floor, they get sorted so we can still use them in the future. Love it!

Alright, that's all for right now. More to come soon...

Hint, Hint, SRA!

Technology for Parents

Hello again,

I'm overwhelmed with school starting, but I wanted to share with you all about an awesome site called PortaPortals. This site is basically a webpage that serves as a favorites list for your students. I put all of the good websites I recommend to parents here so they can access it and then their kids can do educational, entertaining things online at home or in school in the morning.

I've used it for three years now and have students that still access it to see what I've added to it.

Here's my site so you can get ideas. It's very plain, but the kids like that it's simple to use.

Enjoy!

Classroom Tour

Oh what a week! While I still have a ton of work to do to get ready for my students, I wanted to share what my room looks like at this very moment along with some Pinterest ideas that I either completed or altered to go along with my class this year.

Definitely a "Pinterest idea."
How the students go home! Just use close pins
so they are easy to add, or alter.

My classroom jobs laminated and magnetized on
my white board so I can just write names next to them.
This will be coming to TPT and TN soon ;

      

The whole school uses the behavior chart, but
I jazzed it up and use close pins so they move up or
down. Also, I add one more step: "Awesome Note
Home" which allows them to earn a note home and
a jewel for their clip. When the clip is full, they go to
my "Wall of Fame" and start a new one.

My writing wall! We use Write Reflections,
so the rainbow is key! Also, I made writing samples,
both ones that are "ideal" and ones that have very common mistakes that all my kids make, i.e. capitals, spacings, etc.

        

Another Pinterest idea, a mix of a bulletin paper
wall and then close pins to hold the student work.

My Boggle board! Yes, definitely a Pinterest favorite.
I actually used a auto oil pan ($12 @ Walmart) which
I spray painted to match my decor. I made the title and
instructions (they'll be on TPT and TN eventually). The
letters are hot-glued to magnet buttons so I can change them.

   

You've seen "Brownie Points," well here's "Like Points."
I made this myself and will put it on TPT and TN soon.
I post how the students earn "Likes" and display them
until the chart is full. When it's full, they get a "celebration!"

My focus wall. Can't wait to do this. I have
so many poster sets from TPT and TN that some awesome people make and I want them displayed when we are working on those skills!

A Pinterest idea; Objective Boards using
scrapbooking paper and dollar store frames.
I love this idea and it's easy and cheap!

Found the clock numbers on Pinterest and loved the striped and  owl theme.

My wall containing my schedule, objectives, subject minutes, and attendance boards.



The dreaded chalkboard is no more! I used colored cardstock
and magnetic letters to make a word wall.



This is how my room is set up for Open House. At our school,
parents usually bring in the school supplies at this time. I
use my empty bins and boxes so the parents and kids sort my
supplies for me. *Happy Teacher*

What my desk and area looks like now.

 

An awesome mom who does many of my bulletin boards did
this for me on request (yes I saw it on Pinterest).

My computer area with a lovely dotted table cloth.

Set up for Open House!

Each desk has a student info sheet, a welcome letter, a
volunteer form, and a magnet with my contact info.

My facebook bulletin board. Another pinterest idea that I couldn't
resist. This will probably be all you will see for a while, but I plan to
write a post on this later as I update it.

The focus wall, student books, centers, and treasure box (IKEA).

My reading centers; Miscellanous, Independent, Buddy Games, Writing,
and Reading (Not shown).

My BUILD Math centers.

Calnedar and reading corner. The white board is going to be used for
students (and myself) to write what we're reading and what we enjoyed. Also
I made the AWESOME seat crates that are all over Pinterest. Super easy and
SO cute!

They happen to match, but I used leftover fabric and a cut up mattress
pad. Home Depot cut the boards quickly, but I did get an odd look or two...
I love how this turned out to be a bench *Smiles*

The "What are we Reading..." Board. Only I've added to it so far, but
that will change very soon.

This was a last minute Pinterest idea. Take two cookie sheets (0.97 @
Walmart, who knew they were that cheap?), spray painted and signs/numbers.
Students move their number from "I'm Absent" to "I'm here" each morning
so you can see who's here. With specials first thing in the morning, this is
going to be a life saver.

 There it is, my classroom. It will change and it will get very messy and unorganized as the year goes, but I will say it's starting out better than previous years. I will get the files I mentioned out on TPT and TN ASAP, but don't expect them right away... School starts Tuesday and I am traveling to Orlando on Thursday night for a school function... oh the fun!

