Open House-Twins and Facebook!

In order to jazz up our Open House I had my student's create "twins" of themselves.

I created a tracer for the head and body, and for the t-shirts.
Students were allowed to "cut" their own hair and decorate their t-shirts any way that they wanted to.

While we cut, colored, and decorated we had fun listening to some Disney music!

Once the students left for the day, I used wooden rulers and packing tape to secure their "twins" to their seats.

 

 

 

Since their "twins" laid flat against the seat parents were able to come in that evening and sit down without worrying about ruining their twins. It was so much fun to watch the parents "find" their children when they arrived for open house.

 

 

 

 

During open house I walked parents through a "Day in the Life of Third Grade" and how we are transitioning to the Common Core and computerized testing. I made sure to print out copies of my PowerPoint for each family. Students whose parents did not attend brought home the print out the next day and I linked it to our class website.

 

While waiting for the PowerPoint parents were able to read their student's "Facebook" pages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I created the student's "Fakebook" pages in Microsoft Word. I added a "cover picture" that was similar to the sign on our door and created a "conversation" between myself and the student.

 

I printed their "Fakebook" pages in black and white on letter sized paper first. I let students answer questions about their favorite foods, books, etc. I checked their drafts for errors then they copied their answers, in pen, onto the colored versions of "Fakebooks" that were printed on legal sized paper.

 

The students, especially the ones who had older siblings who were on the real Facebook, LOVED the activity. They were so excited to have their parents come in and read their "pages"

 

Now that I have created the template, and students are familiar with it, I am thinking it will be easy to modify in the future for "Famous" people! I can't wait to revisit it in some of our Social Studies/Biography Units.

 

Click here to get your template!

 

 

After open house, I left the "twins" sitting in the student's chairs so they could see them when they came in the next morning.

 

The student's loved seeing their classroom "full" of their twins. I snapped a ton of cute pics of students with their twins to put on our classroom blog. Parents LOVED them.

 

Since our first unit in Writer's Workshop is related to autobiographies, I used the twins and Facebook pages to create a quick bulletin board. My students loved showing off their Facebook pages!

 

 

 

 

All Hands On Deck! Pirate Job Chart & Description

 

 

All hands on deck!! All hands on deck!!

 

After dividing my giant bulletin board into three sections

(CAFE Menu, Class Contract, and Job Chart)

 

I wrestled yellow (fadeless!) paper onto the last chunk to brighten it up and display my job board.

 

Again I used my favorite dollar store find of ocean boarders and dressed it up with some fish from Oriental Trader.

(See previous posts for more info about those)

 

Keeping with the themed signs around my room I titled my job chart "All Hands on Deck" using the sane beach-y chalkboard labels I used in the rest of the room.

 

In order to keep things simple I only have six jobs in my room.

I have seen some classes that have enough jobs for a student to have a job everyday but for my management style it is much easier to just rotate jobs once a week.

 

In my job chart packet (click here for yours!)

I included blank outlines of boat anchors. I wrote the names of my students on the anchors and used clear thumbtacks (another love of mine!) to secure them to the board.

 

I randomly assign a student to each job, and sometimes two to post master.

 

Jobs:

First Mate:

Basically my teacher's helper. My first mate brings down the lunch count and notes to the office, helps me lead our morning meeting (more details on that here), assists with calendar time, and acts as my line leader.

 

Ship's Librarian:

Responsible for making sure our library looks neat and tidy. Also responsible for checking periodically to make sure books are in the right bins. Since I allow students to return the books from their book bags themselves it is helpful to have another set of eyes making sure materials are placed back correctly so we can find them in the future.

