Ready for another year!

Well I've made it through the first month of my 28th year!

I can't believe it!  Where have all the years gone.  

Here are a few of things that worked great to start off the year.  I covered my chalkboard with Better than Paper this year.   It was super easy to put up and I glued it right to the board.  It did take 2 rolls to cover this board, but so worth the time and effort.  It looks fantastic!  It's on sale on Amazon right how if you want to try it out.  

If you haven't tried the whole sheet shipping labels to make big stickers for your journals, you are so missing out.  I love how cute these turned out.  I used the 8 1/2 x 11 shipping labels.  Each sheet made two labels and the kids loved that their names were on the big stickers.

We are using a new series in math this year, Envision.  I am loving all of the lessons and the kids are starting to really get the hang of it.  We are currently working on repeated addition and arrays.  I wanted a fun game for us to play this week, so I made these cute task cards.  I'm planning to play a game of SCOOT with them.  The kids haven't played SCOOT yet, put I know they will love it.  

I wanted to make sure that the kids are focusing on rows and columns.  The set has 10 cards that focus on rows and 10 on columns.  We had a lot of confusion this week on which way a row or column went.  I just finished printing and laminating the cards.  I'm going to hang them around the room and then let the kids work with a partner to write the repeated addition sentence for each card.  Click on the cards to see more!

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

What we do is MAKING a DIFFERENCE!

HAPPY TEACHING!

Flexible Seating and Winning the PENCIL WAR!

This is my first year with flexible seating.  I saw all the amazing pictures on some teacher blogs and wanted the same experience for my kiddos.  I truly wasn't sure where to even start.  I decided that simple was the first rule.

We set up a meeting area for most of our direct instruction.  I just put two 8x10 carpets together and it was plenty of space for the kids to sit.

No desks? My first question.... what to do with their pencil boxes?  Everyone keeps their crayons and a pencil in a plastic box with their name on it.  We store them on top of a shelf and the kids get them whenever they need them.  We store all of the scissors, glue, paper, and other supplies into labeled bins and the kids just go get whatever they need and return it when they are finished.

Where will they all sit to do independent work?  Over the summer I found a few things here and there to get us started.  Like all teachers I "borrowed" a few things from my own house!  We had some mats, a bunch of plastic chairs, and a few other items.  I bought three carpets to put in different areas and was able to score two long tables at the school.  We started small and everyone was able to try out all the different places they could pick from.  My original thought was I have 20 kids so I need 20 spaces... I was wrong!

They argued because someone always was last and didn't get the type of seat they liked.  I had to fix this to make the experience better for the kids and save my own sanity.  I began researching how people funded flexible seating and took the JUMP!

I wrote my first Donor's Choose project.  I was extremely lucky and Target paid all but $97 of it.  My sweet classroom parents and my own family funded the rest within 2 hours.  I WAS OVER THE MOON!

We waited and waited for those first packages to arrive.  Once they did our classroom took on a new shape.  We had over 40 different places to sit and everyone was always able to find a spot that made them happy.  It has transformed our classroom and helped us build a truly positive community.

 We love the bean bag chairs and if we are reading a friend can join us!

 We were able to get 2 of these fun chairs with Donor's Choose and they are a FAVORITE!
That SMILE is worth it all!

Safari themed bath mats have proved to be easy to move to anyplace they want to work.
I also scored a bunch of green fuzzy mats at Dollar General for $4.  

These stools made by Big Joe are great for laying on or working on!
  

I was able to get my hands on two of the SCOOP chairs!  The kids love them!  I was worried that second graders might not fit in them, but I was wrong.    

I was also worried about their handwriting!  Would they write super messy?  

NO WAY!

It has never been better!  

We have 6 of these green lap desks from Amazon.  

What about pencils?
Oh the PENCIL WAR!
Every year I try different things to make it through the year without spending fortune on pencils.  I've tried it all and nothing ever seems to work until flexible seating came along.  I put the "Need Sharpened" bin away from the "Ready to Write" bin.  

Two locations and it has worked like a charm.  

I know you are not going to believe this, but I haven't put a new pencil into the bin ALL YEAR!  We are still working on the original 100 pencils I started with!  I've actually thrown some away because they were NUBS!  I can't say the same for the cap erasers.  We have gone through a TON, but that is OK because I still have a ton of pencils from the kids beginning of the year supplies left!

So I was really curious as to why this happened.  Why are the pencils lasting?  It makes no sense.  We are writing the same amount of work as last year....  the difference....

NO DESKS!!!!!!

The kids can't bury 100 pencils in the back of their desk and get a new one!

I wanted our classroom to truly be flexible, so we don't pick specific spots each day/week and we can move to different spots whenever we need to.  When we move to do independent work I either send the girls or boys first.  They find a seat and then the other group goes.

