My "buzzy" classroom!

I {finally} finished my room!  Here it is:

This is the view from the door

Immediately to the right of the door is this area.  Students will drop off lunch boxes and back packs here, as well as hang up nap bags and coats.  Nap bags are bags I purchased from Oriental Trading to hold the soft nap materials like small blankets, small pillows, and small stuffed animals.  I am still waiting for them to arrive in the mail.  :)

To the left of the door is this little shelf that holds math tubs materials for math stations.  Our turn-in basket is also here.

This is the listening center (Social Center Learning)/Listen to Reading (Daily 5 time).  I change out the tent throughout the year to be a teepee, igloo, and flower house. In the blue baskets I place my CD players and TAG Pens.  The CD players' stories are changed out monthly.  I got both the CD players, stories, and TAG Pens and books through Donor's Choose.  I have been blessed to have 21 projects funded over the last two and a half years through this grant program.  It really helps classroom teachers get the much needed materials to make learning engaging for students.

These are my cabinets where I store art supplies (right) and math supplies (left).  My Science boxes are stored on top and the months of the year go across it to make a birthday graph of the kiddos.  I place each one's picture above their birth month.  There is also velcro at the bottom that is driving me batty and is NOT wanting to come off.  It was there when I moved in.  :)

Close up of some of the months

Next to the large cabinets is the sink area.  At the sink area is the sink with a hand washing song I created, the pencil sharpener and pencils, our Buzz Work Wheel, and our BEE Folder bucket.

Hand washing song

Pencil sharpener

This is where we place our daily communication folder - our BEE Folder - which stands for Bring Each and Everyday.  I ordered this through Thirty One.

This is our Buzz Work wheel.  Buzz Work is our morning work that gets our brains going.  Each student's name will be written on one of the outer areas.  Each morning I turn the inner wheel so the bees move and students can see which Buzz Work basket to get their work from.  The baskets are in the picture below.  Read more about it in this post.

This is my shelf that holds our book boxes, our Buzz Work baskets, my teacher mailbox to catch all the sweet things students make me, author study tubs, and my Sub Tub (also from Thirty One).

This is my small group instruction table with my literacy groups cart located behind it and my Monday through Friday baskets to organize my materials for the week.  I also have my teacher toolbox full of supplies!

My Literacy Groups organizer

My Monday through Friday drawers to organize my materials for each day of the week (from Lowe's)

My teacher toolbox

Our puppet center for social learning centers

This is our behavior chart.  Students begin the day on green and earn the opportunity to move up for being an exemplary students or can move down for not making the best choices.

Here is the technology area of the classroom.  There are two computers, a Ladibug document camera, my five iPads, and headphones.

This cart holds the headphones and iPads.

I got all these headphones through Donors Choose!

 

Here is the writing center for social learning centers.  You can also see the paper tray that holds different styles of paper for different learners' needs.  We use this paper during Writer's Workshop.  You can read more about it on this blog post. 

Science center for social learning centers and the sensory table

Penelope the Hedgehog!!!!

Blocks center

This is my whole group area.

My calendar area (complete with a can of brain sprinkles!!!  Read more about brain sprinkles in this post.)

This is my chair and easel to teach from.  There is also the radio and all of my morning meeting supplies and the day's materials.  This chair was given to my favorite Shannon in the whole world.  We taught Kindergarten together at a former school.

Mrs. Potato Head rules

Math stations chart (Get the numbers and title here if you would like.)

 Our library

Other side of the library... the little caterpillar was given to me by a wonderful student when I taught second grade.  That little caterpillar is now a bookworm called Mr. Wiggles, who loves books and wants to make sure they are fixed when placed in the book hospital.

 

 My library is organized so that each topic bucket has a picture, that matches the place it goes on the shelf.  All of the books in that bucket have the same picture on the back.

 Leveled library

Word Wall... made with my yellow polka dot alphabet letters in my little shop.

Here is the ABC center for social learning centers.  It's also the Working with Words choices for Daily 5.  I REALLY wanted to get this Ikea table for this area, but it will have to wait.  Back to school time is sooooo expensive for us teachers.

Out dramatic play center is a market to start the year off.  It changes frequently based on what we are learning.

This basket hangs by the door to hold stickers for our sticker charts.  I give stickers to students when they earn PBIS Star Bucks while around campus.  It's easier for them to be by the door so I can trade the Star Buck for a sticker as soon as we enter the room.  This basket also holds this little guy...

This bear is our hallway friend.  He goes through the hall with us and rides on the shoulders of students who are making good hallway choices. 

Here is our good-bye message.

Thank you for taking this tour and good-bye to you for now.  :)

When do your kids go book shopping?

I was sent a few emails in the past few weeks about how and when I let my students know when they can book shop for new books in the their book boxes.

I have a morning "Buzz Work" wheel that my students check each morning to see what they need to work on that day.  These are activities that they do for morning work and when they finish their work throughout the day. 

Basically each student's name in on a section and colored bee is pointing toward that section.  I turn it each day so that students have a new activity each day.  Below the wheel are baskets with bees attached to them that match the wheel above.

These baskets provide the work that they work on each day.  Every color bee is represented on a basket except for blue.  If a student is on blue, then they can book shop that day.  So each student gets to book shop once a week.  I also allow anyone to book shop during our social centers at the end of the day.

Before they can book shop, you will need to make sure your students understand your classroom library system and how to choose good fit books.  (You can read about my library here.)  Here is a chart that helps us with choosing good fit book.  I found this idea on Kim Adsit's site. 

I taught this lesson with the sisters' suggestion of using shoes.  I LOVE to use this book to help the lesson even more:

While we're talking about books, here is a little chart I made with photos of students showing them what good readers do:

I made this with the class by showing them the photos that I snapped and asked them how the kids in the photo were being good readers.  I was sooo proud of their responses!

My Classroom Library

I was recently asked to be a guest teacher at my university, Abilene Christian University.  I was asked to teach about the Daily 5 and how I utilize this method of classroom management in my Kindergarten classroom.  I LOVE the Daily 5!

I strongly believe that you need an organized classroom library in order to help your Daily 5 go smoothly.  One component of Daily 5 is Read to Self.  During Read to Self, students read books on their level that they choose to keep in their book box.  When your library is in order, this component of Daily 5 can be enjoyable for the students and the teacher.  Here is a picture of some of my kinder cuties' book boxes.

I purchased them from IKEA and allowed students to decorate them.

Now onto the library organization.  When I started organizing my library, I organized my books by topic.  I just sorted them based on what books I already owned.  I didn't go off a recommended list since I may not have had books that fit into those recommended categories.  Then I divided each category into book bins I purchased from Lakeshore.  Then I created a label for the book bins with a picture to match the label.  I also added a number to the label.

I printed a second copy of the label and attached it to the bookshelf where the book bins stay.  This helps my cuties know where the book bin goes once they have finished searching through it.

Then I take colored circle labels and attach them to the back of each book.  I write the number on the circle labels that matches the book bin the book will go into.

Now students can choose books by topic and know where to return them when they are finished enjoying them.  Here are two pictures of my library.

I also have a leveled library so my cuties can search for books that are more readable (is that a word?) to them.  I purchased these book bins from Calloway House because they have three compartments inside of them.  I use two of the them, so that allows me six compartments to hold six different levels of books.  I divided my emergent readers by level and then placed them into the six different compartments.  I also place a different colored circle sticker on each compartment of the book bins.

I then placed the matching colored sticker onto each book in each compartment.  

 

Now students can choose books on their level and know where to return them.