Trying to Get Ahead...

Hey bloggies!

With our school switching to common core this year, I think that **finally*  after about 1 1/2 weeks off of work, I have caught up.

Maybe.

Maybe Not.  


But, I feel ahead of the game because my math games for February are all made and ready!  (and my house is clean!!!)  I created a Valentine's Day Math Centers packet that is for sale on TPT for only $4!  Check it out!  The games review the topics of multiplication, multiplication and division fact families, rounding, and telling time.  Anyway, I hope that your break was wonderful and that you did NO work, like I wish I could have!

Valentine Math Centers

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Valentine-Math-Centers

Here We Go!!

It's Here!!!!  I feel like the past week has been a blur leading up to open house tonight!  I have been rigorously working to get my room kid-ready, and I am stoked to share my pictures!! 



This is the bulletin board that is on the 3-5 hallway.  My husband was sweet enough to draw the bushel of apples for me!



The view of my classroom from the door!

My classroom library-I have labeled my book boxes using the labels from Beth Newingham's website.

Hat's Off to Good Books Bulletin Board!  The kids will write book recommendations for each other using the Cat in the Hat Templates that are shown on the board.

Center Rotation Chart!  I go into more detail about how this works on my literacy centers page.

My daily schedule and objectives headers.  I write daily objectives for each subject under the headers.

We are Bucket Fillers!  This will be the place where the students can write kind notes to each other after we read the book, "How full is your Bucket?"

Close up of the Bucket Fillers Sign!

This is my listening center.  The cutesy tablecloth came from Target.

This is my teacher desk/guided reading table.  I have a ton of storage at the back of the room, so I do not need a desk.  Instead, I keep things I need at hand in the black desk organizer, or in drawers at the back of the room.

This was the open house gift that I gave to my kids.  I got the printable from What the Teacher Wants.  This was a huge hit!  Most of the kids were eating cereal before they got out of the room!

This is what my pods look like in my classroom.  The empty purple bins will soon be stocked with back to school goodies!!

This is my math rotation board for this year.  Each group will move through two rotations daily while I work with guided math groups.  I stuck the names to the board with velcro so that I could change the groups as needed.  I got the idea for this chart from Clutter Free Classroom.  She has a fabulous blog!!

These are my math tubs.  They have pictures on the outside that match the pictures on my math rotation board to help the kids determine which tub to grab!

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This is a view of my classroom from the back of the room.  The pocket chart to the right of the SmartBoard is used as a word wall.

So, that's that!  I hope you enjoyed all of my pics!  Ready or not, the first day of school is Thursday!!  Here we Go!!

Math Tubs and Rotation

Over the summer, I have been bouncing around ideas about math instruction for next year.  I went to a math foundations workshop and learned a lot about why math instruction is important, and how to teach math.  One of the key ideas that they pushed at the workshop was that differentiation is extremely important.  While I attempted to do small groups last year for math, I often ran out of time, or was out of energy by the end of the math block. 

As a solution, this year I am going to try Math Tubs. After an hour of math instruction, guided practice, and independent practice, the students will have 30 minutes of math tubs.  They will use a rotation chart to determine which tubs they will be using during math tubs time.  Also, this will give me 30 minutes to pull small groups or individuals for additional math help.

I know that this is going to make my math block a little long-1 1/2 hours....but, I think it will be totally worth it to develop the problem solving skills that math enforces.

I have uploaded the rotation labels that I am going to be using in my classroom for you all to download.  I am totally inspired by the ideas that I saw on Clutter Free Classroom's Blog.  I love her math workshop rotation board, and that is how I visualize my rotation charts working.  Enjoy the Free Download!

Math Tubs Rotation Posters

Safari Themed Literacy Centers!

Well, it has been a work in progress, but I have finished my safari themed word work centers!  I have been diligently working to make centers that I would be ready to use next year with my 3rd graders, and I am super excited with how they have turned out! Please visit my page on TpT and let me know what you think!

Safari Word Work Centers

The thumbnail generator wasn't working, but hopefully those will be coming soon!

Preview of the super cute graphics that I got from Lettering Delights......