Finally… A Listening Center!

I know that I'm a little late to the game… okay, maybe a LOT late to the game (it's almost May- yikes!), but I finally got a listening center up and running!  I am SO pumped!

I LOVE shopping at Goodwill for children's books.  Look what I scored this week!

13 books, with audio cassette tapes!  TWO BUCKS FOR EACH SET!

Remember those cassette tapes?  I had to explain to my students how these were like CDs from when I was a little kid.  "Back in the olden days, we didn't have iPods…. and we had to have tape players…."

It was a difficult concept for them to grasp.

So, I found a boom-box with a tape deck, and got this listening center rolling!  They LOVE it!  (I wish I had gotten myself in-gear sooner in the year.)

Of course, I had to do lots of demonstrating of how to put the tape in and how to rewind it.  We did lots of practicing of how to operate the tape player, and how to sit elbow, elbow, knee, knee (EEKK), so everyone can see the book.  So far, it's working great!  Eventually, I would love to have my listening center be digital, like Mrs. Stanford's Class's Listening Center.  I love how she has it all organized with the iPods and headphones at a table.

But for now, these old-school tape cassettes will do the trick!  :)

What does your listening center look like?  How many books do you have in your listening center?

Five for Friday!

I am beginning to realize that Fridays are the only times I post.  :(  I am sorry for neglecting my blog!  Linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the weekly Five for Friday Linky.  Here's how my week went!

1.  New bookshelf!  

The Title I room was getting rid of some tiered bookshelves, and I offered to take one off of their hands.  I am so excited!  It will showcase books that relate to our science or social studies topic, as well as class-made books and other specialty books.  Yay!

2.  Lice....

Head lice seems to be a major problem at our school.  Five third graders went home with it on Thursday.  Two of those students were mine.  Then again on Friday, four more students in other grades went home with it.  The poor nurse was checking so many classes on Friday, that she didn't eat lunch until 2:30.  The tough part about the families at my school is that they think that all they need to do is treat the scalp.  They need to understand that they need to treat the scalp AND other materials in the home, like pillows, blankets, clothing, and stuffed animals as well.

3.  And then there were 17.

This year, my class started out at 21 students.  Two of those students never showed up to school, and were dropped from my list.  A few weeks ago, a girl moved.  This week, I was notified that another student moved unexpectedly.  In case you lost count, that brought my class size down to 17.  SEVENTEEN!  I begged for smaller class sizes (last year I had 28!), and here I got it.  Now it's my time to prove to administration that, for our school of ELL's, smaller class sizes is going to be the key to seeing the growth they want.  I'm up for the challenge.  Bring it on!

4.  Ordering Numbers

We started a new data cycle, which brought new skills in math and reading.  In math, we have been working on comparing and ordering numbers.  I gave each student a card with a number on it, and they had to arrange themselves in order.  It was a really quick and easy activity to pull together, and it was so funny to hear the dialogue between them.  "No!  You go over there!"  And they would drag each other around to where their number belongs.  

5.  Monster Dash Half Marathon

I have two older brothers.  One has run several marathons, and the other has been training for his first half-marathon.  Today, they ran the Monster Dash half-marathon in St. Paul.  We caught up with Dean at mile 8, and then met both of them at the finish line.  It was so fun to see the funny costumes that the runners were wearing!  I heard that there were 17,000 runners for the event today!

Me, Dean, niece Marianne, Clark, Dad, niece Ramona, and sister-in-law Elise.

Dean (left) and Clark (right).  Dean ran his first half-marathon today.

Congratulations, Dean and Clark!

How was your week?

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Peek into my Classroom!

Welcome to my 3rd Grade Classroom!

I settled on a "theme" for this year!  My color scheme/theme is teal, black, white, and silver STARS.  I made this display on the front window of my room (to the right of the photo is my classroom door.  The picture is taken from the hallway.).  For the letters and stars, I used my school's die cut machine.  I drew the bucket myself, and stuffed it with stars to look like it was full.  Each white star has a student's name on it.  I really like how it turned out!  I think it sets the tone for my classroom before you even enter.  :)

From the door, looking left, are my student computers and birthday board...

Looking straight in from the door is my carpet and board area.  I love having my meeting space up front.  So far, we've been spending equal amounts of time at their desks and on the carpet.

The birthday board is a bookshelf that holds our book bins (on the left).  That big black bulletin board was quite a project to install.... but I will save that for another post.  This bulletin board is covered in fabric, and holds my calendar area, a place to post content and language objectives for each lesson, and the area above will have individual student goals for reading and math.

My guided reading table is towards the back of the room.  That blank part of the bulletin board is going to hold reading strategies and story vocabulary.

In the back of the room is the students' hooks and my desk area.

