Room Reveal #1.....Monsters Galore in Room 4

Wow, has it been a very busy week! This was our first week back to school and our first week teaching in a brand new elementary building. We have had to set up new schedules, new building procedures, and new expectations. It has been busy! On top of all of that we got to set up and decorate brand new classrooms! That has been a lot of fun. Today I am going to reveal Tracey's classroom! She has a mix of original ideas and ideas taken from pinterest. She has the cutest monster room in town!

Love all the bright colors!

Her new behavior management system. 

Love this board...this is the first thing you see when you walk into her room!

math word wall

Tracey has worked very hard to set up her room. Her hard work has paid off.  The kids came on Wednesday and they loved their new monster room!  Stay tuned to hear how her new behavior management plan is working.  

Coming soon Mrs. Howell's camping themed classroom....check back soon!

Back to School Sale!!!

Hello all!!! It is that time, back to school. We have been EXTREMELY busy setting up our classrooms, setting up new routines, and getting acquainted with our new school! In celebration of the new school year we are having a back to school sale on August 20th. Head over to our TPT store and make a wishlist of the items you would like...20% off!!! Use the code BOOST when checking out!!!

Our new school is so beautiful and our classrooms are looking good. Two days until the students come back and we still have lots to do. We will have our first classroom reveal this week! This classroom has an adorable monster theme...check back with us soon!!! Happy New Year!

New Room....New School...New Start!

Packing a classroom is like packing a house!  (Atleast in my case.)  We are moving into a new beautiful elementary school this summer, very exciting!  It took me two weeks after school ended to pack up my old room.  In the end I packed 144 boxes! On top of that I also got rid of tons of things.  Don't worry we didn't throw things away.  Our teacher association (mainly Rebecca) organized a district wide (k-12) teacher swap!  As you can see from the pictures below we had TONS of items to share and swap.  We invited the public, local university students, and home school families to come and take what they wanted.  This was a huge success!  I highly recommend doing this in your district!

This was after the first day of teachers bringing their items.  On the day of the swap meet we doubled the amount in this picture! All items were free for the taking! 

This was the classroom I needed to pack up! 

144 boxes later!

After 10 years of teaching in this school, it was a sad day to officially move out.  With all the sadness came excitement.  We are now in a brand new state-of-the-art elementary building.  It is beautiful and HUGE!

I moved into a smaller classroom than I had before, so I am having to get extremely creative with unpacking and storing all my materials. 

Moving day!  My furniture and boxes literally filled my room to the doorway.  I had a huge project ahead of me...where to begin?

I have spent several hours over the past two weeks unpacking....

I still have a ways to go, but it is coming along.  

Stay tuned for the final reveal.....coming soon! 

On top of all the unpacking we have added more products to our teacher store.  Please head over there and check out what's new, free, and is perfect for you! 

Progress Monitoring Fun!

Assessing, assessing, assessing!  As a special education teacher I feel like I am ALWAYS assessing my students.  I love to see the gains they are making, but I do not like taking time out of our busy schedule to assess my students.  All the students in my classroom have IEP's and I am mandated to progress monitor them either weekly or bi-weekly.  It takes me an entire day and a half to progress monitor my students on their IEP goals.  This is not a fun time for my students.

While I am testing my students individually, my other students are reading from their book boxes or using their iPads.  To beef up the fun, we put up reading forts around the classroom.  These are good ole' fashion forts made from sheets.  Surely, you all made forts in your living room and bedrooms when you were kids.  My students absolutely love making these forts and have perfect bheavior when it is time to build them and spend our day testing. 

Don't worry, we don't spend every minute of the day testing.  We have several breaks and there is always a fun art project or science experiment planned. :)

While my students are reading and quiet I am working 1-1 with my students and assessing their newly gained skills.  In our TPT store I have uploaded my quarterly sight word assessment and my quarterly alphabet assessment.

Building these forts is a fun and easy way to get my students motivated for a day of assessments.  How do you get keep your students occupied on testing days?

Free...hot off the press!

We recently moved into a new school building.  I have spent the past week, starting the unpacking process.  As I am unpacking my 144 boxes, I am updating my labels.  Today I created these labels for my math manipulatives.  I decided to share them, so please skip over to the TPT store to download. I hope you enjoy!  

Center Labels

My biggest goal for the past school year, was to organize my student learning centers.  I wanted to make these accessible for my students, my classroom aides, and myself.  I have TONS of centers for math, social studies, science, reading, and writing.  My centers range from pre-school to third grade.  With this large amount and varying grade levels, I needed some major organization. 

Not only did I want my materials organized, but I wanted them to be easily accessible for my students and classroom aides. This allowed my students to choose which centers they wanted to do and they were able to put them back where they got them. 

 I found it helpful to create a center area in my classroom.  All the items on these shelves are for student access.  Organization is key! I used all different items to organize my centers.  Baskets, magazine boxes, wire file organizers, and a dish drying rack. 

Visit our TPT store to purchase these center labels.The pack includes: math, reading, writing, science, social studies, technology, and art & drawing.  Below are a couple examples.

Happy Organizing!

Epic Fail!

Wow, did my school year get extremely busy.  I had this great plan that once (minimum) or twice a month I was going to put up a new blog post.....8 months later, I return! Summer break has started and I finally have time to reflect on my school year and add things to this blog page.  Please continue to follow my blog, don't give up on me yet!  More to come soon!

Please visit my teacher store and see the great items, my colleagues and I have created.  Several free items!!!