Daily Number Work

So this teacher mom has been very busy between being teacher and mom.
School and soccer are in full swing so it makes for busy nights and lots of crockpot meals.

I am happy to say that I have settled into my new classroom which is my temporary home for the year as they renovate our building. My students and I are getting acclimated to our routine and new surroundings. Today I thought I would share something I use as part of daily routine.

Students in our building come in each morning and eat breakfast in the classroom. Most do eat the breakfast offered, however some do not. So something is needed to get students in and working. I have never been keen on "morning work" especially because the prep of it was overwhelming. Inspired by the "wake up binder" idea.
I came up with my own version and I love the consistency of it all. This year we use it at two different times of the day....in the morning when students come in they work on reading skills and then in the afternoon in the transition back from lunch and specials class they work on math skills.

The reading section of the binder holds weekly poems and fluency work with their spelling words and phonics skills. These are a variety of resources that I have gathered from different sources to go along with our current Wonders reading program.

In the math section, students complete the Daily Number Page and then move onto flashcards. The Daily Number page is designed to work with the day of the school year. For example, if it is the 34th day of school, the number of the day is 34. The page itself is laminated and each student has a thin dry erase marker and eraser that is kept in the zipper pencil pouch in their binder. I introduce certain parts of the page for students to complete until the are ready for each section. We take about 5 minutes to go over it each day before they erase it. Every once in a while I give students a paper version of the page to assess their understanding.

There are two sides to this sheet. They can be found here...
Daily Number Work (page 1)

Daily Number Work (page 2)

I hope you enjoy!

Behavior calendars

So these have been made but I haven't had the chance to get them up. Recently I posted my version of the clip chart to monitor student behavior in the classroom. With that I wanted a way to communicate daily with parents how the day went. I have used a behavior calendar for years, where I would mark the color that the students ended on for the day. Parents always gave me such nice feedback and support with this. However, the one part that was missing was the simple note of what needed to be improved if the child didn't have such a good day. I wanted this to have a positive twist so I went with the wording...I need to work on.

So finally here are the coordinating calendars to go with my clip chart....

There are both color and black and white versions to help with printing. If you use the black and white versions, simply have your kiddos color the blocks in at the beginning of each month.


These do have the wording to match my version of the clip chart..

I will work on creating a more generic and editable version in the future.

Enjoy!

Birthday Bags...It's a start!

So August is officially here! As I have thoroughly been enjoying my summer with my own kiddos, August means time to start preparing to head back to school. So while yesterday was a little overcast and I wasn't feeling like swimming I figured I would get a little something done. Birthday bags it was...a fun and easy place to start! Treat bags stuffed with some goodies and a homework pass. I make a class set at the beginning of the year (with a few extras) and stick them in a basket on my counter....all prepared and easy to pull out when needed.


Of course I had to hit up the dollar store the other day for notepads, pencils, pencil grips and cellophane treat bags.

I also include sticker sheets and birthday badges from the annual trip with my bestie to the Lakeshore store....and the Cheesecake Factory. (A great time that leaves our wallets empty and stomaches full of cheesecake!)

So while the kids swam I went to work. The best part of the birthday bags for sure is the homework pass.

You can get yours here...

All finished...with my dollar store decoration and birthday beads the kids will be happy. One thing done for now! Guess it is a start!

Ready, set, blog!

Okay so here we go! So going into summer I had this crazy little thought of starting a blog. (Too much time on Pinterest makes you think you can do anything!) No really...I love creating resources for my classroom and thought this would be a great way to share things I was doing as well as link up with others. After many late hours watching videos and reading blogs on how to make my blog my own....here it is and I am so excited! To be honest the writing part has me a little nervous so bear with me...be sure to visit again and see what I've been up to.