What happens if someone gets up to get something they need?  Our rule is simple if you leave a spot, leave your stuff then it will be there when you get back.  Your spot is SAVED if something is sitting on it.  Leave your paper, pencil box, or book.  It was something that we had to practice and talk about, but now we have no disagreements over spots.

Is it easy at first? No!  I had to figure it out for myself and make adjustments to make it work for me.

Am I glad I did it?  YES, YES, YES!  The kids love it and our day flies by because everyone is engaged all day long.  Give it a try.  Start small and you will be glad you did!

Happy Teaching!

Classroom Reveal!

Better late than never I guess!

The first week of school came and went like a crazy tornado at full speed.  It has taken me days to get myself back together and ready for next week.

I realized with all the craziness I never posted some pictures of this year's classroom.

I'm giving flexible seating a try.....  slow and steady wins the race right?  I've only introduced a few options so far and hope by the end of September everything will be running like clock work.

My reading area is a work in progress.  This year accepted the challenge to level all of the books I have and time got away from me.  I still have about 300 more to level, but I made sure I had enough to get us started.  The green mesh string will slowly become a jungle of leaves.  I knew that the temptation to pull on them would be HUGE, so I decided to just put up the mesh for the first two weeks and after we got plenty of reminders not to pull on it we could start adding the leaves.

I have wanted bucket stools forever, but I'm not good with a staple gun.  When you have a CRAFTY teaching BFF, all you do is send her a picture from Pinterest and these magically appear on your carpet. I couldn't love them more!  Thanks Lee you are amazing!

The table is for small group work or if someone needs more direction than the seat they picked.  I am happy to report that we have only had two visitors all year!  It seems to be effective in getting them back on track to use the seats correctly.  I am thinking that after Christmas it will become the V.I.P. Table.

This is my little corner with all my books.  I think that I might have a serious book buying problem. Three years ago I owned 5 books sets.  That was it.  I can't believe how much I have been able to get. Teaching with chapter books has been a game changer for me and my kids.

These stools are a HIT!  The kids love them, but we are still working hard to keep all four legs on the ground.  That is a work in progress.

This is my NUMBER ONE HELPER!  Every year this kid spends hours and hours helping me move, organize, and label stuff.   He doesn't complain, except that he keeps asking if it is time to go to lunch! At a place of his choice of course!  Love this kid!

If you haven't heard.....  TPT is throwing another one day sale again this year!

I am so excited because I already had 5 things on my wish list to help with flexible seating.  The sale is tomorrow!  Fill up those carts and save some money.  Everything in my store will be 28% off - Don't forget to use the code when you check out!  Click on the picture to go to TPT.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Happy Teaching!

Best Back to School Tips, Blog Hop, and Giveaway!

I've teamed up with some great TPT friends to blog about our favorite activities, organizational ideas, and teacher fun!

The best part is that each of us is giving away a $25 TPT Gift Certificate!  You can enter at the bottom of the blog post.  Lots of different ways to enter to win before the next big TPT Sale!

That first day of school is a whirlwind of CRAZINESS!  If everyone gets feed and home the right way it is a SUCCESS!

To get the kids settled for a few minutes and give me a chance to breathe, we make About Me Banners. When I first tried them I let the kids design them by themselves and it never seemed to turn out the way I had thought.  I always seemed to have one crying because they couldn't think of anything to write and another that had cut their banner into 1,000 tiny pieces.

Being the OCD teacher that I am, I created a template for them to use.  It has been a HUGE lifesaver for me.  I project it on my board and fill it out so they can get to know me a little better. Then I give everyone their copy and they go to work.

The banners look adorable in the hallway after the first day and are a favorite memory in our portfolios at the end of the year. The kids are always so amazed at how much better their handwriting is at the end of the year.

You can download this activity for FREE from my TPT store.  Just click on the picture.

My favorite classroom game is SKITTLE MATH!

State testing is just part of life....  like it or not!  So we do test prep all the time and for math we play a very simple game....

SKITTLE MATH!

Just use any test prep you have, dry erase boards, and Skittles!  Just project one question at a time and have the kids write their answers on their board.  Move around the room and check their work.  If they are right, they get a Skittle.  Because test prep has lots of different levels of questions, everyone gets a BUNCH right!

I made these fun jars this summer so that I didn't have to keep the Skittles in a ziplock bag this year. You can download the labels by clicking on the picture.

I hope your kiddos enjoy them!

TIME TO ENTER TO WIN!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can enter for the giveaway starting at 10 a.m. on July 27th.
The blog hop will end on August 1st at 11:59 p.m.
The WINNER will receive their $25 directly from me on August 2nd.

Want to enter to win more?

