Reading Buddies

Today was our first time meeting with our third grade reading buddies. The Kinders were sooo excited! Our three third grade classes have been pairing up with one of our three kindergarten classes for the past few years to share books and fun. In addition to reading, we get together with our buddies to do crafts, share snacks, and enjoy each other's company.

It is a great way for the third graders to practice their fluency while they are serving as role models for the little ones. There is always a number of my former Kinders amongst our buddies. I love to see how much they have grown ~ it's especially exciting to hear some of my former struggling readers reading to my current students. And, as the year progresses it is so wonderful to see the excitement of my little kiddos as they read to their third grade buddies!

The Reading Buddies idea has caught on school-wide: first & fourth pair up, as do second & fifth. The kids love it! Here are a few pictures of our first Buddy Day.

Reading Buddy Time gives all levels of readers an opportunity to practice their reading & listening skills. I love to see the happy interactions between the big & little kids.

  A sweet big brother ~ little sister duo. 

Another sibling match-up. I had big brother and find myself calling my current little guy his brother's name. If they weren't different ages you would swear they were twins!

A couple more pictures of some cuties reading.

Classroom Reveal 2015

School started last Wednesday, so I'm a little bit late with my classroom reveal. But, I was So. Tired. last week. (You know ~ there is no tired like the first day of school tired!)

I made a few changes in my room, and am pretty happy with the results.

Meet the Teacher Night was last Monday. I had a great turnout ~ everyone showed up!

Pictures of my little cuties will hang from the little birds on our hallway bulletin board.

I have all round tables this year! Fifth grade took our clunky trapezoid tables. The rounds make my room seem bigger. (I did hang on to two trapezoids for centers.)

My Writing Station with bins lined up at the ready to collect supplies on Meet the Teacher Night.

Our desktop computers are gone ~ we are getting laptops. I kept the computer tables to create a bigger Word Work Station. The bottom picture looks across to my half circle table.

  

Looking across one of the trapezoids in the Math Station to our Focus Wall. We put card stock on our supply list. That table was COVERED with it Monday night! 

New additions: Check In Board & flower lanterns.

Also new is my fun Leader banner. It's hung from ribbon with tiny clothespins I found at Michaels. The leader changes daily ~ this person gets to do all of the classroom jobs for the day.

Trapezoid #2 is one of our Listening Stations. I am so excited to add two new iPod Touches to our Listening Library thanks to Donors Choose!

I stood in our Library to take this picture.

Looking at the Library from my half circle table. I love the roominess of the seating area with the round tables! There is even plenty of space on the floor in front of the white board for Go Noodle!

I need to remind myself how nice & neat my desk once was as the year goes by!

I made the read banner for the library with some of the same paper from the hallway banner (Leader banner, too).

So far no problems with the blue chair!

I love how bright & cheery my classroom turned out this year!

My little white table got a facelift from a can of teal spraypaint. 

I set out to find a table for $5.00 this summer & I did! I had originally thought that it would be a coffee table, but I lucked out when I stopped by a retired teacher's garage sale. I couldn't believe it when I spotted the tag on this table ~ $5.00! The pink pillow cost more than that at Dollar General!

There is plenty of space at the Magnet Center now that we have round desks. Clipboards under the little desk in the right pictures let the kids work in various places around the room. A friend gave me the alphabet rug for my Cubby Area. I had an old (I mean old) rug there before. It was in pretty bad shape, so I was very happy to get this new one for the space. The kids play with blocks in here, so a rug is a necessity. The colorful bins are their Book Bins for Read to Self. We will begin using them this week!  

Thanks for visiting. I hope you have a great school year!

Back to School Sale

It's that time again ~ Back to School Sale Time! This summer has literally flown by.  Given the fact that Indiana experienced monsoon season during the month of June, my summer vacation really seemed shorter than usual.  

First up is my best selling Hibernation unit.  I had fun making this ~ and will have fun using it again this January when we talk about hibernating animals.  

Click HERE to purchase.

Next up is my summer project ~ my (almost complete) Morning Work Bundle. It is only missing April & May/June ~ I promise that you will get those months! I will upload the remaining two months' sets as I finish them. I'm pretty excited about this new set because it progresses with the kids. I've made the monthly formats similar so the kids can work independently.  (Sunday, 8/2/15, ONLY this will be on sale for $12.00 until 9:00PM CDT)

Click HERE to purchase.

Happy shopping!  I hope you have a great school year.

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