Next to my desk area is where students will turn in work, as well as get supplies they might need throughout the day.

Further down the wall from the supply area is the classroom library.  That was quite the project this summer!  Read about it here.  To the right of the photo is the rainbow carpet in the front of the room.

How have you organized your classroom for the year?

Until next time, 

-Miss Woodward

Revealing.... The Classroom Library!

I am so, so, SO excited to show you my classroom library!  I love how neat and organized it looks.  I am so happy I bought all of the matching bins.  I started this project last week... read about that here.

I made cute labels and started taping them on my bins.  

Because these bins had holes on the sides, I also put tape on the inside of the bin.

I made sure the labels tell students what the Accelerated Reader level is, whether it's a picture book or chapter book, and a color dot, so they can easily tell where to put the book back.

For some books, I couldn't find an Accelerated Reader level.  I put these books in a "Special Interest" bin.  I also have a bin for Hmong/English books.  The kiddos love reading in Hmong.

I just love how this library came together!  Every time I look at it, I smile.

What leveling system does your school use?  How did you organize your classroom library?

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Book Box Solution

Do you use book boxes to hold the books students are currently reading?  When I first decided I wanted to use book boxes, I found some nice plastic ones at Target for $3 each.  My idea was that I could use them for a few years.  It added up to get 30 of them!

Here is a MUCH cheaper solution!  I took a trip to IKEA, and found these cardboard boxes.  They came 5 to a set, for $2.  Let me just lay that out for you...

30 plastic book bins x $3 each = $90

30 cardboard book bins (6 sets) x $2 per set = $12

Yeah, I think I made a better choice.  :)  If you don't live near an IKEA, don't fear!  You can buy them online here!

They were super easy to put together!  Literally, about 15 seconds assembly for each box.

During the first week of school, I am going to have my students decorate them.  Then, at the end of the year, they can take them home!

Do you use book boxes?  Where do you get yours? Do you use them with Daily 5?  I am excited to try Daily 5 this year!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Book Organization

I am so excited to get my classroom library organized!  Last year, some of my books were labeled, and some weren't.  Books were always in the wrong bins.  And, worst of all, my students didn't know how to choose a "just right" book based on their reading level.  So, I decided to change that.  Time to get organized!

Last time I was in my room, I looked online and labeled each book with a sticky note with the Accelerated Reader level.

Today, I organized all the books into piles by level.  I had a pile for Level 1's, Level 2's, etc.  Then I put colored dots on each book.  As you can see, all of my Level 1's are bright green.  It was super quick and easy to then write the level on each colored dot.  (This was also a good time to make sure I had my name written on each book.)

Next, I bought these plastic bins at Target.  They were a little spendy... about $3.00 each.  But I am glad I got them!  They are durable, and I think they will stand up to the wear and tear by my little kiddos.

Right now, I have two for each level- a larger teal one for picture books, and a smaller white one for chapter books.  Once I put all of my books into their appropriate bins, I realized that I need more white bins for chapter books.  Can you see them all stacked up on top of the bin?  Maybe I need to stop buying books for a while...

My next step is to create labels for each bin.  I will let you know when my labels are done and listed in my TpT store!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

I'm Back!

Blogging world, I'm back!

I have finally gotten back into the swing of things!  After a long (and very restful) summer, it is time to think about school again.  For my school, teachers don't have to report back for another two weeks, and school starts a week or so after that.

This week I attended a three-day conference about implementing Core Knowledge into your classroom instruction.  My teaching partner and I got some great ideas and were able to map out our year's curriculum!  What I like about our map is that we are using our language arts block to teach science and social studies content.  It should be (fingers crossed!) a very nicely integrated time of the day.  If you want to know more about Core Knowledge, visit their website here.  I am excited to challenge my students this year!

The conference ended yesterday, and now I am just PUMPED to get back into the classroom and implement all of these new ideas I have.  So.... I spent my day at school today!  My partner and I got a lot done!

First, we copied, cut, and bound 65 of these lovely spelling dictionaries.  It was quite the undertaking!  This is one of my favorite purchases from TpT... check it out here!  

What I liked about this dictionary is that, along with the a-z pages, it included pages for special categories of words, like "family", "pets", and "friends".  I think this book will be awesome for my ELL lovelies to ensure that they are spelling common words correctly.

We also looked at each of our classroom libraries and labeled our books using the Accelerated Reading scale.  I just used a sticky note for now.  Later, I will go back and add colored circle labels that the students will look at to find their "just right" book.

It's been quite a day!  I am excited to start re-arranging and decorating my classroom... but, there is a small chance 3rd grade might be moving to different classrooms.  Crossing my fingers that that's not the case... I don't want to move all of my stuff!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward