Almost There!

I spent a few hours at school tonight, finishing some small projects. As I have mentioned before, I have been at school A LOT lately, but my time has been spent planning, and I'm not counting those minutes. Maybe next summer. :)

The first project I worked on was for my school's PBIS program. Students earn "paw points," which are small laminated tickets. Teachers have to collect the paws, and transfer the points to each child's paw card. The card is how the teacher keeps track of how many points a child has. I had an ok system last year, but it was sometimes difficult when I would pick my class up from lunch, for example, and 7 kids would hand me a paw to record on their card. My teammate came up with the great idea to use Carson Dellosa's Positive Reinforcement Pocket Chart to help keep paw points organized. This pocket chart is awesome, because it contains a small clear pocket in front, and individual pockets behind. Students will simply put their paws in their individual pocket, and I will record the points on their card when I have time.

I haven't decided if I want to add a title in the top pocket. I kind of like it plain and simple!

Here is a picture of it hanging by my PBIS bulletin board:

I also finished my Dot Day board. This area is going to be used for author studies. I need to make a visit to the public library to check out more Peter H. Reynolds books.

My laptops were ready to be set up, too! I have 6 total, but they do not all fit on the built-in shelving, because I am using the 6th spot for my teacher desktop computer. The 6th computer will just be unplugged and taken to a student's desk when they want to use it.

Finally, I worked on writing names and number on student materials.

Teachers go back to work this Tuesday, and Open House is on Wednesday night! I should have my "reveal" pictures ready on Thursday!

Time spent working on classroom today: 2 hours
Cumulative hours: 127

Bulletin Boards Complete!

I finished my bulletin boards today! I try to keep my walls pretty empty until students arrive, so that we can make our anchor charts together. I also don't create very many student management boards. For example, some teachers have library check-out systems, math workshop boards, behavior management boards, Daily 5 choice boards, etc. I'm huge proponent of student choice, and keeping things as simple as possible. My classroom seems to run more smoothly when my students have choice, and are more responsible for their own learning.

Here is the wall above my classroom library:

This is my PBIS board (our school colors are purple and yellow). The charts to the right, and the big purple paw are documents that were made by my school to display student expectations. Our "point menu" will be on the bottom left of the board. Instead of student of the week or star student, we have a "Top Dog." The Top Dog's all about me poster will be displayed underneath the dog bones.

Here is a close-up of my classroom jobs. I don't create classroom jobs just for the sake of having jobs. They all exist to make my life easier! :) I simply rotate jobs by moving the dogs from pocket to pocket each week.

This board is going to be used for various ELA anchor charts.

Here is close-up of my word collector. It is actually a plain white large calendar chart that I trimmed down. I then added bulletin board trimmer to the outside.

Here are my genre charts. I put them up with just one push pin, so that I can take them down when teaching the genres. I purchased them from Amanda Nickerson's store on Teachers Pay Teachers (One Extra Degree). My students loved these posters last year, and referred to them quite often.

Here is my calendar board, which I actually re-did twice! I was going to use a calendar chart with velcro, but I just couldn't part with my pocket chart. It's just so easy to move the cards from pocket to pocket each month. I'm really excited about the Fascinating Facts pad that I just purchased from Really Good Stuff!

This my writing board, which will contain both writing anchor charts, and choices for Work on Writing. I originally wanted to use pennants for the board title, but they took up way too much room and looked too "girly cute," so I cut them down to circles.

Finally, this is my social studies and science board, which will contain anchor charts and vocabulary for the units we are studying.

Here is a close-up of the letters. I purchase the black letters from Frog Street Press, and taped them to scrapbook paper.

Time spent at school this week: 11.5 hours
Cumulative Hours: 102.5