Classroom Tour: Break Area

I have gotten a few questions regarding what my students do during "break time."  

Break time means a lot of different things in my classroom depending on the student. Most of my students have one 15 minute break in their morning and one in the afternoon.  Some of my students are in more of a work-break routine, where they need to work and then get a short break after every 1 or 2 activities.  While some guys could play iPad all day long…others really struggle with this unstructured "down time."

Classroom Tour: Language

My language station is meant to work on developing and maintaining fluency (speed and accuracy) of skills.  Each student has their own set of flash cards.  We store them in the top shelf of this handy-dandy shelf I got from IKEA.

Classroom Tour: Morning Group

Continuing on my classroom tour....today I will show you my new, and improved, morning group!  I received A LOT of new students this year (and I got to keep some of my oldies as well!!).  I also have my largest class size year (13 STudENTS!!).  Most of my new students need a very structured morning group and I need to cover a lot of the basics with them.  So, this year, instead of having my entire class participate in morning group together, I split them into 2 groups.

Classroom Tour: Work Station

Last year, I did a week of posts giving an in-depth look at most of the stations in my room.  This year, I wanted to do the same thing, but focusing mostly on what I have changed, updated, or left out!  Every year when setting up my room, I ask myself about what worked and what didn't the previous year.  Sometimes during this process,  I start to realize the old way wasn't as efficient or organized as I would like.  It is easier to set things up the same way each year, however, sometime making small changes can make your life much easier.

The stations/areas I will cover over the next couple weeks are:
1. Work Station and Factory
2. Morning Group
3. Language Station
4. Break Area
5. Hallway and Coat room

So today, we will start off with Work Station and Factory.  These are both independent stations.  

Before...and After!

This is what I walked into a month ago.  Not to mention, I had to scrape gum and name tags off of our "new desks."  Since our school was under construction this summer, there was much more packing/unpacking that had to be done.  

It's Been Awhile!

Sorry I have been MIA for the past couple weeks...I guess the beginning of the school year got the better of me!  But, now I am back and ready for some blogging! 

First up today, I wanted to show you my classroom layout as well as a brief explanation of each area in my classroom!

Currently September

I can hardly believe it is already September.  I am feeling a mix of emotions...super sad summer is almost over and even more sad winter is one month closer.  However, I do enjoy many things about fall...football, boots, scarves, apples, and everything pumpkin!  

Here is this month's currently.  Feel free to join in, by stopping by Farley's blog.  

Labor Day Sale!

Although most of you probably already stocked up for your school year during the big TPT Back to School Sale a few weeks back, I thought I would throw a labor day sale in case you are still missing some necessary items to get your school year started off right.

So, check out my TPT store today and tomorrow for 20% off all my products.  

For those of you who start school this week, good luck!  We started last week and it was definitely a bit rough at times.  I had one new student who had to be carried kicking and screaming into the building the first few days (luckily his dad did the carrying!).  So, throughout the day, we tried to make the classroom really reinforcing with lots of praise and allowing him access to things he enjoyed.  Strangely enough, the item he seemed to prefer the most in the ENTIRE CLASSROOM was my desk chair.  He loved to sit in it and just twist back and forth.  Well, by day 3, he was walking just fine into school on his own and has been full of smiles and happiness the rest of the week.  Phew!  Thank goodness!  This just reminded me that preferred items for our kids can come in strange forms.  And there is no harm in letting kids get to know their environment and make it super reinforcing the first week.  Next week, you can start making them "work" for those reinforcers!