TIME TO HOP TO MY FRIEND!

Just click on the link and enter to win another $25 TPT Gift Certificate!

Happy Teaching!

Shopping for the new YEAR!

Like or not....  the new year is approaching.

Tomorrow I will get to return back to my room and begin setting up for the new year.

My teaching BBF and I have done some shopping and I don't think anything makes a teacher happier than new plastic book bins.  WE BOUGHT A TON!

Today I hit Cost Co and got a bunch of things to start the year off right.  Who doesn't love a pretty new pen?  I also decided to try a package of furniture pads to put on my student chairs.  I hate how fast the floor gets all messed up.  My son is helping me tomorrow and he will be so thrilled to get to put them on the bottom of the chairs.  All of this for less than $45...  Thank you Cost Co!

This summer my son had the honor to play for Team TN.  He spent time at the University of TN training in their amazing facility and then traveled to Kentucky to play at Western Kentucky University. He was treated to the full college football experience.  One of his favorite parts was staying in a hotel the night before the game.  The best for me was that several family members that haven't ever seen him play made the trip to Kentucky to see the game.

I'm a worried mom...  I admit it.  I wasn't willing to just drop Jackson off at University of TN and come back to Memphis.  We stayed in a hotel and attended as many practices and events as they let us.  So we had a lot of down time and my husband found some of the best teacher stores ever!

All of these books cost me less than $40!  I have a huge other stack that didn't make it into this picture.   McKays Used Book Store is a gem!  If you live anywhere near Nashville, Chattanooga, or Knoxville, you have to check it out.  Lots of books that are less than a $1!  The other amazing find was the Habitat for Humanity Thrift Store.  The books were 10 cents!  Yes, you read that one right!

TOTAL SCORE!

I have made myself a promise.  I am going to level my HUGE classroom library before the kids come back.  I've made book bin labels and laminated them.  I create stickers with the level number on them and have even done all the stickers for the books I bought over the summer.  Tomorrow I will begin to make this promise come to life!  Check back to see the pictures and a link to download all of the organization pieces.

Happy Teaching!

Happy December!

December has been so much fun!

This is my first year with Elf on the Shelf and I am LOVING it!  We very creatively named him Mr. Elf.  I tried so hard to get them to like Snowflake, but once the votes were counted Mr. Elf it was.  Our elf is a note writer.  He has written lots and lots of notes to the kids.  Without a doubt, the best day was when he wrote each of them their own note.  I haven't seen that kind of excitement in a while.

Let's face it....  behaving in December is hard!  So sometimes a little bit of bribery is all that it takes.   Mr. Elf brought us donuts and we couldn't have ate them any faster!

We have been decorating our room with our holiday work.  Here is a little thing we made last week that turned out so cute!           

We started out by talking about wishes and of course they all had wishes for Santa to bring them something.  I quickly turned it into a lesson on making wishes for others.  Within seconds we were brainstorming all kinds of ideas on how our wish could make this world a better place.  We each made this little craftivity and shared our idea with the class.  This one is one of my favorites!

                             

We made them into a display and I can't wait for the parents to read them at the holiday party this week!

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!  It is the last week for us and I can't wait for all of the FUN this week!

Happy Teaching!

My NEW BLOG and a FLASH FREEBIE to celebrate!

Excitement is not the word!

My new blog is up and running thanks to the AMAZING Alexis with Laugh Eat Learn Design. She has been completely and totally fantastic to work with, so if you are out hunting for someone to take your vision and make it into a masterpiece, please consider using her.  You won't be sorry!

So now that my new blog is up and running I wanted to bring you up to date on my first two weeks of school!

I am as tired as tired can be!  It is a good tired and I know you all know what I am talking about.

I moved to a new classroom down the hall, so I had the chance to make some changes to my classroom.

We all start of Ready to Learn each day.  My big change this year was that everyone starts on an "S".  I really thought a lot over the summer about conduct.  At the end of the day we expect the kids to earn an "S", so I decided that we start off where we expect to end.  It also put my conduct chart in line with the majority of the teachers at my grade level and that is always a good thing.

If you haven't read this book to your kids....  BEG, BORROW, or STEAL!  One of my teacher friends showed it to me and I LOVE IT!  It was great for those first few days when we are all learning that our mouth is truly a volcano and it needs to not ERUPT!   After we read the book the kids worked in groups and wrote the main idea of the story and included a picture of each of the them being a VOLCANO!  Such a great way to help them work on this important skill.

One of my favorite stations in the classroom is the Highlighting Station.  A bucket of highlighters and a desk by the spot where they turn things in is all it takes to fix the NO NAME problem. The kiddos simply stop and highlight their name before they turn it in.  They love it and the NO NAME problem is eliminated!

