Well I can’t quite believe it, but my summer is now coming to end…school officially starts for me on Monday! Getting in my classroom a little more this week helped me get real excited for this new year in a brand new school! Linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for this Five for Friday is basically all about things I did in my classroom this week…and you’ll notice I don’t follow one specific theme, other than all things literacy, color, happiness and fun designs!
1. I’m so excited to be a reading specialist again and am thrilled to be expanding my grades taught all the way up to 4th grade! I’ve always taught Kindergarten and 1st grade, so teaching 2nd-4th graders in addition this year will be totally new to me, but I’m ready for the challenge. I’m definitely excited that I’ll get to still teach my little ones that I adore so much but also add other grades into my daily mix! I’ve got my room almost all ready except for a few more things to hang up– I’m reserving lots of wall space for new anchor charts I’ll be creating with my students and for posters/student work that’ll get put up as the year really gets going. I’ve got my little buckets all set…just need to actually put some materials in them for daily use in our guided reading groups. 🙂
3. At the beginning of the summer I got this ridiculously cute burlap ABC banner for $3.19- talk about a steal! I love the way it looks right above my very blank boards…haha…those boards will be filled up with that student work/anchor charts/teaching posters I was talking about.
4. One thing that will be new to me as a teacher is the use of D’Nealian print…all my years as a teacher, I’ve only used Zaner-Bloser, but it’ll be fun to perfect my handwriting in D’Nealian this year! I’ll still be doing lots in Zaner-Bloser just because I think kids need to be exposed to all sorts of handwriting styles, but now i’ll put more of an emphasis on my own handwriting in this new fancy way. So I’ve got my new ABC posters with D’Nealian font right next to my word wall…also all in D’Nealian.
5. Oh and here’s a freebie for you! I want to actually remember to include more time for my students to share their work, whether it is their reading of a story or a writing piece they created. Last year I feel like I kept forgetting to do this on a regular basis, so, now i’ve got a visual that I’ll be hanging up right above a special “author’s chair” which I *hope* will actually keep me doing this all year long. It’s so important for students to share their work that they take so much pride in and for all of their audience members to get a chance to recognize their awesomeness! I’m sure my friends will also remind me if I forget…I’ll get pictures of this special chair and poster up soon..none taken yet. I made a few versions- mainly because I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to use yet and I thought you all would appreciate some options as well…including b&w if you don’t want to use a lot of ink. 🙂 So, go ahead and choose your favorite…you can grab this freebie here!
Of course I’ll be adding more pictures of my classroom once it is all complete…soon, but hope you enjoyed these for now! Thanks to Doodle Bugs Teaching and Teaching Blog Addict for some of my favorite link ups!
Have a great day!
3 Responses
Amanda- I attended your small group math PD earlier this summer, and it really helped me to figure out how I am going to do my math block everyday! Thank you again.
(So you were part of the mass exodus??)
Stop by and say hi sometime 🙂
Ventaneando: A Window Into First Grade Bilingüe
Love the clipboards! Cutie patootey! I think you will enjoy having some older kids this year – I absolutely loved working with 2nd graders because they can do so much! =)
That burlap alphabet bunting really was a great steal! Your room is so bright and happy! I just know you're going to have a great year at your new school!!!
Erin
Short and Sassy Teacher