Home Away from Home!

I don't know about you but my classroom is my home.  Most weeks I spend more time there than I do at my own home.  Here are some pictures of my "home away from home".

My word wall and book boxes.

Computers and some books. The green chair next to the book case is the Question Chair.  During small group time if students have a question they sit in the Question Chair and wait patiently until I can answer their question.

My small group area. In the right hand corner you can see part of my classroom library.

This is my reading corner.  As you can see not all of my books are here...

Here is my corner.  I opted not to have a desk, instead I have a long rectangular table. It gives me so much more room.  The letter trays that you see front and center are where students keep their writing folders and math journals.

Circle Area.

Math Independent Time Buckets.

What your favorite part of your "Home Away From Home"?

Towers Game

This week we have been working on counting to answer how many (common core standard K.CC.4).  They have been loving all the fun counting games.  Here is their favorite so far. (Even before they got to play the game they were asking if I was going to add it to the math partner games)  It is called the Towers Game.  You need a game board, a die, linking cubes and a partner.  Partner 1 rolls the dice and builds a tower that many cubes high.  Then they place it on the correct number. Partner 2 then rolls the dice and builds a tower that many cubes high.  He also places it on the correct number on the game board.  The game is over when all the spaces are filled.

You can get a free copy of the game here.

Read for the Record-Oct. 3

This year the Read for the Record book is Otis by Loren Long.  In the story Otis is a special tractor. He loves his farmer and he loves to work. And he loves the little calf in the next stall, whom he purrs to sleep with his soft motor. In fact, the two become great friends: they play in the fields, leap hay bales, and play ring-around-the-rosy by Mud Pond. But when Otis is replaced with the big yellow tractor, he is cast away behind the barn, unused, unnoticed . . . until the little calf gets stuck in Mud Pond. Then there is only one tractor—and it’s not big or yellow—who can come to the rescue. It is little old Otis who saves his friend. It is Otis who saves the day. (synopsis taken from the back of the book)

My team and I have been busy planning for this special day.  At my school we turn Read for the Record into a whole day event.  Here are some of the activities we have planned so far.

Tractor Cut and Paste.  You can get the free cut outs here.

Barn Yard Labeling.  There are so many different things to label in this picture we decided to make stickers of the words so  that students could just stick the word next to the picture. Then they can color.  Grab a copy of the barn yard labeling activity here and the stickers here. Print the stickers on return address labels.  Note that when printing the barn yard you need to print it on 11x17 paper.

We are also having our wonderful room moms make us tractor sugar cookies that the kids can decorate.  We are going to use Oreo's for the tires and red icing for the tractor.  You can get the cookie cutters from The Cookie Cutter Company. They have tons of different designs for a very low prices.

For more information about Read for the Record visit there site.

No More "I'm Done!"

Normally I do all of my reading over the summer but when my reading teacher showed me this book I just had to read it.  Because I am doing my National Boards this year I have been focusing a lot on writing in my classroom.  This book is great!! It goes through how you should set up your classroom to foster writing. It gives suggestions for tools that you can have available for students to use and best of all it gives you ideas for mini lessons that cover the entire year.

Here is what I have implemented so far from this book.

~I was always a writing journal type (it kept things more organized).  Now each student has their very own writing folder.  In my writing area I have different types of paper for students to choose from.

~Conference board.  When students are ready to show me their work they add their name to the conference board.  After we meet and talk they erase their name.

~After my mini lesson I give students 10 minutes of uninterrupted time to write.  It was hard in the beginning to not hoover and want to make suggestions, but I have found that they do their best writing during that time. After the 10 minutes I start to call students for conferences.  I also try to play classical music during those 10 minutes to keep their brains working.

I will keep you posted on what else I implement...