Classroom Tour 2012-2013

As promised, I am back with a classroom tour. This was actually my classroom in May of last school year. I thought you'd rather see these than walls with no student work on it yet. 

So this is the view of the front of the class from the door. I have them sit in table groups.

This is from the front door showing the back of the room. BTW ... those 3 cabinets back there are the ONLY storage cabinets I have!! My handsome husband lets me store things in his garage though. ;)

This is a view of the wall that the door is on.  I love this huge window because I can see when the principal is coming. lol. The U-table is where I do all my interventioning. Oh and sidenote on those mailboxes:: See how I had to add 3 trays because I had 33 kiddos last year?! Yeah, well this year because California is FINALLY looking a little better money wise, we get to go back down to 27 or 28. PTL!

A close up of the window. I changed the numbers after I made some cuter ones for this year. I'll share later. The greenhouses from Lakeshore are my fav! I found a few sets in their warehouse. ((yes, I said warehouse. I am a very lucky teacher to have one of the two in the country on my way home from work -- convenient yet VERY very dangerous))

Writing Wall

My district uses SRAs Imagine It! and we have to have what's called a Concept/Question board. It's kinda like a themed board that the kids can post on. I also have my reading area here. My mission is to make this library a little more inviting. It's kind of sad looking in my opinion.

Math wall. This is also the corner where all my literacy center activities for the kids are housed. 

Behavior chart, drawing/coloring grading scale, and class rules. I also have another wall up there to display work. 

It's kind of hard to see but the white strips on his hat have word families written on them. 

 I have always wanted a tree, so this year I gave myself one. The project is from some cute blogger out there... I can't remember who. Please let me know so I can credit them.

High Frequency Word Wall and some classroom news.

Calendar stuff. I love using the songs and Zero the Hero stuff from Kathleen at Growing Kinders.

picture of the board. nothing fancy here.

center cards on red chart, projector cart, big book stand, and pocket chart.

Teacher corner... Behind the blue pocket chart in the last picture is my bookcase with TEs and M-F tubs... again from the Lakeshore warehouse. I would pay full price for these though! Loooove them! I know the wall looks a little cluttered but I love putting up all the little notes and pictures my kidlets give me through the year. 

Here is the other window on the door wall. You can see the writing table, my little teacher corner, and the birthday balloons.

 Writing table and can I please vent to all the ocd teachers out there?! I know you are noticing it and it drives me insane DAILY! My filing cabinets don't match! eeek! I asked if I could paint them and they told me no. :( 

Okay so I hope you enjoyed the tour and will keep checking back in with me. I really have missed blogging with all you out there! 

ABC ... practice with printing and letter sounds

I'm baaaaaack! So much has happened in the last year and apparently planning a WEDDING got in the way of my blogging. Yup! That's right, I got married. I am now Mrs. Brittney Sanderson! So exciting! I can't stop using these exclamation marks!!! It's been tricky starting the year with a new name. I keep saying to the kids "Ms. Male....I mean Mrs. Sanderson." They probably are thinking I have multiple personalities. Anyways, so with a new name and new house (yes, we tackled that milestone as well) come other new changes. I went to ITeachK! this summer in Vegas and realized, I need to start selling my stuff on TpT. I held off for so long because I really love getting stuff for free and giving back, but at the same time I would like to make some money. So without further ado... my Teachers Pay Teachers page is up and running. First item for sale:

It's a packet that includes one page per letter. Print them, pass them out to the kiddos, and BAM independent work time. They get practice with writing the letter, identifying the letter, and learning the letter sound. Here's a sample of the Bb page.

So if this looks like something you could use, please head over and buy it. Leave me some feedback too. First person to write a comment here with their email (because I just want to make sure anyone is still reading this - lol) will get it sent to them for free! 

I will be back this weekend with some pictures of my classroom for you all!

Brittney SANDERSON :)

Story Writing Template... and some blog love.

Let me tell you.... my kinders can make up some stories. Now when it came to putting their stories onto paper ::crickets:: They could not do it. I blog hunted like crazy to get some ideas on how to better guide them. I stalked everyone's pinterests too. Nothing. Finally, a teacher friend shared a template with me and this is what we came up with....

First, we read some fantasy stories and made an anchor chart. I really like to keep these simple for my little ones because I want them to actually be able to read it and refer to it.

