Teacher Week: Classroom Tour

ENJOY the tour of my classroom!

 Isn't is exciting to see 19 precious names and feeling so anxious and excited to get to know these AWESOME kiddos that will become "my" children in a matter of days! Yes, I refer to them as "my" children! My own children/family has learned to accept this fact!

This is not a GREAT picture, but these are my new Hallway Work Display Monsters! I found this SUPER cute Monster note pad, laminated the sheets, and glued them on clothespins! We are ready to display the great work we do in my classroom! I wish I would have listened to my heart and bought several of these notepads; however my bank acct. won and I only bought one! If I find these again I'll have to STOCK up!



The most important thing to find out on Meet the Teacher day is "How do I get home?" My first year I remember having nightmares about dismissing and not knowing how to send some of my babies home, or WORSE sending them home the wrong way!

This hangs right by my door and I put a student clip on the circle that tells me how they get home. I also keep and list on a clipboard next to it for substitutes in case of emergencies! The lanyards you see hanging are my hall passes that the students wear when they need to leave the classroom!

Grab your Transportation Display here!



So what do you do when you line up and realize you still have 3-5 minutes before you have to leave? That is where these little babies come in handy! The top packet is Line Up Chants and Songs, and the bottom packet are 5 minute time filler questions that you can ask your students in line! LOVE THESE!
Grab some of these goodies here and here!

Monster Charts!
I have my Birthday chart, Job chart, Months of the Year, and Day of the Week!
I purchased all of the Monster Themed supplies at Trend Enterprise! 

I am in love with my cubbies that my WONDERFUL husband built me! I knew that the back of this cubby was going to be exposed and create a "hallway" like entrance into my classroom! Of course I had to find I way to make this space useful so ..... we went and got some sheet metal and drilled it to create the back of the cubby! NOW I have a magnetic center for my students to use each week in our Literacy centers! I decorated it up with some monster border of course! My kiddos love it!
The baskets you see on top are there for "Meet the Teacher" day, which will be a later post!

LOVE my group tables! Now that I have had group tables, I will never want to go back to regular desks EVER! It makes group work and activities SO much easier! On each desk I place their name plates (these are wonderful because they hold their pencils too), and a red supply bucket! In each bucket I have Ziploc bags labeled with their names. They will put their supplies (crayons, glue, scissors, erasers) in their bag! This way they have what they need at their seat in a nice organized way!
You can find the name plates at Lake Shore Learning or just click here!

Work to ROAR about! I can't wait to see the GREAT work my kiddos will be anxious to share!

My library was my BIG project last year! I purchased my shelves from Big Lots and then got busy organizing my books into levels! I put labels on every book (yes EVERY book) and then put them in the right place on the shelve. The bins at the top are seasonal books that I have ready to use for different holidays/occasions! When my students go to the library they get out a folder that tells them what levels they should be pulling books from. I update the folder often so that the students are reading on a level JUST RIGHT for them!

In the process of moving out my room for cleaning in the summer, I lost my "K" label! I still need to get that replaced!

What Kind of Monster Are You?

In my classroom positive reinforcement is a BIG deal! I'm a firm believer that putting emphasis on the good vs. the bad makes a HUGE impact on the classroom environment! When my students make poor choices they are asked to move their clips down and will face a punishment like loss of some recess time. HOWEVER, when a student makes a good decision they move their clips up and earn tickets for our treasure box! You would be shocked at how much power is behind "Kate I LOVE how you are engaged and working really hard on your work, please go move your clip up!" Suddenly you notice that Johnny and Amy who were talking are now working diligently because I moved Kate's clip up! I could have just made Johnny and Amy move their clips down, but focusing on a positive behavior was much more effective and it gave Kate a BOOST in her confidence! LOVE IT!

Get your Behavior Clip Banner here!

Do you have a TATTLE problem?
Meet BOB the Tattle Monster! When you have a Tattle, write it on a note, and let BOB eat it up! I check BOB's tattles every so often and address things that I may need to address. NOW on the first few days we have a lot of discussions about What is a Tattle vs. What is something Mrs. Jessica needs to know! Also, make sure the students see you check BOB's tattles, so they feel like they are being heard. I made BOB out of  a tissue box using some paint, white foam paper, and googley eyes!
I will post my "Tattle" activities on the 1st week of school!
Grab your TATTLE monster poem here!

My Writing Center! This offers great ideas to get the students' brain flowing with ideas! I also place a small container with pencils, erasers, crayons, pens, and markers for the students to use while at the center! (Ignore the papers in the picture, my children were using the center supplies while MOMMY was trying to finish up her classroom!)
Do you want this Writing Center?
Grab it here!

Ok so this board is a little BLANK right!?
On "Meet the Teacher" night I will take my little kiddos' pictures and they will be placed on this board! I pair my students up and then add labels beneath their pictures to tell them what Literacy center they will be at for the day! The kiddos love seeing their pictures up in the classroom!

I've Got some SMART COOKIE MONSTERS!
I purchased this resource on TPT and LOVE it to help my students gain fact fluency! Each Wednesday we complete a fact quiz! If they score a 100% they add cookies into their cookie jar (I buy cookie crisp and give them a scoop for a special snack, and then put a cookie sticker on their jar). The resource also has recording sheets so you can track each student's progress. If they don't score 100% they take the same quiz the next week! The kiddo's really look forward to earing cookies!
Smart Cookie Math

Mon-Star Math Mash!
I am still deciding how I want to use this board honestly! I thought of trying to use this board to display my math centers, or posting our Math anchor charts here to show what we are learning!? If you have any suggestions please share, because I'm a little stuck!!

This is where my little darlings will turn in their work! Do the monsters look familiar!? I also put my pencils here for the kids to get when needed! I will (have not done this yet) have some highlighters here so that students will highlight their names on their papers prior to turning it in .... I don't know about you but my babies have a hard time remembering to put their names on everything and the HIGHLIGHTERS really help! EVERYONE wants to use a highlighter because they are SOO much fun!

Oscar the Grouch! Our classroom trash can! Just buy a red trash can and paint the dots and teeth! PVC pipes make some great eyes with a little (a lot) of hot glue! Throw two Styrofoam balls into the pipes and paint on the eyeballs! TAADDAAH, you have a monster trash can! This is something I usually get a lot of comments about from parents on "Meet the Teacher" day!

A look at my carpet area! I LOVE my puzzle mats! Affordable and efficient! I believe I found these at Lowe's!

My schedule .... as long as nothing changes as the year goes on! You guys know how THAT is!
Schedule Cards

A little cork board, ribbon, and initials and BANG ... a place to hang all those cute pictures and notes from my lovely kiddos throughout the year! They love to see their gifts displayed!
My initials have changed now due to my marriage and all, BUT I don't think I'll have time to correct this until next year! Hopefully no one will notice!?

Ahhh, a clean organized desk! I have to take in this moment because in a week  I know it will no longer look like this!!!

Supply storage, Supply Storage, and organizer for my Literacy center groups! This looks a little PLAIN Jane to me ..... I'm going to work on sprucing up the look of this area!


WELL that's my ROOM!
Make sure to check out my POSTS about my LITERACY CENTERS and B.U.I.L.D Math Centers to see MORE about how we operate in my Classroom!