Thursday, August 9, 2012

I'm Not Going to Argue....

With myself this year! I am just getting my room set up without agonizing over the major details this year. This totally goes against my previous nine summers, but I know what I want to do and what it requires to get it done. In 30 minutes I did the background and border on the front two bulletin boards in my room, set up the bins for turning in work, rolled my extra paper organizer in place, moved the recycling bins into place, stacked the marker/crayons/colored pencil bins (I will be making cute labels for those!) It doesn't sound like much, but it feels good not to debate things with myself. I hope that you don't think that I have just given up because I haven't. I'm just looking to do the finer details of the beginning of the school year. Anybody else in this boat? 

Board when you enter - holds HW & field trip forms, etc.


School-wide behavior board - I am going to make cute foam sparkly letters
Bins l - r: Pick up (morning work), writing, sci/ss, reading, math

Class before pic
So, I will be doing a few things to make the room special: sparkly foam letters, a cute door decoration that I saw on pinterest, new coat rack labels, a fun open house gift for the kids (also from pinterest!).

I'll be sure to post "after" pics!

Door inspired by a pin on pinterest







What do you all think? Good door idea for fifth graders? I tend to shy away from the cutesy stuff with them. They like to feel mature and grown up. They thanked me - thanked me!- for not using a color behavior system (green= good, yellow=warning, etc.) last year. That made a huge impression on me. Love those kiddos. I am going to miss them. I digress. Seriously though, let me know about the door!

4 comments:

  1. I absolutely love this door idea! I will be teaching 5th grade for the first time ever (after having taught 2nd and 3rd for the past 7 years). I am trying to find ideas for classroom design that reflects the maturing attitudes of 5th graders. I am definitely going to use this one! Thank you for posting it. I will also be following your blog for more ideas - keep them coming.

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    1. Charlene - Fifth grade is the BEST year! I absolutely love the kids. I will try to keep posting for you. :)

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  2. I really love that you used this for a door. I have many windows and am thinking of putting paper halfway up so they won't be distracted by anyone walking by and I know now that I will post this on the paper. Last year I used a 5th grade vertical banner and took pictures of the students in funny poses on the first day. I surrounded the banner with them popping out from all angles. Last year I the other grades changed classes and my door was closed. Thus the reason to post on the windows this year.

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  3. This was a great activity that I used the first week of school with my students. They collaborated as groups to brainstorm ideas of who they wanted to be when they entered the classroom. They came up with great ideas and very descriptive vocabulary words. It's a good formative assessment as well. You can observe what individual students write on their papers before sharing with the whole group.

    What I love about the door is that it could stay up all year if I wanted it too! Thanks for stopping by!

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