Chalkboard Fabric!!!

As you saw on my last post about the Academic Games, I have recently come upon the amazingness that is CHALKBOARD FABRIC!!!  I found it at Joann's Fabric in their Utility Fabric section.  it was only $4.99 a yard!  Just a heads up, it is a single side of fabric.  It's not folded over like normal fabric.  Still worth it in my opinion though!

When you buy the fabric you get a lovely direction sheet (thank goodness!).

In fact,  it is quite easy to use!  All you have to do is rub chalk all over the surface of the fabric, make sure to cover every inch.  I used the long side of the chalk and it took less than five minutes.  I used the large, fat chalk from Crayola.

 

Wipe it down with the cloth and you are ready to go!  You'll notice on the board below that the bottom looks a bit more crumply than the top.  That's because I hadn't bought enough fabric the first go around.  The first purchase the woman rolled it for me and on the second one (the bottom half) she folded it for me.  If you're OCD like me, DON'T GET IT FOLDED!

From here you can write anything you want and it wipes off very easily when you are ready for something new!  I can't wait until next year!  I have so many ideas for it but the one I am the most excited about is a display for student's work.  I was thinking about putting it in the hallway but since it does wipe off so easily I'm concerned about little hands wiping off all my messages.  So it might just go in the classroom!  Either way, I will be using it!  A LOT!  Here is a finished product for our Academic Games score board.

What are some different ways you would use chalkboard fabric in the classroom???

An Apple a Day: Classroom Decor

I am putting Social Studies Sunday on hold for the summer y'all (because all my goods are at school, lol) but I will bring it back in August!  Until then I will be linking up with the super cute Leigh from The Applicious Teacher for An Apple a Day Linky Party. We met yesterday at the Central Florida Blogger Meet Up and I just love her!  And we're neighbors!  So excited :o)

(Kimberly from KG Fonts, Daina from Sticky Notes and Glitter, Tammy from the Resourceful Apple, Leigh from The Applicious Teacher, Me from here, and Tamara from Mrs. Russell's Room)

Okay, back to why I'm posting today!  Leigh is starting her very first linky party and I can't wait to join!  I love this idea!  She calls it the "easiest PD you'll do all summer... and it's from your couch!"  LOVE IT!  Today I am linking up my classroom décor: the good, the bad, and the ugly.  And the hopeful!



Here are some posts of Classroom décor past...

Sports Theme

 

 

Click here for more pictures and posts on my sports theme.

 

Classroom décor present...

 



I'm going for a "Bag of Skittles Threw Up in Here" theme

 

 



Click here for more pictures and posts on this past years theme.

Classroom décor future...

Well besides loving the look of a rainbow explosion in my room, it was also the "Pinterest" room, thanks to last summer's Monday Made It with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics.  I don't have A LOT of money to spend on redecorating and buying more stuff but I know what I WOULD like to take it more into the Polka Dots route.  I know that's probably outdated but I just love dots, what can I say?

Definitely doing this to my table during preplan!  I already have the polka dot bulletin board trimmers from Lakeshore in a multitude of colors (hello rainbow explosion) but I think I'm leaning towards more blues and greens and random pops of color for next year.

I'm not entirely sure how I'm arranging/decorating the room yet for two reasons:

1. I don't know what I'm teaching next year.  I might be just ELA/SS again or be self-contained, I'll keep you updated!

2. This monstrosity that is my front wall.  Now, you might be thinking to yourself, it's burnt orange-ish and you're a huge Longhorn fan.  What could be wrong with that?  Nothing!  I love me some Longhorns but not painted on my classroom wall adjacent to a dusky rose wall of cabinets.  I feel like all my décor is competing with those two walls!?  I know it's not awful, I'm making a bigger stink than necessary and on their own they are nice colors, just not what I would use to compliment all my stuff.  Any advice on how to make it all work?

So there you have it, my classroom décor idea for next year!  Don't forget to link up with Leigh over at The Applicious Teacher and let us know what you plan to do.  I LOVE to see other people's ideas!  Also, don't forget tomorrow is Must Have Monday!  What can you not live without???  Link up tomorrow and let us know :o)

Hallway Bulletin Boards

So I just realized that I forgot to add in my outside bulletin boards to my classroom tour!  Lol, oops!

