Classroom Theme Linky

Today was my very last day to tidy up the room and run off copies for the official first day of school with students! I posted some photos of my classroom a few days ago, but for those of you who missed it I'll repost some of the images. Here is a panoramic view of my classroom this year. Please excuse the poor quality photos, I keep forgetting my camera at home (I also didn't have all of the lights on). 

I'm linking up with the fabulous Corinna from Surfin' Through Second for her:

Head on over to link up with her as well as to get some great ideas!! 

Here are some quick photos from my previous post..

Attendance Cards are double sided. When students come to school they flip it over to let me know they are Ready to Learn!

Genre posters

Daily 5 Rotations

Love these pocket charts from Target dollar section! 

Ran out of room so I had to velcro these charts to my desk! lol

Homework Club

CAFE and Daily 5 Boards

Student Work Display

Class Library (Forgot to snap full view shot)

Cubbies. I use the baskets above to collect all student work/homework

Math Resource Storage

If you are interested in the labels I used for my storage bins, you can pick up an editable copy here in my TPT store. :) 

Behavior Chart

Love this new organizer from Target!! Excuse the mess in that unlabeled blue bin...Those are my kids book bags (ziplock bags). The two binders in the lower right corner are unfinished work binders. 

Character Trait Board. Love these beautiful posters! I was planning on having the kids do a quick write each month about how they demonstrated the character trait. 

Love these pom poms!

So as you can see, I have extremely high ceilings!! If any of you are like me and wondering how in the world are you going to get those pom poms up there....the secret is.....

Yes! Command Hooks!! My fiancé was actually the genius behind this idea, so I can't take credit for this one :) He used my window opener (that long metal stick in almost every classroom in Hawaii) hung the command hook from the opener and stuck it onto the side of the ceiling beam. He then tied a fishing line loop and hung the pom poms. It was SO EASY! lol. 

Monday Made It, a Peek into my Class, and a FREEBIE Bloghop Sneak Peek!!

Hello out there! 

Tomorrow is officially my first day back at work, but I've been working throughout the entire summer changing up my classroom theme and getting it all ready for the first day. We actually don't get our students until the 5th of August, but we begin PD training and have 2 teacher work days. I am so happy for this, because this if the first time in 2 years we are getting paid to set up and train for PD. We will be heading to the Okinawan Cultural Center, and Pearl City Country Club on Thursday and Friday to learn about our new Teacher Evaluation program that is being piloted this year!! 

The past two years I've had a beach/ocean theme going on in my classroom. You can check those pictures out here and here. 

This year, I decided to switch it up...I asked my students what they'd like to see for next years theme and it was pretty unanimous that they would like RAINBOWs! SO instead of actual rainbows, I decided rainbow colors! AND..because the MR and I are really trying very hard to save money for our wedding (hopefully sometime next year!), I decided that I would use my summer days to work on creating my own things for my classroom. I've spent many days and hours creating, editing, printing, laminating, and cutting. Here are some of the things I've made. Linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for her weekly Monday Made it!

These are my labels that I used to label pretty much everything around my room. Love how they turned out! 

This area is where students turn in all of their work. White trays are regular class work and pink trays are for homework assignments. 

This is my cart that houses all of my copies for the week....

Some photos of my class library. I bought a TON of books this summer and also had a ton donated by some generous families who moved out of state. It took me so long to get them organized. I've finally found a set up on my bookshelves too that I like as well so that my students know exactly where to put the bins back on the shelf when they take them out to book shop. 

These are my two bulletin boards in the back by my library. My CAFE Board...totally in love with these colorful posters from Ginger Snaps. You can pick these posters up for free in her TPT Store.

The second board is where I will display student work. I love using scrapbook paper to display student work because you can easily put the work samples landscape or portrait and either way..it'll still have a nice border around it. 

My classroom doesn't have much wall space to put things up on...so I had to resort to using the door to display my Genre Posters by the amazing Beth Newingham! 

Speaking of having no room....I had NO ROOM AT ALL for my Daily 5 rotation charts! I was walking around my room today trying to figure out where I could hang my 3 charts and then I got a brilliant idea. 

I decided to velcro them to my teacher desk. This works out perfectly because 1. My desk is pretty ugly,  and 2. All students need to pass by here in order to go to their reading spots. 

This is what my charts look like. There are 3 charts, one for each rotation. The students will be dismissed by reading groups to go and make their daily choices. They will each have three of their name cards in their reading boxes/binders and will go and mark their choice on their way to their reading spot. 

Picked up those SUPER CUTE Daily 5 cards from Lori Rosenberg. I absolutely adore her work! You can find them in her tpt store as well for FREE! 

These charts fit perfectly across my desk!

I also hopped on the Homework Club bandwagon and decided to try this out. I've always had a difficult time with student turning in their  homework...so hopefully this will be some motivation! 

This is a board I set up for our character traits of the month. I was planning on having the kids do a writing assignment each month as to how they demonstrated that character trait. However, I found out that we weren't doing this this coming school year and just focusing on Habits of Mind instead. SO that means I'll be swapping this out tomorrow for my Math Rotations board. 

These are my attendance cards. They are double sided. When students come in, they flip their cards over to ready to learn. When they leave for the day they flip it back to the blank side. This will be an easy way for my attendance monitor to see who is absent. 

I'll be sharing some final pictures as I finish up my room in the next 2 days. 

Until then...please come back and visit me tomorrow for a bloghop that I have planned with some amazing bloggers who also live here in Hawaii. 

