Classroom Tour

 





This is the wall by the back door and the bathroom. I use plastic pencil boxes to separate different phonics chips and cards. I also like to keep scissors and glue out of reach unless they need it.





These magazine holders have saved my sanity. Whenever I have something I don't have time to file (they should teach paper management in college) I throw it into it's section (magazine holder). Then when I finally have a minute(LOL) I can grab one of the holders and file/trash what's inside.

 



 



Behavior Board. The cloud is for extra good days!

This is the back counter. I love that I have so many built in cabinets at our wonderful new school! I have drawers to hold papers that I need the most often. (I think I am going to put a rectangle of scrapbooking paper on the inside of each drawer, I LOVE PINTEREST!) And I keep their math tubs on top- filled with the manipulatives needed for the "jobs" the groups have to do that day.

These are small group task card games. I have them organized by skill. There are five groups in my classroom 

(4 multileved groups and 1 group with my SuperHighFlyers that are really on a 2nd grade level) 
                              

Green=Math

Orange=SightWords     fluency, syllables, making sentences

 Blue=Phonics       Fountas and Pinnell games mostly

Pink=ComprehensionCause/Effect,Fact/Opinion,Classifying

White=Grammar-Parts-of-Speech,Punctuation, Singular/Plural

Each group does all the reading centers that have the same letter each day.

Math is organized by RIT band since I have such a mixed ability group in math this year.
I have 4 boxes for each skill labeled A, B, C, D. My four groups rotate through all colors with their letter for that day.

My HighFlyer Group (aka group 5) practices higher level skills that are kept in bags in the black crate beside the boxes. These 4 kids partner up to complete their tasks because I have found that the more advanced the students are the more "discussions" (arguements) arise. Can anyone say type A?

They also complete powerpoints or help other students with skills they are working on. (Teaching things to others helps kids learn something more deeply)


Groups have a "Group Leader" each day that rotates. (see chart below) That person goes first and solves any disputes (See my post about behavior management for my "trick".

They take turns in the same order each day always starting with the group leader. These games save my life. If I ever have a 10 minute chunk of time for some reason I can just have groups go to their rug (they meet in the same place) and play the games from a certain color box. I also use it for early finisher work, and when we first come in from lunch or specials ( so I can to whatever teacher"y" thing I have to do)

This is my chart that holds my spelling words, math group cards are the small green cards, and my ELA small groups are the white cards. The tiger paws (Go Clemson!) have letters on them that I rotate down each day. The group completes the games inside the boxes with the corresponding letter that day.

Thanks for checking out my room!