New & Improved Focus Wall

Over Christmas break I decided to spend a little time revamping my focus wall. I wanted to make it even more interactive than it was before, plus I decided that the calendar really didn't need to be in the center section.  What helped me to realize this was the fact that I have a visually impaired student in my class who usually isn't in my room during calendar time.  Given the fact that he doesn't usually participate in our calendar activities and the fact that the calendar activities aren't the most important things hanging on the wall, it made sense to put the things we refer to throughout the day in the middle section.  Not only will my new configuration help my little V. I. guy, but everyone will get a better view of the "What are We Learning this Week?" materials.

Here are some pictures of the progression of my focus wall.

My 2011 - 2012 bulletin board.  Lots of space was taken up by pocket charts with kids' names ~ centers, stations, etc.  It looks pretty messy ~ I only had one section covered with fabric!

  2012 - 2013 Focus Wall.  It looks so much better with all the panels covered in matching fabric!  I like to cover my bulletin boards with fabric.  It lasts so much longer than paper, plus the holes don't show!  I have all of my bulletin boards covered with blue fabric because blue is a pretty good neutral ~ just about everything looks good against a sky-blue background!

2013 - 2014 Focus Wall.  This is pretty much how my bulletin board started out this school year.  I actually had moved the pocket charts on the left panel to a smaller bulletin board before the first day of school and hung some Daily 5 posters there.  I guess I didn't take a picture after I moved them.

My new & improved Focus Wall!  As you can see, I moved the calendar to the right panel and put the important skills stuff in the middle.  I was also able to hang more interactive items by moving my Daily 5 posters to another bulletin board in the room ~ I now have space to hang math things over the hundred chart.  There is a little space for a skill activity by the calendar ~ the snowman is a word family activity.  See a close-up picture of it HERE.  Even it its former state my focus wall met the requirements for posting weekly learning objectives.  (Click HERE to purchase my Focus Wall  Skills Headers.)  I am happy with the new arrangement because I feel it really puts the focus on the skills we are learning each week.

Saturday's Five for Friday

Once again, I'm a little late for my Five for Friday post.  Keeping up with my blog is a little like keeping up with the newspaper.  I usually read the news a day late, and do the puzzles on Saturday and Sunday during the school year.  At least my well informed hubby keeps me up to date on stuff that happens around the world.

So, without further ado, here are my five:

1.  For the last week and a half, my little cuties have been practicing working in their stations tubs.  I made chart for the anchor wall (note to self: take a picture of it) that details how to work in small groups or with a partner.  It is quite similar to the D5 I-Chart in its wording.  For these practice sessions, I placed pre-k (pssst, don't tell the kiddos) activities from The Mailbox into each tub.  Because they were preschool activities, the kids could be successful working independently without having difficulty with the task.  The purpose of these practice sessions was to learn to work in small groups.  And, I am pleased to report that they did a great job!  We start the real deal on Monday!

2.  We learned how to use our Writing Binders this week.  They will be part of our D5 "Work on Writing" once we get to that part of the D5 program.  I figured it would be good to let them practice using the binders with simple pages (these are letter pages from Jolly Phonics).  Everyone was really excited to get to use a binder.  It's funny how little things like that can be exciting when you are 5 or 6!

3.  We worked diligently on identifying, writing, and counting groups of objects to five this week.  The Kinders had fun rainbow writing their numbers with my Little Bird's Count & Write activity.

 Click HERE to purchase.  

4.  Our ever-changing Focus Wall.  I hang materials that we use in lessons each week so that the kiddos can "play" with them.  During our developmental centers time, students enjoy using pointers to interact with the material hanging on display.  They know that they cannot remove items (except the straws in the place value pocket chart if they wish to count them - they just cannot change how many there are  ~ we use this for our day counting activity).  It's so cute to see them play teacher!  (Do I really sound like that!?!?)  The skills cards clipped here and there satisfy our district's requirement of posting weekly objective.

Click HERE to purchase.

5.  My horse loving girls.  

 Emily & Amelia with Emily's faithful old Arabian, "Mystery."  PS Happy Birthday, Emily!

 Isabella taking her first riding lesson. 

 (She's going to be in her first horse show next week!  Lead line class, of course.)

Olivia watching the horses as Papa feeds them.  She's one today ~ it won't be long before she's on a pony!  (Yep, she was born on Aunt Emily's birthday last year!)

New Products!

It's Summer Vacation, and what am I thinking about?  Yup, you guessed it, school!  I guess once a teacher, always a teacher.  Don't get me wrong, I have spent lots of time enjoying my break, but the teacher in me is always thinking of something schoolish.  It got pretty humid yesterday, so I sought the air conditioned comfort of my house and made some new sight word cards and focus wall headers.  Our new reading series has upped the number of required words, so I thought that I'd create some cute new word cards.  I also decided to make matching cards for my focus wall.  We are required to post what we are learning each week.  I don't think that actually posting standards makes sense for Kinders, so I have created a collection of "I Can" cards.  I tried to include those skills that I think will lend themselves to being posted on the focus wall.  Click on the links below the title pictures to go to my Teachers pay Teachers store, and get some cuteness for your classroom!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Polka-Dot-Focus-Wall-Skills-Headers-742808

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Polka-Dot-Word-Wall-Cards-742828

 PS Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Click HERE for link.