And the Winners are...

First and foremost, I apologize that I am now just getting around to posting the winners from the giveaway.  Things have been a bit chaotic in my world to say the least. 

Without further waiting, here are the two winners-



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats ladies!  I will be sending your prize packs your way as soon as possible. 

Thank you everyone who entered!  I cannot even begin to express how much this whole blogging experience has made me into a better teacher and has created friendships with other teachers that I would never had made.  I appreciate each and every one of you for stopping by, reading, and leaving comments.  It all means the world to mean!

With lots of love and hugs,
Erin

The Beginning of Addition, Engaged Graphing, and a Reminder!

 

It is terribly cold here in WI!  When I say "terribly cold" I'm talking in the negative numbers with wind chill.  My owls have been stuck inside all week due to this extreme cold, but I really must say they are handling it well.  We will see how next week goes, seeing as it the week just before winter break.  :)

In math, I have slowly been exposing my owls to the idea of addition.  We did some vocabulary introduction and a little dice in dice action to get warmed up.  The owls nailed it!  Today we stepped it up a notch and did some actual "here is a group of objects" and "here is a group of objects" and what is the sum work.  I did this through some winter themed, hands on fun.  Each owl got two foam snowmen, a bag with 12 cubes, and a die.  They rolled the die and that was the number of cubes that went on the first snowman.  They rolled again and that was the number of cubes that went on the second snowman.  They then counted all the cubes by moving the cubes onto the carpet above the snowman.  The owls LOVED this and caught on really quick!  Teacher's dream!

 

 

In a math station this week, I wanted to have my owls do a little independent graphing.  This is what was inside the station basket- a superhero spinner set, a princess spinner set, and the graphing pages.  The owls picked which spinner and graph they wanted to work with and away they went.  Super easy and the owls loved being able to make a choice.

 

 

 

Please note that when my owls turn in recording pages, I don't just collect them and check for right answers.  They have to answer questions for me first, so I can check for actual understanding.  :)  If you would like the spin and graph set, click on any of the pictures and download it for free.

 

Don't forget that my one year blogiversary giveaway is still going on.  It ends this Saturday so make sure to click HERE and enter for your chance to win one of two amazing prize packs!

 

~Erin

 

 

 



Tackling Social Studies While Teaching Writing

I will be honest with all of you, I have struggled with how to fit everything into my day for many of my years as a teacher.  The sad reality is that the amount of "work" we have to do is not decreasing, it is instead doing just the opposite.  Knowing that the additional paperwork and mandates are not going away anytime soon, I really have been looking at different ways to tie subjects and even skills together to cover more. 

This week during our scheduled ELA/Writing block, I did just that.  I pulled in a topic (families) that is normally a Social Studies focus and taught it along with some writing/ELA skills. 

We began our week of crossing the curriculum with just some basic brainstorming.  I asked the owls to think of all the people that would be part of one's family.  These people are people whom we care about, take care of, and love dearly.  The owls started by doing a quick think to themselves, then turned to their knee partners, then to a small group of 4, and then we finally shared out to the whole group.  While the owls listed the family members they came up with, I wrote them on our Smartboard and they each had a paper to write the list on as well.  This kept all my owls engaged even the ones who were not providing answers.

 

Next day we reviewed our family members list and introduced the word adjectives.  We discussed what an adjective is, examples of adjectives, and when we might use them in our writing.  The owls thought of different adjectives to describe their families.  We went through the same process of brainstorming and sharing as the previous day, along with me writing on the Smartboard and each owl writing on their own papers.

 

The following days were spent talking about sentence structure and how we could use our brainstorming pages to build sentences.  I would think aloud and model how to write a sentence and then the owls would get a turn.  To help them feel a bit more comfortable with the idea of sentences, we said our sentences aloud before writing them.  In the end, most owls had three complete sentences on their papers. 

 

On the last day, we made those adorable little faces to put with all of our writing.  I simply traced the bottom part of a container of wipes to get a circle and the owls cut them out.  Each owl was allowed to pick the size google eyes he/she wanted and the girls got a pair of pink lips and the boys a mustache.  Those were just foam stickers that needed the paper peeled from the back.  The hair was cut from small, black construction paper rectangles.  The girls cut their pieces into long, thin strips and the boys small strips.  Love how each one looks just like the owl who created it.  :)

 

 

So basically for the whole week we focused on a Social Studies topic and still worked on improving our writing at the same time.  I would call that a successful week!  The owls were super proud of their writing as well!

 

On a different subject, don't forget to enter my 1 year blogiversary giveaway that is happening right now through to next Saturday.  I will be giving away two fabulous prize packs!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck and enjoy the rest of your Sunday!  We are currently getting  hit with snow, so I will be heading outside soon to shovel.  Nothing beats the workout you get from shoveling.  Haha!

~Erin

 







It's Giveaway Time!

Hi all of my wonderful followers! 

 

It is with good news that I am posting today. 

 

I have gotten all the goodies together for my 1 year "blogiversary."

 

Here we go...

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Make sure to enter through the rafflecopter for your chance to win one of these amazing prize packs!

 

This giveaway will run from today until next week Saturday! 

 

Good Luck,

Erin

 

(backgrounds are from Ashley Hughes and border is from Graphics From the Pond)

 

 

Gearing Up for Winter!?!

As I have mentioned in previous posts, my little owls cannot get enough of "BANG!" like games.  Whenever we have a few spare minutes or just need to take a bit of break, I will pull out one of our many versions of this game and play.

Keeping this in mind, I quickly put together the following to work on our sight words and to keep with a snow-like theme.

 

I have included two different sized sets of sight word cards, number word cards, and color word cards.  I also offered another suggestion for use in a pocket chart.  There are also two different recording pages to hold your littles accountable if this is placed in a workstation.  Those pages also work for simple writing practice as well!  Best part- easy to prep, loads of engagement, and FUN!

 

Click the picture above to take a look at this product in my TPT store.  This is on sale for 20% off, along with everything in my store, through tomorrow.  If you are taking advantage of the big TPT sale, remember to use the code CYBER at checkout to save even more.

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

~Erin



It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like....A Sale!

Over the past few days, I have stepped away from my teaching role and got things in my house ready for a visit from that ever so famous man, Santa.  Let me tell you, the minute the tree was lit, my little man has asked each day if Santa is going to be here.  I may or may not go crazy if I have to hear that little question every day until he actually does come.  :)  I also managed to get all of my shopping done as well.  Nothing like a few days away from the classroom to get life back on track. 

All of you in blogging land are probably very well aware of this but TPT is having a cyber Monday and Tuesday sale.  I will be putting my entire store on sale for 20% off.  Then when checking out, don't forget to add the TPT promo code, CYBER, to get even more savings.  What a sweet deal!?!

What are you waiting for?  Click the picture below and fill up those carts!

 

 

Enjoy your last hours before heading back to school tomorrow!

 

~Erin

 

Numbers, Numbers, and More Numbers

We are reaching that point in the year where I expect my owls to have a strong handle on numbers, not only identifying them but really understanding them.  I really focus on numbers and sprinkle in other math skills, like shapes and basic measurement, up to this point because I dive into addition after our little Thanksgiving break.  We will still work on numbers in math stations, but my whole group instruction with them is now on the back burner.

To have a bit more fun with our last days of numbers, we have been playing around and working with the two following activities-

For this activity, the owls spin a spinner with numbers they needed work on and then built the number onto a ten frame mat.  Super simple and little prep needed!

My owls L-O-V-E playing this game!  We started the year out by playing the alphabet version of this game and the owls were beyond engaged.  When I brought out the math edition, they went crazy!!!  To play- Divide the class into two teams.  Two players come up at a time and each will get a "splatter" (fly swatter.)  Teacher calls out a number and the first player to "splat" the correct number gets the point.  Again, super simple and little prep needed!

 

Click on the pictures to take a better look at the activity in my TPT store.

 

~Erin

 

Teen Numbers

My owls are in full swing with their learning about teen numbers.  Each year, these teen numbers provide a not so pleasant bump in our learning.  :(  On the positive side of this, my owls are not letting the teen numbers get them down this year.  They are working hard to get them down and to push ahead. 

When I noticed that these particular numbers were going to cause some issues, I went ahead and found everything I could that dealt with teen numbers.  I have at least one if not two math workstations that include an activity that revolves around either identifying the teen numbers or counting the teen numbers.  We are definitely working them until they are stuck in our heads!

I put together this little activity and introduced it with this past week's stations.  The owls are having a blast with it.  Right now I have them identifying the teen number, counting the pictures until they find a match, and then using buttons to double check their counting.  Here's what it looks like in action!

 

Click on either of the pictures to grab this simple yet engaging station for free in my TPT store. 

