Literacy Workstations

I've always had a workstation board, but I rotated the students and they went where I chose. This year I decided to find a way for them to choose. The last 30 minutes of my reading group time students are allowed to go to a workstaion. I call tables to come and choose where they would like to go. They move their name to the black dot, if there isn't one it means the workstation is full. It seems to be working great. I just have to monitor and make sure they are not always going to the same one. 

I took the magnetic board on the back of my easel off. 

I put a round magnet on the back of each student name.

Johnny Appleseed Week

I love Johnny Appleseed week!! This year during this week our curriculum map wanted us teaching sequence of events. So we read the biography of Johnny Appleseed and sequenced the events in his life the first day.

The second day we read the Stephen Kellogg tall tale Johnny Appleseed and sequenced the events.

The third day we compared the two stories along with the genres.

The forth day the students made a Johnny Appleseed mini book and webbed the characteristics of him providing evidence.

Friday was applesauce day. I read a nonfiction book about apples and the students sequenced the life cycle of the apple tree. Afterwards we conducted a science lab about solids and liquids. We described the properties of the apple as a solid and drew and labeled a diagram. Then we peeled and chopped the apples to make apple sauce.

Communities.

I always start the year out talking about communities in Social Studies. Since I have about 15 minutes at the end of the day to teach science or social studies (My district has the shortest school day in the state. We get out 30-40 minutes earlier than other district.) Anyways. I try to integrate my content area into my literacy block. Then I have 15 minutes at the end of the day to extend the read aloud. 

My third graders are expected to identify characteristics of urban, suburban, and rural communities and why people chose to live there. I use these four big books (Benchmark Education) to teach this concept. 

This book describes all three communities.  I bought these three last year. They focus on one community and give a little more information.

Each day I read about one community and create the following chart. I have them tell me the characteristics and I chart them. When all the characteristics have been given, I have them think about why people would want to live there.

Students have their own chart to fill in as I fill mine in. Once all three communities have been discussed, we use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast them.

For an assessment, Students read about three different children in their community. Students have to identify which community is which. They also have to write about which community they would choose to live in and give three reasons why.

 I also have them identify places in our community. We lists, malls, theaters, museums, zoos, parks, and fun places.  

Classroom Library

Above my Classroom Library is a Genre Tree. The genres third graders are expected to know are represented. I add descriptions and examples of each genre as we I read books. It stays up all year form students to refer to. The books in my classroom library are color coded by genre. Bothe the book and the basket it goes in has a colored dot. This helps students put the books back where they go and become familiar with the genres.

I also have a board displaying the featured author.

(Sorry for the brightness. I closed the blinds but it didn't help much.)

Behavior System

I finally feel like I can breathe again. I took a few pics today to share. I love my behavior system. I have to say, it wasn't my idea, but it works. I tried many things my first few years of teaching. I like a positive system. The first one was putting checkmarks on a chart when a student showed good behavior. That worked but I didn't always have the chart with me. Then I moved to changing colors. I hated it! I even gave them chances to earn colors back. Still I hated it. I moved schools and another teacher used a ticket system. I tried it. I loved it! And it worked!

This is the chart they keep their tickets in. I always keep a few in my pocket to hand out in the hallway. Students receive tickets for following directions and good behavior. I also take them away for talking or bad behavior. Every afternoon, I count them and record the total on a sheet I send home. Parents initial it daily. The folder below the chart is where they turn in their sheet each morning. At the end of the week students with 10 or more tickets gets Fabulous Friday.

Fabulous Friday is the last 30-40 minutes of Friday afternoon. We do various fun activities. Popcorn and a video (usually a Magic School Bus or something dealing with the content being learned). Sometimes we take the frisbees, hula hoops, sidewalk chalk, jump ropes, and balls outside. And other ones we playing indoor games (usually board games or math games we've learned).

What do you do to manage behavior in your classroom?

Math Games and Manipulatives

Every since I was a kid I have loved cleaning and organizing stuff. Today I cleaned out and organized math materials. I kind of just stuck stuff in the organizers with no rhyme or reason last year. So since I received lots of games and manipulative at the fraction workshop this summer, I decided to reorganize! 


The first step to my process is to get everything out of the space. Next I sort through and group things. Lastly I put them in tubs or baskets and place back into the original space. I arrange and rearrange to get the most of my space. I do this with everything: closets, shoes, junk drawers, dresser drawers, cabinets. You get my drift.

Anyways. I started by dumping everything onto the floor and 2 hours later I had this! I labeled each tub. I just noticed i still have the post it note label on the clock basket. That will have to change.

It took forever because I cleaned out the pattern blocks. Here it goes OCD at it's finest. I have both wooden and plastic pattern blocks and over the years they've gotten mixed up. So. I sorted each shape into wooden and plastic. Then divided the wooden among four buckets equally. And the plastic between two buckets. Again equally. So now each bucket has the same amount of each color. I know right. I'm weird.

More pictures of my organized classroom to come.