I work in an area where not all of my students will be able to afford to go to college.  Instead of them asking themselves, "Will I go to college?"  I want them to ask themselves, "Which college will I go to?"  These are the four major public schools in our state and we plan on putting photos of famous alumni from those colleges (including their wonderful teachers!) in the blank space beneath each pennants.

In Florida we have a program called Sunshine State Readers and this is our "brag" board for the entire 5th grade.  Whenever a student, or teacher, reads all 15 Sunshine State books, they will take a picture with their favorite book and we'll put it in the middle of a sun with their names on them and place it on the "brag" board!

Here are my reading bulletin boards!  I'm in love with the Reading Olympics one :o)  I am obsessed whenever the Olympics come on so I knew I had to incorporate them into my classroom somehow, so I used it for our Think 30  board.  Whenever a student reads 10 books I will put their name on a star and place it in the bronze medal area.  Same goes for 20 books in the silver category and 30 books for the gold!  The other side is a tracker for my two reading groups to see how many/which Sunshine State books they have read thus far.

Bulletin boards are a favorite of mine and I love stalking everyone else's to find new ideas.  If you have any great ones let me know!  I hope you enjoy our hallway!

Sabra

Open House Room Tour 2012-2013

Tonight was our open house and we had a great turn out!  I already love my kiddos and their quirkiness (they'll fit right in, lol) and my parents seem like they will be very involved and helpful.  I'll keep the writing down to a minimum since this will be very picture heavy but I will try and explain what you're seeing in each picture.  I'll start from right to left, going around the room.  Let the tour begin!

When you walk in and turn to the right you see our cubbies (which I need to clean and organize) and the crafty clipboards I've been making to display the student's work.

This is our back wall with a Social Studies bulletin board and working table.

Our classroom management system is called Paws-itive Behavior and this is our rewards chart with the rules and what not underneath.  The kids place a sticker every week that they earn a "Green" week.  Two green weeks earn you a reward and the more rewards you earn the better they get!

I kept up my prefix/suffix board from last year and just moved one of my bookshelves underneath.

Our Types of Questions chart and Vocabulary and Spelling posters next to our Word Work station.

Our Word Work station for our Daily 3.  It has the Boggle Board, Classroom Journals, and a file crate of other Word Work activities.



The side wall and reading area.



Our reading area with the Focus Strip, strategy posters, and our CAFE board.  I taped on sheet protectors to the Focus Strip panels so I can slip in paper that says the skill we are working on.

Corner and front of room.

My guided reading table and "Desk-shelf."  That large white bookshelf is essentially my desk.  It has my binders of info, Teacher Toolbox (Gator version for my man, since he bought me the box and all, lol) my weekly organizing trays and guided reading baskets.

Our front wall and side wall of cabinets.



My Classroom Rules poster with the yard stick frame... LOVE IT!

If you thought, "Wow.  It looks like a bag of Skittles threw up in there," then my mission is accomplished! HAHA!  I can't wait to tour the other teacher's room and see all my other bloggy friend's classrooms.  I love getting new ideas and seeing other people's creativity.  I hope you all have a wonderful beginning of the school year and your Open House goes as well as mine did.

Sabra

Finally in the Classroom!

All summer I have been waiting to get into my room and get started but they sent out an email saying, "Hey, we won't let you in until the Thursday before preplan.  You can also come in Friday for half the day but no AC.  Good luck!"  Ugh...  So I really had one and a half days to get it ready before all the meetings and planning began.  Here are some pictures of what I walked into:

Anyone who knows me knows I like to switch it up all the time.  So of course most of what was left up from last year is going, going, gone!  I mostly just worked on one wall today, as you can tell, lol.  Usually my room looks like a bag of Skittles threw up, so as long as there is color everywhere I feel good about it :o)  This is a photo of my guided reading table (far left, hard to see) and the tall bookshelf will essentially be my desk.  You can see the reading area with my focus strip, reading strategy posters, and CAFE board.

