Made It Monday - Back at School

I'm joining Tara for 

I had intended on getting this out earlier but being back at school out a dent in the free time :-)

We had a half day training and then I took advantage on some quiet time in my room to get most if it finished up except for two bulletin boards.

Here are the few things I did get done.

This is a large banner that will hang between the two classrooms in our team. I still have to create all the clear labels with our new students so we can stick them all over.  The other team in our grade made a display with bulletin board paper and letters to go between their doors. Unfortunately it didn't hold so I made an alternative for them but I want to make sure they like it before I print the 15 pages.

I made the book bin labels for our lakeshore boxes. They have each kids name as well as the proper gender diver. The kids can color them if they want to personalize it a bit.

I printed a bunch of bag toppers that I created last year. We will stuff snack sized baggies with goldfish crackers and Swedish fish candies.

These for a special ed teacher on our hall that needed something in primary colors to label her word wall. I used a couple of patterns that fit the bill. I let her cut them out.

My favorite Made It this week is actually something that I can't share yet. It is on its way in the mail to CT  as part of the Back to School Blogger Exchange.  I don't want to ruin the surprise so I will come back and add a picture later.

I probably won't get a chance to go check out everyone else's posts for a couple of days but that won't stop the rest of you that are still on break. Hurry over to Fourth Grade Frolics. 

Definitely late to the party

I'm usually an on time girl but I'm definitely fashionable late for this party. As a matter of fact I totally missed the window but I'm going to share anyway.

I love John Shu's blog Watch. Connect. Read. He includes so many great book trailers and I really enjoy getting insights from his author interviews. I definitely want to share more of these with my students as well as doing more of my own book talks about great books I would like to recommend.

For implementing BYOT/BYOD in fourth grade in January I think we did a great job. I would like to spend some more time exploring android apps so I can better integrate them as well.

oops I missed "into"

  I love poetry and have shelves of great books that I have collected over the years. I just need to remember to pull them out and share them more than a couple of times a year. I did get a kick out of our guyku/galku gallery this year hmmm I think I need to write a post about that one.

 

I got a good start this year utilizing Wixie and edmodo for assignments (as well as some other tech) but there is still a long way to go.

I know there is so much potential and it's time I went beyond edmodo and actually had them reflecting on their personal kidblogs.

I'm not sure why I have so much trouble with this but next year I am really going to make a conscience effort.

It was fun checking out lots of other ideas at

First Week

I just completed the second week with students and I'm finally getting around to sharing some activities we did in the first week.

Obvious we spent time the first week going over procedures, sorting supplies, and getting to know each other. On this post I'm just sharing a few of the FUN things.

On the first day the kids participated in the Saving Fred activity shared by Lorraine at Fabulous Fourth Grade Froggies. They loved it and it was nice to get a feel for the kids. It even connected with our ocean theme. I know I took pictures but I don't seem to have them right now so they must be on the other camera. On our second day we also Lorraine puzzle races. The winning team finished in just over 10 minutes and the last team finished in a little over 20 minutes. I used Sponge Bob puzzles from the Dollar Tree. Once again there were great strategies shared.

the winning team

On the first day we also opened up a package that came to us from New Zealand! The kids were very excited to meet Snail and Whale, traveling pets from Room 3. We read the book about them and then picked a lucky child to take them home and fill out the journal about their visit in Georgia. The first week the kids took them to an assembly, out to recess, to specials, to the cafeteria and pretty much everywhere else. They also our school mascot ,Wolfie. This continued on through the second week as well.

In keeping with our ocean theme, on the second day I also read Manfish. It is the story of Jacques Cousteau given to me by the Two Sisters at a D5/CAFE workshop. I also shared a quick slideshow of pictures I have taken while scuba diving. Then I let the kids try on the gear and we took pictures in front of a green screen. I finally finished changing out the backgrounds this weekend. The full set can be viewed here.

 

One other thing we did the first week was read Not A Box and Meggie Moon and then have the kids (in pairs or trios) use their imagination to transform a squiggle into something else. They definitely had Snail and Whale on the brain because five groups had some variation on them. We did however get a rabbit spy with a jet pack and a few other creative things.

I'm sure we did some other fun things but since it has taken me so long to write this post I lost the list I had made for myself. All in all it was a fun week.

Monday - First Day & Made Its

This is a quick post because today is the first day of school and I need to get ready. I had intended to set this up yesterday and then got caught up with other things and forgot.

My major accomplishment this week is the diver for my classroom ceiling. I used an old wetsuit, my real BCD and I bought a cheap mask and fin set as well as a wig from Party City. I had to create a fake tank, reg and pressure gauge/computer.My husband was super sweet and helped me get her hooked on the ceiling this weekend. Excuse the fuzzy picture below but apparently it was the only one I took from a distance.

view in the room

 The other little projects were name tags for the desks (that are line art so the kids can color them in) and a goodie bag of fish. Later I will come back and upload the baggie topper.

