Everyone's Smart

Well, I've successfully survived one week and two days with my kids!

Some of them are going to keep me on my toes, but I think I have a pretty good class (Even the toe keepers!)! :)

Each year, I always work  to build a classroom community/family (you can see how I do it through Responsive Classroom), and this year, I added in something that I learned from my Learn Like a Pirate book study.

Paul calls it Marble Theory, a way to show how everyone is smart, but we did it with base ten rods in my room (because I had enough for everyone, and they were already prepackaged in sets!)

Before we started, I had the kids brainstorm a list of things they could be 'smart' about.

Then, I passed our four cups, and a bag of 20 base ten rods to every student.

They needed to write two things they felt really 'smart' about, and two things they didn't feel as 'smart' about.

I showed them how to divided up their base tens blocks-more blocks go into the ones they are 'smart' about, with less blocks going into the 'not as smart' cups.

Once everyone had picked their things and divided up their rods, we took a gallery walk around the room, to see what they had. (And it was one of the quietest gallery walks ever! :)

Then, I had them come back and write the same thing for their cups (Reading & Writing, Math, Science, Social Studies) and had them reallocate their rods.

We took another gallery walk (another super quiet one!) to see our results.

After we had cleaned up, we talked about how different people have different levels of 'smarts' for everything that we do-but that we all had the same amount of smarts to start with.

We said it together a few times-we're all the same amount of smart-just in different ways. This led into my 'easy' discussion, how we don't use that words, because what one person finds easy, another one may find hard. That's because their 'smarts' are in a different area.

This then led into a discussion about even though it is hard, we need to keep trying and persevere, and change our mindset, and led to use starting this chart (which I pinned from Runde's Room, but came from Fieldcrest Elementary - please pin it from the source if you are going to pin it)
We're not quite done with the chart-we ran out of time-but we'll continue to work on it and it will be posted in our room to refer to.

So far, so good! I think the kids definitely enjoyed it, and hopefully we did an activity that I can refer back to all year long when we forget that we're all the same amount of smart.

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

'15~'16 Classroom

Welcome to my 2015-2016 Classroom!

Let's take a tour, shall we? :)

We'll start right outside my door.

I change my garlands for the month/season :)

 To the left-the 'command center'-mailboxes, attendance/lunch count.

To the right-storage for me, exit ticket poster (our classroom rules and hopes and dreams will go above it), classroom jobs and our goals for the next two weeks.

Around the backside of the 'command center'-our library! The empty bulletin boards will hold our reading and writing anchor charts.

On our whiteboard, I have our daily schedule, as well as show how you know signs. Think Marks will also go up on here.

Then our small group area.

I have comprehension art from the Brown Bag Teacher, as well as I can standards (from me :)

Where I have teacher storage for small group, and the rest of my book bins underneath out writing charts.

 Next to that, I have another table for students to work at, with our grading posters and the mathematical standards on it.

Then our vocabulary section.

and my desk, which is a bit of a mess right now

My area

And our whole group meeting place

We can juuuust fit everyone in a circle-like shape :)

And the part of my room that isn't quite done-my shelves! (Although it's mostly done and the parts are in, so hopefully it will be fixed soon :)

The broken section

My binder section :)

Mentor Texts and Guided Reading Book section

A small display

And the Science and Math stuff that should be on the shelves :)

Close up of my awesome bins and toolkits :)

That's my room!

It's a little crowded with 22 desks in there, but so far we are having a blast, and I'm excited for the new year! They've been pretty amazing so far :)

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

     

Five for Friday ~ Classroom Sneak Peek

Happy Friday!



My classroom is mostly done-I went in last week to set it up. The last I was in, my shelves weren't fixed yet, so I set it up as much as I could.

I thought I would show you some areas that are done (basically everything, except for half of my shelves) as a sneak peek!
This is one part of my shelves that are fine! I organized a little more, and was able to clear a spot for a display!

I've featured some of my favorite books, and will switch them out during the year. I'll also be displaying the Mentor Sentence book of the week here, as well as any crochet critters, or cute things I find.

My library!

I've moved some of the books from the long shelves over to this part of the library, to free up a little more space for their book bins-they don't fit quite as well one the shelves. :)



My small group area! I hope one day to get two (or three) trapezoid tables, so I can better reach all the kids, but we work it with the rectangle table.

My writing table/grade display/mathematical practice posters (although I tried to word them for every practice!)

Underneath the grade display, I hope to put examples of what each looks like for different things, so students have an example, as well as something to strive for and compare their work to.

Lastly, I got rid of my clip chart (more on that through the year!), and on my filing cabinet, I made a reading graffiti wall!

I put up two quotes two get them started (one from Wonder and one from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone).

Yes, I called it Harry Potter 1. I wasn't about to write our Sorcerer's Stone lying on the floor at an awkward angle!

We start next week! I'm excited to meet my class! (Not as excited to wake up to an alarm again! :)

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Math Toolkits~Place Value

Since I last talked about my Math Toolkits, I was able to sneak off to Target and grab a few more containers :)

Now I'm able to start my place value chips set and my base ten sets!

For my place value chips set, I took the bag

and basically just dumped it into a container. :)

There's usually enough chips for kids to share-also making this a partner set! (and BTW, my kids LOVED the chips! It really helped some of them this year learn the concepts-better than the base ten. If you have an opportunity-get some!)

For the base ten set, I needed a larger container-the 8.5 x 11 size.

I was also able to fit two sets in there.

Making this more of a double partner or quad set! (Plus, now I won't need as many containers :)

I'll still need to add labels, and I'll still have some random containers here and there (for cards, dice, pattern blocks, etc), but my storage will look so much  better when I'm done!

I've already been able to consolidate things, and empty containers and neaten it up!

I can't wait to see the finished product-as well as how easy it will make it for the kids to become more independent!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn