Book Adventure

I wanted to send a shout out to those of you who are not aware of Book Adventure.

Go to the website

http://www.bookadventure.com/

and have a look around.  The site is free to its users and does a great job promoting reading to kids.  It classifies books into reading levels and allows kids to take quizzes to earn points. 

In my classroom we use this and have an ongoing class challenge to see who can earn the most points by reading the most books and taking the most quizzes.

Click on the picture before a free poster download.

Check out Book Adventure and let me know your thoughts!

MOVING ON !!!

Hey All!

I have moved on up!  That's right...I moved on up to 4th grade!  I am actually super excited because I have been working ALL summer (literally!!!) creating and planning a ton of new things for my new class!  

To celebrate the move, I have posted a few fun freebies on my TpT site.  Find them as I share my classroom with you!

My new room has some rather small bulletin boards that need to be filled and not so much room for the bigger bulletin boards that I had done in the past.  So I got rid of my old calendar with the staple on and unstaple off numbers and created this calendar.  I sent off to our local ESU who enlarged it and laminated it for me.  Then I simply write on with dry erase and wipe off each month!  I have this one and other variations on my TpT site.  Click on the picture below to download

I also made this Birthday Bulletin Board.  The Happy Birthday.  Write the names of the kiddos birthdays in chalk or white crayon!
To download this for free, click on the picture below.

I love personalizing the classroom with pictures of the class!
Below, I took a cheap frame from a craft store and painted it.  I actually did four - all different colors - but it is only the first week of school and I haven't had time to fill the others yet!  But soon!  The other frame I found for cheap and I love it because you can write on it with chalk!

Ok...Homework.  I have struggled for years on how to keep homework and assignments organized.  This is my solution (for now! Ha!) and it seems to be working.  

The white board is a list of assignments that are due today.  Kids put their assignments in the assigned box after putting name and number and then highlighting their name (idea form Pinterest to help those name forgetters!)  The highlighters are in the labeled plastic jar.  The I have a classroom job assigned to "Homework Helpers".  These students put the homework in order from 1 to 19 (that's how many kiddos I have) and then it is easy to know who didn't turn in their assignment.  The Homework Helper sheets are in the blue tub.  This has actually been working quite well!  All homework is tallied and accounted for by 8:15!

The Take Home and Share box is where my "Paper Passers" pass out corrected work.  There is a large accordian file in the front where corrected work goes.  Behind that are numbered file folders that are the student's "Mail Folders".  "Paper Passers" use the student number to file the papers.  All corrected papers are then sent home on Friday in a Friday Folder that parents know to look for and sign before returning on Monday.

This is the "Catch Up" files.  Each student has their own and any time there is a paper that needs correcting or a paper missing, I stick it in their file.  I also have orange laminated cards that I can put in the files for assignments that are missing.  I usually just attach a sticky note.

This is my No Name board.  I got this idea off of Pinterest, but recreated it to my liking.  I printed off the poster in color, laminated, and then attached the painted clothespins.  I also attached a ribbon to hang.  The students know that if papers go unclaimed through Friday, No Name papers get trashed Friday after school!

Here is our assignment board.  I had our ESU enlarge and laminate.  It was created to match our student Assignment Books.

This is our Spot On chart.  It is worked like a merit chart.  If you do something well or you caught "doing good" you get to fill in a circle.  When the chart is full, we pick circles out of a hat like a raffle and if your initials are in that circle you get a prize.  The kiddos love it!  Click on the picture below to download!

Here is our milk and lunch station!  Kids use clothespins to show their milk choice.  Click on the picture below to download!

Here is the Hot Shots game we play as a reward for getting homework in!  If you have no late assignments at the end of the week, you get to spin for a prize!

And I had to show this poster!  I bought it years ago but it still makes me smile!

Plus it goes along well with this classroom display 
(click on the link below to download!)

Here is another favorite Bulletin Board Display!  Our school is really promoting reading this year!  This display allows the kids to share their favorite books and get ideas on a good book to read.  (By the way...we have D.E.A.R. time EVERY day!)
Click on the pic for a free download!

And...from this great site (Pinterest find of course!)
 http://www.cometogetherkids.com/2012/03/fun-photo-bookmarks.html

we made bookmarks!  The kids absolutely LOVED doing this!  Here are some of the examples!

I will post more soon!  Happy Back to School everyone!