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Sunday, June 26, 2011

Classroom Jobs

I have decided this year to have a job for each student in my classroom. This will hopefully make my life a lot easier and will give each of the students a job every week.
I have put together a list of all 23 of the classroom jobs with their descriptions, you can click here to view the list.

In my classroom, I have labeled a library pocket for each job and each student has an index card with his/her name on it. The index cards are placed in the library pockets. I change the jobs every Friday afternoon for the upcoming week. I just move all of the index cards one library pocket over to switch their jobs for the next week.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Summer is half over!

While everyone else is surely gearing up for a long summer ahead of them, mine is half over. I teach at a school that has a continuous year calendar, so we got out right before Memorial Day and the first day of the new school year is July 14th (giving us about 6 weeks of summer!) But don't feel too sorry for me, right around the time everyone else's year is just getting into the swing of things, I have a three week fall break, the perfect time for a vacation! :)

I kind of went into freak out mode this week! Realizing that I only have three weeks left and still so much to do! I have been working on creating a new bigger and better focus wall for my classroom and I am currently working on a social studies unit and a new reading incentive program (more pics and updates to come later). I also am currently in the Capturing Kids Hearts training and finishing up a grad class.

I also decided to take on the HUGE project of sewing 25 chair pockets! I have tables in my room and one big hassle last year was where to store all their STUFF! I haven't sewed since I was 10 and that was when I had my amazing grandmother helping me (she was a great seamstress!) Now its just me and my sewing machine! I competed number ten last night! They don't look too bad, just don't turn them inside out and look at the hems and stitches...I am sure my grandmother is cringing! ;) But they will do the job for my firsties!

One of my favorite things to do as a teacher is to take normal everyday things and adapt them to use in my classroom, it makes me feel extra creative! :)
I found this at Target a couple weeks ago and this purchase made my day! It is this really neat picnic caddy with a ton of different compartments! I have decided to use it as the supply caddy for my small group table! It will be perfect to hold small dry erase boards, pencils, markers, sticky notes and books! Best part...it was under $7!
I can't take the credit for this next idea...I got the idea from a literacy teacher in my building last year, but I loved it, so when I found these at Target, I had to get them! She uses drink stirrers as pointers in her small reading groups. I loved this idea! The kids don't know the difference and they think it's the coolest thing in the world to use them while reading their books to me in small groups!

I hope everyone is enjoying their break no matter how short or long it is and getting some much needed R&R! :)

Friday, June 3, 2011

Classroom Library

I would like to share how I organize my classroom library. It worked VERY well with my class last year. I am in the process to adding more books to my library this summer and can't wait to share this system with all my new kiddos.

I organized my library by different genres, topics or authors. I created a label for the outside of the book tubs by using 2"x4" Avery Shipping Labels. I printed off the book labels, stuck it to a index card and laminated them. You can view the book tub labels here

I then took the same picture that I used on the outside of my tubs and put that picture on a small return address label. I used Avery return address labels. You can view the book labels here (This file was too large to have a preview in google docs. You have to download the PDF, it may take a while, but it should download for you)

I had some difficulties uploading these files to Google Docs because of their size. If you would like me to try to email them to you, I would be willing to try to do that if the pdf versions don't work for you, but I am not promising anything because of the size of the documents!

Hope this helps everyone in the daunting tasks of organizing their libraries! :)