 

I have a couple sets of these cards printed and I'm thinking that after our little Thanksgiving break, we will play "Go Fish" with the cards.  Otherwise, my owls love a good game of "Memory," so that is always a possibility.  The truth is that there are so many options with just one set of cards, you just have to really go by what your students are showing an interest in. 

 

~Erin

What Do You Do With Those Spare Minutes??

As the end of our first trimester grows closer and closer, the pressure to get my owls to a level of proficient is definitely setting in.  The best way I can handle my stress levels and not overwhelming my owls is by literally using every minute of the day.  Now I'm sure this is nothing new to most of you but I thought I would share just what this looks like in our world.

We take two whole class bathroom breaks each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  Our school is an older building so its layout is not one of a functional manner.  The boys bathroom is on the same side as our classroom and the girls bathroom is on the complete other side of the school.  Envision the letter u and that is the shape of our building!!!  Due to this layout, our bathroom breaks take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes.  In the world of learning, those are valuable minutes that are simply being used to walk from one bathroom to another.  YIKES!  To make this time more academic and productive, I grab a set of flashcards and away we go. 

This week's focus has simply been letter recognition, so I grab our letter flashcards as we leave the room.  As the owls use the bathroom, the ones waiting in line are whispering the letters that I hold up.  We usually can make it through the entire alphabet three times.  My owls get a kick out of this little extra learning time and I can't help but smile while they whisper those letters to me.

If you are looking for a simple set of alphabet cards to work on letters during tomorrow's bathroom break, click on the picture and grab yourself a freebie set!

~Erin

Five For Friday!

I'm slowly getting back into a groove of blogging regularly again.  Now that I just typed that, I will probably fall off the bandwagon.  Please hold me to this regular blogging business.  :)

To end this week, I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her fun Five for Friday linky.  Click the button below to check out other randomness that has happened this week.

 

1-  I have blogged T-H-R-E-E times in one week!  Yes, this may seem small to some but to me and my scattered posting schedule this school year, this is a huge milestone!  Go ME!

 

2-  I agreed to be part of my school's Biggest Loser competition and I'm so glad that I did.  It has given me a great reason to finally kick my soda habit.  I haven't had a soda in over a week and a half!  I've lost two pounds just from that.

 

3-  I realized that I have hit my one year blogging marker.  I'm currently working on getting a giveaway together.  If you would like to contribute, please leave a comment with this post.  Thanks!

 

4-

This was our shared writing piece this week.  We are focusing on "zooming" in our ideas.  We started with a big idea of school, narrowed it down to recess, and then narrowed it down to this.  (We play on the monkey bars.)  Forgive the sideways pictures and the terrible drawing.  My owls are really grabbing ahold of writing this year and are really giving it a good try as far as sounding out words.

 

5- 

We worked on 4 shapes this week (circle, square, triangle, and rectangle.)  We talked about the number of sides, corners, and where in the "real world" we might see the shapes.  As an assessment piece today, I put out different building materials at each of the tables and the owls were given 5 minutes at each table to build the shapes with the materials provided.  The above picture shows some pretzel and marshmallow shapes.

 

Enjoy your weekend!

 

~Erin

Now I Know My 123's

Just like with the alphabet, I start my math with a quick number recognition activity.  This again is a quick, action packed 5 minutes and it is done.  It wakes up their brains and gets them thinking "math" in the afternoon.

During this fast paced time, I use dot plates, ten frames, five frames, number cards, fingers, counting the circle, basically anything that is fast, fun, and number oriented.  I recently brought in this little activity and the owls ate it up.  The owls are big fans of any BANG like game, so this was an instant hit.

All I did was printed and laminated the numbers I wanted the owls to focus on with a few additional challenging numbers, hot glued them to wide craft sticks, and POOF! I had a fun game that allowed my owls to get the extra number practice they needed.  The trick is to put small Velcro pieces at the bottom of each stick and on the back of the "coned" cards, so you can change what numbers have the game ending piece.

My little man has lots of construction trucks, so I just found a small enough one that I could fit the sticks in and we pushed it around the circle as we played.  (Sorry, I didn't get any pictures.  Silly camera battery died!)

Click on the picture to download this super fun and super free game for your little ones!  Comments/feedback always appreciated.  :)  (The dot cards and ten frames I use during this time can also be found in my TPT store.)

~Erin

* I also noticed that I have been blogging over a year now.  Boy, time flies when you are having fun.  If you would like to help out with a giveaway in the very near future for this milestone, please leave me a comment.  Thank you in advance!

