It's a new school year and I haven't posted! My room this year was over the top! Alice in Wonderland!

Over the summer I was inspired. I am currently in college to earn my Master's Degree in Reading and I have fallen even more deeply in love with children's books! The new Alice in Wonderland movie came out over the summer and I found myself inspired by the entire Alice in Wonderland concept. I wanted to create a wonderland that my students would want to find a place where they could sit under a tree or sprawl out in the forest and get lost in reading. So after planning and planning and collecting all kinds of stuff, things started to come together. I enlisted the help of my mom too! I even decided to take on creating fake cakes and cupcakes for an intricate tea table scene to be the central point of the room. The BIG idea underneath it all....alternative seating! Yes, underneath all the ideas of reading was the birth of getting rid of traditional desks and finding a way to design a classroom that would be functional yet fun and engaging for the kids. This was a challenge I will be honest. Many people had doubt about how this was going to work. I felt really good about it and when the kids came....they were stunned, amazed and bedazzled! So without further delay, here is the room!  

 



                   



                      



                  
     

                      
  
                      


                       


  Since the beginning of the year there have been some changes made to the layout as needed for functionality. Two of the bookcases and carts were relocated to open up the space around the smart board. The area around the smart board and on the carpet is where we have whole group instruction meetings for math with clip boards. We use this area for read alouds and for technology instruction when I teach them new apps or computer skills on the chrome books.

The box seats were an excellent purchase! I had a friend give me about 8 and then I bought the rest on amazon! They were $14 each. The best part is they are sturdy and they have storage inside. The kids can sit on them or they can use them as desks. They move around easily.

The knee table with the pillows is very popular! Next year I might have two! The other biggest draw for the students has been the tea table. This is more of a novelty they say but they love sitting there (boys and girls!).

The third most popular spot, although easily this would be on the list for first if there was enough, is the bean bags. The green blow up seats the kids loved but a couple of rough boys popped them within the first week and at $20 each, I wasn't happy, and the kids were really unhappy with them because they loved the green blow up chairs. I replaced them with bean bag chairs, which are just as popular.

The box seats the kids love, love, love when we meet for whole group. The one thing I have found myself NOT saying this year as much.... sit down in your seat right! I never have to say that. The kids have free choice every day all day of where they get to sit. If anything I sometimes have to settle disputes over someone taking someone else's seat. I can tell you that I have several ADHD kids in my class and I have a lot of energetic boys. All my second graders will miss the alternative seating next year in third grade. I am really hoping to inspire many teachers this year in the hopes that more teachers at my school will go with alternative seating! I can tell you when I started this during the summer, I had several that decided to go ahead and try some seating and now are adding a little more. Alternative seating is a good thing. What I will say is that it takes structure like anything else. You must lay down some ground rules. I stress a lot everyday walking and taking turns in our room. The kids keep all their supplies in cubby boxes that I found on amazon that fit inside the cubbies. We use a hanging file folder on the wood cabinet doors for take home folders and a few other incidental folders. As for working around the room, we use clipboards.
       

My Superhero Classroom 2015 and Ready For Meet The Teacher Night!

I found some awesome ideas on Pintrest/a blog for meet the teacher night! It really helped me get organized! Here we go! 

During Meet The Teacher Night, I had my class web page up on the smart board to show the kids and parents what was there. It was nice to show the kids while parents were filling out paperwork.

I am really happy with the way my room arrangement worked out. Every year my co-workers come into my room and they swear it is bigger than the rest but it isn't. It is just the way I lay out the room. The rugs help with creating 'areas' which makes the room seem bigger than it is. 

 Station 1 was where the kids would pick either a pink (girl) or blue (boy) sticky note where they wanted to sit and write their name on it. There was a info sheet on the students desk for the parents to fill out. Then I took them to Station 2 while mom and dad filled out the info sheet. 

I got the idea for the 3 drawer caddies on Pintrest! I loved the idea of having materials for math, spelling and other activities put away so they couldn't play with them, yet close enough to pass out quickly. 

My spelling word wall is my biggest project this year. I am using a new teaching method in spelling I learned in PD, which focuses on sounds. My word wall is by sounds and patterns instead of the alphabet. It is taking some getting used to for me!

Station 2 was on the table with the lamps. On this station I let the kids pick out a name badge (which has their name, emergency contact info and if they were bus, daycare or parent pick up) I use these for the first few weeks of school until I get it all down. 

Station 3 was along the wall I had paper grocer bags with a supply list stapled to it. The list was a custom list for my class the eliminated some unnecessary items from the district list and added more frequently used items in our classroom. 

One of my favorite things about this new arrangement is that somehow I have this huge area for my "mini kitchen" that I never used to have before. Its behind the chart, but it's nice. After all we need a mini fridge, microwave and plenty of teacher snacks!

Here is a closer shot of the desk caddies! Love this idea! 

Station 4 was on the round table. It had a packet with student names on them. Inside was a laminated business card with my class website, and all contact info, and a two page note explaining homework and expectations etc. This was a take home packet for parents to read since most parents have multiple teachers to visit they are short on time. 