Next, we filled in the web with some of our ideas. They picked a character, name, place, why the character went to the place, what could go wrong. We then filled in the template and TAAA DAAA... a story! ((note: this is my friend's story. I forgot to take a picture of mine.)) We did this 3 times, taking more and more away from the template each time. Oh, and this was the template we started with:

One day, there lived a ___ named ____.  ___ went to ____ to ____. When __ got to _____ the _____ was/were too ______. So ______ called _____ for help. 

 I walked them through creating their own web using this paper. Next week, we will begin writing. Wish us luck! I hope this can help some other struggling teacher out too. ;)

click the picture for your own copy

Oh and I have received some blog awards lately and haven't had a chance to post them...

Mrs. Johnson at Little Miss Teacher and Mrs. S at Stapler's Strategies gave me the Top 10 Award! So glad they did, so that I could find their super cute blogs and become a follower! 

Mrs. S, Deb at Simply the Classroom, and Emily at Circus of Learning also gave me this pretty award...

Ms. Au at 2nd Grade Rocks! gave me both of the awards as well! :)

I am off to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and will return the award giving favor later. 

Dr. Seuss Writing Packet

Wow! Anyone who has gone blog-hopping or pintresting lately will not be able to argue with this next statement.... 

Teachers are obsessed with Dr. Seuss! 

So in honor of our Rhyming Hero, I have created a little mini author's study for my kinders. This particular freebie just deals with writing. I will definitely be doing all the cutesy things I have seen to supplement the packet.  I am just going to read a book each day ((The Cat in the Hat, Horton Hears a Who, The Foot Book, and Green Eggs and Ham)) and have the kids write about it. Maybe their favorite part or if they liked it or not. Then at the end, they will choose their favorite book and write why it was their fav. 

---- click any of the pictures to get your copy ----

Oh Where, Oh Where, Has This Little Blog Gone...

Remember how I told you all that I don't have my own classroom because I teach half the day in one teacher's class and half the day in another teacher's class? Well... I have had to rethink some things and adapt a little. Because I teach math (calendar included) and I didn't have the wall space for my calendar materials, I had to improvise a little. A friend gave me one of those huge science project presentation boards (covered in clear contact paper) and here is what I came up with...

 I will obviously be sharing all of these files with you all in the post. But are a few things to note. I tried just using StickyTac to stick everything on and then used labeled clothes pins to mark the Days of the Week, Season, and Months. Both of those ideas did not work. Stuff was sliding off every other day and the kids were having a hard time with the clothes pins. I then switched to foam mounting squares to stick everything that was permanent down. This has lasted. I also swapped the clothes pins out for velcro. The calendar is a bulletin board set from DJ Inkers. The Days in School pocket chart is from a local teacher supply store.

 If you want to make your own... here are the templates. 

((I bought the weather one so I can't share it with you. Sorry.))

  

 Well, as always I hope someone can use this stuff and I really have missed you all! I will post again very soon.

Kinder Math Sorting Mats & Updates

Wow. After this last summer, I didn't think I could take a one month break from blogging... but look at me. I did. This last month has been nothing but C-R-A-Z-Y! I opened that kinder class that I told you all about, but two and a half weeks into it, I got an offer to go back to the school I taught at last year. I could not say no. I loooved my principal and had made sooo many great friends there that I took the offer and had one afternoon to pack up and move. ((I was secretly hoping this would happen and hadn't brought much stuff with me in case I had oh, a good 2 hours to pack.)) 

So my new position is kind of interesting. I am teaching math and writing in two kinder classes of 33 kiddos each. It's kind of weird because all I have is a desk and a cabinet to put my things. Not to mention, I am like a lot of you and obsessed with room environment. I have no control over that with the classroom. Plus the back and forth between the classes makes for a looong day. 

Now you know why I have been MIA... but I am BACK and plan on posting a lot. Especially when it comes to writing because our writing curriculum is awful and I just plan on using it very loosely. 

As a way of saying sorry for neglecting you and get you all back in my good graces... here are some math sorting mats I made. Just laminate and place in a tray or tub or baggy and you've got yourself some workshop activities. 

So... I hope that makes up for me being MIA. I really have missed you all and can't wait for things to calm down and get back to posting!