If you have any questions or comments, leave them, I would love to hear from you!

Classroom - the beginning

Hi all :-)

For those of you who start late... Boo...
For those of you who start early... Doesn't it suck?

Anyways, I always picture my classroom through the decorating phrase so here is it from day 1 to now.

This is how my room looked at I came in... And no, the basket isn't mine...

There were 9 tables and 20 desks in this tiny room... I got rid of 5 and added 6 desks, we have 25 kids on average.

I had over ten extra chairs as well... And yes, the chalkboard is gonna get covered up...

So plain...

My desk area... after moving the furniture and unpacking several bins

Desks set up for the time being but covered with materials... cubbies filled too

The front corner will be my reading corner and I'm gonna do a focus wall next to the backpack hooks and bookshelves.

The board is going to be used as my "facebook" board... have you all seen that? I can't wait to do it

Adding a burst of color for student work with my student work tables

Definitely more to come soon. I spent Saturday making files, spray painting, laminating, cutting, stapling, and gluing. Oh the joys of an obsessive teacher... it must be PRETTY.

1st Grade Review Math Menu

Here's the one I promised, a first grade review to use either at the end of 1st grade or the beginning of 2nd grade. I hope you all can use this, because I know I will be assigning it as homework for the first week.

You can buy it at Teacher's Notebook and at TeachersPayTeachers (whenever the updates are done).

Check it out and let me know if you have any requests or ideas to use with this.

Enjoy!

Math Menu - One done, so many possibilities

I'm on a roll, what can I say?

I just finished my first "math menu" and couldn't wait to share with you all. I still thinking of different ways to use this and I will be making one for the beginning of school so they can review what they learned in the previous year, but until I get that done, here's the first one = Money!

You can buy at TeachersPayTeachers or at Teacher's Notebook. I'm also open to ideas about topics to do this type of project with. Measurement? Shapes? Let me know what you think or would like...

Volunteers

Happy Tuesday!

This week is all about creating the remainder of the ALL of the things I've wanted to make this summer. I going to start making my "Homework Menus" for certain times of the year/topics... my goal is at least make one for Back to School since we will have a three day week then.

Here is one of the things I already made last night.

At my school, our parents have to complete 20 volunteer hours for each students, so any way I can help the parents and alleivate the stress is perfect. I orinigally saw this on a pinterest post and changed it to my liking as the options wouldn't work for my school.

You can purchase it as is here or here. If you would like different options, message me on either site, or here, and I'll alter it to your liking for no additional charge.

More to come soon!

Manipulative Task Cards and a Sale!

Hello all!

Just a quick update here. I have been been in training but made several files to share. All of the tri-folds that I planned on making are up on Teachers Pay Teachers. I believe there are 13 files including Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia and Henry and Mudge in the Sparkle Days.

Also, I finally created the task cards that I had talked about wanting to do with BUILD. After researching many that were either too low or too high or with manipulatives that I didn't have to begin with... I went ahead and created my own set. There are a total of 68 cards in the file (17 pages). I may do another set sometime during the school year or even break apart the sets into categories (i.e. money, patterns, etc.) if anyone is interested... let me know.

Patterns - The students make specific patterns using unifix cubes or shape blocks.

Length - The students measure objects using rulers or common school supplies.

Calculators - Students enter numbers in calculators to see what word they need to find.

Phones - Students use touch-tone phones (old cell phones) to complete mental math problems.

You can buy this file and my others at TeachersPayTeachers and Teacher's Notebook.

Also... ALERT, ALERT, ALERT!!!

I am having a 15% off sale at both TeachersPayTeacher and Teacher's Notebook from Saturday 7/21 through Tuesday 7/24 in honor of me going back to school (at least to unpack and bring in all my numerous boxes of teacher stuff). Enjoy and buy :-)

Fairy Tale Beginnings

Hello again,

I am back from vacation and while I won't bore you all or make you jealous, I will say the Alaskan Cruise was amazing :-)

I have been in class this week and working on things for this year during my time there.

While cutting out centers and going through books and samples, I have decided to do FAIRY TALES for the beginning of the school year in reading and writing (most likely the first two weeks).

The first day I want to introduce my students to myself by first doing my usual 'bag.' This activity is one that has been seen many times; you fill a bag (I use just a brown paper sack) with things that represent you. Usually I explain these things myself but this year, since I'm going up to 2nd grade, I am going to do it differently. I will only show the object and let them voice and discuss their inferences for why they think it would represent me.