Daily 5 Checklist Freebie

This'll be a quick post because I need to head out for some groceries for tonight's dinner. I've been very busy today creating worksheets for my kids to use this week. I created a book that my students will be putting together this week to help them remember all of the non fiction text features. I'll try and share that later this week, or next weekend.

I needed to create some kind of checklist for my students to use to keep track of their daily 5 rotations. Students keep these checklists in the front of their daily 5 binders. Each day, they are required to check off whichever daily 5 choice they are working on for the day. Due to our schedules, some days we only have time for 1 rotation..but on other days we may have time for 3 rotations. This is an easy checklist for the students and myself to follow and keep track of. How do you keep track of your Daily 5 rotations?

Head to my TPT Store to pick up a free copy of this checklist! 

Have a great week!!

Calling ALL Daily 5 and CAFE Users

I've been busy working away at getting ready for the new school year. I officially head back to work next week Monday (for a voluntary data team meeting), Tues. and Weds are work days. Wednesday we get to meet our new students and the kids get an opportunity to drop off supplies. I have been busy setting up (still nowhere near done), writing out post cards to my 25 new students welcoming them to our class, introducing myself, and inviting them to meet and greet day. On top of that..I've been stressing about planning. I need to make sure that EVERYTHING is ready to walk into on the first day of school because Thurs. and Friday we have DLWOP days (directed leave without pay). This is basically a furlough..but with a different name :/ Anyways, my best friend had invited me to my home island, Maui for a weekend getaway at one of the most amazing and beautiful hotels! For those of you who have been to Maui, it's the Grand Wailea

This is one of their many pools

They also have a bunch of different water slides all over.

The coolest thing is that they have this bar in the pool!! I remember as a kid always going and being so excited to order an oreo milkshake!! This will be my first time actually ordering an adult beverage there..so I'm looking forward to that!! They also have booths further into the cave....

ANYWAYS..before I can get to there, I need to finish planning for the school year. I'm stuck planning at home and haven't' been in school because..I'm getting sick :(. I came home from working in my room on Monday and felt really weak, had the chills, and had a really bad headache. My boyfriend came home and took my temp. I had 99.9. Not so bad. I took a nyquil and went straight to bed. I was so uncomfortable in my sleep and was freezing yet burning up. I woke up at 5 because I needed some ice cold water..I was just too hot (especially with Hawaii weather and no AC). I had a 102 fever. NOW my throat hurts :( I've luckily been able to keep the fever and chills at a minimum by taking some aspirin. SOOO as I'm planning..I need some help from all of you Daily 5 and CAFE users. I know this is the perfect time to shout out for some help, since I know so many are reading the book this summer and jumping aboard. I

This year I really want to begin implementing Daily 5 and CAFE. I remember in my student teaching days, the first time I was placed into a public school classroom that used a basal; I was so disappointed! I went home and vividly remember telling my mom that I HATED the basal, especially those awful workbooks!! I felt that the students weren't even being challenged and that they didn't care or try when doing the pages. They did it without thinking and it had no meaning to them.

Fast forward a few years..and I'm guilty to say that I am a basal user :( When I entered my grade as a new (fresh out of college) teacher, my gl was HUGE on common assessments and specifically said that i NEED to use it. We have spent the past two years creating common assessments for our basal stories..and this past year we worked on changing them all to fit the common core standards. As a first year teacher, I felt safe using it. I was really glad to have it because I felt like I had no idea what to teach, how to teach, and what the students needed to know/where expected to do. This past school year..my feelings have changed. I had an extremely low group of readers. The basal did NO GOOD. Just as the sisters say, students need to choose books that interest them that are at their level. Some in my grade level do not agree, and feel that they need to be reading at their grade level. That is the reason I continued the basal my second year. The students struggled, didn't understand the stories, weren't interested (heck, I'm not even interested in those stories..and I love to read!). Most of the language block was spent explaining the story to them in my own words and me getting very frustrated. I felt that it did not help them at all :( I felt horrible as a teacher. During the last few weeks we began reading Charlotte's Web. The students LOVED this story and for many..(I hate to admit) it was probably their first time REALLY reading a chapter book and being engaged in what they were reading. I saw so much growth in the last few weeks than I did the entire year. Because of this, I decided to take a stand...I put on my big girl pants, and announced to my grade level I was probably going to ditch our basal for Daily 5 and CAFE.

I've been doing my reading and have a few questions for those of you who are experienced in using this in your classroom.

1. How do you do assessments?? I've been hearing people talk about DRA's (I have no idea what that is?!)

2. For those of you who are in testing grades, have you seen a significant improvement in scores since you have been implementing daily 5/CAFE compared to the days of using a basal?

3. I was thinking of assigning the basal stories for homework and maybe one constructed response question a night based on the story. Then on Friday giving them our grade level assessment. That way we still do have common assessments..What are your thoughts on this??

I would REALLY appreciate your help on this because I'm really stressing about starting this. I have kind of figured out a schedule that I would like to use. I don't have as much time for my language block (about 90 minutes). I would love to hear what your schedule looks like. I'm nervous about not being able to help my students..I don't consider myself a strong reading teacher. I really LOVE teaching math and that comes easy for me. Reading on the other hand has always been a struggle. I love to read and as a child I loved to read. BUT I was that child that when given something I did not choose, I did not understand one word. I read beautifully but didn't understand what I read..yet none of my teachers really taught me comprehension....I keep telling myself that just the time alone of being able to get real reading done will help my students. I thought about it and really..I don't give real reading time. It's always used as a time filler or to keep them busy.