My Little Jungle of a Classroom!

I'm sorry I've been MIA all week...I've had a lot to do! Monday was the first day I was able to go in and really get down to business setting up my classroom. I was so excited because my classroom has a GREEN accent wall! Can you believe my luck? :) My aunt took some before pictures, so here they are!

I moved the right cabinet to beside my teacher desk!

The previous teacher left quite a bit of stuff for me, and I wanted to change up the layout of the room to make it my own. So...my cousin and I attacked. We moved furniture, hung posters, sorted books, put things in cabinets, went through curriculum...EVERYTHING! It was fun because we put some music on and talked a ton. She was so helpful and I'm blessed to have had her help! I still have some work to do on the room before the kiddos arrive, but I think I'm pretty much set to go.

I hope that you like the pictures. Let me know if you have any fun ideas that I should add in!

Little library area! I store other things on that shelf as well. Should I cover it somehow?

Hallway window to my classroom! (Ignore the mess on the inside!)

Word wall! I have no bulletin boards so I made due.
We added the missing letters, don't worry :)

Job rotations! I will put craft sticks in these pockets and move them.

Made my cubbies into a little entrance hall.

All that's missing now is a teaching chair and little sweethearts!

Calendar and Skippyjon Jones! Oh, and Blue. That's my shelf's name.
I promise I'm not crazy.

What's a jungle without a palm tree? The coconuts will have
student names labelled on them!

Guided reading table. The blue cabinet has curriculum in it!

My desk! I had no desk drawers, so I put sterilite drawers and fabric drawers under!

Have you tried Veggie Sticks? LOVE them! And I couldn't live without my label machine!

Hallway poster set of praying kids! I thought they were precious!

I left some space for classroom rules, but I haven't even put them together yet...I seem to be procrastinating on creating my classroom rules and procedures. How do you post your rules? I was thinking of doing the Whole Brain Teaching rules because they seem really good, but I don't like the two that say that they need to constantly raise their hand for permission to do things.

Other things I need to are set up workstations a bit better, organize my picture books, organize cabinets, and hang up some paper lanterns! I'd really like to get some fake plants to spread around the classroom. I think it would make the room look more like a "jungle."

Hopefully this post wasn't too picture heavy for you! I thought you all would appreciate these pictures the most! :) Feel free to pin these photos to your heart's content!

What are your classroom rules?

Magazine Holders Redesigned!

During my time as a student teacher, my cooperating teacher/mentor taught me so many tips and tricks about kindergarten. Her main tip was planning lessons and getting materials ready on Friday so that Monday doesn't sneak up on you.

She used these wonderful magazine holders to store her lessons. There were five holders labeled with the days of the week. Each holder had a manila folders for math, phonics, shared reading, etc.

I decided to use this form of planning as well, so I took a trip down to one of my local Walmarts. (I'm from a huge city where there are a billion Walmarts within driving distance. It's ridiculous really.)

I found some really nice magazine holders for $5 each. I wasn't too excited about the price, but after looking on my phone and comparing prices quickly on Amazon, OfficeDepot, and other stores, I decided to just splurge. They're made of metal, so I know they will last through the years. Not sure what the holes are for. Any ideas?

My only problem is...they're not so cute. I mean, if you're a minimalist, it would probably suit you. But I'm a teacher. There's not enough...personality! I needed to do something about that--FAST!

Out came the scrapbook paper and the black cardstock. I booted up my trusty Silhouette Cameo die-cutter (which is my absolute favorite thing right now besides my laptop!) and got to creating. It didn't take long before I had these little babies all assembled and ready to stick on.

I used the font Elise by Kevin and Amanda. I love their fonts. So cute, yet so free! :) Anyways. Back to my creation.

After I laminated and cut each one, I got out my packing/masking tape. You know, the clear tape that's super sticky? I pulled off a bit so that I could wrap the ends around onto the holders. It turned out really cute.

Here are some photos of the completed project! It really took very little time to do this, and I'm definitely excited about them!