After that, I wanna show them some pictures (gorgeous pictures) of Alaska and introduce some background knowledge on it. Seeing as I'm in Florida, it's safe to say 'all' my children have not see a place like this.

Then, drum roll please...



I will read this book, The Salmon Princess: An Alaskan Cinderella Story, which yes, is from Alaska.

This will begin our 'Fairy Tale Back-to-School' project.

I plan on using the following worksheets that can be found both on TN and TPT. Please check them out!
More  Fairy Tales to come soon...

Vacation

I'm sitting in the airport waiting for my flight to Seattle to go on an Alaskan Cruise ;-)

Maybe I can finish thinking about my reading centers and read some of my books I've already spoken about...

See you all in about 2 weeks!

TeachersPayTeachers versus Teacher's Notebook

Many people have asked me what is the difference between TeacherPayTeachers and Teacher's Notebook.
Or even; which is better?
Or; which makes me more money?

So here's the facts:

First off, I use both sites to sell and "buy" products. (I say "buy" because I have actually only paid for a few products otherwise I always get the free stuff.) I don't really prefer one over the other, but both have different qualities that I sometimes favor.

The Buyer Perspective:

TPT
-Easy search options
-Wide range of products (games, presentations, worksheets, forms, etc)
-Many different types of platforms (excel, word, powerpoint, PDF, etc.)
-Can search for "free" products
-Preview option on many products along with pictures
-Every seller must have at least one free product

TN
-Usually more colorful activities and games
-Wide range of products (games, presentations, worksheets, forms, etc)
-Many different types of platforms (excel, word, powerpoint, PDF, etc.)
-Can look at a whole "store"
-Pictures are required so you always see the product before you buy

The Seller Perspective:

TPT
-Can be a free member or a premium member ($59.95)
-As a free member, you can upload as many products as you want, but there are fees taken out for each product, i.e. Transaction fee: $0.30 and TPT commission: 40% of price marked (For a $1.00 product I make $0.30)
-As a premium member, you can upload as many products as you want and make 85% of your listed price
-You get paid in quarters (every three months) to Paypal
-Must upload a free product first

TN
-Pay $19.95 for a store and you are set to go
-Unlimited postings
-You get paid as soon as the transaction goes through and you get 100% of your listed price (- a paypal fee) (For a $1.75 product, I made $1.50)
-You must include pictures for all products

I have used TPT for three years now and TN for just about two months.

I am still learning on TN, but am liking what I do with it. However I am having issues with adding worksheets and files because I cannot make a picture easily on my computer. I will need to learn more about that so I can have the same products on both sites.

Yes, I do not make thousands of dollars on TPT, but the products I put on there are things I already make so I don't do anything extra apart from uploading them to the site and then they are there forever to be brought by others. It is little fund that I refuse to touch... except when I brought my TN store.

As I've said, I am here to help others so if you have questions, please comment and I will answer.

Build - Math Centers

Normally, I won't be updating this often, but I ended up finding the perfect bins for BUILD today and had to share.



In case you have no idea about BUILD, check out Adventures in Teaching

I actually found out about it from Pinterest (of course) and was immediately attracted to having my math centers set up the way they describe. If you know about Daily 5, it runs similar with there being five set centers that can be altered throughout year.

Here's the sum-up:
B is Buddy Games - I plan to use all those awesome math games I find on blogs, TPT, and TN with this particular center.

U is Using Manipulatives - Tens and Ones, Dominos, Shape/Pattern Blocks, Flashcards, Counters, Calculators, Unifix Cubes, etc. But I want to create task cards for these so my kiddos don't just "build" objects with no purpose.

I is Independent Work - Worksheets, Workbooks, Folders for different math unit, i.e. money, measurement, addition, subtractions, etc.

L is Learning About Numbers - Books, I found a blog on Pinterest that lists math books by topic  (SCORE, Math Books Galore!) Most books are from $3.99 - $7.99 on Amazon. I got to see Stuart Murphy at the IRA conference and would recommend getting any of his books. He has over 60 math books in his "Math Start" series. I'm trying to collect them all. Check out his books here.

D is Doing Math - This is kind of that miscellanious center that you can do anything with. If you have extra games or activities you want them to do, they can do it here. Also, this can be a teacher led center or even just a "pop-in" center where we check in with them throughout the time.

I found these buckets at Dollar Tree and the labels at Sunny Days in Second Grade. Just alter your print settings to make them smaller to fit on whatever boxes you want to use. This is one of those things I can't wait to start next year.