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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

My Classroom

I hope you're all doing well and had a restful Labor Day weekend!  Is there anything better than good nights sleep, time with friends, and warm gooey brownies?  Mmhmm...

Anyway, I wanted to share my classroom with you today and a little bit about the organizational system I've created.  My favorite part of the room is my library.  I use book bins and labels like Beth Newingham.  I'm in a portable, so my library is a little smaller.  I have several boxes full of books at home to trade in as "new" books every few weeks.


Next to the library, I have fish with a clothespin for each child.  When one of them takes a book from the library, they place their clothespin on the side of the bin.  This way they know where to return their books to.  Also, I put a label on the outside of each book that is identical to the large label outside each bin.  This helps students know where to put their books when they are done with them as well.  My books are organized by genre. 


Next to the library, I post I-Charts so the students have a quick reference when they are looking for books!

In the front of the room, is our white board.  I keep a schedule, lunch menu, homework, and objectives. 

I have two favorite organizers this year!  The first one is a bin for each day of the week.  Since tomorrow's Wednesday, I have already pulled the bin out of the drawers.  I think I got the labels from Ladybug Teacher Files, but I'm not quite sure...

My other favorite organizational idea came from another teacher at my school.  I had always used caddies to store my students' art supplies, but by November they were all mixed up!  My friend suggested having each child put his/her supplies in a Ziploc Bag.  Then their bag goes in the caddie.  This also makes it easier when the students move to different groups because they can quickly and easily switch their supplies to a new caddy!


I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my classroom!  Hopefully I'll have some teaching ideas ready for later in the week!



Sunday, September 4, 2011

Fairytales

Last week we studied fairytales and learned about main characters, setting, conflict, and solution.  My students loved reading all the fairytales I was able to check out from the public library! 

We started by exploring fairy tales and making a list of noticings.  Then they practiced identifying the plot elements and recording them in a bubble map.  During centers on Wednesday and Thursday, I met with small groups.  We read Tattercoat together and made a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting it to Cinderella.

Aside from the regular fairy tales, these were some of our favorites from the study:

Adelita: a Mexican Cinderella story by Tomie dePaola
The Gingerbread Man retold by Jim Aylesworth
The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone
Clay Boy by Mirra Ginsburg
Snow White in New York by Fiona French
You Read to Me, I'll Read To You: very short fairy tales to read together by Mary Ann Hoberman
The Korean Cinderella by Shirley Climo

Welcome!

Good Morning!

I am a fourth grade teacher.  I have loved reading everyone else's blogs during the summer, and I thought - why not make one yourself?  So I've created this blog to share some of the fun things I'm doing in my classroom with you!

Feel free to explore!