New Year, New School, New Classroom

     It's been a while since I posted anything because I've been super busy getting my new classroom ready and making the most of the rest of the summer.  It's exciting to be starting with a blank slate--moving in and arranging furniture and making new bulletin boards, but it's also a lot of hard work. 

     Here are some "before" pictures of my new room.  When I'm done with it, I'll post some "after" pictures.

The view from the "front" of my new room.

Storage!

All the tubs are from the teacher who was moving out.

Yes, there are 2 doors into my classroom.

My future teacher corner!

From left to right: small group central, reading focus board, math focus board.

My future classroom library corner... now filled with things to be moved to another classroom!

On another note, my Teachers Notebook store is hosting a giveaway!

    Just go to this page and scroll down until you see my logo in this box.  You have to have a Teachers Notebook account (don't worry--it's free!), but you can enter to win my Classroom Handbook!  There are always LOTS of sales going on at TN, and TONS of freebies and giveaways. 

Hope the rest of your summer is FABULOUS!

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Back to School Already?

     Has it already been a month since school got out?  Wow, summer is flying by.

     I went to my first summer inservice workshop on Friday (Using iPads in the Classroom... I learned so much!!) and it dawned on me that the back to school season is already upon us.  Have you noticed that now that the 4th of July stuff is out of the stores the shelves are filling up with school supplies?  My brain has been sort of half-processing school ideas all summer, but now is the time to rev it up to full gear.  

     I was on Pinterest the other day collecting ideas for anchor charts, and it reminded me of my favorite one that I made last year.  My munchkins and I were talking about the reason an author writes a book or story (author's purpose), and I was relating their purpose in writing to the books and stories we had read in class.

     I LOVE making anchor charts with the munchkins so they have ownership of the information.  I pre-programed this chart with the definitions and key words, then I wrote titles of stories and books we had read in class on sticky notes as we talked about them.  As a follow-up activity, my munchkins wrote the title of the books in their book boxes on sticky notes and placed them in the proper place on the chart.  Later, we took the titles of the stories we were writing and classified them with the same chart.

      I'm hoping to use more anchor charts this year to help solidify student learning, and I want to make them as interactive as possible.  If it's me up there writing on chart paper, then it is just another poster on the wall. But if the kids help make it and consistently use it to shape their thinking, then it becomes a useful learning tool.

     I would love to hear about any anchor charts you use with your class.  Please share!

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