Now I Know My ABC's

At the start of each month, I pull my little owls one by one over to me to quickly assess their letter identification and letter sounds.  When I look at letter identification, it is for upper and lowercase letters.  In the past, it has taken my owls a good portion of the year to get to the point where they have mastered the letters.  (This is with having a full year of all day K4!) 

To get this year's owls ahead of the game, I now start my literacy time with a quick 5 minute alphabet focused activity.  Some days are simple things like saying the alphabet forward on the alphabet chart, saying it backward on the alphabet chart, or starting at a random letter on the alphabet chart.  Other days are a bit more involved like playing a game of BANG!  Whatever the activity may be, it is timed so it stays quick.  Even if the game isn't finished, we pack it up and move on.  Remember, this is about letter identification so it is all about naming those letters.

I have a couple freebies that my owls have loved so far this year and I wanted to share them with you.  I have worked these into our schedule by playing them once a week for a month, unless the game is really popular, I might throw it in twice a week.

 

Click on the individual pictures to grab your freebies!  Feedback and comments are always appreciated.  :)

 

 

Obviously, there are many other things that can be done with the alphabet, but these few are some favorites of the owls so far.

 

~Erin

 

Letters + Construction = Engaged K5 Boys

So I had a few boys last month that just were not getting into literacy workstations.  They were basically zooming their way through the work and then either just sitting there or finding ways to "entertain" themselves.  We all know what that means!  I have never seen so much nose picking and finger licking as I had during the month of October. 

With that being said, I took a step back and looked at what I was putting in my literacy workstations.  I really needed to make it more "boy" friendly.  What I had put in there was by no means bad, it just wasn't as engaging for the "boys" boy.  Once I knew that was what I needed, I let my mind take over.  After several days and while watching my little man playing with his toys, the creative light bulb came.  I was going to pull together letter identification/word work and construction.  P-E-R-F-E-C-T!

This little pack was born from that idea!  I put together a set of construction themed capital and lowercase letter cards that can be used for a construction version of bang, a letter identification activity, a letter size match up, or a word building activity.  Different recording pages are included for the various activities as well.

This is what I did in my classroom just for letter identification.

Dirt in bucket and little construction toys!  Engaged owls, check!

 

To make sure the owls were working and not just having a blast digging through the dirt, they had to write down the letters they found. 

 

Side note-I had two different buckets out, one with just capital letters that we had discussed in class and that all the owls knew and one that had a mixture of capital and lowercase letters, known and not.

 

If you think that your boys would enjoy something like this, click on any of the above pictures to grab it from my TPT store. 

 

For fun, I will send it to the first 5 comments I get on this post!  I have really been slacking on this whole blogging thing lately and I want you to know that I haven't forgotten about all you wonderful followers.  :)

 

~Erin



A Little Look at Math!

Happy Sunday!  This week was parent/teacher conferences and to say that was exhausting is an understatement.  Thankfully, we were given Friday off to attempt to catch up on sleep and everyday life.  However, the catching up on sleep part doesn't typically happen in our house especially with a little 3 year old man running around.  He has other plans for his day with mommy!  :)  Love him so much! 

I am finally planned for next week's full week of learning and wanted to share some super easy and inexpensive math workstations that the owls will be doing.  The little man was my tester and was having a blast so I am certain my owls will get a kick out of them as well!

First one up is a super simple, very little prep, identifying numbers and one to one correspondence.  The large felt pumpkin is from the Dollar Store, as are the pumpkin seeds.  The little pumpkin bucket is a Target dollar find.  The little cards I made quickly to add an extra learning piece.  The owls pull out a pumpkin number card, identify the number, and count out the matching number of pumpkin seeds.  SIMPLE but effective!  *Pumpkin cards are programmed for numbers 1 - 20, which will allow for challenges.*

Second one is another simple, very little prep, counting workstation.  Pumpkin bucket again is from Target dollar spot, the black "tree" is from the Dollar Tree, and the little owls are from Hobby Lobby.  This time, the owls roll a die or dice depending on abilities and count out the matching number of owls.



Third one is simple and requires little prep.  Spider bucket is from the Target dollar spot, felt web from Jo-Ann Fabrics as well as the spider buttons, and the pocketed cubes I bought in Vegas (forgot the vendor.)  Focus once again is on identifying numbers and one to one correspondence.  The owls roll the cube, identify the number, and count out the matching number of spiders.  *I do have another cube programed with higher numbers for the owls that need a challenge.*

This last one is a freebie in my TPT store.  Click the picture to go snag it!  This is for identifying numbers and for putting them in counting order.  I included numbers 1 to 20 and four different recording pages to allow all learners to feel successful. 

