My Classroon & a FREEBIE!

I thought I'd start out by showing you some things I use in my classroom.  Some of these ideas I totally swiped from Pinterest and others I came up with on my own.  The building I work in is getting up there in years and is nowhere near as color coordinated as most of the uber-cute classroom pics I've seen on other teaching blogs.  BUT, I have a certain pride in it simply because this is one of the classrooms that I spend my own youth in.  Yes, that's right, I teach in the very district that I myself attended for elementary, junior and high school!  It sure is a trip to teach the children of former classmates!  So anyway, the color scheme isn't as put-together as I would like but I guess that's not such a big deal. 

I have 21 students this year, which is a pretty large group for our school.  The kiddos you see in the back are my own rugrats Cameron and Benny.

Each desk has a caddy with all of their important supplies.  I grew tired of waiting for the class to dig a pencil out of their desks so I implemented this system.  It also helps to remind them to sharpen pencils at the beginning of the day.  Graphics and font are from DJ Inkers.

 

So this is one of my Pinterest steals ideas.

 

This is my library.  I have painstakingly organized, sorted, and labeled each book in alignment with Accelerated Reader.  This way the students are guided to choose books that within their zone of proximal development.  I have been using this system for about 5 years and it has made a huge difference in the growth of their reading abilities. 

 

 

Here is the chart I created to help the kids remember what color they are allowed to get.  I change it out each quarter or whenever I move a student up.

 

As I said, I have a rather large class this year and the congestion in the library during SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) was so bad that they were spending more time LOOKING for a book and less time actually READING said book.  So I designed this.  Each table gets a bin to match their table color.  The books inside the bin are specifically chosen to match the AR level of each student in that group.  The students just grab their bin and set it on their table when it's time for SSR.  Now the kids are spending MOST of the time reading!  

I made this to keep track of what books should be in each bin.  This is the Orange table's bin.  They have students reading in the yellow, green, blue and purple AR levels. 

These graphics are also courtesy of DJ Inkers.  Love that lady!

 

That's all about my classroom for now.  But in celebration of starting my new blog, I wanted to share a freebie!  Over at my TpT Store I offer Cootie Catchers.  Here is a fun catcher to use throughout the year.  Whether you have "Star Student" or just want to do something special for a student's birthday, these catchers are perfect.  Just have your special student fill in the answers to the questions before running off a class set.  Directions on how to fold the catcher are included with the download. 

Click here to get it!

 

 Enjoy and be sure to follow me to see the great things going on!

 

~ Stacy