Welcome Back Door-Update

Here are a few pictures of the completed door.  I actually haven't decided if I'm going to put names on the door or not.  I may do air bubbles and have the kids do their own names.

The Welcome Back Door

Every year this throws me for a loop.  I toss around just sticking the kid's names on the door to going hog wild.  I've been able to reign it in and meet that somewhere in the middle.

This year I came across a blog that had a phrase on it that really resonated with me. "We all may be fish of a different kind but in this school we swim together."

Love it.

So now, what to do?  First off, you should know, I'm not an artistic person.  Sure, I'm creative but I really struggle with getting the ideas in my head onto a canvas.  So here's my plan.

The next step is to add the fish.  I'm borrowing a friend/parent's Cricut cartridge and am going to use some funky prints with these fish:

My apologies--no idea why these photos are not cooperating.  So, they're upside down...sigh.

Last year my door looked like this:

Tomorrow is my official first day back to work.  Luckily it's building-level.  We'll get the chance to chat and reconnect before we dive back into the year.

Three For Thursday

I'm trying something new here at Tales of a Third Grade Something...I'm blog hopping.  This comes from Blog Hoppin' and you can join in too.  Today simply answer three questions and link back up.  Here goes nothing.

The three questions:

1. My favorite font
2. My favorite blog
3. My favorite online resource

1.  Well, can I say ANY font that comes from KevinandAmanda.com?  She seriously has the best fonts.  I'm currently in love with Pea Lauryn, which I used to compile my Master's Presentation.

2.  My favorite blog...this is tough!  I'm just recently into the whole teacher blogging thing and I love many of the ones I've seen so far.  So I'm cheating a little, I'll share three!  

3. My favorite online resource--again, there are so many!  But I think I'll have to go with Two Writing Teachers.  Their resources have been invaluable. 

So there you have it.  Next step for me...create a button!

Calendar

This is a work-in-progress post.  But this is my calendar area.  I only recently, last year, started doing calendar in the morning with my students and guess what?  I love it.  It gives me time to reinforce some skills that aren't always addressed in the curriculum that I feel are life skills.  Of course there are other skills too, some you might need to know some day.

Sorry about the slight angle it's on and the slight blurriness. I realized today my lens is scratched )o:  Going to have to figure that out.  Anyhoo, as you can see it's colorful but hopefully not off-putting to the eye.  I have the months of the year, days of the week, ordinal numbers, standard and expanded notation, and even and odd numbers.

As for what else...as soon as I purchase some velcro strips I will be fastening up a chart for counting the days with Base Ten pieces.  Also, I have a chart about rounding.

We have a new math curriculum this year, Everyday Math, and imagine my delight when I found out it was highly suggested that you add the minutes to your clock...when mine were already there.  It's so great for talking more concretely about time with kids.

But I'm wondering, what else?  Last year we worked on symmetry, shapes (regular and 3D), and even congruency. We also counted each morning--Monday by 2s, Tuesdays by 3s, Wednesdays by 4s, Thursdays by 5s, Fridays by 6s, and always did the reverse.

What other skills could I be touching on here?  What do you do with your calendar time?

Crate Chairs

This post is totally inspired by Megan over at The Boutons from her entry Crate Seats.  I adored her crate seats so much that I had to make them.  So now, I'll share how I made mine.  

Materials Needed to make 4 crates:


1 yard of fabric
1 yard of foam (I used something inventive...)
4 crates
Decorative ribbon-I'd say a foot
About half a sheet of OSB (Oriented Strand Board)


Scissors
Staple gun
Pliers (needle nose, in case you need to remove a staple)


Bug spray.  Oh wait, that's just me...who is living in the midst of the worst mosquito season in 20 years.

My tools.

Check out the bargain price on the ribbon!

I loved both fabrics and they coordinated so I decided to make two of each.

This was my surprise material find.  These were egg crate mattress pads that I have owned for years...like ten years!  I found them in our basement when I went down to find the padding I knew we had.  In retrospect, this would be a much cheaper alternative than buying regular foam padding anyway.

This is an optional extra.  She had to be right in the mix.  Isn't she cute?

My amazing husband agreed to cut the OSB for me and when ba-knonkers!  He cut them and sanded them.  He went all out!

Anyway, lay your OSB on the foam and cut to size.

Cut your foam to size.

Set your foam and the OSB on the fabric, print side out.

Now take each side, one at a time, and tautly staple them to the OSB.

Now add your fabric strap.  I didn't measure...just folded, checked, then cut.

Flip it over and check it out!

Fabric two:

And it's official, I love my new seats!  I'm going to use them at my kidney table for small group.  I'm pretty sure I'll be running an LLI group this year so my kiddos can keep their materials in their crates.

Easy project and well worth it!

Attendance and Lunch Choice

Last time I eluded to this picture.  But what is it?

This is how I manage attendance and lunch count in my classroom.  It's situated right near the classroom door so when the boys and girls walk in, it's the first thing they (should) do.  While the board isn't complete yet--I still need to make the first card that contains each students' name (in the past I have put a picture on it too) to place in the front.

This is what the envelopes look like up close.  Each student is assigned a number (typically it goes in ABC order) and will remain theirs all year.  Inside each envelope are four cards.  Name card, cold lunch, choice #1, and choice #2.  

At the end of each day the name card is placed at the front, resetting the lunch cards.  I have a Lunch Card Organizer who has the task of telling me attendance each morning, counting up how many choice #1 and #2, and then resetting the cards daily.  


I love how hands-off this job is for me and I love that the kids really enjoy doing this one.  I usually do the name cards in white so I can see from afar if we have absences also.


I've learned my lesson in from years past not to do anything permanent before the first day of school--preferably before the first week.  I had a lot of move outs/ins this last year so the numbers never really worked out alphabetically but no big deal.


This upcoming week I'll place the month's lunch menu up just below "Welcome".  This way the kids can check or recheck lunch choices and make sure they know what they are selecting.  

Welcome!

Welcome to this new venture for me.  I've blogged personally for a few years but after much scouring of the internet for things in my professional life I figured it was high time I share what I have too.


I believe in the sharing of ideas but making sure the credit is given for them.  First and foremost, I have to thank Becks for helping me decide on a name.  My idea here is to share what we're doing in our classroom, which happens to be a third grade room.  But it's that time of year where Back-to-School is all the rage and I was in the mood for some fresh ideas.


As my introductory entry I've decided to share a great find.  I had the idea in my mind--a cup or tumbler of sorts to hold supplies.  My classroom has tables, not desks, so there is no storage.  In the past my students have had "bins".  These ended up being cardboard book boxes--can we say disaster?  They tore, the bottoms fell out, and they tipped over. I've upgraded this year but I'll share that later.


Today I went to several stores in search of these supply cups.  At a couple of stores they had what I wanted but only four or five of them.  Another store had super cute mini buckets but they were $1.50 a pop.


Finally, a last ditch effort to Hobby Lobby and just as I was about to leave I spied another clearance section. 

These were cute and not exactly what I was looking for but guess what sealed the deal?

Sold!  

I had already purchased velcro dots to help affix them to the table so now it was time to get to work.  

First, I made sure to use rubbing alcohol on the table and the bin to remove any oils or what have you.  Then I affixed the velcro to the table and the bin--fuzzy part on the bin.  

 Voila!

Now to see if the daily supplies will fit.

Perfect!

I did have some bumps in the road.  There were only 24 of these bins and I needed 28.  Not sure why it hadn't dawned on me before to share bins between table partners but I'm glad it did.  This will save space and money.  While I originally wanted a harder plastic I realized these will be just as great because I could throw them in the dishwasher if I need to.


Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned for my next share: