Class is where the heart is

I've been on vacation for a whole two weeks.... and I'm definitely ready to go back and hit the ground running to get my all stars ready for the CST. Today I made what was supposed to be a quick trip to my classroom to get everything set up for next week, and of course I ended up staying for at least 2 hours. On a happy note, I finally have the room organized the way I want! on a sad note, it took until December to get it going haha. It didn't help that when they gave me my keys in August the room was twice the size, then due to super high enrollment they literally built a wall and split my room in two - needless to say we are pretty pressed for space, but we are making it work and I am in LOVE with my classroom :D Here it is!:::!!!:::

Our classroom library, the book boxes for Daily 5 were the best dollar store find ever! check out the tupperware aisle. We've got the book return basket (blue) and the book hospital (green), pillows that the kiddos can take to be comfy during Daily 5 and our teddy bear, aptly named Someone - for when there is an odd number of students reading to someone.

The catch all corner - whiteboards/markers/erasers, Listen to Reading station  (love these wireless headphones!) writing paper, lit circle folders - each team has one, stoplights - my SOLO cup management system, BUILD math tubs, math manipulatives and extra reading anthologies.

Word wall - I printed each letter Capital and Lower case on a different colored  sheet of paper and laminated them.

Words with the sound of the week and sight words.

I only added this picture because I want to brag about the number line a little - it has really helped students who are struggling with comparing numbers.

The math corner - green pocket char holds examples, I'll put up random notes on the white board, the rest is student work - I have their hundred charts up right now.

I have a few kids who KEEP ME ON TIME! probably helps to have these above the door :)

PUBLISH - We are in between writing prompts - as you can see - this is the are reserved for publishing Star Writing :D the clothespins on a line make it super easy to put work up quickly. Each star has a students name on it.

laminated and stapled to the wall - not the prettiest most 'pintresty' thing in the world but it's working :)

My corner - I gave up the giant teacher desk for two student desks, shoe organizer, and my hanging files. I absolutely love how it is working out. Of course all my all stars names are right behind my desk :)

I attempted to add labels to my hanging organizer buuuuuut .....

A little bit of whole brain teaching :)

Classroom jobs rotate in number order.

A little bit more whole brain teaching. 

Part of our morning routine using our calendar and counting the days we have been in school.

BUILDing Math Skills

I have been STRESSING myself out lately trying to implement BUILD in my classroom :( I think it is mostly because I am a little teensy bit OCD about things, sometimes.... In any case, I fell in love with the idea of BUILD - found it on a Google hunt one day - it is basically Daily 5 but for math and you know how I feel about Daily 5 <3

BUILD stands for Buddy games, Using manipulatives, Independent work (I do independent reading), Learning about numbers and Doing math. Now here is the problem, from what I gather from some blog stalking, BUILD is used for those early finishers, but I want ALL of my kiddos Learning about numbers and Using manipulatives. Also, it seemed to me that the Doing math center was kind of a 'whatever' filler center and I feel that it might just be the most important.
After implementing all of our procedures/routines for BUILD things were going very well, I was super happy with it the first day, only problem is we spend an HOUR and 15 minutes for math..... what?! o___o I can't cut work on writing out of the day because we are running out of time for D5 no no no. I had to sit down and figure this out.

Here is what I came up with:

15 min - whole class focus lesson and guided practice (on the carpet, the kids have whiteboards for a quick CFU)
15 min - Independent practice, BUILD for the early finishers

Small group intervention
***** I have identified a small group that is in dire need of some prerequisite skills for 2nd grade math, fortunately my school uses REAL MATH which has an awesome intervention guide/student work pages/assessments etc!

5 min - BUILD
Because I want my intervention group to participate in the centers too!

Each group will have a new center each day, rather than having 5 rotations per day - arrrgh! - pretty sure that is what was taking so darn long. - See the stars on each basket?! They match their team color - this way I am sure that they will all get to play with each part of BUILD.

Here is what I have in each basket:

B: Depending on the lesson, REAL MATH is great about including games so I usually take them from there. I will try to post about them individually in the future, everyone needs to know about these awesome games.

U: For now: even and odd practice
Unifix cubes, a TENS number dice, and ONES number dice
Kids roll both dice to create a 2 digit number, they take unifix cubes for the number they roll in the ONES place, then make pairs with the cubes. Pairs: even, 1 left over: odd

I: Independent Reading
All of a sudden I have at least 10 math books in this basket, love it! Some came to me via donations and some I bought on Amazon. I will post a list soon!

L: Learning about numbers
I actually made games for this center, trying to think of games that would cover a variety of skills - they are...... wait for it..... my very first item up for sale on TPT! Check them out HERE. It took me FOREVER to make them but has turned out to be well worth it! I plan on keeping the same games all year :)

D: I will be using this center as a quick assessment from now on. REAL MATH has Daily Quizes which makes my life so much easier :) These they will have to turn into the inbox for grading.

and that is BUILD <3 Oh, I love it, the kids love it, and it will be great..... once I get the timing all figured out.

Thank you for reading my very long post, HERE is a little freebie for your time. Sports themed BUILD labels, because I am obsessed with my sports themed classroom :)

Classroom Theme!

This morning I drove up to a charter school to apply in person (yay!) to one of their open primary positions. While I waited, I busied myself reading their Mission and Vision statements posted on the wall - inspiration struck. Their vision focuses on teamwork and even has a sports aspect as well. Fingers crossed that they call me back! but either way, in any grade level, I have decided to do a SPORTS theme! Even updated my classroom 'website' - blog - to a sports look.

Thanks to thecutestblogontheblock.com I got, well, the cutest blog header (with a little personalizing on my part)

I've found some really cute sports themed kits on Teachers Pay Teachers that I might hit up... it really depends on what grade level, if any, I am offered.

For now, I am excited to start brainstorming the Team theme! See my theme pins HERE!