Classroom Tour, 3rd Grade, 2014-2015

So...yeah.  I've been MIA.  For like, EVER.  Sorry about that.  I like, got pregnant.  Yeah.  That's my excuse for everything these days, because I'm 30 weeks now.  Lol.  Preggo brain.

But anyway, thought I'd come back and try to start posting again.  I have so much to say and to share!

I actually looped up with my class this year, so I have 16 of the same kiddos and 2 new ones and am teaching 3rd grade.  It has been an AWESOME transition and a great experience so far.  I am just loving it.

Check out some pictures from our room this year.

"Every Birdie's Welcome in Our Nest."  :)
 

View from the door.  I should really make the front of my desk cute.
Oh well.  Love my new rug from Ikea!

This pic is from our Meet the Teacher Night--the chalkboard is now all decked out!

The Good Morning section holds our Target Reading, used as part of our morning routine.

Then there is a section called Scientist Chat where I ask questions and learners can add their thoughts and comments.  Then next to that, there's a Wonder Board.  Some QR codes scan to certain videos and articles on Wonderopolis, and the learners can add their own "I Wonders."  Which reminds me, I need to read their wonders and try to post some QR codes for them to explore!  :)

Yep.  Our character board still says 2A.
We are now 3E.  Whoops.  ;)

Fiction section of our classroom library.
On the top, I "spotlight" particular books:  seasonal or books that tie in with our current learning topics.

Cubby tags.  :)

Our What Stuck With You Today board has been a big hit.

There's now a numbered grid, and each day before packing up to go home,

the learners jot down one or two things that "stuck" with them from that day and 

stick their post-it notes on the board.

I type in their thoughts on Answer Garden throughout the week,

and then I turn the Answer Garden cloud into a Wordle and share it on Twitter,

print it out for the kiddos to see in the hallway.

This week, we took the Cogat test, and I had them share

what part of the test was easiest for them/what their brain was best at

(working with words, working with numbers, or working with pictures).

I can't wait to read what they wrote!

Our Project Based Learning Board.

It is now constantly filled to the brim!

We just finished a project where the learners groups' chose a state in the

Northeast Region and planned a potential trip for one of our teacher's sister and her husband.

They researched landforms and natural resources in their states, the local climate,

and they planned out fun outdoor activities.

Then most recently, they created raps and illustrations to teach

the 2nd graders how to subtract with regrouping.  So fun to see them 

improving in their cooperation, communication, and critical thinking.

My desk.  It's way messier than this now.  :/

Must do/May do board.  Love this.

I love my daily drawers.  :)

Non-fiction section and my tall bookshelf with teacher editions

and more read alouds.  :)

Um...last year, that blank wall space was covered by bookshelves.

This year, I meant to continue the green & the border all the way down.

But uh...we're 9 weeks into the year, and it still looks like this.  LOL.

I guess you could say I've got bigger fish to fry.

And our hallway display!  I wish the lighting wasn't so awful.

This is also where I display their What Stuck With Us word clouds.

Hope you enjoyed the pseudo-classroom tour.

Hope you all are having a wonderful school year so far!

A Little of This and That...

Just a little snippet of what we've been up to in 2nd grade...

We have officially introduced all of the Daily 5 rotations except for Word Work, and we are off and running!  This week was the first week for Work on Writing, and the kiddos are LOVING it.  I do have a LOT of different writing activities, which helps with garnering enthusiasm.  *Tooting horn*  Ahem.

So yeah.  In Listen to Reading, we have 2 options so far: they can listen to books on cd at the listening station, or they can listen to books on the computers.  For that, they visit our classroom blog (see the links on my left sidebar), click the Listen to Reading link at the top left, and there are about 10 websites where they can listen and follow along to stories.  They love it.

Soon I'll be introducing the iPads (Listen to Reading & Word Work) and iPods (Listen to Reading), which will create QUITE the buzz (can't wait--except for the crying--there's always crying when they don't get the iPad FIRST FIRST FIRST).

*Side note: we share our iPads with the 3rd grade team, so our kiddos get to use them every other day.  Pretty great!

So this year we have started notebooking like CRAZE-EE.  I seriously think we have a freaking notebook for every subject.  It's a little out of control, but I am loving them.  Especially now that they're all pretty much set up.  (Creating Table of Contents using rulers?  With 7 year olds?  Not fun.)

Check out some of our notebooking so far this year!  I found some amazing units on Teachers Pay Teachers and some freebie notebook pages, and I am soooooo excited about the awesome work my kids are going to do this year.

