Classroom progress...

Still waiting on a counter top to be ripped out and a bulletin board to be installed but hopefully that will be done soon so i can get all my morning meeting and calendar stuff put in. In the mean time I have put together my library, my closet, my shelves, and my word wall. 

Monday... It got worse before it got better. 

Front rug area for morning meeting and whole group. (To Do: rip out counter top, install bulletin board, and projector with  elmo,  also hoping for a round meeting rug)

My desk and listening center. The door goes into the classroom next-door.  

Class library. Books leveled by genre and DRA level. 

This is the opposite side of the shelf in the library but faces my desk. Weekly copies and lesson plans, office supplies and games and puzzles (some of  the games and puzzles might get moved to a kids area or the close) 

Large storage closet- multiple copies book sets, extra manipulatives and toys for choice time or indoor recess  

Front area and alpha line

Kidney table for guided reading and word wall 

Front white board. The shelf with the green tubs is two sided. Kids will use green tubs for  mailboxes.

kids tables 

I have PLC training and other meeting all next week but hopefully that will give them time to get some of the construction done. Crossing my fingers everything is ready by Thur for Open House!!

Made the News

News 8 recently did a story on a first year teacher (me) getting a classroom ready for the year. Checkout the links. News 8- First Year in the Classroom (video) News 8- Area teachers prep classrooms (article)

A Classroom All My Own

 Finally got into my classroom. Between vacation, someone else using my room for summer school and cleaning/construction it has been hard to find time to get in there. Here are a few of the before pictures...

There was a preschool summer school class in there so all the toys and things needed to be moved out.

Got a pretty good start on the class library. Books in white baskets are sorted by level, books in red baskets are series (judy b jones, little bear etc) books on tall shelf are sorted by theme. and behind the red curtain are all the books that have multiple copies that I will use for guided reading and I don't want lost in children's book boxes. 

My desk area, clearly still under construction, but I like where I have it placed. That door behind it leads into another classroom. Hopefully having my desk here will act as a barrier for sound and students going between rooms. 

View from the door my room is a large upside down L. From the door my desk and the library are on the leg of the L and the kids desks and carpet for whole group and morning meeting are on the stick part of the L .

Floor Plan (Check out my giant storage closet!! I do have to share it with the classroom next door but 1/2 of it is mine to hide all the classroom clutter and things we aren't using!) 

Clearly there is still a ton to get done! Every time I cross something off my list i seem to add 5 more things. One of which is to remember to take photos of the process! Stay posted! 

Math Expressions

Finally got my hands on the new Math Expressions manual for next year. The new version is aligned to the Common Core! It saves me a lot of work trying to align my lessons. Each day for math I have my students do 4 station rotations. These stations give the kids time to explore manipulatives and practice their skills. I try to work on  art projects, whole body kinesthetics activities, and lit connects when I can during station time. Some of the math stations I package up into a gallon ziplock (we call them math buckets) and put in a tote. In the past I have given my kids an occasional Free Friday and let them work in pairs and pick their own "math bucket" or fast finishers sometimes get some extra math bucket time. I have also sent home a math bucket and instruction card with a child who needed some extra practice.

Math expressions comes with 3 activities (intervention, on level, and challenge) for each unit. I have found that they can get repetitive. Some days I include one or two of the Math Expressions activities and a workbook page when available in my station rotation. Some of the stations also get repeated throughout the unit so my kids don't get hit with 4 news games everyday. There is usually one repeat or a slight variation on an old station each day. There is also the occasion "explore" station which is when I just give them time to play with a new manipulative. It is usually a manipulative that we are going to use as a whole group the following day and I want them to be able to get to play with it before we need to use it the next day.

I put together a document with the lesson title (I used to reference the CCS but now i don't have to because it's in the new teacher manual!!!), a few whole group ideas, some of the Math Expressions daily routine (the 100s chart counting part of the Math Expression routine I generally include as part of our morning meeting and calendar time), and 4 station ideas for the day.

Clearly some of the stations may change. Sometimes we combine two easy lessons or we might need to spend more than one day on a difficult lesson and do a station  two days in a row if it is a difficult concept but this at least provides me with a daily outline and stations ideas to pull from.

This document is still a work in progress but I hope to be done with Unit 3 this week which will at least get me a good jump start on the year!

Math Expressions Unit Breakdown and Station Activities