 

Ship's Reporter:

My newest and the job I am most excited about this year! This helper is responsible for writing a blog post for our class blog at the end of the week. Throughout the week I use my iPad and iPhone to take pictures and upload them to our blog but I LOVE LOVE LOVE having a student perspective. They can pick anything they want to write about (that we did that week) and I help them find/take pictures to add to their posts. I love seeing what they took away from the week and parents LOVE reading it when their children are the "Ship's Reporter"

 

Quartermaster:

This student is responsible for the organization of our community school supplies and sharpening our pencils. Nothing annoys me more than a student interrupting a lesson because they do not have a pencil or loudly sharpening a pencil when we are having a discussion. So each morning, and if need be during snack or break times, the Quartermaster takes pencils from the "need to sharpen bin" sharpens them and places them in the "good to go bin." The Quartermaster also takes a minute to check that extra glue, crayons, pens, and dry erase markers are in the proper bins. When students need a pencil they simply drop their old pencil in the "need to sharpen bin' and grab a ready-to-go pencil.

 

Postmaster:

One of my favorite jobs! I hate spending my time sorting mail into students mailboxes--especially when it's not just a flyer but something with their names on it--or putting things into their portfolios--yuck! So that is the job of my postmasters. Before school or during snack they sort the papers and flyers into students mailboxes. Love, love, love! In order to make sure we don't fall behind on handing back papers I normally have two students assigned to this job.

 

Boatswain:

The last of my classroom jobs--and possibly the simplest. The boatswain is around to make sure our floors and cubbies look clean. If not they remind tables and friends to tidy up!

 

 

 

 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pirate-Themed-Job-Chart-919151

Whalen--A Whale To Help Kinesthetic Learners With Fact Fluency

 

 

Whalen is a class favorite!!

 

I snagged him off of Amazon.com back in the spring along with the inflatable pool he sits in.

 

Wal*Mart was a great place to find the ball-pit balls.

 

Each ball has a different math fact-to start the year I only have addition and subtraction balls in the pit.

 

In order to help me differentiate I tried to use "cool colors" for subtraction and "warm colors" for addition--so I can quickly grab a type of fact and throw it at a student.

 

I use it as a quick check in and students can dig out facts as a math station as well.

 

It is a great classroom management tool--students quite down the minute they see me with the fact balls--only quiet students get a ball thrown their way.

 

Every now and then I use Whalen. The balls pop out of his spout and the students catch them.

 

SOOOOO much fun!

 

A tip I picked up I need to do?

After writing on the balls with permanent markers seal the writing with clear nail polish!

 

Even though I remind my students to hold the ball where there writing isn't it is still rubbing off.

So that'll be my next project, coating the writing in clear nail polish.

 



 

Word Work-On A Cruise Ship of Course!-FREEBIE ALERT

 

Word Work (or Work on Words) is one of my favorite Daily Five stations!

 

It is ALWAYS  a popular one with the students as well.

 

Why? Because they get to plan a ton of really fun games while working on their vocabulary, grammar, and spelling skills!

 

It's been slow going but we've learned almost all of our word work stations.

 

Current favorite?

 

Word Wall Bingo

(version one-second grade words, check a future blog post for my 3rd grade spelling words!)

 

Scoop and Spell

 

Trace It, Write It, Add It

(version one-second grade words, check a future blog post for my 3rd grade spelling words!)

 

Sight Word Bingo *Fairy Tale Style*

(works with reading comprehension and sight word recognition! kid favorite!)

 

Puzzler

(great for the hands on learner!)

 

ABC Order

 

Memory Match

(check future posts for vocabulary word/definition cards to use!)

 

 

Check my future blog posts for more FREEBIES including vocabulary cards to use

& information on CrabBoggle!!

 

 

Super cute buckets from the dollar store to keep with the underwater/beach theme!

 

 



 

 

 Hanging seahorses?? DOLLAR TREE <3

 

I had three extra cubbies so I chose to use them for word work--seeing the activities gets the students super excited, and I like that I have free counter space and they can easily get all of their materials.

 

Check back soon for a freebie with my Disney Cruise Line Word Work Labels!

 

xoxo

Front of the House--I mean classroom--FREEBIE alert

 

Above my whiteboard you'll notice my super cute alphabet from Oriental Trader.

The perfect alphabet for my underwater themed classroom.

 

My biggest obsession this year is the roll of magnetic backing from Michael's.

With my teacher discount and a 40% coupon I spent maybe 6 dollars for several yards of magnets.

I used them to jazz up the front of my classroom.

