Bulletin Boards - Look At This!

I want my bulletin boards to scream "LOOK AT THIS!"

I feel like we all want that. Why put in the effort if no one is going to look and appreciate it?

This is one of those fun blog posts with lots of pictures of my bulletin boards (display case) from the last few years.

TACKLE A GOOD BOOK!

I highlighted books about football.

I remember one boy passing me in the hallway after I put this out and he said, "How did you know I like football?" "You did that just for me?"

My response: "Yes, yes I did!"

BEE KIND! 

 I highlighted books about kindness!

CHILLIN' WITH MY SNOWMIES!

I found a clip art snowman on TPT and then wrote typed each teacher's name on each snowman and put a book in their hand. I tried to be clever about which teacher was holding which book, but I don't think anyone noticed. The PE teacher was holding Junie B. Jones Captain Field Day and etc.

LET'S TALK ABOUT BOOKS!

For this one, I made a google doc for students to write about a book that they would recommend to others.

IT'S SNOW SECRET READING IS COOL!

FALL INTO A GOOD BOOK!

BOOKS TAKE YOU ON AN ADVENTURE!

I highlighted books about different states.

PAWS FOR A GOOD BOOK!

OH WHAT FUN IT IS TO READ!

I found the bunting on amazon for the "OH WHAT FUN" part.

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL

Leaf Through a Good Book!

Whew! Just looking at these photos reminds me of having to get the step ladder and crawl into this display case to decorate it. I'm exhausted just remembering.

Hopefully, these images will help spark some inspiration if you are trying to figure out how to decorate a display case or bulletin board. 

Five for Friday- Jan. 29th 2016

My favorite link up of the week with DoodleBugs Five For Friday 

Dream House Writing

Sometimes it doesn't all fit nice and neat on a bulletin board and that's ok. :)

I read the story If I Built a House by Chris Van Dusen and students first designed their house and then wrote about their house and gave reason as to why their house is awesome, great, or the best. Students really enjoyed this activity. I like to give students the paper to draw and design first to give students a chance to get their thoughts on paper without the pressure of feeling like they need to get started writing immediately. It is important to give students a chance to develop ideas before demanding results. 

Here are some of their designs.

After designing, students wrote about their house in their writing journal. Once that was complete I had a conference with each child about their writing and about adding details to different parts to make their writing more interesting. I then allowed students to get on google drive and type their writing. After typing, I talked to each individual student once more about their typed writing. We are still working on spacing correctly and remembering to punctuate while typing. 

Lastly, I helped students create a voki character from on voki.com and add their writing to the character to publish their writing. The characters are now on our school website and students absolutely love visiting the page and listening to each other's writing.

Blendspace

So, I mentioned being excited about hearing of Blendspace last week. Now, I am using it to organize websites, games and videos about specific topics we are studying. I've added these blendspace links to our class website and edmodo for students to easily access at school and home. I am planning to create a blendspace of parent resources to add to my school website as well to give parents more info about number talks, comprehension questions to ask students when they finish reading a story and lots more. 

100th Day of School

Padlet- 100 Compliments and Acts of Kindness

If you've not used padlet, it's a great place to create message boards for students to post comments, questions and show understanding.

Aging Booth- This was such a fun app. My students laughed like crazy when they saw themselves. I may have even sneakily changed some of their edmodo profile pictures to these when they weren't looking. :) 

Plickers

I used plickers as a quick pre-assessment for the measurement unit we are starting. If you've not used them yet...stop waiting! You need to print them and use them ASAP. They are so easy to use and give you real time results. 

You can order them laminated in anti-glare laminate or print them for free on cardstock. 

This is a picture of my students using plickers from earlier in the year.

This week ended great with a Pay Day song from my administrators and I was announced as the January Staff Member of the Month!

Thanks for listening to my randomness for the week!

Five for Friday- January 8

My favorite link up of the week with DoodleBugs Five For Friday

Back at it in 2016!

January Bulletin Board

Snow Globe Writing

We read Snow Globe Family by Jane O'Connor and then make a graphic organizer using Popplet to brainstorm ideas about why we would or would not like to live in snow globe. They then used google drive to type their writing on either our computers, chromebooks or iPads. They have learned to change their own font and they laugh as they find the ones they like the most. I used clear plastic plates that I found at Target, glitter, and cotton balls to make it look like they were in snow globes for the bulletin board. I also put a rubric on each piece of writing in the hallway with teacher feedback. This rubric and many others are in my Writer's Workshop Pack

New Computer Chairs from DonorsChoose and of course they are purple!

My students look very studious as they sit in these at the computer. 

New Year New Goals

I spoke before about taking care of myself better. At my school, we are starting the Amazing Race for getting healthy and fit. It was optional, but we are put on teams and "active" minutes and exercise time adds up to get your team to different checkpoints. So, I have to start using the elliptical that has lots of dust at my house. ha!

I also bought two year long devotionals that I plan to use this year. So far, I have really enjoyed both of them.

New Resources for the New Year

As I looked over my reading centers our first day back this week, I realized that I needed to revamp a few things. 

Opinion Writing- The sheets I was using for centers only had one line for students to write on. So, I made some new opinion sheets where students Pick One of two choices and then there are lines to write the topic sentence, 3 reasons for support and a closing sentence.  This sheet is perfect for my students at this point during our opinion writing unit. 

I created this sheet as a listening center response sheet. Students can illustrate and write about what happened in the story. 

My students keep 3 books that are on their reading level in their desk to read if they finish a task early. I created this sheet for students to draw a picture of the book and write about their favorite part of the story.

Read Read Read

I just finished book 4 in the Glass of Throne series and I've really liked the series so far. 

Anyone read any good books lately?

Thanks for listening to my randomness for the week!