Teaching Little Smarties

I am so excited to get this school year started because I am going to be at a new school, in a new district and teaching a new grade. I will be teaching fifth grade and after teaching sixth for the past two years I was ready for a change. I absolutely believe I have found my school home and plan on staying here for a while!!!

Today I finally moved all my school stuff to my new classroom and did a little work that I want to share. My lovely husband spent his morning helping me and I an forever grateful because you won't believe what we found in my newly cleaned room. LOL crazy funny!

Before I moved all my totes in to the room, I can promise it didn't look like such a mess :(. I am so happy my principal was really listening when I was telling him the things I needed for my classroom because I wanted a lot of shelves!!! He got my four huge shelves and I am so excited to get my books on them. I also counted the desk and I only have 21, so I'm thinking that is how many students will will have which I an happy with after having 27 sixth graders in one room. I am not really a teacher desk person so I placed it in the back of the room out of the way so just in case I actually use it.

In the first picture on the top left, along the was is about ten boxes full of books. If you know and follow me my book lovin' heart was beating out of my chest LOL :)! Later this week I'll spend so time organizing and putting in to my Booksource system.

From the pictures you can see for the most part all my big furniture has been placed where I want it thanks to my husband. In the process of moving shelves and tables all of a sudden one of my daughters yells mouse and we see this little mouse running along the outside of the wall in the room (by the way this is my newly cleaned classroom). We all quickly ran out of the room and too the office LOL (including my husband because he is not a big fan of mice). Sadly the custodians couldn't help so we ended up going to the store to buy traps and sad a little prayer that the mouse finds a new home by tomorrow LOL.

Once again thanks for dropping my and hope you enjoyed what I had to say.

Teaching Little Smarties

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Back in November, my students started working on their reading fair projects. This is the second year my teammate and I have done this fair. Last year my students enjoyed this project and this year was no different. This year, some of my students couldn't wait to get started.

In my hope to build a community of readers, this project is intended to get students engaged in reading and to also get others interested in the book they are reading. Overall I think this is my favorite part of the year. As my students are working in and out of class on their project I anticipate the final product.

This project was also a great way to show what my students had learned in regards to fiction reading and everything they were taught during the first semester. In this project they has to include:
~A description of the main characters
~The setting
~Tone/Mood
~Point of view
~Problem
~Solution
~Plot summary
~Authour's purpose

These are a few projects I snapped a picture of:

To get the fifth grader excited about the project they will be doing next year, we had them be the judges. They were given a scoring sheet and were ask to look at creativity, uses of materials, and overall quality of the project.

And the winner is....

All students also when presenting their book were to give a book talk. We asked them to be as natural as possible because they were the ones that read the book, their job was to get other to want to read the book too. To help them prepare for the presentation we gave an outline of what their book talk needed to include. Below is an example format they followed.

Click here for a free copy

Remember reading is important and making it fun has to be too!!!!

It has been a while since I have linked up with #2getherwearebetter, but I am happy to be back in the grove for 2016

Happy New Year!!!!! I hope everyone has had an exciting 2015 and is ready to have an even better 2016. I know I am ready!! As the year was closing I felt that I didn't do as much as I would have like to do in some areas of my like. I consider myself a person that is driven to do better and be better, so with reflecting on 2015 and creating goals for 2016 I am sure it will help me achieve more in the new year.

My word for the year is GROW. I started on my TpT journey and blogging journey two years ago because I wanted to share with all you amazing teachers out there the things I was doing in my classroom. It has been a slow start with finding the time and finding my creative view. So, this is the read I want to really GROW and connect with other teachers more than I have before. To start, I am in the process of getting my blog redesigned so be on the lookout come April! I can't wait!!!!

I work with students in an area that in not the best. When they go home, there may not be a parent home because they are working. This means that they don't always have someone to ask them how their day was, help them with their homework, or even just to spend time with. I want to make sure that I motivate them to be the best and do their best in and outside of the classroom. They don't always see the end goal but I want to motivate them to see and achieve everything. I also don't want to forget to celebrate them for all their successes. I currently already have a start student for each week and I also want to do more. I am planning on having mini celebrations by doing lunch with the teacher for those students.