Again the reading area and the table on the right will be used for my Word Work for the Daily 3.  I'm only doing Daily 3, not 5, since intermediate is a little different in how we work this was just easier for all of us: Read to Self, Word Work, and Writing Connection.

Across from the Word Work table is another bookshelf with all my nonfiction and author study books.  The bulletin board above that bookshelf is used for our Prefix/Suffix note cards we create throughout the year.

I will be back in there tomorrow (fan in tow!) and hopefully keep working my way around the room.  Now back to cutting, gluing, creating, and the OLYMPICS!

Sabra

Monday Made It #3 - LEARN Letters

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted but we went out of town for a wedding and had a crazy fun time! Now we are dealing with Tropical Storm Debbie, but I somehow still found time to finish my Monday Made It project, lol. I will be posting my Guiding Readers Chapter 2 Review tomorrow as well (trying to play catch up).

Like I said, I'm linking up again with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It. This week, really the past few weeks, I have been creating my LEARN letters to put on top of my cabinets. I saw on Pinterest these wonderful CREATE letters from Mrs. Knights Smartest Artists and knew I had to have them for my cabinets as well. This past year was the first time I had ever had above cabinet space and I had nothing to put there! I eventually put the student's projects up there but there was still blank space for a good portion of the year. Now I have wonderful 3-D letters! I wanted the two feet letters but they were just a little to tall and, truth be told, a little too skinny for what I wanted to put on them. So these letters are about a foot tall and block lettering and seem to fit all the do-dads I glued on them nicely!

 

Tomorrow I will be heading into my classroom so I will take a picture of what they look like on top of my cabinets.  The do-dads on the letters are:

L - crayons

E - glitter yarn (just keep wrapping around)

A - green and blue buttons

R - map with scrapbook embellishments

N - pencils (cut with a coping saw and flatten edges with sand paper - SUPER EASY)

I have been seeing everyone else's letters and I'm just loving what everyone is coming up with!  Have I mentioned how much I love this linky and I am getting so much done!

Sabra

Sports Theme Part Two (2011-2012)

Here is the follow up to my last post.  Last time I showed you pictures from my room two years ago with the sports theme.  Now it is still the sports theme but at a new school, in a new room.  This rose/dusk color was a big shock from my bright white room but it has grown on me (took a whole year but finally got there, lol)!

2011-2012 

Starting outside our hallway we find our reading bulletin boards. The one on the left tracks how many/which Sunshine State Books they've read and the one on the right is "Our Reading Goals." This year I implemented the Book Whisperer's Think 30! and these super cute football incentive charts were great ways for students to track how many books they read. They couldn't wait for their red football, which meant they were on books 16-30.

Our cubbies and Stellar Starburst Chart (our behavior system in 5th grade)

Writing center and Geography Challenge board

Geography Challenge (I'm a BIG fan of interactive bulletin boards)

Close up of the bags on the Geography Challenge board

Reading Dugout (Classroom library)

Word Study Wall (we learn a different prefix/suffix a week and put it up there with the definition and picture to help us remember the meaning)

Close up of the Reading Dugout. My favorite part is the actual letters! I printed them out on white cardstock but then drew on the red stitching so it looks like a baseball.

CAFE board, Spelling, and Vocabulary charts

My desk (that's the cleanest you'll ever see it!), calendar, specials, and Homerun Helpers (jobs)

Front of our room. Another favorite is the letters READ for the quote. I went to Jo-Ann's and got sports textured paper. The "R" is made from football paper, "E" is a soccer ball (had to make that one), "A" is a basketball, and "D" is a tennis ball.

Hall of Fame Work

Sorry that was so picture/caption heavy but I'm a picture gal, what can I say?  It was not too heavy in the sports theme but I brought it in here and there.  Of course, in true me fashion, I'm ready for a change!  So all the hard work I put into creating those letters and job charts and what not will now be going into the closet and new batch will be created.  Thankfully I like to create new things and don't resent myself ;o)  Hope you enjoyed!
Sabra