Amazing Reading Notebook Unit by Nicole Shelby

The above 2 pics show some freebies for Reading Notebook by Becca at Simply 2nd Resources

My Science Journal Title Page

********

Here's the part where I'm gonna complain, because it's my blog, and I can whine if I want to (and YES, I may POSSIBLY be DRINKING some wine as I whine, but that's neither here nor there):

-I had my 1st SIOP training today after school (Sheltered Instruction for ELLs if you're not familiar), and I'm frustrated.  We sat through a slide show presentation that basically told us information that we had all already learned back when we had to take the ESL certification test, and THEN came the REAL reason for the training: we are now going to be required to post our Content Objectives and Language Objectives in our classrooms.  For every state standard.  For every subject.  Every day.

SIGH.

And yes, I know our district is probably super late to this objective-posting party, but DANG IT, I don't like it.  I have SO MANY other things I need to be doing besides typing up the objectives that I cover every day (is it just me, or are there about 30 if I include everything I review or touch upon?).  Seriously?!  I haven't been so frustrated (my nice word) in a long time.  Well, I was pretty frustrated when I found out I had to do 6 hours of this training, heh.  

Anyone else have to do this?  Would you like to join my pity party?  Jump right in, folks!  I loves me some comments!  :)

Actually, one of our ESL Facilitators has a great Pinterest board with ideas for SIOP if you're interested.

Sheltered Instruction Pinterest Board

Hope you are all off and running this school year.  I am loving my group this year and excited about what they're going to accomplish.

Hang in there. 

XO, Gayla

Sunday Night Blues. Sigh.

Things that irritate me when I'm at school on Sunday:

-custodians didn't empty my trash cans, and we had brownies Friday. ants to follow, I'm sure
-new remanufactured ink cartridge doesn't work
-my copies aren't done
-the gates are down, hence a trek across creation to get to my room
-feeling like I've accomplished nothing when I leave
-being at school on Sunday
#teacherproblems

But seriously.  How awful is it to be at school on a Sunday and to still feel unprepared for the week afterward?!  So annoying.  I feel like it doesn't matter how hard I work, I'm just a hamster on a wheel.  (Metaphorically speaking, of course.)

This year (we're 3 weeks in) has been crazy, nutso, people.  We started off the year launching Project-Based Learning (which we're launching district-wide this year--well, either PBL or UBD), and I've already got 2 mini PBL units in the works.  Each team is getting a full day of planning to work on our next full PBL unit, and ours is on October 4th, yay!  Considering I'm a complete newbie, I'm already loving PBL, but there's just not enough time in my day (ha) to plan for it!  Thank goodness we have a coach from the district that is very helpful!

Also in class, we've so far introduced Read to Self and Read to Someone.  Up this week is Listen to Reading (a big favorite every year), so that will be fun.  Alas, I'm fairly certain my iTunes playlist was deleted over the summer.  SIGH.  Last year I had a parent volunteer come up and upload every book on cd to my iTunes account, which was awesome.  Guess I could do that again.

But in other news, I spent more money on my classroom today.  I know, I know.  Shocking, right?  It's a sickness.  I am trying to Schoolgirl Style my room up.  :)

And I keep having to buy more bandanas to make my curtains fluffier.  SIGH.  :)

Well, I'm hoping to get some finishing touches added to my classroom this week (finished curtains, included!), so hopefully I'll have some pics up here soon.  Get ready to ooh and ahh, mmmkay?  K thanks.

You liking my ADHD post tonight?  Does your brain have whiplash yet?  LOL.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to have some pics up soon!

Another Opening, Another Show and Back to School!

So yeah.  I've been meaning to blog.  Really, I have.  But prepping for back-to-school combined with Tech Week and performances of the musical I was in, combined with Staff Development just didn't work well for me, time-wise.

(That's me on the bottom right--we had a BLAST doing this show!)

But it was all worth it!  I am sort of recovered physically from the past few insane weeks.  We just finished the 2nd week with students, and it's been good so far.  I have a very sweet group of kids, if a little talkative and energetic.  :)  I'm really looking forward to learning and playing with them this year.

Anyway, I wanted to share some pics of my classroom even though there are still a few finishing touches I plan to put on it.  (Is a classroom EVER truly "done?")

Haven't decided if I'm going to keep this display for Daily 5 check-in yet...

Will probably change this board to a Writing board for anchor charts, etc.

My new storage area for Word Work activities!  Love it.

(Need to take down that poster!)

My new writing area.  The stuff under the table is junk I still need to sort through and store somewhere.  :(

All my supplies for Work on Writing, so organized, whoo!

We are launching Project-Based Learning this year.  

My PBL board looks better now, but I haven't snapped an updated pic yet, sorry!

Our character quality of the month, Conflict Resolution Wheel, R Time Rules, and Rules for good manners, etc. are displayed here.  (The ugly dolls are my bathroom passes!)

My new Authors We Love wall!

I love how it turned out!

Reading cushions and buddies.

Our Wish List at Meet the Teacher

(about 1/2 of the items were taken, yay!)

Smartboard and my new alphabet line (made by me!)

