Classroom Tour Post!

Hello! My sweeties and I started school on Wednesday and are finally starting to develop a daily routine. :)  It always feels so good when that starts to happen.  I really am blessed to have two sweet classes this year that are SO excited about reading.  It doesn't get much better than that!

Since I have a little bit of energy tonight, I wanted to share my completed classroom with you.  As I looked as these pictures, I realized I missed a few shots.  So hopefully I'll be editing this post soon to include pictures of my desk, the front of my room and my storage area for our clipboards and dry erase boards. 

Alphabet: Ladybug's Teacher Files

Subway Art: Hope King

Lanterns and Tissue Paper Puffs: Hobby Lobby

This is the view from my desk.  I use a piece of felt cut into four pieces and rubber bands to keep the chairs from scrapping on the floor.  It works wonders.  I have to replace most of the felt throughout the year but it's SO worth it to not hear scrapping sounds all.day.long. :)

Here is a picture from the opposite corner on the room.  I need to take a close up picture of what is hanging up in the front of the room.   

Bookshelf: Mr. Fourth and Ten :) 

Library Tubs: Sterilite via Home Depot

Library Tub Labels: Lessons With Laughter 

Reorganizing my classroom library was a labor of love this summer. I purged a lot of books and organized them by genre, author, series or topic this summer. I can already tell that my students LOVE it!  It's made it book shopping so much easier.  

Word Work Tubs: Dollar Tree

Task Card Storage: Target

Fluency Tubs: Sterilite 

My library continues over to this large shelf as well. It also stores my word work centers, fluency tubs and reading task cards.  

Stools: Ikea

Here is where all the magic happens, my small group table!  I haven't always had the space for one at my current school, so I cherish every moment we spend over here. 

Border: United Arts and Education

Theme Team Letters: Cameo Creation

Theme Team Posters: Primary Punch

Even though I love my black and neon classroom, I couldn't pass up this Ohio State Bulletin Board Border!  :)  Theme is big in fourth grade, so I decided to put up a Theme Team wall for us to reference throughout the year. 

Baskets: Big Lots

Basket Labels: Hope King

This is a better shot of the open space above my guided reading table. I keep our book club choices and our writing/reading notebooks in the baskets.  

Voice Level Signs: A Cupcake for the Teacher

Hand Signal Signs: A Cupcake for the Teacher

Daily Five Rotation Signs: Teaching With Love and Laughter

Behavior Bingo: Dots and Spots

This is behavior management central in my room! My teaching partner and I both use the voice level and hand signal charts and it really makes a difference!  I use behavior bingo for my whole class behavior incentive and this year's kids LOVE it! My morning class just earned their first bingo! :) I use the rotation chart to schedule my small groups. 

Ribbon and Fans: Hobby Lobby

I've been working on redecorating my classroom for two years now.  Next summer, I'll finally get new curtains for my classroom.  Until then, I love this little display. :) 

Reading Strategies Letters: Cameo Creation

Reading Strategies Posters: Amy Groesbeck

I only have one bulletin board.  It's a little hard to get to, so I don't change it super often.  Right now, it has the reading strategies we use throughout the year hanging up.  

I hope you enjoyed a quick glance into my classroom. Like I said before, I still have a few pictures to add, but I just love this room.  It truly makes me smile when I walk in the door.  :)

I've linked this post to the following link ups! :)

Wordless Wednesday: Storing Extra Student Supplies

One year we did community supplies, a flop.  For many years they just kept the extras in their cubbies, desks, or backpacks, a mess.  Last year, they kept a few pencils, one highlighter, one glue stick, one Expo marker and their crayons in their supply pouch. Then the rest went in a large Ziploc bag with their name on it in the extra supply crate. 

When their supply pouch stash ran out, they went and got more from their Ziploc bag. Most of my kiddos were very respectful and didn't get in other students' bags. I only had to watch a few of them.


I hold onto my homeroom's extra supplies and my teaching partner holds on to her homeroom's extra supplies.  They can only ask to get in their extra supply bag when they are with their homeroom teacher.  

Here's my question for you: How do you organize your students' extra/surplus supplies? 

Monday Made It: Storage Edition

Hi guys! How are you?  I had a very busy and productive in my classroom today.  This is the first year in three years that I haven't had to move classrooms.  It has been glorious.  Essentially everything is unpacked and ready to go.  Well everything except for my library, but I did put all my books in their new bins and my new bookshelf is built. It just needs a good sanding and staining job.  Special shout out to my husband for building it for me! :)

This evening I'm linking up with the lovely Tara today to share some projects I did today in my classroom for Monday Made It!

I have been in love with Catherine's {The Brown Bag Teacher} Literacy Center Storage since she first posted it but I just never had the time to set it up myself.  Today, I got busy though! :)  

I used food storage containers from Target because they were a lot cheaper and I was really looking more for a way to store my task cards.  So I purchased these small containers.  They did, however, have larger ones that would fit large envelopes and recording sheets. 