When I get home today I'll go check out the other great projects. For those of you still home go ahead and check them out now.

My room then and now

I have been mentioning for a couple days that I was going to put up some classroom pictures. Since I'm stuck on a plane right now I figured I would give it a shot on this blogger app. That totally didn't work but thanks to Megan at I Teach. What's Your Super Power? I downloaded blogsy and it seem much more workable. Woohoo

So here are some before pictures. Well if truth be told these were actually after I moved the bookcases and some other furniture in to their general location.

 

 

 

 

Here are some after pictures starting from a look in door and then doing a 360 around the space. I spent 1 day before my Texas trip and 2 days this week in my classroom. I actually feel like I'm in pretty good shape before preplanning. I still have some banners to make (oops somehow forgot them this weekend) and I need to hang up some decorative elements on the ceiling that I bought.

I love the VOICES and CRAFT headers from Ladybug Teachers Files. This will be the writing area.

This is reading area with the visiting classes book bins.

I'm also super excited about my common core vocabulary cards from Ginger Snaps. I have the whole area above the bulletin boards set aside but I will it up most of the words as we go.

Obviously this is the classroom library. Don't my new bean bag chairs look inviting.

That bulletin board will have book recommendations on it.

 

This is the coat/book bag area as well the kids cubbies (which hold the homerooms book bins).

The area above the cubbies will be the place to move some anchor charts.

 

This corner needs inspiration but I'm thinking maybe about a map for our postcard exchange and

other collaborative projects since I took over the location from last year with something else.

 

This is a teacher corner and I'm thinking about using the fish background ($2.50 at Target)

to track Daily 5 choices

 

Small group meeting area with designated area for anchor charts

with clips (inspired by Clutter-Free Classroom)

 

There you have it. My room as it stands waiting for my return from California. There is definitely still a bit to do but I'm certainly farther along than I would normally be. This was primarily inspired by the fact that I wanted to get my crafts to their new home and that by beastie at school is going out on maternity leave 2 weeks into school and I wanted to be able to help with plans and not spending all of it setting up my room.

 

Now to push publish and see it it actually works.

Hmmm not sure how to get My cute signature on here. I suppose I should watch some how to videos so I can get hyperlinks and other key things working correctly.

Thank for stopping by

Heather

 

Posted with Blogsy

Lots of Made Its this Monday

  I have been SUPER PRODUCTIVE this weekend. I guess I really needed to be after I laid out my to do list  for the linky organized by Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies.

Now it's time to link up with the fabulous

  Here are some of my quickie projects. They were mostly quick thanks to lots of other fabulous bloggers that shared ideas and files.

Thanks to 4th Grade Frolics - I bought the task cards too

Thanks to There's No Place Like Second Grade

Thanks to Tonya's Treats for Teachers

I can't remember where this idea came from - so sorry - the other was cuter but this works

Medium time and effort projects - mostly just time in front of the computer.

an ocean version of the popular 10 ways to be a better reader

Thanks again to Tonya's Treats for Teachers for this idea

Thanks to Clutter-Free Classroom for the tip to trim a calendar with ribbon (or in my case glitter tape)

The next two are items that I created with Print Shop and then ordered from Vistaprint

birthday card/coupons

My version of the ever popular tracking thinking posters

These I made with Print Shop, printed them on my color laser printer and then glued them together

There are three banners I needed for my room the largest is 6 sheets long

 The last items were definitely more of a time/effort investment.

an ocean version of facebook/classbook - I ordered it from VistaPrint

and coordinating headers for showcasing kids work with their picture - printed myself

This was a project that I expected to be simple and it just wasn't. After ordering the aprons from ebay they arrived smelling terrible (mildew and cigarette smoke). I first tested out fabric paint to cover the logos - no go. Next I washed them all to get rid of the stink and then had to untangle the MESS from 30 strings (well actually 60 since they have 2 strings each). I sorted the ready to go ones and the others that seriously needed ironing :-(

I ended up deciding to use duct tape to cover it all up. First I tried to just fill in the middle but it was way too hard to get everything even - ugh. I tried alternating color to use my duct tape more efficiently but I didn't like the turquoise on the outside. I found out some aren't the same size as you can see with the narrower turquoise band. Finally I decided to wrap the tape around the end a little to avoid the uneven tape. In the end I only ended up making 10 because I'd had enough. I think I am going to see if I can get a parent volunteer to make the rest when school starts.

Well there you have it. If only I was always this productive. It helps that my hubby was out of town and the only thing I had to do was an evening wedding Saturday night. Actually now that I think about it I did spend about 6 hours in my classroom Friday too - pictures still to come.

I originally was going to load up several of the files to Google docs and share but I ran out of steam. If you are doing an ocean theme and you would like any of the files just leave a comment with your email and I'll get them to you.

I leave this evening for California and I don't return until next Monday so I won't have a chance to make anything for next week. Well, maybe I'll just do something late. I will of course stop in and check out everybody else's wonderful stuff.

Thanks for stopping by... and reading this far :)