Isaac

Riding out the storm at my mom's. No school tomorrow.

Crazy busy week, new pencil sharpener, and Whole Brain Teaching LOVE

Wow! This school year has gotten off to a bang! I must say I LOVE my class this year. They are an AWESOME group of kiddos. I was totally prepared for this to be my last year in fifth grade, so what does God do - He gives me a teaser by giving me a group of kids that reminds me why I moved to fifth in the first place and how much fun it can be. However, this year has been full of challenges. We have changed our work hours 3 different times so far so I never know now when I am supposed to be at work and when I can leave. We are possibly having off Monday due to Tropical Storm Isaac, but no one knows. Our school is a shelter for a command post for Emergency Workers so today I had to put up a lot of the stuff I just put up 3 weeks ago - wow can't believe I have only been back 2.5 weeks so far - feels like forever. My kids are so good that I feel like we must already be in October/November already. I must admit I feel a HUGE part of it is that I have fallen in love. L-O-V-E with my new main squeeze - whole brain teaching! It is AMAZING. Thank you Pinterest and you fellow bloggers who led me to this lovely universe. I also must thank whoever came up with the "clip" behavior chart. It holds me so much more accountable. The whole brain teaching thing is just wonderful though. It saves me so many teacher hours of lecturing that i find at the end of the day we have time leftover because the time I used to factor in my day as "lost" time, isn't there any more. I am flabbergasted daily at how well this works, even for my big, bad fifth graders who I thought would look at me and laugh the first time I said "Class, Yes" and then I thought they would laugh again when I added in "Eyes and Hands". But, they LOVE it. Especially since they consistently beat the teacher. And, I don't have to lecture anymore about wasted time for talking (which is also wasted time). The eye-opener was when I earned my 3rd point to their 1 the first day and one of my lovelies said "I couldn't hear you - that's not fair." To which I replied, "And, that's the point!" Of course his make me laugh reply was, "Oh, so we DID get the point?" which nicely led to a vocabulary lesson. Anyway, before I get off my whole brain soapbox, if you aren't doing whole brain teaching - try looking into it. It is bringing me so much sanity. Did I feel dumb the first time I did it, Yes. But come on, aren't we all actors and actresses in disguise anyway?!

On another note. I got my Pencil Sharpener from http://www.classroomfriendlysupplies.com/. The kids and I are in love with it. I have never seen such a great classroom tool. I really thought the buzz was crazy (I mean come on it's a pencil sharpener), but OMG! It is FABULOUS! Pencils are sharpened from brand new to pointy perfection in about 10 seconds or less. It is quick, quiet, and oh-so-easy to use. I have shown it to a few fellow teachers who are equally impressed. The next goal is to get my principal to purchase some for us.  I love the suggestion a former colleague of mine had, which is she bought one for each table group. How cool! Kids then never have to ask to get up to sharpen a pencil and since it is so quiet & quick, having students sharpen at their table isn't distracting to others. I highly recommend this product to others!

First Day Back

Well today was my first day back with students. I LOVED using my new "clip chart" for behavior. I was so excited to see how well it worked. THANK YOU Pinterest. I was much better at enforcing my rules today with that up, plus my new classroom rules posters thanks to Mrs. Nichols at the Polka Dot Patch.   I was much more consistent when the rules and the behavior chart was right in the front of the room as a constant reminder.

Plus, I loved getting compliments on how "organized" & "nice" my room was today courtesy of all the Pinterest projects I did over summer.

Looking forward to a great year!

Twenty-five Follower Freebie

Little freebie for tonight. I just made these for my own classroom, so I thought I would share.

Classroom jobs and 24 matching student number cards (I put these in a pocket chart)

Get them at my TeachersPayTeachers store.

A second freebie, is calendar numbers which match the jobs and student numbers. I have made 31 calendar icons and a few "no school" day ones too.

These are also available at my TeachersPayTeachers store.

This Classroom is Brought to you by Pinterest & Me :)

Here are a few pics of my "detective" theme room and the final products of my Pinterest items...