I hope I inspired you to try this out, too. It's really fun and can go with any classroom theme and color scheme. My theme happens to be jungle/wild animals, so that's why I picked these adorable animals!

Thanks for dropping by.

I'm so thankful to Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for hosting this fantastic linky! It makes me work. :)

OH!! Classroom pics will be up sometime THIS WEEK! Keep your eyes peeled for that!
 

How do you organize your teaching materials?

Bubbl.us and MindMeister Video Tutorial!

This post is going to be short and sweet!

Quick Sidenote: Things have been getting a little crazy in my life right now, and I hope that you can go through this wild time with me. I definitely need all the encouragement I can get right now! I'll be going to set up my classroom hardcore next week -- I got my keys!! Woo hoo! I'm official.

Okay, back to the cool tools!

Today's tutorial is on TWO different web tools. I know that you're going to love them. :) I did! Some of you may already know about them, but it could help you still. They are called Bubbl.us and MindMeister.

These tools are meant to allow you to get your thoughts down in a logical manner. This can be called "brainstorming," "concept mapping," or "mind mapping." It can be used in so many different ways, but the focus is to start with a concept and come up with tons of branches that come off that idea. (If you get my drift!)

How can they be integrated?

Here are some simple ways to use these tools:

• Create a whole class concept map when the season changes! (Start with "Summer" in the middle and branch off of that)
• Plan your letters that you send home to parents.
• Let the class plan stories (using main character, setting, etc)
• Allow students to use these tools as a way to accommodate them in essay writing. Some kids think better when they have a chance to brainstorm in a different way.

I hope that this tutorial helps you out! Here's the video!



Oh, and here's the quick survey. I'd love if you filled it out! I read all your entries and cherish each one. They brighten my day!

Which do you like better: MindMeister or Bubbl.us? Why?

Monday Made It! (and other news)

My wonderful followers, I did it! I Monday made it! 

I've never linked up to this fun party, but now I can actually show you something I made for my classroom. I'm going to go in and work some on my classroom this Wednesday, so I'll have at least one crafty thing to hang up in my room :)

I made these with my Silhouette Cameo! (My first ever project!!)
If you don't have a die-cutter, you need one. 

Like now.

I got the idea from Kim at For the Love of Kinder Garden.

She told me that one of the things she puts up every year is a collection of question words. I thought it was genius! SO, I created these. I will point at the words when I have the students ask questions. I want them to understand what the words LOOK like and not just how they sound.

Seeing the print is great for connecting the sounds to text. PHONICS! Labeling everything will help students grow their schema, so I figured that those words are super important to label. They use them on a day to day basis. (Especially "WHY??")

I also cut out these fantastic schedule cards from Barbie Roper's TPT page. They're too stinkin' precious! I think I love them!

I love the snack one! The kids are dressed as a Lettuce and Carrot! :)

I'm thinking about doing the Sterilite bins tutorial from Kinder-Craze. She's awesome, and totally inspires me. I got a 5-drawer bin last week at Walmart. I couldn't resist. It was calling to me. This last week I shopped till I dropped.

Here are some of the things I bought for my classroom!

Calendar kit with cute monkey number pieces from Lakeshore!
I RAIDED that store. Seriously.

Uppercase Letter magnets, a large stamp, color words
poster, and a Magna-Doodle!

A 6 foot tall palm tree for my wall. I may just end up
using the trunk!

2 sets of border and one PURPLE pointer! Oh my goodness!

I love shopping with gift cards!

In other bloggy news, I will be posting my technology tutorials on WEDNESDAYS from now on. I'm sorry I skipped last week. I had a lot going on, so please don't be too disappointed! I will post up this week's tutorial on Wednesday. You're going to LOVE it. You may already know the tool, but maybe it will help refresh your memory!

Name idea: Web Tools Wednesday?

Do you have a better name idea for my series of video tutorials on web 2.0 tools for teachers? Comment below! If you haven't seen one of the posts, you can find them here. I made a little handy link for you to click and take you to all of them! :) You can also look in the Tech Tutorials tabby page at the top of my blog.