 

I call my class schedule our "cruise itinerary"

(click here to get yours!)

Each morning I take a minute to make sure our schedule lines up with my lesson plans.

It helps me focus and think about the day and the students like seeing what is next.

It is really helpful when trying to build independence. It gives me a place to send students when they ask questions about the flow of our day and our routines.

 

I also use it as a discussion point during our morning meeting when we review what we are going to do that day.

 

Learning targets! Putting your objective in child friendly words and commuting with students how they will know when they are successful. I had to mix in a little Disney cruise line flair here--check out my mickey in the middle of my targets!

 

Each day I write my targets on the board, we discuss them at the beginning, middle,

 and end of every lesson

 

(click here to get yours!)

 

I even put  magnets on the back of my calendar--it makes switching the months super quick and easy.

 

The number and ocean magnets are also from Oriental Trader. I got a HUGE bag for less than $5! 

 

I'm so happy I have extra white board space--magnets are SO much easier than tape, tacks, and staples!

 

 

Underwater Library--FREEBIE ALERT

Sadly, I spent a decent portion of my summer days working on leveling my library.

The benefit? Much easier to book shop with my students and teach them independence in book shopping.

Currently we use guided reading levels, but as I went through I also wrote the Lexile level on my books since rumor has it we are switching school wide to lexile levels in the near future. (Work smarter, not harder!)

While checking out different websites for leveling books I stumbled across my new favorite website!
http://classroom.booksource.com/

This website has a great companion app that works on the iPad and the iPhone and allows you to scan the books in your library.

Once you scan the book it will tell you the guided reading, DRA, and lexile level--then you can add the book to your library.

After books are added to your library you can use your iPhone or iPad to check them out to students! I LOVE this feature--I can track what genre and levels my students are choosing to read and families know what books are in our library so students can plan ahead what they might want to choose next to add to their book bags.

Plus if I need a book for a read-aloud etc. I can check what student has my book. Love, Love, Love!

 

While I leveled my books by guided reading level and color

(I use a combination of two websites to level my books http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/ and http://www.lexile.com/ when I can only find either a Guided Reading OR Lexile level I use the conversion chart http://www.readinga-z.com/readinga-z-levels/level-correlation-chart/ from Reading A-Z since we use Raz-Kids and give the DRA as an assessment!)

 

Pink: K and under

Orange: L and M

Yellow: N

Green: O

Blue:P

Purple: Q and up

 

 

My book bins are organized by author, genre, or interests

Examples:

"Touched by the Teacher" books that are special to me, or I may use for read aloud etc.

"Rainbow Fish Books" books in the Rainbow Fish series

"Chapter Books about School" a basket of chapter books that are set in schools

 

 

My baskets are a mix from "Really Good Stuff" (http://www.reallygoodstuff.com/book-and-binder-holder-with-stabilizer-wing/p/159490/) for my blue bins

And my baskets are my favorite shape from Dollar Tree!

I used commercial strength packing tape to secure my labels to my blue bins, and used one inch binder rings to secure my labels to the Dollar Tree bins.

I LOVE binder rings--I've easily gone through 200 setting up my room and stations...

 

 

 

This bench ones was on my favorite Target finds late this summer.

The cushion was ugly so I covered it with some cute fish fabric from Wal*Mart.

 

 

 

Around the tables that I use to hold my book bins I "dressed" them with an underwater skirt from Oriental Trader.

 

I love the fun feel it gives to my room, and it makes my library and circle area feel like a nice separate nook!

 

I love having morning meeting  and mini lessons in the library nook--it's just so cozy!!

(click here to get my morning meeting packet)

 

To complete the fun underwater theme in my library I found this GREAT reading tent from

Oriental Trader (http://www.orientaltrading.com/under-the-sea-canopy-tent-a2-58_5015-12-1.fltr?Ntt=reading)

 

And this super cute Buzz and Woody table and chair set from a Benny's store near me--on sale for $10.25 this past summer. What a find!

 

A close up of my reading labels! Click below to get your FREEBIE

(editable!!)

 

Click here to download