My Classroom Tour!

Phew! I made it through the first week of school! I am now as ready as I'll ever be to reveal my classroom for the 2014-2015 school year!

 

This is my reading focus wall. I don't have that many bulletin boards, so I used contact paper to create a board behind my guided reading table. I then hot glued clothes pins to hold up my laminated paper. I put Velcro up as well so that I could change out the labels if I ever wanted to. The pocket chart in the center is for my vocab words for each group!

This is my FAVORITE spot in my room. This is my reading corner. I haven't finished the bulletin board yet. I got the purple rug from Wal-Mart for about $15. The cute chevron table was $10 from Ross and the rest of the furniture is old. I covered up my wooden doors with contact paper to create a super cute and bright Word Wall. The shelf on the right has all of my book baskets that are sorted by genre.

It's kind of hard to see, but the banner that I made says "Math is a Hoot!" Looking at it now, I'd like to have lighter paper so that the letters could be more visible. I do not have the time or energy to fix it at the moment :) My bulletin board paper is actually wrapping paper that I bought from the dollar section at Target.

I found this awesome idea on Pinterest! Like I said previously, I don't have much bulletin board space, so I created this one with contact paper. I hot glued clothes pins to the wall so that I can swap out student work. This also shows my mailbox system which is a hot mess with all of the first day packet stuff :)

Try dressing up your door or bulletin boards with mix/match borders! I love this!

My job board is on a door that leads to the outside. I covered it with contact paper and it looks so much better. I love this!

I'm going to end my classroom tour with my favorite desk skirt that I made a couple years ago. This was super easy and didn't take much time at all. If you like that big chunky letter on my desk, they are 50% off at Michael's Arts and Crafts! :)

 

I'll post more classroom pictures very soon! :) Leave a link to your blog so I can check out your classroom!

DIY Project

Summer is coming to an end, so I'm gathering all of my new pieces of décor for my third grade classroom this year! My latest project is a writing table. I found a super nice wooden table for $10 at Habitat for Humanity. I transformed it into a bright yellow writing table! I will post more pictures when I get it all set up in my classroom! :)

I used:
sandpaper
spray paint primer
yellow spray paint (you could use paint and primer in one)

FREEBIE and TPT Sale

It's that time to start getting our classrooms ready for school, so that means a Teachers Pay Teachers SALE! My entire store will be 20 % off August 4-5. Click the image below or click here to get to it! I've also got a new FREEBIE that you can download here! My next post will be all about the first week of school and fun activities to do in your classroom so stay tuned! Have a great weekend!!!

 

Creative Writing Center

I have a few weeks of summer break left, so I'm cranking out some new TPT products! Be on the look out for some cool stuff! This week, I'm showing off my new creative writing center that you can also see here at my store. I really try to motivate my third graders to write. And they will, if it's what they want to write about. That is totally fine with me because that's step #1.

This center is super easy to set up and use in the classroom! Cut and laminate the cards. Place each set in a bag or an envelope. Have students pick one from each bag and begin writing! The crazier the combinations, the more their imagination needs to work :)

The center includes:

-a set of plot cards

-a set of setting cards

-a set of character cards

-a pre-writing sheet

Charlotte's Web Novel Study

I hope everyone is having a nice and relaxing summer! Since I've got a few minutes of extra time, I wanted to prepare some things for the study that my third graders do of Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. I've got two products on Teachers Pay Teachers so far!

My first product is a set of vocabulary words from Charlotte's Web. You can display these in your classroom or use them as a center! Click here to check it out!

 

My next product is a set of response questions by chapter. You can use these as a seatwork packet, quizzes, or homework as needed. Click here to check this awesome product out!

 

 

School's Out For Summer!

Well, the time has come that has been long anticipated...summer! I am very excited to have several weeks off and prepare for a brand new school year. This summer, I'll be finishing my fourth graduate class and creating some new products for the upcoming school year. I'll be posting as often as I can with some products I'm creating on Teachers Pay Teachers, as well as some things I pick up from the store to use in my classroom. I always look for organization and color!

Here is my not so cute classroom once I took all of my cute stuff down...

 

I like to cover my doors with contact paper. I found a really cute design from Lauren Ashley. I tried to cover this door before school ended so I had less to do when I came back, but I ran out of paper. So I went online and found the exact same design on Amazon! I'm so excited! Decorating my classroom is probably one of my favorite things to do. I also found some pink contact paper so I've gotta decide what to do with that.

June Currently

I'm a little late, but better late than never! I'm linking up with Oh Boy Fourth Grade for June Currently! June is one of my favorite months because the end of the school year is so much fun! I love doing the end of the year activities and games. This year, I got each of my students a book. I usually make things for them but I wanted to do something a little extra and I had some Scholastic points :) Anyway, here's my June Currently!

Tips to End the Year Off With!

We are nearing the end of the year! It's that time when we don't have new content to teach, but we need to keep the kids engaged. Otherwise, we would all go crazy! Here are a few math and reading ideas to end the school year off with: 

Reading: 

• Create a comic strip of your favorite story that we've read this year

• Write a poem about a character from one of the stories that we've read 

• Compare two stories that we've read this year using a Venn diagram and then illustrate

• Creative writing: use plot, character, and setting cards to create a crazy story! 

• Write a song or rap about your favorite story or make up your own story and create a song or rap

• Work in groups to create a story. Each student write a sentence and keep passing it along and adding until you have a finished product! 

• End of the year memory book: Create your own or grab mine HERE!

Math

• Roll the dice: roll the dice and create numbers to add or subtract-we have foam dice that the kids love

• Add it fast-take digit cards and have students each put down a card-whoever says the sum first keeps both cards. You can use this for multiplication too

• Math bingo-easy to create on your own with multiplication, addition, or subtraction!

• Have you students create their own word problems and post around the room for students to solve 

• Math olympics! 

There are so many more things that we are doing in our room, but this would be a very long post! I also do a lot of Smart Board activities that I find through Smart Exchange or TPT, but my students love playing games with each other! Any other cool ideas that you have are appreciated! 

End of the Year Memory Book

The school year is coming to an end. Although I will miss my lovely class, I can't say that I'm not itching to say goodbye for the summer! At the end of the school year I usually look online for some kind of "end of the year" worksheet. I wanted to incorporate all aspects of the school year; subjects, friends, teacher, summer plans, etc. I would love to laminate these for a keepsake for the kids. What sort of fun end of the year things do you do in your classroom?

Head on over to my TpT store right here and grab it! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Simple Mother's Day Craft

Hello everyone! Today my students created a super cute Mother's Day gift that I wanted to share with you all! It was quick, easy, and turned out amazing! I found the inspiration on Pinterest, of course!

"I love you with a cherry on top!"

All you need:

-brown triangles cut out of construction paper
-construction paper for the "ice-cream scoop"
-red paper for the cherry
-little paper rectangles for the sprinkles

Send me a link of the Mother's Day crafts that you are doing in your classroom! Thanks for stopping by!

Currently May!

Yay! It's Friday!! And another Currently, courtesy of Oh' Boy Fourth Grade! The school year is quickly coming to an end and I couldn't be more excited for summer break. Share your "Currently" and head over to Farley's blog at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade! Let me know the name of your blog so I can check it out! 

Have a wonderful weekend! :)

Some of my Vegas pictures: 

Free Product!!

Happy Friday everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and Spring Break! Is everyone as ready for summer break as I am? :) I wanted to brighten up your day with a FREEBIE! Check out these super cute and simple binder covers. They cover a range of topics from subject areas, student data, to parent communication. Head over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store right here to grab them!