Even though I had all the stations set out for Meet the Teacher...  my first day was a SUPPLY disaster with all the extra stuff they brought!    It seemed like their backpacks were bottomless pits of stuff!  It is all put away now thank goodness!

I finally have my teacher tradebooks and novels all organized.  The top three shelves are class sets of books that I have from grants and Scholastic points.  The bottom two shelves are trade books that I use for read alouds.  I have them organzied by subject matter, but I am thinking that it would be better to organize them by weeks of the year.  How do you organize yours?  I would love to hear some different ways!

I am really so excited with my new organizer!  I took one of the 5 drawer rolling carts I had and made days of the week labels for it.  Since it is on wheels I can move it to where I am planning. As I plan, I gather up everything I need for the activity and put it in the drawer.  All of my trade books, construction paper, tracers, worksheets, and books I need for the day in once place.  In the morning all I have to do is get the stack of stuff out and I'm ready for the day!

To celebrate my new blog I am making A Drawer for Day organizer a FLASH FREEBIE!  Click on the picture to download it for FREE!

I hope it helps you as much as it has helped me!

For the Love of Pinterest!

We have been out of school for three days now for snow.  How did I pass the time.....  I spent lots of time on Pinterest.  How can you spend hours and hours without even realizing it?  I don't know!  I thought I would take a second to share two of my boards.  These two are my favorites.

The first board I created was for Common Core Ideas in Grades K-3.  I have lots of bloggers, teachers, and TPT authors that pin on this board.  If you love to pin like I do, I would love to have you join us! All you have to do is follow the board and then send me an email with your Pinterest information (tracysmith827@gmail.com) and I will add you.

This are some of the great pins just added to the board.  We try to pin lots of free ideas and freebies so that we have a good balance.  Click the board to see some of the great stuff we have found to teach our kiddos!

Another board I have is for holiday ideas for grades K-5.  I really enjoy the different holiday times with the kids.  So I started the board so I could save the pins and overnight it got so many followers I decided to make it a priority to find things each week related to the events coming up in school.  Here are some of the fantastic things I have found while planning for Dr. Suess Week and Read Across America.  Click on the picture and take a look at the wonderful ideas all of these extremely creative people have come up with.  This board features almost all freebies.  I do find a few things here and there that you have to purchase but 99% of the board is IDEAS and FREEBIES!

I hope these boards might help a few people get some new ideas for their classroom!  If you have a great Pinterest board, let us know about it in the comments sections so we can follow it!

Well this teacher better get to bed!  Can't wait to see my kids tomorrow!  

Happy Teaching!

Tracy

Using Noticings and Wonderings in the Classroom!

People always ask me about my Noticings and Wonderings board when they visit my classroom, so I thought that this morning I would share one of the best things I learned from the IFL trainings.

Noticings and Wonderings are just like exit tickets, but with a twist that the kids LOVE!

When we finish some of our lessons, we do Noticings and Wonderings.  The great thing about Noticings and Wonderings is that is gives the kids a choice of what to write.  (This is a must have for any evaluation lesson!)

The kids can write a noticing about the lesson or their own learning.  The can write something they are wondering about or unsure of.  This is a great chance for a child to tell you something they don't understand without having to say it to the while class.  Or my favorite, answer the question on the board or make own up of your own.  This one takes some time to teach because I always have a few folks that want to make up something that deals with another lesson.  I always remind them that what they put on the sticky note has to be able what we just did.

The kids write on sticky notes and then stick them to this board.  Nothing fancy, but they sure do love to this!

Here are a few of the kids notes from Friday's lesson on adding 2 digit numbers.

This student wrote a noticing and answered the question  that I wrote on the board.

This kiddo made up with own problems to solve.

Sometimes I go over some of the sticky notes before we move to the next lesson and sometimes I save them for the next day.  It just depends on what I see in their writing.  I really love using this and more than anything the kids can't wait to do it.

I also wanted to share on of my favorite October stories!  Where's My Mummy?

This is an adorable book about a little mummy that just wants to play instead of going to bed.  I use it to teach adjectives.  I read the book to the kids and we talk about it during our reading block.  Then, later on that day we bring it back out and talk about adjectives.  We make these cute mummies and the kids make lists of all of the adjectives in the story to cover their mummy.  It is so much fun and makes a cute decoration in the hallway for October that isn't Halloween.

Here is the book!  What isn't to love about this little mummy?

Here is the display I put up in the hallway.

OK - so I am not the best drawer.  I wish I was, but I do try.  I made tracers out of manila folders and the kids traced and cut out their mummies.   They wrote their adjectives in their best "spooky" writing!

I hope everyone has a fantastic Halloween week!  I know the kids are so excited!

Happy Teaching!
Tracy