 

Hope you found something that you can use this week or next! 

 

~Erin

More apples and a freebie!

I must begin this post with a big thank you to the few that left comments on the last post!  Thank you for taking time out of your day or night to read this here blog and to leave a comment.  I have emailed you each a copy of the "Letter Pickin" activity.  Enjoy!

Like I had mentioned in my last post, I am introducing themes a week in advance this year with the whole class and then adding it into their workstations the following weeks.  Today for our whole group math lesson we used the following poem to work on numbers and the idea of taking away.

http://www.alphabet-soup.net/dir2/applesong.html

 

You can click on the picture to go to the website where I found the poem.  All I did was type it up and put it onto a large piece of posterboard.  If you look closely, you will see that there is a small piece of Velcro in the first spot.  This is where the numbers were changed as apples fell down.  After we read through the poem, I called on owls to tell me what the new number was and to find the correct number card. 

 

To make this more concrete, the owls each drew a tree and were given five "apples" to start with in the tree.  As we read the poem, we moved apples down out of the tree to allow for counting and visualizing.

I also got a little jump on next week's planning and put together a simple reader that stuck with our apple theme but also helped reinforce our work with the sight words I, like, the and color words.  Head over to my TPT store and grab it for free!

Have a wonderful evening and remember tomorrow is WEDNESDAY!
~Erin

Apples, Bears, OH MY!

Happy Sunday All!  I'm enjoying a lovely Sunday with loads of laundry, cleaning, and lesson planning.  Oh the life I lead!  ;)

This coming school week is going to be filled with Brown Bear themed activities in workstations and apple learning in Science.  I've been sticking to introducing a theme a week in advance and doing as much whole group teaching as I can with it and then leaving the "fun" and "cute" activities in their workstations for the next week.  It has made my planning a little easier so far this year! 

While I was planning and thinking ahead, I got to thinking about the needs of some of my owls.  I wanted to create something that would fit with an apple theme but would also allow for some additional practice.  Some of my owls are still having trouble with distinguishing between capital and lowercase letters, so I figured I would focus there.  With this focus, blossomed the following creation.

 

Click on the picture to take a look at what is included!  I'm super excited about this activity! 

 

Because I am feeling so excited for this activity, I would like to give it away to one lucky follower!  Leave me a comment with your favorite apple activity to do in the classroom along with your email address and I will pick a winner at random Tuesday night!  Good luck!

 

~Erin

 

Numbers vs. Letters

Hold onto your hats ladies and gentlemen, I am about to blog!  :) 

Once again, time has gotten away from me and I haven't been able to get anything up on here.  I ended up getting a 24 hour flu bug over the weekend, which turned into a head cold, which led me to the state of exhaustion that I currently find myself in.  Enough whining and belly aching from me, let us get to the good stuff.

Before school started I bought this absolutely adorable book and knew that I would be reading it several times at the start of the year. 

Oh my word!  If you haven't seen this book, please do yourself a favor and click on the picture.  The book is an argument between the number 1 and the letter A on what the book is really about, a number book or a letter book.  It goes back and forth introducing numbers to 26 and the entire alphabet. 

Perfect for helping your little ones see the difference between numbers and letters and how they are used.

The first time we read the book, I used two hula hoops and simply labeled one letters and one numbers.  The owls took turns pulling a card from a bucket, telling the class if it was a letter or a number, and sorting it into the correct hula hoop.

The second time, I gave each owl the following page to sort independently and to use as a simple assessment piece.  Click on the picture to download this for yourself!

 

Please let me know if you have any trouble with the download. 

 

Enjoy the rest of your week!

 

~Erin

I'm Still Here!

Sorry all!  I have been so very neglectful to this little blog o' mine.  I assure you that I am going to attempt to get better seeing as the school year is in full swing and my little owls are really getting the hang of things.  I believe the part that has thrown me into disorganization with blogging is that our day was extended by an hour.  Now you may be reading that and saying to yourself, "An hour, so what?!?"  Well, that is one less hour each day I have with my family, which is making my juggling everything difficult right now.  I will get better with time and I will get back in the swing of things, please just be patient with me.  :)

Today was day 15 for us.  I have 15 amazingly sweet little owls this year.  They have such kind personalities and are for the most part willing to work their "feathers" off.  :)  Haha!  See what I did there?  For the most part, we have been focusing all our energy on classroom expectations and procedures.  Today was the first day of trying out 3 literacy workstations for 10 minutes a piece.  They rocked it and I was one proud teacher owl!  Literacy workstations for the time being are letter work/identification and name practice.  I really want my owls to have independence this year before I dive into guided reading groups and more complex workstation work.