 Labels are from this decor pack from Hope King.

I have two more containers that I need to make labels for and a could probably stand to use another package of containers as well.  I just know I'll love having my tasks cards and center activities so organized this year!

 I also got to work organizing my seasonal centers and fluency games.  I use these containers and LOVE them. :) I glued some labels on them and sorted my seasonal materials into the appropriate bin.  

Look how pretty they are all in a row! I just LOVE it! :) 

Finally, I organized some of my small group materials.  Time is so valuable when it comes to small groups and I found my kiddos wasted a lot of time last year because they came to my reading table unprepared. So I shopped my classroom and found an adorable basket and some of these cute cups that I previously used for a book raffle.  I already had some IG friends ask me about the cups. I got them at WalMart around Easter time. :) Inside each cup I put materials I commonly have my students use during small groups. 

Inside each cup is a piece of felt, I use these for dry erase marker erasers, a reading pointer, two different colored highlighters, a dry erase marker, and a pencil.  I branded these supplies as mine with some Washi tape.  I plan on storing these cups in a cute basket I found in my classroom, that was originally from Big Lots, and passing them out at the beginning of guided reading groups.  

Hopefully this will cut down on our transitions during our guided reading groups and will help us get started right away! I'll use Clorox wipes a couple times a week to clean off the supplies to prevent germs from spreading around.  :)

So apparently TpT has a sale today and tomorrow. :) You can visit my TpT store by clicking {here}. 

I'm about to go shopping myself, so I can tackle my next Monday Made It...my library.  This isn't my new shelf, but my two current ones set up so I could get my library books off my student desks. :)

Thanks again, Tara for hosting us all! :) 

Classroom in Chaos Day One of Organizing My Classroom Library

Today I went to my classroom for a few hours before a doctor's appointment.  This was the view that greeted me from the door. 

Since my school has tile floors and little built in storage, we have to pack up everything that sits on the floor during the school year.  Which means unpacking/getting ready for the new school year takes longer for me than it did at my previous school that had built in cubbies and storage. When it comes to getting my room ready, I like to go in for a few hours at a time in July and get it done, because my husband usually takes a few days off in early August for our anniversary. :) 

Today my objective was to start organizing and purging my classroom library.   Most of my classroom library is in these six blue totes. 

When I first started teaching, I focused more on quantity of books rather than quality.  I'd go to thrift stores every payday and buy any book I thought might have a Reading Counts test. I'd also ask for gift cards to book stores at Christmas, went to a used bookstore after church each week, and sent home book orders. This certainly allowed me to accumulate A LOT of books throughout the years.  However, there are also A LOT of books that my students just simply aren't reading. 

 Donalyn Miller points out in Reading in the Wild that we should discard of books in our libraries that are:  MUSTIE;" Misleading, Ugly,Superseded, Trivial, Irrelevant or Elsewhere.

That's what I focused on today.  I started looking through my books as I was unpacking them today with MUSTIE in mind.  

This summer I want to totally revamp how my classroom library is set up.  Previously, it was by level with a separate section for popular chapter books.  Which made it really difficult for my avid readers last year to find books that interest them.
I polled last years students on how I should organize my library and they overwhelmingly chose by genre/book series.  

With my new organization method in mind, I started creating piles of related books/genre piles around my room.  I put all MUSTIE books in a big pile as well.  For me, MUSTIE books are any books I've NEVER seen a child read since I bought it, books that aren't relevant to my age group (Clifford, Franklin, Easy Readers, etc.), or in need of serious repair.  I plan on donating all MUSTIE books to a teacher who could use them. :)

Since I have so many books, it was a bit of an overwhelming task.  I was able to unpack three of my totes before I had to leave to go to the eye doctor. 

As you can see, it's quite a mess BUT this messy process is helping me weed out those MUSTIE books and giving me a good idea of what categories and genres to use when organizing my library for my students. 

After my eye doctor's appointment, I headed to Dollar Tree and Big Lots to look for possible book bins.  

Previously, I used these GLES boxes from Ikea. Which I really liked but all mine are blue and red and really don't go with my classroom color scheme, which is bright pink, blue, and green with black accents. They do come in bright green now, which could work. 

The clear bin is from Big Lots and the green and pink ones are from Dollar Tree.  I only bought one of each and will try them out in my classroom the next time I head in to see which one will work best. :)

I'll continue to check in as my room starts to come together.  

Before I go, let's chat! How do you organize your classroom library? Is it easy for you to part with books from your classroom library?

Bright Ideas Link Up: Keeping Student Desks Together

It's one of my favorite times of the month again, time for myself and a few hundred of my blogging buddies are sharing tried and true ideas from our classrooms. 