My brand Teaching Little Smarties is still new. I have been on TpT and blogging for the past two years and slowly I have been getting my name out there with social media. I love, love, love Instagram and that is where I have displayed all my classroom pictures. I want to continue to grow my business and hopefully, make it to the Teachers Pay Teachers Conference in Flordia this year (also looking for any roommates LOL :)!!!!!). I want to connect with more teachers in the social media world because you all have some many ideas and I also want to share my ideas with you too. I feel that social media has made me a better teachers because I have found people to follow that have the same beliefs as me. Setting aside time and scheduling in my planner when I am going to blog and put out new content in my TpT store is also a starting place. ***You have to remember that follows don't equal greatness*** MUST ENGAGE FOLLOW!!!

I am so guilty of bringing work home way too much. In 2016, I am setting time aside for family even if it is just watching a movie together. Leaving school at school twice a week is a must. One day during the week and one day on the weekend will be strictly FAMILY!!! I know my children will love this because they won't have to watch me grading papers every day LOL!!! I want to enjoy my children while they are young because my oldest goes to middle school next school year and it will be rare that she will want to spend time with me and her sisters :(.

I hope you all stick with me on my journey in 2016!!

Teaching Little Smarties

It's finally time for #2getherwearebetter CLASSROOM REVEAL!!!

I am so happy this day is finally here. I have been itching to show off all my hard work of setting up my classroom before my children storm in ready to learn LOL :)!

SO, READY, SET HERE WE GO...

Here is the view from the door of my classroom. I actually I was able to get the majority of the room. You can see everything but the front of the room.

I'm so thankful to have a wall of windows because I love to raise the shades and turn off the lights so the light comes in. I am all about going green and using sunlight to do so.

My tables were all layed out for Meet the Teacher Night. I didn't really choose seats for students, so the students that came go to choose where they go to sit. I teach sixth grade so I don't really do the name tag thing. I did last year, but this your it was more of headache to do and then have my students pick them off the table any way.

I this the front of my classroom. I currently change what is the front of the room because I don't use my smart board as much this school year. I have a class set of chromebooks and I use the website Pear Deck, so I am able to broadcast my lessons through my Ipad on to the students screens with out the use of the smartboard. (My students like the closeness of the chromebook instead of having to look up and take notes from the smartboard)

I was able to occupy my two-year-old by turning on Mickey Mouse!!! This lasted for about an hour while I finished setting up my room.

I love the new seating I have this school year. I was able to get stabilities balls from my partner and she received a new set with feet for her class, so two out of three sixth grade classrooms have stabilities.

My favorite part of my classroom is my classroom library. I decided to use milk created because we had a shortage of shelves in my building, so last year I started collecting milk crates from the cafeteria (FREE). (Don't worry I zipped tied them to death! NOFALLING ON STUDENTS!!!)

The last part (but there are other I need to probably add because there is much more in my classroom to see) is my Graffiti Wall. I read Reading in the Wild this summer and I am not obsessed with Donalyn Miller. I love everything she says about building a community of reading and I believe this is so important. Reading is a life skill you will always need! My mission for my students is to really understand this and really value reading this school and for the rest of their lives!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Come back soon!

Teaching Little Smarties

Why sit on a chair when you can sit on a stability ball!

I am so excited to start the 2015-2016 school year and I am even more excited that I have gotten rid of my chair. YES, NO MORE CHAIRS! My awesome teammate received a class set of stability balls last school year to use with her students. This school year our gym teacher had a set that no one was use so my teammate decided to let my have hers and use the other balls (Why??) (the new set has feet so the balls don't roll).

This will by my first year ever using stability balls in my classroom, but I am up to the challenge. (not really a challenge because I know I will have a great group of students that will definitely use the balls to their full potential)

This is what my classroom looked like before I got the stability balls.

This is the new and improved seating in my classroom currently!

I created two big groups with my tables to give my classroom more room to walk and other seating.

I made the rings my stability balls sit on out of pool noodles that I cut in half. I held them together with duck tape (for now till I find something better). Great cheap way to keep the stability balls from rolling around when students are not using them. I can sit them under the table or on top of the table when they mop my floors after school.

With my stability balls comes responsibility for my students. This means there are rules to be followed. Below are my stability ball rules.

