Monday, October 12, 2015

Long Overdue Post and October Monday Made It

It has been quite awhile since I last posted on here!  I have been very busy getting this new school year started, adding products to my TPT store and getting ready to move into a new apartment!  I am going to try to begin updating more regularly again.  I thought for my first post back, I would share some pictures about my classroom and a couple new products that I have added to my TPT store.  Also, I wanted to make a shoutout to another blogger and link up with Tara's October Monday Made it.


To start, here are a couple new products that I've recently posted on my TPT store

First, this is my reading logs and monthly reading calendar.  I wanted a way to track my students reading in the classroom and at home.  That's why I created both of these products.  I use the reading logs in the classroom and the reading calendar for my students to use for their reading at home, but you could use both products either way! 


 BlankReading Logs(There are 12 assorted borders/colors)



                                        
  Monthly Reading Log Calendar- This file comes with already done calendars and calendars                     where you can customize them by adding in your own directions.





Next, is my Problem Solving Powerpoint and my Problem Solving Poster.  I was inspired to create this Problem Solving PowerPoint after reading Christy Howe's blog post about her Problem Solving Mats and Problem Solving Rubric.  You can purchase Christy's Problem Solving Mats and Rubrics here.  I have purchased them and it is have been a great product for my student's in Math!  Make sure you check out her AWESOME blog while you're at :)

I wanted a way to introduce her Problem Solving Mats and show my students the importance of showing their work.  So, I created this PowerPoint.  I showed it to my students for the first time a couple weeks ago and It was even more powerful than I hoped for.  My students really saw the importance of showing their work and then when we jumped into using Christy's Problem Solving Mat's they were ready to complete them on their own.  I was blown away with how well they did with these mats and I am seeing so much growth with my student's problem solving already!

 Here are a couple slides to give you a sample of what the Problem Solving PowerPoint is:



Also, I created this poster as a reminder to my students of the steps that they should use to Problem Solve.  This poster is going to be FREE in my TPT store for the next week. Of                                            course, it has a Chevron background :)

Lastly, I have attached a photo of one of my favorite classroom crafts that I have done this year.  This stool was so easy to make and some comfortable! I use it way more than I even thought I would. These aren't the best pictures but you get the idea!





I'm going to end this post with some pictures from my classroom this year.  I love the set up of my classroom this year.  I have stuck with a bright chevron theme with some accents of polka dots and stripes for the past couple of years.  Enjoy these pictures!  

Here are some pictures of my classroom library.  I love how open and inviting my library is this year.  My students love to read in the library on the rug, on a bench or in our bowl chair (not pictured).



I am so excited about my new bulletin board.  I am going to use it to capture my students being voracious readers through pictures, reading responses and reading activities.  You can see already that there are a couple sticky notes from when we did a reading response activity.  

These Anchor Chart Bulletin boards that I have created my be one of my favorite parts of my classroom.  I will never go back to just throwing anchor charts up on the wall.  They look much more organized this way and my students know exactly where to look for anchor charts as references plus it fills up some space on this big blank wall.  The green one is for reading anchor charts and the red one is for math anchor charts.  


I am lucky enough to have 2 whiteboards in my classroom.  I use one to do work on and the other for my essential questions, anchor charts for the week and weekly vocabulary.  

 Here is a picture of my other bulletin board with frequently asked classroom questions above it and my class rules that I created over the summer above the projection screen.  This is also our rig area that we do our morning meeting on and read on often.  

On one side of my classroom, I have a wall of ugly blue cabinets.  I use them in many ways.  One way, I use them is to keep track of my students multiplication facts with their ice cream multiplication.  Read my blog post about motivating students about learning their multiplication facts if you would like to find out more about how I use this in my classroom.


These cute chevron pockets are going to be used for my students to recommend books to one another.  I am excited to get these started in the next couple of weeks! 


  This post ended up being a bit longer than I wanted, but I guess this happens when I haven't updated for a couple months.  Thank you if you made it all the way through this blog post!  Check back next week for an October math activity that I am working on :)