My bright idea is one I wish I had thought of years ago.  I have always had desks in my classroom that I have always grouped into tables for easy partner work and collaboration. However, those silly desks ALWAYS moved around.  Always. Halfway through the day, we were always rearranging our tables, and there was always one kid who managed to push his desk into another child's.  Always.  Before blogs and Pinterest, I searched message boards, AtoZTeacher stuff anyone?, to try and find a solution. I tried taping the desks together, using bungee cords, ropes, etc. to keep them together.  Nothing worked. 

Then one day a colleague of mine suggested old coffee cans, which I thought was brilliant, but I didn't have six coffee cans just sitting around the house. So I went to Home Depot and bought some one quart mixing containers.  You can find them online {here}. 

I put the container in middle of where I wanted each table to be and put one leg from each chair inside. Problem instantly solved!

Their desks still move a little bit, but not nearly as much as they did before.  Only one or two tables need readjusted throughout the day instead of all of the. Additionally, since all of the desks are connected, it's so much easier to slide them into to place when needed.

If you enjoyed this bright idea, please consider 
joining me on Facebook, Instagram, or my Teachers Pay Teachers store for more great ideas. 

To keep searching for even more bright ideas from 150 different bloggers, please browse through the link-up below and choose a topic/grade level that 
interests you. Thanks for visiting! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Organization in a Departmentalized Classroom: A Bright Idea

Hello! Welcome to the next stop on the Bright Ideas Blog Hop! I know I have LOVED reading all the wonderfully bright ideas. :) 

I hope you enjoyed your previous stop on our hop, learning about post it note fluency with my sweet friend, Christina of Sugar and Spice.  

Today I'm sharing a "bright" idea or two on how I keep my classroom organized this year.  

For those of you who are visiting my blog for the first time, I am departmentalized this year.  I teach two classes of language arts this year.  Previously, I had always been self contained, so organizing two of everything was hard to get used to at first.  

Being organized with two groups of kiddos really starts with them. Each of our kiddos carry an organizational binder to and from school.  Inside this binder is their pencil pouch, folders for each subject, and their home to school folder.  You can see how this binder is essentially set up {here}.  

I also stay on top of them to keep their desks clean.  This cuts down on the whole "the person who sits here in the other class took my pencil, put my book pack in the library, etc," complaining.   Ideally, all that should be in their desk is their binder and two bag of books, their own and one belonging to a student in the opposite class.  

These two kiddos are doing an exceptional job. :) 

Another way my students help keep our materials organized is putting their writing materials in their table's writing basket. 

Each basket does have a label on the front of the basket with either my name or my partner teacher's name and a table number. However I flipped them around for privacy's sake. :)  These baskets may look a mess but they WORK!  Each student's writing notebook and any other materials we are using for writing, such as spelling aids or graphic organizers, go in them each and every day. I love this is one less thing for them tote back and forth each day.  

Sorry this picture is so blurry but this pocket chart is another way my kiddos help me stay organized.  They each have a number and when they turn in work, they put it in their pocket. For the most part their numbers are in ABC order, excluding move ins and such, and having them pretty much in ABC order makes putting grades in the computer SO much easier.  At the end of each class, I just take out the papers and paper clip them together and throw them in my teacher bag.  In my bag, I have two file folders for each class, one labeled "grade" and one labeled "return."  This keeps me so organized when it comes to graded work and it starts with my kiddos. 
 
 Another thing that keeps me organized with my two classes is our daily rotation chart.  

Under this chart, I keep a list of who is in each reading group for both classes.  I make a quick switch in rotations after lunch to meet the needs of both of my classes. 

When we switch up reading groups, I just print off a new poster for each class.

I teach reading in small groups but it all starts with an mini lesson where we create an anchor chart together. 

Exclude my SUPER messy handwriting.  My anchor charts are functional but certainly aren't cute.  I usually have two sets of post it notes or index cards when I record student responses.  One set is for my morning class and one set is for the afternoon class. I snapped this picture before my afternoon class got to create their chart, but I think you get the picture. :)  

As far as materials for each groups go, I keep them on a shelf by my guided reading table.  One of my basket's labels went missing and I just haven't replaced it yet. :)  Basically I have have one approaching grade level group, two on grade level groups, and one above grade level group.  The A, O, and B baskets hold the leveled readers for our reading series.  The group baskets hold materials each group is either working on or will use that day.  I just simply paper clip each class' set when I put them in the basket. 

For materials that all groups will use at some point throughout the week go in these baskets.  I also keep our daily copies close by in these letter trays. 

I separate each class' set of copies with a paper clip or binder clip. I do this because the make up of each of my classes is different, so sometimes their daily whole group activities differ from day to day.

I hope that you enjoyed learning how I organize my class this year.  :)  Additionally, if things look a little "off" on my blog, don't worry, it's in the process of getting a MAJOR facelift! 

If you are looking for more great ideas, please visit the next blog on our blog hop, written by Arlene at LMN Tree! Her post is all about using sentence frames to get your students started writing! Click on her button below to check out her awesome post!

You can also visit the link-up below and choose a topic that interests you! Thanks for hopping around all the "bright ideas" on our blog hop! :)