2014-2015 Western Theme Classroom

Another year, another theme!  This year, our 6th graders are going to be excited to be in class with a WESTERN theme!  Enjoy!

These are posters of our Boys Town Social Skills.  Next to the Sheriff character, I have posted positive (Yee-Haw!) and Negative (Whoa!) consequences! 

One of my favorite signs in my room.  It is hard to read, but it says "What happens in the barn, stays in the barn!"

These hats are based off of Edward deBono's 6 Thinking Hats that will provide higher level thinking!

One of my favorite things is to reward students positively.  With having five different core classes, Cooperation Grids allow me the ease in management to do this.  When a student does anything that is worth recognizing, they will get to sign their name in a square.  When their class has filled up their grid, we will draw for prizes.  Usually the prizes are books, a coupon for a free book out of our next book order, gum, sugar-free sour lifesavers, and an iTunes gift card!  I will add more this year!

Our library area!

My handy husband built a covered wagon to go over my bathtub!

"Wanted:  READ or Alive!"  Currently, the wanted posters display our state's Golden Sower Award nominees.  This will be swapped out later for other books that students will recommend.

One thing I learned last year is that students need to be taught how to respond to questions being asked.  They need to back up their response with EVIDENCE from the text.  This board will house useful tips on how to do that properly!

Every year, I try to buy a new chair to match my theme.  This year, it was this beauty!  This is a Cozy Sac bean bag chair!  I hope the kids love it!

My desk (home) area!

A view from the door!

I am going to post pictures throughout the year of the FUN we have in Language Arts or 6th grade!

Another project by my hubby!  He cut out these silhouettes and painted them for me!  They look so cool in person!

I hope you enjoyed my classroom this year!

To see other GREAT classrooms, check out Just a Primary Girl's Linky Party with other classroom tours!

Moved...AGAIN!

Please be patient with my blog as I am updating it...AGAIN!  I have moved to a new grade level-from 3rd to 6th grade Language Arts.  It is a new adventure for me and I am just getting a chance to update my blog to reflect the change!

Designing FUN!

Have you seen Ms. Winton's blog post about Child Engineering?  If you haven't...STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND CHECK IT OUT...

Woooweeee!  I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the idea of having students design a project.  I am going to start using them THIS WEEK for our last week.  It is perfect!  Thanks, Ms. Winton!

I did some searching and found another link that is SUPER helpful with already designed projects!  Check it out HERE!

I am no "Dum-Dum" about Management!

When the Spangler Co. contacted me and asked me if I would like free samples of their delicious candy, there was NO WAY I was going to turn them down.  They sent me the most delicious box that I think I have  ever received at school.  It was full of a HUGE sack of Dum-dum suckers, Saf-T-Pops, candy canes, and circus peanuts.  I got to work right away:

This is my Easter-themed Classroom management idea!  I put the Dum-dums in miniature cupcake liners and poked them into a styrofoam cube that I covered with moss!  

When a student is following instructions or does something 100% pleasing to his/her wonderful teacher, they will get the chance to choose a "flower."  That is the pure reward in itself.  

BUT...if they pull out one that has a colored tip, then they will get the sucker AND another small reward (such as take off your shoes for the day, extra iPad time, switch seats with someone, sit at the teacher's desk, etc.)

Another GREAT, GREAT, GREAT idea to do with Spangler's Saf-T-Pops has purely to do with SAFETY!!!  Our school recently had it's first "Intruder Drill."  This is where we practiced exactly what we would do if an intruder was in our building...(let me just preface by saying that I think this has to be one of the most scary drills that I have ever had to do...it is so sad that we live in a world that students need to be prepared for something like this, but I am sooooo very thankful that we are practicing because my students did GREAT!)

One of our most brilliant teachers came up with the idea of having suckers ready for students to put in their mouth during a drill because it would help keep their mouths that much more quiet.  If a real intruder were present, it may also help keep them more calm as well.  BRILLIANT!!!  So, I now keep these suckers in our First Aid Kit and ready to go in case of a tragedy!

THANK YOU so much, Spangler, Co.  If you would like to check out more of their products, please visit their website at:  www.SpanglerCandy.com

Geome-TREE Family

We just got finished with our Geometry unit on the relationships between a quadrilateral, parallelogram, square, and rectangle.  My students always struggle with knowing that a square can be a rectangle, but a rectangle can't always be a square.  On their unit test, they have to look at a shape and classify it by ALL of the options that it can be.  I found a fun family tree on pinterest, but wanted to "jazz" it up a bit.  So, I have designed this family tree to help them define the geometry term and draw a picture below their definition.  My kiddos LOVED this form and said it was VERY helpful!  I hope you enjoy it.  Just click on the picture to download your own copy!

Classroom Family Friday-"Hero in the Hallway"

Today, our classroom family started a new series called "Classroom Family Friday."  Each Friday, I will share a video clip, song, movie clip, etc. about having good teamwork, helping one another out, bullying, and how to stand up for someone in our classroom family.  The purpose is just to build community in our classroom.

Today was our first video and reflection.  Here is the clip I played:

Immediately after I played the video, I asked the students not to say anything yet, but go back to their desk and have a 5 minute quick write on their feelings, thoughts, ideas, inspirations, etc. that the video inspired them to feel.  WOOOOOWEEEEEEE...I didn't know I would need the Kleenex on the FIRST day of doing this!  The stories were phenomenal.  They wrote about times they remember feeling bullied and a friend helped them out.  They wrote about how sad it was that so many kids dropped out of school.  They wrote about how they could be a hero to someone.

 I am telling you guys...IT WAS POWERFUL!!!

On Monday, we are going to start our "Motivational Mondays" Series in which I will play a clip that inspires them to be the BEST THEY CAN BE, not give up, try hard, etc.  I will share a clip with you on Monday and let you know what the kiddos thought!

2012-2013 Game Board Classroom Pics

Well, I finally have my classroom finished (thank goodness because school started Tuesday!)  My students and I absolutely LOVE our space!  Some of my ideas were directly found off of Pinterest, but most I created myself.  Enjoy!