Lyndsey's Classroom Reveal

Welcome to my room!! 

       We have been in school for a little over a month now and I have had time to get things in order, or get them messy, whichever way you want to see it. I do not have an overall theme, but rather a wonderful color scheme (pink, green, and zebra with a little polka dots thrown in!) It makes me happy every day I come to school. This is my 6th year in this room and I think I almost have it perfect (that is until next summer when I come up with new changes). I hope you enjoy the tour. . .

      This is my welcome bulletin board for this year! I saw it on Pinterest and since I love ALL things Apple I just had to make it myself! The students names were written in the screen part of the iPod (and yes, I know that this looks like and OLD iPod, but the kids still knew what it was).

     Here is the view from the front door of my "learning cabana". Every year I struggle with the seating arrangement because I can't find the one I like best. I saw another teacher at our school use the Chevron set up so I thought I would try it. I love it so far!  Each student also has a chair pocket that my mother and I made three years ago. They have held up well and are now called the "Book Pockets".

And the view from my back door!

My Whole Brain Teaching Rules!!

     After multiple years of watching others do whole brain through YouTube I am now doing it in my own classroom (thank you Susan for giving me the push!). This board shows the Whole Brain rules which we recite every day and the kids have a blast. The rule posters came from Teacher Pay Teacher (sorry I cannot remember the source). If you have never seen Whole Brain teaching in action take the time to look it up. It is a fantastic way to keep your students engaged and incorporate multiple learning styles.

     Above the board are my voice level signs. I use the number system to manage the voice level in my classroom during different activities. These signs are available for FREE on TPT.

Classroom Library

I have worked for 5 years to build this library and am quite proud of the turn out. The books are organized in baskets according to genre (mystery, historical fiction, fantasy, etc.), author, series, and by Lexile levels. I also keep bean bags and pillows so students can be comfy while they read.

     This is my check-out system. (Again another Pinterest find! What would we do without it?) Each pocket is labeled with a name. The student signs the card from the book they check out and place it in their pocket until they return the book. This allows me to see who has books and to make sure they are reading books appropriate for their level.

Another comfy area for students to read and work on individual work.

As teachers we must use ALL available space. This is my daily schedule. I glued it on the side of a file cabinet that holds my laptop. The subjects and times are changed daily with Velcro on the back.

     Twitter is now my "ticket out the door". Each box is labeled with a number. When we complete tickets on post-its the students put it in the box that corresponds with their class number. This way I know who has and who has not completed their tickets. Finding time to complete these can be tricky so this year I am implementing "Twitter Tuesdays". Each Tuesday the students will complete a ticket out the door based on a prompt given by me.

Time to Write . . .

     Here are pictures of our writing center. The board is above the desk and shows students examples of things they can write. I still have a couple of examples to add, but am waiting for some student work. The desk was acquired last year. It was my very first project from Donor's Choose. We were super excited to receive it and the students cannot get enough of it. It holds class journals, note pads, greeting cards, and writing centers. 

Classroom clock labeled with the minutes!

Math wall where students can go to find key words, order of operations, properties, place value and more. I love having all my math terms in one spot so students know exactly where to look when they have a problem.

     Last year I got rid of my teacher desk to make room for more student computers and to give the kids more room to move around in the classroom. This became my desk and guided reading table. (Sometimes is hard to tell when papers are all over it!!) I found these dry erase wall circles at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and put them on my table. Very easy to apply and work well. This allows me to save paper and have students write without having to bring their white boards with them. Also, they enjoy it because it is just like writing on the table :0! I also bought stools from Ikea to keep at the table. They stack nicely and slide under the table too!

     Each week my students are responsible for jobs in the classroom. This board behind my desk is the "Job Spot" and students names are placed under the job they have for the week. (These jobs will be placed on TPT soon!) The bar underneath the jobs is from Ikea and I LOVE IT!! I have two in the classroom. It is fantastic to hold pens, pencils, scissors, highlighters, etc.

     At the front of my room (by the Smart Board) I made this large bulletin board. I call it my "Objective Board". The objectives for each subject are written on dry erase sentence strips in "I can" or "I know" statements for the students. The calendar is here as well as weekly vocabulary and reading groups. It is an excellent resource and I thoroughly enjoy using it.

     This is one of my favorite parts of my room (and it is so little, but pretty!!) I have had a love/hate relationship with the pencil sharpener for years but no solution. So, when I saw this idea from another teacher last year I knew I had to try it. I bought an acrylic straw dispenser at Amazon.com (I read blogs saying the plastic was better than the metal ones). I found some of my unused scrapbook paper and decorated the inside. Added some sparkles and now have a fun pencil dispenser!! Students leave the dull pencil and spin the handle for a new sharpened one. NO more sharpener noise (until the end of the day, that is a job we have). Now if anyone can tell me how to make sure the students LEAVE a pencil before they take one . . .

     Well, that is it for now. I hope you enjoyed the tour of my 3rd grade classroom. I know I enjoy peeking into everyone else's rooms!

Write On! Dry erase guided reading table that integrates math.

Susan's guided reading table that doubles as a geometry lesson.

                            I love dry erase anything!

     While teaching in Georgia, I had dry erase desks and it was awesome! I used them constantly for every subject. So, this summer I decided to buy dry erase paint and make my own dry erase table. Although it was pricey and reading the directions was a must, it was well worth it.

     I used the geometric shapes so that students were able to interact with them more often and not just during a geometry unit. For example, when I call students up to the group table, I may ask them to sit at the rhombus or the shape where opposite sides are parallel. They may not always know which shape I am talking about the first time but this gives me the opportunity to teach a super quick mini lesson on an attribute. The next time I call a student to the table, I can choose to add a new attribute to their vocabulary or review a previous one. There it is...math and reading in one swoop!
        

                   Have I mentioned how much I love it?

      I meet with writing groups and use the dry erase shapes for brainstorming or webbing ideas for their stories. In reading, I may use the shapes for expanding vocabulary using leveled readers by having the students jot down the difficult words when reading. We may map out a character and list all of their character  traits. There are oodles of reasons to love this project.  
                                           A great summer project!
      

                      

FREE and Colorful Voice Level Posters

 

Thank you Lyndsey for sharing one of your creative ideas for managing classroom voice levels. This colorful and FREE, whoops, did I say free? Oh Yeah!! It's free and a great classroom management tool. We both have these signs displayed in the front of our classrooms. It works great when students are working independently or in "collective thinking teams". How's that for a cutting edge buzzword???  : )

Click below to visit Lyndsey's Store on TPT and download now!

 

Lyndsey@TPT

Remind101'ing you of an easy way to "Go Green" in your classroom!!

 

We are focusing on "Going Green" and are always looking for easy and innovative ways to keep our parents informed on what is going on in the classroom. With "Going Green" on the mind, we have turned to a new technology this year called remind 101.

With remind 101 all of the parents in your class sign up by texting a code specific to your class to a phone number (not yours!) given out by the company. They can also sign up through email.

What is the best part??  Scheduling messages in advance! I can be anywhere at anytime and suddenly remember that I need to remind my parents of some event, a test, virtually anything and instantly schedule it out for a specific day and time! I don't have to wait or try to remember on a specific day to email but instead, I can schedule all of my reminders at the beginning of the week to go out exactly when I want them to. It makes "Going Green" so easy!

Reminders can be about anything from tests, to projects, to reports, to book orders! Parents love it and it's free! It works great on high school kids too! Click on the logo above to sign up for
remind 101 and bring your classroom into the next generation of text messaging.