New School Year Resolutions Linky

At the end of last year I knew a few things I just had to change for this coming school year. So I am linking up today with Amanda from Teaching Maddeness for her New School Year Resolutions linky party!

1. Bring LESS home
I would always bring a TON home. This year, I vow not to bring things home if I really don't need to. I actually have a plan:)

-I bought a smaller school bag. it fits my lesson plan binder and my life planner. Maybe some papers to grade. Let's see if this works!

-set a better schedule for myself. I always would be at work by 7am. I was ALWAYS the first one there. But I would always leave right when the kids did! Which is great. But this year I am going to do something different. I am going to go to the gym in the morning too. I plan on being at school by 7:45 and still leave at 3:30. We have to be at school by 8:15 so I think 7:45 is good. 

-I also plan on making Thursdays my LATE day. Come in at 7 am and stay until 5ish. This way I have nothing to bring home on the weekends:)

2. Stress LESS
I worry too much, take too much on...this year....it's not happening! I took one extra position this year as the 3-5 rep for the school improvement team and that is the only thing I plan on doing. I usually do the grade level notes but I have done it for 2 years...time for someone else to do it. Heck, we have 5 other people that can do it:) 

3. Student focused/drama free
My plan is to stay focused on my students! Hey, that is why I am at work! It's all about the students and not anyone else! I am just going to focus on doing my job the best I can and not worry about anyone else!

4. Take pictures/share experiences!

Since this is my first real "year" blogging, I want to share my experiences with you all! I need to figure out how to manage blogging and teaching together! 

That is it! I plan on really sticking to these this year! I think maybe we should have another linky in October and see who stuck with it! 

So what are your new school year resolutions???

Monday Made it-freebies for you, giveaway, and a SALE!

First off...I am also at 400 followers!!! WOW!  Thank you all for making blogging fun and inspiring! I truly appreciate each and every one of you! To celebrate I have my Teacher's Notebook store 40% off this week ONLY! Sale ends Friday!

OK, I only have 2 more free Mondays before I have to report back to work...blah! I can't believe how fast this summer has gone! Today, I am linking up once again with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made it! I again have a few things you can use in the classroom!  And the good news is, they are FREEBIES for YOU! Please just leave a little bit of love in the comment box!

So here are my projects inspired by other fantastic bloggers! 

1. Birthday Cheer 

Amanda over at Teaching Maddness had this great post about birthdays. She found this super cute birthday cheer on pinterest and I knew I just had to steal borrow the idea! I plan on having kids sing this cheer instead of singing the traditional birthday song! I think they will love it!

Just click on the picture to get the freebie:)

2. Quick Check

How many times after a lesson do you wonder if the kids understood it? Angie over at Timeouts and Tootsie Rolls created this super cute stoplight system for checking for understanding!

So I had to create some fun circles to go with my color scheme. Here is what I came up with!

I really hope this works and the kids respond to it. Most of all, I hope it helps me with that super quick check to see if they got it, who almost got it, and who needs help! Just click on the first picture to get yourself a copy!

3. Add it up!

Do you love boggle! This great Math twist on Boggle was created by  Lisa over at Live, Laugh, and Love to Learn.

She has add it up, multiply it out, and take it away. I LOVE it! click her picture if you want to grab her files. So I made a smaller board so it would fit where I wanted it! I really like out it turned out!

 Just click on my picture to get my file!

4. HALL poster
This is a super cute HALL poster I found on Pinterest

I wanted to make one, even though I do really like this one!

Click HERE to grab a copy:)

GIVEaWAY items!

You can WIN these items by guessing the question at the end correct!

5. Classroom Subject Headers

This is my own creation for Monday Made it:) I always have a place to write my "I can..." statements down. So I created some subject headers to go by each I can statement!

I also have writing and math. I have these headers for sale in my TPT and TN stores. 

6. How to Eat Fried Worms Novel Unit
I have had such an overwhelming response to my BFG novel unit that I am in the process of making a How to Eat Fried Worms unit. I really wanted to do more novel units this summer, but didn't...oh well! 

OK...so here is the question! The person or people who get it right will win the above two units!

What am I MOST scared of?

-and it is NOT spiders or heights!

Well, that's it for my Monday Made it! I hope you all have a great start to your week!

Don't forget about my SWEET ice cream giveaway that ends Wednesday! You can find it HERE:) 

Do you use a Reading and Writing Notebook???

I have been working today on creating my reading center binder but also adding writing workshop stuff to it. This school year our reading block and writing block will be meshed together. 

I wanted to blend these two binders together for a few reasons...

1. space

2. something else the kids don't have to take care of (2 binders)

As of right now, I just have the reading part done. I do a modified daily 5 center time, so it is more of a weekly daily 4! It just works better for the ESL cluster I get for literacy! I co-teach with the ESL teacher and each of our kids get guided reading every day, centers, language, independent reading, and sometimes a double dose of guided reading! It's pretty awesome!

So here is what I have so far!

So what do you think?

The check of sheet is very helpful for the kids. They also turn this in weekly, stapled with all of their center work to it! The pictures also help those ESL kids who are very new to the country...we have a lot of these super cute kiddos each year! Then, they have 5 recording sheets to record their work. This has also worked very well! I always have line paper in each of the sections for the students to write on so they don't have to go find it. 

So the writing part...this is where I am struggling:( Before, I have had topics to write about, a high frequency word list, grammar papers, and spell/revise/edit check sheet. I feel like I am at a loss now for bringing these two together. 