I have since completed sectioning off the chalkboard on the left, 

and I'm still not sure how I feel about the BRIGHT lime green duct tape.

I HATE chalkboard!

My birthday photos will be posted on the black & white chevron board.

Yay!  The little brown table by the window will house our BioBubble Aquarium!

The next step is for me to allow my kiddos to research what fish and other items we should

buy to put in our BioBubble.  If you haven't seen/heard of them, you should definitely check them out.  SUPER COOL.  I think an aquarium will be a very calming presence in our classroom, and I'm so excited to get it up and running!

Math manipulatives still organized from last year.

(I have since put the label on the bottom left bin, heh.)

Storage for our extra supplies:

pencils, markers, crayons, glue, and baggies

Construction paper storage!

Also, I put the kleenex boxes inside that little lime green basket.  Much cuter.  :)

All the new books I accumulated over the summer.  WHY?!  

Why do I keep getting more books?!  LOL.  It's a sickness.

YAY for awesome library storage!

Guess that's about it.  For now.  If you made it this far, bless you. :)

Hope everyone's beginning of the year is going well!

Monday Made It--August 5th!

Ugh.  I seriously can't get over the fact that it's already August!  However, my hubs and I are super excited that the final season of Breaking Bad starts in less than a week!  Amazing series.

Alas, I still have to wait until OCTOBER to find out what happens on Scandal.  SIGH.  *pout*

Well, mamacita has been a busy girl these days.  I have been creating and printing and laminating and cutting and spray painting and silhouette-ing and mod-podging and sealing and YEAH.  Busy.  It's a sickness.  But I've got some cute stuff to show for it, so there ya go.

Linking up, of course, with the fabulous Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It.  Yes, on Tuesday.  Don't judge.

HOME MADE ITS:

Last week I made a sign for our house, and I love it.  I bought one of the unfinished wood plaques at Michael's, spray painted it with Heirloom White (best color), then cut the letters in vinyl on my Silhouette Cameo and applied.  TODAY, I finally topped it off with Mod Podge and a sealer spray.  Hope it lasts.  I hand painted a similar sign on the cutest wooden oar (from Joann's) right after we got married 5 years ago, but my cat was throwing herself against our screen door one day, knocked it down, and broke it in half.  *tear*  So you know, 4 years later, I finally got around to making a new family sign.  :)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I made another sign for our front window.  I saw a similar one on Pinterest, but it said Thin Mints, which I don't care for, so I changed it to Tagalongs.  :)  Loves me some Girl Scout cookies.  I actually WAS a Girl Scout as a child, and I looooooved selling the cookies.  It was back in the day when it was relatively safe to go door to door in your neighborhood.  

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Sorry; not a great picture, but I was too lazy to pull it out of the window.  LOL.  I think it's cute, but I'm a little bummed that the vinyl letters somehow got moved when I painted on the Mod Podge, so they're not spaced very well.  Boo.  But oh well.  Probably no one but me cares.  :)

SCHOOL MADE ITS:

I'm really excited about this one.  I was in my classroom moving furniture Friday, and I came across this old calendar from Scholastic.  Each month featured a children's author whose birthday fell in that month.  I remember using the calendar a couple of years ago, but I saved it for some reason.  Well, I figured it would make a fun display near our class library!  I trimmed each author page and laminated them.  I created some letters on my Silhouette to say "Authors We Love," and I plan to make it a focus wall above the library.  FUN!  

I plan to mount the title and posters on the lime green fadeless paper I bought, 

so hopefully they'll really pop.

This pic sucks.  I'll post a better one when the wall is finished in my library.  :)

I also made a couple fun goodies with my trusty can of lime green spray paint and upcycled frames from Goodwill!  Check out these before and after pics!

BEFORE:

Pretty, huh?  What?  No?  LOL.

AFTER:

Dry erase board!  POW!

BEFORE:

(Another beauty.)

AFTER: 

Frame for the kiddos to hold as I snap their cutie pie pictures on the 2nd day of school!
Can't wait!  Cuteness.  I (of course) used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the letters,
laminated and cut them out, then used glue dots to attach.   LOVE glue dots, people.

Well, I posted some of the posters I made before, but here they are printed and laminated!  My new Daily 5 posters to match the colors in my classroom, and my new teaching binder in chevron brights!  LOOOOOOOVE me some chevron, and equally (actually even more) love me some bright/neon colors.  Holla.  

I also made a new alphabet line to match my classroom.

Hope you enjoyed--thanks for stopping by, and happy August!  If you haven't started back yet, enjoy the remainder of your summer-- know I am!

Check back later this week for an update on how my classroom is coming along and to make yourself feel a whole lot better about whatever state YOUR classroom is in.  Trust me--you have to see these pictures to believe them.  It's a like a freakin' sharkNADO tore through!

LONGEST POST EVER.  OY!