Thanks for reading!

Make sure you click the follow button on the sidebar OR follow by Facebook! I'd love for you to stay a while and see what other goodness I have planned for this blog.

Thank you to 4th Grade Frolics for hosting this linky party. I love getting all those wonderful ideas for my classroom! It's such fun!

Oh, and please leave a comment! I love comments! It's similar to the feeling of opening Christmas gifts early. I will take the time to reply to each one of you, too! :)

WallWisher Tutorial for Teachers!

I'm back with a new VIDEO TUTORIAL! :)

Today's tool is super exciting.
I can definitely see myself using it.

So without further ado...

Let me teach you how to use...

WallWisher is the name. It's an online bulletin board, of sorts. You can add sticky notes to a "wall" you create and then share it with people so they can add on to it. It's very collaborative, interactive...and best of all...

It's VERY FREE!

Yes, a free tool. We love the word F-R-E-E, don't we?

How can it be used in a classroom?

 Here are some tips on ways to implement this amazingly free tool:

• Use it in centers! You can put a group of videos from YouTube on the "wall" for kids to watch and to give a response. It can also be a great way for you to teach a concept while they're at centers.
  
• Give the link to parents for planning parties, field trips, etc! This tool will allow parents to quickly respond and let you know what they plan on bringing to that Valentine's day party you're planning.
  
• Share with your colleagues! Make a wall where you can post encouraging messages to the people you work with. It may be a great bucket-filler activity for us teachers. Everyone loves a warm fuzzy!
  
• Keep some of your important information or to-do lists there! It can be set to only be viewed/edited by you, and it's pretty customizable. AND it's online. Who'da thought!

Watch the video!







Check out the wall where you can respond to my question!

Click here!

I'm also including a form below that allows you to respond to my video. I use the feedback to help me make my next tutorials, so I'd LOVE it if you took the three seconds to fill it out. Thank you so much!

I'm excited about the responses I've been getting to my video tutorials!
You make it all worth it.
I hope that I'm helping lots and lots of people learn about free tools to use in the classroom!

How could you use WallWisher?

Next Year's Plans

I hope that you are well! I'm excited that I'm writing this new blog post on the big blog hop day! Teaching Blog Addict is hosting some great linky parties, so I thought I'd contribute some of what I've been thinking.

Recently, there's been a ton of talk about Whole Brain Teaching. I think I'm going to try to implement a couple of those concepts! The main one that I want to implement is the WBT Rules.

Students tend to behave better when they have positive rules in the classroom. Some teachers like to make the rules WITH the students. I'm not sure if that's what I'll do my first year, but I do plan on discussing the importance of the rules that were selected. We need to be sure that we do not put "Do not" in front of each rule. As an adult, I know that I can't stand when someone tells me "Don't do this" or "Don't do that!" It's much better if someone asks for me to do something with a kind tone. Using the magic word helps too.

SO this year...I'm implementing WBT to manage behavior in a loving manner. I hope that someone who has done this before can give me some tips. Leave a note in the comments on how WBT has worked/not workd for you!

This rule is the one that really seems to be the kicker in my mind. The students need to learn how to choose to do the RIGHT thing! Guidance is definitely going to be necessary in the kindergarten year. Even in the students' senior year of high school! Positive reinforcement, kind words, and a compassionate heart are what will guide these kiddos to the right path in terms of behavior. Oh, and being firm. CONSISTENT! (Can you say, "buzzwords?")

So since this is a blog hop, I thought I'd give away my rules slideshow. I made it on Beeclip! If you want to learn how to make a cute slideshow like this, you can watch my first ever video tutorial on Beeclip. It's a video tutorial, so it should help you a lot.

Click the picture below to take you to the FREEBIE! Or click this link right here.

My video tutorial this week may not be up until Sunday! Please forgive me! I'm really busy for the next couple days, and not many people check here on Saturdays..

On what day do you want to see the video tutorial?