What do you have in your writer's notebook? Any suggestions of what I should add? I would love to hear any of your suggestions!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday! See you tomorrow for Monday Made it-where I have 5 items to show you, 4 are FREEBIES and 1 is a possible giveaway!

Behavior Bingo 101 how-to

I have had a few people ask me how I do my Behavior Bingo. I thought today I would talk about how I use it! It is extremely easy and the kids just love it!

First of all, I get a 100 number pocket chart. Here is mine. I place all the black numbers inside of the pockets and don't use the other ones. Then, I use index cards and make a second set of numbers 1-100. I have about 5 WILD cards. I make sure the cards will fit in the pockets, decorate them and place them in a hanging basket by the bingo board.

This is this years bingo board. I still have yet to put the numbers in. But do you see the basket? That's where I place my decorated second set of numbers. I also have a BINGO poster that explains how they can earn a bingo chip as I call them, but they really are the decorated chips from the basket. 

Here are the posters I use to explain how to earn chips. The first one is the one I am using this year and the second one is from previous years.

So how does this all work? Well, I use this as a whole class reward system. You could easily use this as individual or groups by printing out a 100 board and they color in the spaces. 

So when the whole class does something that I feel is positive behavior they can earn pulls from the bucket. Like walking quietly in the hall, having great behavior in specials, a great note from a sub, anything like that. 

Right away, the two hopping helpers of the week come in and pull however many chips I tell them from the bucket and place it in front of the number in the pocket chart. 

Once they have a row filled up they earn a BINGO party. It can be a popcorn party, pj party, or whatever else your class thinks about. We usually do a vote. Parties can happen a few times a year depending on how well the kids respond to the system. 

This year, I am also doing the mystery person. So when the mystery person does their job and I reveal who it is at the end of the day, the class will earn chips. I will reward the whole class because no one will know who the mystery person is. I will also give that mystery person something special too! I hope this helps with understanding how to do a whole class behavior bingo! 

Last year I did two separate behavior bingo's for my literacy class and my homeroom class. Instead of having 2 pocket charts and 2 different sets of numbers I just made a 100 board on PowerPoint and had students color in the numbers when they were pulled. 

If you would like more information just ask! Maybe this will be a new tool for you to use this coming school year!

Have a great Saturday!

Classroom day 4 and more homework passes:)

So back during my monday made it I created some homework punch cards with a sweet theme. While I really liked them, I wanted something with my frog theme! So last night, I made these. I really like them:)

How does this work? Each day a student turns in homework they can enter a drawing. They take a ticket and place their name on the back. On Fridays I roll a dice to see how many tickets I will pull out. When their name is called, they get a punch on their ticket. When their card is all punched out (the lily pads) they get a no homework pass. I was thinking about giving them a no homework pass each week, but I think that would actually not be a good thing! So, the punch cards it is. I think they will like these. And, if you like these, you can pick them up at my TPT and TN stores!

As for my classroom, I am done for now:) I don't plan on going back in probably until the week of the 13th. I want to make sure binders are put together, things are sorted, office is cleaned, copies are made, things are laminated...you know, all that other stuff:) 

So here are my pictures...beware, I have a ton of them! If you have any questions about my set up, organization, or ideas, please ask!

Word wall with the header on top:)

My Daily 5 board up! I do a modified D5 called the Weekly 4:) The index cards under the center signs is where I will write what they are doing in each center.

This will be our vocabulary wall, with each of the strands of the Common Core! Thanks Ginger from Ginger Snaps for the great vocab cards:)

 My writing area with labels:) Also, another vocabulary header. I will place the writing vocab on this wall:)

Up close, better shot, of my writing topic cards:)

My I CAN board with math homework sign on the bottom

 Math vocab wall

 the pink board is my second math vocab wall

This is my math focus wall..not done! It will have centers, calendar for centers, current topics and stills, plus the add it up morning work:) Thanks to Lisa over at Live, Laugh, and Love to Learn for this great idea:) I am playing around with how to work my centers and calendar this year. I better get to it since school is a MONTH from today! YIKES!

In the math corner you can see this! This is my Scooping sweet multiplication facts unit I will be doing with my kids this year:) I can't wait!

 My Whole Brain Teaching scoreboards. I have two since I have two separate classes. My homeroom class and a literacy class! I co-teach with the ESL teacher and have a whole class of ESL 3rd graders for literacy! I LOVE it:)

My frogtastic spellers club board:)

A better picture of my front board. On the left side I place our class calendar and newsletters

 This is a view of my office from my classroom door into my office

This is a view of my office from the inside! We share an office with the neighboring classroom teacher. My side is the left...I usually have it all organized so I can use it, but during the summer it becomes a storage area. I need to go through it asap!

 My books-I dont have a ton and they are not organized...yet!

 My reading is sweet beads. They earn each bead for something different.

My thinking maps board I plan in creating still...with the pink fabric!

My end of a lesson idea. Use sticky notes and give students a question. They place the sticky note on which circle symbolizes how they feel about the lesson. Thanks to Timeouts and Tootsie Rolls for the idea! Not sure yet if I am going to keep it...thinking about it!

Last but not least some whole class pictures! Views from all over the room!

 

OH My...I hope you made it through ALL if that and got to enjoy a trip through my teaching world.

If you have not done so yet, don't forget to enter my SWEET giveaway! You can get to it HERE!

Since this post was SO long I am not doing any linky parties, but I will tomorrow! I have a few other requests to explain somethings I do in my classroom! So look for those soon too! I hope you have a great Friday! Enjoy the Olympics tonight if you are watching!