Words of Wisdom Wall

I have tons of posters, both purchased and home made, that have inspirational quotes on them.  The posters range from a Garfield poster that says, “Those who can read should,” to quotations from some of the Founding Fathers.  I never know where to put these posters, so usually, I get them out, discuss the quotation with the kids, and then put the posters back in a cabinet somewhere.  

But not this year!  Last week, an idea hit me, so I created a Words of Wisdom wall in my classroom.

 

You will obviously notice that the wall is pretty empty right now.  That is because I plan on adding to it throughout the year.  I will share the posters with my kids and we’ll discuss them just like I used to.  But now, they will have a home on this wall after they’ve been discussed.  You can already see my first two additions.  The one on the left says, “If you don’t have time to do it right, you must have time to do it over.”  And the one on the left is the Garfield “People who can read, should” poster.

What inspirations do you share with your kids throughout the year?

Classroom Reveal (Finally)

I have been back to school for two and a half weeks now, so I suppose it is time to do a classroom reveal.  First, the “before” picture.

I had to start by arranging things and finding five more desks for my room (I went up from 24 last year to 29 this year).

With everything arranged, it looked like this:

 

My Classroom Library:

(That is my messy, work-in-progress desk in the background.  With everything in its place, my desk area looks like this:

Next to my desk, I have a bulletin board that I made with cute fabric from my old classroom theme.  (I really need to change it to follow my star theme, but the bookworms on the current fabric are just so cute!)  This is the area where I display things that are important to me.  A picture of my first class, a sign from our last school carnival, funny or meaningful comic strips and quotations, and awards I’ve won or my classes have won.  You can also see a picture of the current swim team that I coach and a few drawings kids have made for me in the past.

 

My Homework Club board and the thermometer I keep in my classroom (so I can complain when the “real” thermostat says 72, but mine says 80)

 

This is my Reading and Writing wall.  (The letters for Writing are light blue and show up fine in real life, but apparently, not in photos.)  You can see the CRAFT and VOICES displays that I got from Ladybug’s Teacher Files and the Genre Posters are available in my TpT store here.

 

Next to the Reading and Writing wall is my welcome station.  The stars on the whiteboard is how students make their lunch choice for the day and how I check attendance at a glance.  (Any stars left on the table are absent – but I do double check to make sure they aren’t just forgetful!) 

 

After taking the picture, I added this to my welcome board:

 

These are the displays that I have on bulletin boards and walls in my room: 

 

And the door out of my room with a Pintrest inspired poster.

 

That is my classroom this year.  Thanks for sticking around for such a long post!

Math Rules

Yesterday and Monday, I spent several hours at school working registration, meeting with my team (which was wonderful!), and even a few minutes working on setting up the room.  One thing I did was hang my Math Rules wall.  In my room there are four rules for math that I reinforce and emphasize to my kids.  

1. Remainders do not exist (in division)

2. All fractions are division problems

3. The simplest form of any improper fraction is a whole or mixed number

4. There is another way to do the problem.

These rules were inspired by one of my co-teachers during my first few years, Mr. Dowling, so in the photo, you can see that they are labeled as Mr. Dowling’s Math Rules.  Mr. Dowling has retired now, but is still remembered fondly, even by kids who never had him.  So, to honor the fact that I borrowed the idea, I credit him on the posters.

Monday Made It – READ!

It’s Monday and time for Monday Made It at Fourth GradeFrolics!  I am super excited about my project for this week.  I have seen several bloggers featuring their READ signs and letters, and so I decided to make my own.  My classroom is all done in blue and green with stars as a decorating theme and while I searched for some awesome star paper to use, I didn’t find anything I fell in love with, so I decided to go with plain old paint.

First I went to Jo-Ann’s for my letters.  I LOVE these because they remind me of Dr. Seuss lettering.  (Of course the letters went on sale the day after I purchased them, so I’m in the process of buying new ones to return for a price adjustment, but they are all out of A’s!)

Then I painted the insides of the letters green,

 

the outside of the letters blue, and I finished them with some Mod Podge for a glossy (water resistant) finish.  I’m REALLY happy with how they turned out!

 

 



My Classroom Library

Going to the library is one of my favorite things to do….it always has been!  And I remember scouring my teachers’ classroom libraries for the perfect book when I was in school, so when I got my first classroom (9 years ago) my goal was to create an awesome classroom library of my own.  I’m not 100% thrilled with the quantity of books – you can NEVER have enough books! – but I feel like I have a pretty strong selection.  With that said, today I’m going to share my classroom library with my readers.

This is the main section of the library.  I organize the books on the left by series with a label on each basket for the appropriate series.  Then in the middle shelf, I start organizing the baskets by level.  

 

We use AR in my building, so each basket is split up by AR level.  There is a colored dot on each label depicting it’s level, and then each book has a matching dot on the spine.

This is my nonfiction shelf.  It doesn’t have nearly enough on it, but with the cost of books, it is a slow going process to fill the shelf.  At least the kids like the books that are there! (Also, don't mne my mess of a desk in the background...it's still a work in progress...)

That’s a look at my library…what do you do to organize yours?

Monday Made It - Specials Signs

I love to draw and doodle and color and all of those creative type things.  So this week, I am featuring my specials signs for Tara’s Monday Made It feature.

In my school, we have five “special” classes: Art, Music, Gym (which the teacher insists on calling PE), Computer Lab, and Library.  To help the kids remember when each class is held, I put signs up in my classroom depicting the class name and the time it’s held.  Last year, I made these doodled signs and the kids really liked them.  I even saw them mimicking the style in their own drawings! (Pardon the glare...I laminated the signs, and they didn't photograph so well...) 

 

Unfortunately, I mounted the signs on green paper….which fit the theme I’ve had in my classroom for the last four years, but doesn’t fit my new theme idea.  I’m planning to redo my room in red, white, and blue with stars and stripes (because, I AM an American History geek, and I like the idea of carrying it into the room).  I’d still like to use these posters, so I may be remounting them in the two weeks before school starts this year…

On the blog, I also made something new....a feature called the Saturday Summary.  It will be a place for bloggers to link up a summary of their week.  It will let us get to know each other better and will introduce people to new blogs.  If you're interested, my first summary post is here so you can learn more!