Teacher Week (major late) + a SALE = Sunday Smorgasbord!!

If you know me, being late is no surprise! Especially on my last week of vacation! It takes top priority!! Today, I am linking up…late… with Blog Hoppin’ to show you my classroom digs, classroom management, as well as an organization tip! Bare with me. This post is all over the place. I have been in the same room for 5 years now, which I am super thankful for! The only thing we are required to do if we stay in the same room is get things off the floor. If you plan to have your room painted, you have to take everything off the walls. Not getting my room painted made things a ton easier. I didn’t have to do much. Thank Larry!! A few things I added this year are these super adorable color and shape posters from Cara Carroll. Way cute right? Is there anything she makes that isn’t cute?? I also took down my calendar area and replaced it with a word wall. I am planning to do calendar time on our Mimio this year. Calendar is great, but it sure does take up some major space! I have two boards in my room. The one on the left is where I keep all my daily/weekly rotations. I plan to blog more on those later. The one on the right is where most of our learning takes place. One of my very favorite things on the board is our “Where do they go” poster! In our classroom, we refer to letters as “small, tall, and fall” letters when writing. It sticks so well with the kids! They love this poster! Although we will do our calendar time on the Mimio this year, I still plan to keep a calendar displayed for students to continually see and refer to. In this area I also have A Cupcake for the Teacher’s Star Jar {fabulous idea}, as well as Michelle Oakes “word on the bus”. I love her idea of having the kids sing a song with the sight word to the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus”. I also keep our spelling words displayed here, as well as Miss Kindergartens picture direction signs. And the signs you see at the top of the wall are our reading strategies from Cara Carroll! Next to the board is were our rules are displayed, again from Cara Carroll….can you tell I adore her store?? Below our rules, are Miss Nelson’s hand signal cards. I LOVE these!!! Below, is where our Classroom Contract will go. Peeking through the bottom of the picture is our color clip chart. I loved A Cupcake For The Teacher’s clip chart, so I used it and tweaked the colors for our classroom. To see how I incorporated money into our clip chart last year click {here}. Here is what it looks like from the back of my room! It’s pretty much an organized mess! Especially the U-table!! Still have lots of work left to do, but a few things I like to do with the kiddos…..they love to help and have input on their classroom! After all, it isn’t just mine!     One thing I am super excited about starting this year is our classroom Reading Club! It is really just a motivational tool to use to get the kiddos reading at home. The kiddos read at their own pace to earn points. I will set the goals for our room. For example, 20 points = a special pencil, 40 points = a homework pass, 60 points = a snack pass, etc. Each kiddo has their own little chart to keep up with their points. They are just hung up on one of my cabinets with their classroom numbers on them. You can find The Reading Club stuff {here} on Google Docs. Now, for some organizational tips….I am not the one to ask! I try. I really do. And, I am getting much better! Last year I completely redid my file cabinets which has been such a life saver! They are now color coded according to subject! How did I function before? This year’s goal was organizing my sight word packs! Nothing mind blowing. Just a good ‘ole binder and some labels!   Behind each tab are all the sight words from that Dolch word list. These are perfect for Daily 5 word work! You can find all the packets {here}. Everything in my store is 20% off until Monday! Use the code b2s13 for an additional percentage off! Thank you Amy Lemons for the adorable graphic! And before I go I just had to share these pictures from today’s North Texas Blogger Meet Up!! Thank you Amy for sharing these pictures!! It’s truly a miracle that Shannon from Sweet-n-Sassy in 2nd and I made it in one piece! Y’all,… we got so lost that our location wouldn’t even show up on the GPS. 2 hours later….we arrived!! Funny stuff. ….and there you have it. My Sunday Smorgasbord all over the place!!!