Math has been pretty basic so far as well.  Lots of one to one practice and numbers up to 10.  They are doing well with this and I can already see my owls that will need more of a challenge.  Yay!

That is about all I have right now!  I've been terrible with taking pictures and that will also change with time.

I will leave you with one picture though...

 

I was surprised with this gorgeous ring two weeks ago.  We have not set a date yet but I am definitely one happy girl!

 

~Erin

Apples and ABC's

Hi all!  I hope you are taking full advantage of this long weekend!  :)

Since I'm gearing up for my owls first day, I have been planning as many alphabet activities as possible.  I really want my owls to feel success even if they cannot name all the letters yet.  With this in mind, I put together a simple apples and alphabet activity.

 

This activity can be done in two different ways.  The owls can turn all of these apple letter cards upside down, take turns flipping them over, naming the letters (if they are ready for this step,) and then dotting the match on the recording page.  Recording page is shown below!

 

The second way is to place all of the cards in a small container, the owls take turns pulling an apple letter cards, naming the letters (if they are ready for this step,) and then dotting the match on the recording page.

 

Since it is a long weekend and I'm beyond excited to meet my owls on Tuesday, I have uploaded this activity to my TpT store as a freebie!  Click on any of the pictures to snag a copy for you and your lovelies.  Comments and/or feedback is much appreciated!  :)

 

~Erin



 

 

Alphabet Fun!

Sorry all!  I really need to get the hang of this whole blogging and going back to school business.  I'm beginning to realize that I may have to actually plan my blog posts ahead of time and not just do the "by the seat of my pants" approach. 

My little owls will officially arrive on Tuesday.  I am all planned for next week and am looking forward to starting another school year. 

This will be the start of my 8th year and each year I feel like I get a bit better at the whole beginning of the year part.  I've learned that it is alright to slow things down at the beginning.  I'm really focusing on having my owls build their stamina and to really model my expectations.  Please make sure to hold me to this if you notice that I'm posting things that seem to go against this!

With this in mind, I have been looking through Pinterest to find simple alphabet activities that would allow all to participate even if they don't know all the letter names yet.  I came across this...

I love this!  What a simple way to get all the owls working with letters at the start of the year.  Click on the picture to look at some of the other ideas that were listed.

 

Now this activity is ideal if you have a circle table, which I do not.  I didn't want to give up such a great idea because of a lack of table, so I created my own version with posterboard.

 

 

For the letters, I simply used foam letters that I had laying around the house.  I wrote uppercase letters on glass beads that are used in vases for a decorative touch. 

 

 

I had my little man test out the activity!  He pulled out a letter glass bead, looked at the letter, and found its match around the circle.  He did really well and told me that it was "fun."

 

For my owls that already know their letters, I will have them tell me the letter's name before they match it.

 

I also made a set of uppercase letters using water bottle caps.  If this goes over well, I will change out the letters manipulatives to keep the activity fresh and exciting.

 

~Erin





Classroom's Ready!

Hi all!  I'm stopping by quickly today to give you a peek into my home away from home.  I'm beyond excited with how my classroom turned out this year!

This is what you would see when you walk into my side of the classroom.

The other side and my new Smartboard!!!!!

I'm using every inch of my room this year so my metal cabinets are being turned into on the left a place for word work with magnets and on the right attendance.

The writing and art center.  The blue lid containers are for art and the green lid containers are for writing.  Cart to the side is for the organization of weekly materials.

My new and improved word wall.  I used washi tape to divide the letters.  I also put everything on with magnets, so the owls can come right up and take words off if they need to see them better.

This is the math center and the carts are how I organize literacy and math workstations along with my small groups.

 

Rotation cards for literacy (top) and math (bottom.)

 

Back side of  my carpet area with computer center, schedule, behavior pieces, and on the bottom drawers are my classroom helpers.

 

Carpet area with the classroom library and easel for whole group learning.  :)  Under the window sill are the ribbons for how the owls get home after school.

 

Calendar board and learning intention frames above.  Clipboards and dry erase boards are on the floor right next to my chair for whole group learning.

 

Well, I am off to go organize and prep some more for when the owls come on Sept. 3!

 

~Erin