Last Year

 I guess I went MIA last year for... the whole year, but I took pictures of my classroom, and I would like to share them now.

Here was my room at the VERY beginning of the year.  You can't really tell from this picture, but most of those desks are the double wides.  Then some of them are normal (on the left side).  I didn't even have enough desks for  the amount of kids that I would be having.  I had 29 desks, but was getting 32 kids.  Notice the small table up there?  That was my solution.

Here is my reading rug area (although I didn't have a rug over there until a few weeks into school year.)  From here you can see my easel, my stuffed monkey, Markle Sparkle, my library, my calendar, all about me board, white boards, erasers, phonics phones, Journeys instructional cards and a weird hundreds chart (I won't be using that again).  

My library and my Workshop Way philosophy signs (see my Workshop Way post).

Another look at my reading rug area.  Notice the large black couch cushion... great for this year's alternative seating!

Here's my word wall... I got the cute zoo themed alphabet sign from Teachers Notebook.

My 'days of school place value board'.  Got the little holders from the Dollar Tree and just stapled them into the wall!

My wonderful library!  (They don't all have labels yet)

I love this!  I took all of my teaching resource books and put them in a bunch of magazine holders from Ikea.  Then made little labels and put a strip of contact paper across the whole thing.  Only... now as I have had to move rooms this year, the thing does not move well as one giant piece.  I wish I would have just wrapped them individually with contact paper.  Oh well, live and let learn.

Workshop Way puzzles and Thinkers, as well as a puzzle and Thinker lost and found and a book hospital!

This thing is nifty for centers or little activities.  The red cup on top holds like 25 sticks for the "What to do when you are done" problem.  I tell them to "pick a stick" and each stick coincides with a bin.  They take it back to their seats and  complete the activity quietly.  The blue mailbox on top holds Risk Sheets, 5 Across pages, and other Workshop Way tasks.

I set this up later in the year for supplies.  On top you will see The Prince (our pencil sharpener under the blue bucket... it says "Shh!  The Prince is sleeping!) and little containers for spelling words and word wall words.

Finally, I got rid of all the double wide desks and got normal ones!  Not to mention the fact that I lost a lot of kids and ended up with 24!  I put them into groups of four and put the supplies in the middle.  The teams got to pick out the animal team name, and each team was awarded points for appropriate behavior.  Each week the winning team got a trophy to sit at their desks for a whole day and they got to do "window paints" on one of my giant windows.  Quite the crowd pleaser.

Anyway, that was my room last year.  This year it will be very different because there will be NO DESKS!!  I will be doing alternative seating!  Check out my other posts to see how things are progressing!

Daily 5 Anchor Charts

I was going through my little workbook on Daily 5 that I got from the Conference that I went to a month ago.  I wanted to make a list of all the anchor charts that I would need to make in order to successfully launch Daily 5.  Obviously, I won't fill in the I charts until the students make the suggestions, but some of them I can make ahead of time.  Also I was thinking, that I can make the headings on the big paper pad in the order of which I will introduce the anchor chart.  I just don't like feeling scrambled to write something while I have kids watching me.  I always feel so rushed.

Anyways, here is the order of my anchor charts:

1. 3 ways to read a book
2. Read to self I chart
3. Where to sit (or how to find a spot to sit)
4. Good fit books
5. Work on writing I chart
6. What to write about (or how to choose a topic)
7. List of writing genres (or forms of writing)
8. List of word work materials
9. How to set up materials
10. How to use materials
11. How to clean up materials
12. Acceptable behaviors for listen to reading
13. How to use listening station materials
14. Read to someone I chart
15. EEKK (Elbow elbow knee knee)
16. How to choose a partner
17. Coaching strategies (how to coach your partner if they don't know a word)

** Read to self, work on writing, word work, listen to reading, read to someone**