I am hoping with the new seating that I see an increase of concentration and engagement from my students. Feel to leave any question you have below or email me at teachinglittlesmarties@gmail.com

Thanks for stopping by :)

I am so happy to link up with Angie at Lucky Little Learners and Ashley at Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd this month to talk about bulletin boards.

In my classroom, I currently have seven bulletin boards in my classroom. Below are three of those seven. This is the most bulletin boards I have ever had in my classroom LOL. I like to leave my bulletin boards mostly blank because I hang up the anchor charts we create together on all the boards. I also have a small board in the front of the room that is not pictured that I use for student data.

I have been following some awesome teachers on Instagram and I can't wait to let my student know what I am reading. This idea can from Literacy for Big Kids. In order for students to be lifelong readers, they have to know their teacher also reads. You can't expect students to do things you don't do yourself!

Below are some tip to save money and set up your classroom bulletin boards.

I love using bordette on my bulletin boards. I don't have to worry about a theme or having to change it later in the year if it doesn't match something in my classroom. Also, bordette is easy on your budget and won't break the bank if you are buying at least four rolls. Each roll will run you about 3 dollars and some change.

Using the same color border and color paper on all your bulletin board creates a cohesive look throughout your classroom and students attention won't bounce in so many different places because too many colors and cause a distraction. I have also layered my border in the past years and it too can fancy things up a bit.

This year I decided to save money and not purchase any new bulletin board letters. I have so many great fonts on my computer that I decided to enlarge the font and use it as the letters for my board. In the picture above of some of my boards, I have used KG Fonts and Hello Fonts. I only invested in Astro Bright paper to print on.

When school starts my boards are empty with some exceptions, I like to leave that space for all my anchor chart I have created with my students. The posters become more meaningful and students will use them more than any store-bought posters.

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This past week, I had the chance to participate in two reader's workshop professional developments. I also got a three-day training in June that was awesome! During the past school year, I started to implement reader's workshop, but my district's focus was on writer's workshop. I can honestly say I did a few pieces of the workshop model, but still needed to learn in order to become better.

I want to share what I learned, what I have done with my students, and what I will be doing during the upcoming school year.

When setting up you classroom, think about how you want to convey the message that this is a reading environment.

Reading wall- my bulletin boards in the back of my classroom are reserved for anchor chart that have to do with reading. I am also going to reserve the front of my air conditioner for my graffiti wall. Students will write quotes from books they are reading. I read Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller this summer and I have become obsessed with everything she talks about. Graffiti walls are one of the things she does with her students that I believe will make a great difference with my students in getting them to read.

Meeting area- even big kids need to be on the floor from time to time. I am excited I was able to get a big rug through Donors Choose. It will be our meeting area for all my mini lesson, read aloud time, and when my students want to lay on the floor to read.

Small group area- depending on your preference this will be an area where you will meet with your groups. It can be on the floor on a rug or at a table.

Classroom library- You have to have books for students to choose from. LOTS & LOTS & LOTS OF BOOKS!!!!! The recommended number of books for a classroom library is 2,000 books. Now that number may not be possible, but there are many places to start building your classroom library. Your public library, Scholastic, and used book stores are some places to start.

Have comfortable items for students to lay on or sit on while reading. I have a tile floor in my classroom and in the winter it can be very cold at times. I brought in old pillows from a couch and put them in pillow cases to match my classroom room decor.

Room arrangement- I switched to tables this past school year so that we have more floor space for my students to find a spot to read.

Here is an example reading block schedule. I was given this schedule during my June training for Reader's workshop. This schedule is geared towards grades, 3-6 students. You can tailor this schedule to fit the needs of your classroom.

Read aloud time is the heart of your day. It is outside of the reader's workshop time. When I read to my student's I like to have them close to me so we sit on the rug in our meeting area.

My first read aloud of the school year will be Fish in a Tree. I am taking the pledge to read this book during the 2015-2016 school year to my students.

You can also take the pledge by posting this sticker to your blog, Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook page.

*The key to making reader's workshop work in your classroom is PLANNING! The lack of planning will be doing your students a disservice. They have to know you enjoy reading in order to make them enjoy reading. IT ALL STARTS WITH YOU AS THE TEACHERS. Your students will follow your examples.

To learn more stay tuned for my next posts on:

Interactive Read Aloud

Mastering the Mini-lesson

Getting Students to Read

Conferencing with Students