 Bins where students turn their work in - spray painted black and gave new labels to match the ones I made

  Classroom storage bins inspired by Pinterest - these are back to back along side my desk - one set is for students with printer & notebook paper, math manipulatives, and clipboards; the other is for me with craft materials, extra supplies (folders, new crayons, etc.), and other odds and ends. They perfectly fit the length of my desk. :)

 Drawers where I store pens, staples, etc. - inspired by Pinterest (spray painted)

 Clipboards - courtesy of Pinterest project

 New bathroom passes - final Pinterest project for the week

 Calendar board - would you believe I did this one board the most - didn't like anything I did

 Welcome back board - the red cards have all the different things we do in 5th grade and the yellow header says "Hot on the Trail of 5th Grade Success" - all are done in a cute font called Earwig Factory which looks like ransom letters

After the first week, I will change this to "Hot on the Trail of Reading Success" with my CAFE Posters and other reading strategy posters

 "Investigating Science" board - this will change to be decorated according to the unit of science we are studying - first up is The Scientific Method"

 New Guided Reading area set up - bookshelves hold all my teacher stuff, bins on top are for each reading group's materials, pink drawers will hold pencils, highlighters, post-its, etc. for groups, and filing cabinet has graphic organizers and forms, etc. for groups, as well as book units for literature clubs

 Math Problem Solving Board above my window - cute set that went with theme "Math PSI: Problem Solving Investigators" - each poster talks about the different strategies for problem solving exactly like our math series does

Liebster Blog Award & Another Freebie

 To make my day the other day, I was nominated for another award! Thanks to Rebecca at First Grade Fascination for the nomination for the...

(This award is named for the German word "Liebster", which translates to "beloved" or "favorite" and is given to a "new, up and coming blogger".)

Here are the rules:
1. Link back to person who gave it to you.
2. Post the award to your blog.
3.Give the award to at least 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers.
4.Leave a comment on the five blogs to let them know that they have been offered the award.

The 5 blogs I am nominating for this award are:

Sparkles, Smiles, and Student Teaching

Teaching is Bliss

The 4th Grade Adventures of Mrs. Tinez's Class

Teacher on the Loose

Live, Laugh, Love, Second 

I am giving away another freebie which you can get at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I made these smaller versions of the daily objective/schedule cards to use for my homework board so I can write the homework on a card which matches the schedule but takes up less space. Hope you enjoy these!


There are 14 cards and 2 blanks cards for you to label yourself. Here is a preview. Cards are 3" X 4".

Busy Worker Bee Today & Freebie

I feel like I accomplished so much today, but when I look at my still to do list it is overwhelming.

Finished list...

• Got all clipboards finished today (I definitely need more clipboards I discovered)
• Got desks arranged
• Finished all bulletin boards
• Rearranged room
• Made signs for the all the subjects for my front board for our daily schedule and objectives - keep reading for a freebie of these
• Made a clip behavior chart!
• Made CAFE signs!
• Finished lining the rest of my drawers with scrapbook paper - thank you Pinterest (I think I can now do this professionally I have done so many)

To do list...

• Spray paint draw holders - they are currently blue and I lined all the drawers with black/silver scrapbook paper so painting them all black
• Change calendar - I don't like the way it looks with everything else in my room
• Put kids' textbooks in desks and clean out cubbies from the summer
• MAYBE make a cute little curtain to cover my teacher bookshelves & cubbies?
• Get my teacher bulletin board area set up
• Set up my desk (we had our school painted over the summer so EVERYTHING got packed up)
• Make (OK edit) back-to-school PowerPoint I put up for Meet the Teacher
• Finish editing back-to-school newsletter
• Sit back, relax, and wait to meet the kiddies!

The fun news is that on my first day back to work, I get to celebrate by going to see the musical "Grease" with a bunch of family and friends and people from my dance studio. Should be lots of fun!

Freebie Time

Head on over to my Teacher Pay Teachers page and download this freebie.

There are 16 pages of cards (2 cards per page) for a variety of subjects and school events. I have also included a few blank ones so you may write on them yourselves. Please view the credit list in this document for information about the fonts used. Fonts for these documents are from

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/  and

www.helloliteracy.blogspot.com.