Welcome to our Room!

Welcome to my classroom! I'm so glad you decided to stop by!  This year my grade level decided to have a "sports theme" for our classrooms.  Although I LOVE polka dots! I found a way to keep it neutral for both boys and girls.  I hope you enjoy your tour!

I found this football idea on Pinterest this summer and I HAD to make it!  It was super easy!

Here are some large view pictures of my classroom.  It is nice and spacious!  We have lots of room to have desks AND be able to move around for literacy activities!

 

Our Daily 5 Board

 

 

I use the Daily 5 in my classroom everyday.  I have a 90 minute reading block, so I try to fit in two Daily 5 rotations a day.  I have three 5th grade classes and I teach reading, writing, and language arts, so instead of putting each student name on clip, I use numbers.  I bought the number cut outs from Math Mojo and the super cute Daily 5 signs came from The Teaching Reef and they are FREE!

 

 

I have three classes, so I keep the students' notebooks and journals in these crates.

 

 

 The students keep their reading books and other Daily 5 materials in these numbered baskets.

 

 

 

 

Here is our CAFE menu (I have added more strategy cards since then).  If you have not yet read The Daily 5 book or CAFE book, check it out HERE.

 

Author Study Board

 

Author Study Reading Area

 

 

I had a HUGE collection of Patricia Polacco books for my students to read during September.  I will be adding another author during fall break.  I wanted to start the "Author Study" area because I want kids to have an opportunity to read and compare books by the same author.  I will also be adding an "Author Study Menu" to the area for students to research different authors each month.  I am working on a HUGE Author Study Unit for grades 3rd-6th! It will be coming soon!

 

Books We Recommend

 

After students read their books (any teacher OR student selected book), they fill out a book recommendation form.  This is a book review in shorter form! I do not require my students to fill out a book recommendation for every book they read, but at least one per month. Sorry the picture was taken before school started, but I got the idea from http://tupelohoneycaro.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-classroom.html.

 

Reading Area

I need to Lexile my books and book bins.  If you would like to sort your classroom library books by Lexile, I have created labels.  Pick them up from my TPT store.  I have created several different colors.  

 

My Desk Area

 

I organize my copies by day and I pull everything I need for the day and place it in my "Today" bin.  I know silly right!? But it's the only way I can keep everything organized!

 

Small Group Area

 

 

Clear Learning Goals and Focus Wall

I love my Focus Wall!  It keeps the students (and myself) organized.  If you would like to purchase focus wall labels, you can find them here!

 

AR Star Board

 "Reading Gets My Vote" is a school-wide reading theme we are implementing to encourage reading and the election!

 Each student has a star with their name on it and the board is divided into 4 percentages
(25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%).  Students set a new AR goal each nine weeks and they can place their star onto the board when they meet each percentage of their goal.  They LOVE this!  I even ran out of Velcro around the middle of the nine weeks and a student offered to go to Wal-Mart and get me some because they wanted their star up sooo bad!

These are the AR "Must Do's" for our 4th and 5th graders each nine weeks. 

They know these, but I needed a visual!

 

 

Here are some other pictures of my classroom.  Enjoy!

 A SUPER cute banner from http://shindigz.com/.  One of my team teachers came up with our slogan (my school name starts with an "N" hence the NFL connection)!

 Each student decorated their own pennant the first week of school.

 Hallway student work displays.

 Author of the Week board (like student of the week).  This picture was taken before school started, but they fill out an information page about themselves and they also have to select a writing piece to display on the board.  Visit my TPT store to get your copy!

 Instead of boarder for my outside work wall, I used cheap football and baseball cards.  It took FOREVER, but my students liked them!

Goal Setting at the beginning of the year!

 

 

 A gift from one of my students.  It is ADORABLE!

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!