Another School Year Another Room

It has proven difficult to keep up with this blog, my school website and school. Now I am adding graduate school this fall to the mix! I am excited to learn more, I love college! I am returning to grad school for my second master's degree, this one in reading. Looking forward I am considering a reading specialist position and who knows what lies ahead of that! I did not manage to post much at all this past school year except my room! I am not one of those bloggers who is coming up with new games or activities, not yet. I am a hard core pinner though and I get most of my ideas from Pintrest! Who doesn't love Pintrest! My room is my own creation inspired by others! So as we approach the new school year, which is weeks away, we have yet another theme this year! There is always something to keep us on our toes! This years theme is Superheros! I have big plans! I have learned so much each year about classroom design that you can see my room getting better every year and maybe a little more organized. This year will be no exception. Right now all I have is plans so I will share as things begin to be put together. A lot of new stuff is going on this year, new curriculum in some areas, new team members, new theme and we are starting interactive notebooks this year! I attended three workshops that have me ready to tackle word walls, interactive journals and spelling this year! More to come!

Summer is almost here!

Keeping up with a blog has proven to be difficult and almost impossible! This school year has been very challenging and there has been no time for new ideas. This summer I will have more time to blog and will be adding ideas for the new classroom theme for the next school year! The countdown to summer is on! Six weeks left!

Hello Cold Weather!

I have to admit that I am finding it challenging to keep up with this blog, my class webpage with all the other things I have to do on a daily basis. I think I need an app on my phone! I haven't created anything new to share but recently I did purchase a great journal writing set on www.teacherpayteachers.com! The set includes all four seasons of journal jar writing prompts! Very cute! I grabbed some vintage style mason jars at Wal-mart to put them in!

Here in Oklahoma we have had our first snow for the season! With that snow school was cancelled tomorrow due to icy roads, that is just the way it goes around here in Oklahoma. This school year so far has been mostly awesome! I have a great bunch of students this year! I had to change rooms before school started and I was so stoked about having a window in my room, but apparently the trade off was I have no working smart board! Thanksgiving is upon us and still now smart board! I am surviving but it is a bit frustrating knowing I am missing out on so many technological opportunities so far this year. I am crossing my fingers and praying that Santa brings me a working smart board installed and ready to use by January 2nd! 

I have had to make a few changes to my room, one that left me sad but I am in the process of compromising with myself. I had to take down my 3-D alphabet that I had strung across my room because it was apparently causing a problem with some motion sensors?? The alphabet will be relocating to the wall soon. :0) I have also recently added a second listening center! I will post pics soon!

Stay warm!

Willy Wonka Classroom!

This was a real work in progress. I have a few tweaks to still finish but here is what I have done so far!

I ran a clothes line alphabet strip across the room for a 3-D effect. 

My CAFE and Daily 5 wall and part of my reading area. 

My door! Can you see my door? 

A shot of my window and my candy word wall tree! Are those gobbstoppers on that tree? (that's what they are supposed to be)

Here is more of my reading center. Notice my reading boxes for use during Read to Self, and Buddy Reading! I got those on amazon. I keep buckets of special books that are rich in color and vocabulary etc. Books like I Need My Monster, The Monstore and more. 

My listen to reading center from Daily 5 is in the middle of my two carpet areas. I have a bucket of CD books and books on tape. I am still gathering some chairs and setting up the equipment. 

I LOVE these! They were so easy and affordable to make. The crates are 3.47 at Wal-Mart. I bought 1 yard of pink satin material at Hobby Lobby for 4.99. I used old regular pillows and cut in half for the stuffing, they fit perfectly on top of the crates I hot glued the seams of the pillows. For the candy labels I printed off google images of candy boxes and laminated them. Then I backed them with construction paper for border. Thats it! GREAT seating! The kids LOVE them too!

My white board on this wall is unusable and waiting to be replaced at fall break. In the mean time it became the pocket chart wall! 

I am still finishing up my little corner!

I added Welcome Oompas Loompas and little men outside the door! I didn't take another photo yet, but I added twirly pops in between the oompas! I am adding a sign with all the kids names on the other side! 

That is most of the room. I have a few things I am tweaking. I finished adding border to two of my bulletin boards today for Wonka Writing and Reading Land! Enjoy! I hope you like my ideas and they foster some ideas for you too! 

Awesome High Frequency Word Activity!

I came up with a great practice/review activity for high frequency words. You could use this activity to review anything though! Math facts, spelling words etc! I took balloons and blew them up small, about the size of water balloons. I used a sharpie and wrote my HFW for the week on them. My students are set up in six tables of four students each. I started with table 1 and started handing them balloons, each student had to read and say aloud the word then pass it to the next person. When everyone at the table had done it, they passed it to the next table. I kept giving them balloons until I was out and then I had them continue to pass balloons until they had completed it three times! They LOVED it! There was giggling and a little bit of dropping balloons on the floor but overall they handled the activity very well! This is a great way to engage them and to get kinesthetic, visual and audio learning all in one! All the balloons will go on my word tree in my room! I will use this activity again for math facts and more!

My Tree.....