What Do I Write About?

"I don't know what to write about!"  

Is that a common complaint in your classroom?  I created a graphic organizer for my students to fill in with writing topics that matter to them.  We fill in the chart at the beginning of the school year and they keep it in their Writing Folders all year.

Any time a student comes up to tell me that they have no ideas for Writer's Workshop, I tell them to check their chart:

Usually, at least something jumps out at them and they are off and writing!

Check it out for free in my {TpT} store!

I'm linking this freebie up with: 

Classroom Scavenger Hunt Freebie!

An activity that I have done every year with my students is a Classroom Scavenger Hunt.  I always do it the first few days of school to help the students get acclimated to their new classroom.  I have the students work with a friend and they walk around the classroom with a clipboard looking for things that fit the different categories.

Here are my kiddos in action this year:

They did such a great job working together!  I give them about 15-20 minutes to work on it.  If they finish early, I challenge them to find another thing in the classroom that fits each category.  I also let them know that it is okay if they don't finish.  At the end, I call them all to the rug and we go over some of the answers together.  A lot of times, they come up with things that I hadn't even thought of!

You can pick up this freebie in my {TpT} store!

        

I'm linking this freebie up with: 

I also decided to jazz up my Classroom Jobs a bit.  Here is a {really bad} picture of my jobs from last year: 

I display all the jobs on the board and each student has their own classroom number (which I use for everything!).  At the beginning of each month, I take down all the numbers and randomly call the students to change their job.  They then keep their job for the whole month.  I make sure they choose a job that they haven't already had so that everyone gets a chance to try something new.  I also let the students know they might not be able to do every job.  I've never had an issue with it!

In the packet, I included small job cards, large job cards, student numbers and teacher checklists to keep track of which student has done each job.

Check it out!

{TpT}

{TN}

Open House

**Visit The Colorful Apple for an UPDATED version of this post!**

Hi all!  I've been MIA for quite some time now...it must be back to school time!  It was a bit of a challenging back to school this year, for a variety of reasons.  But my class was wonderful yesterday so I think we are going to have a great year!

Thursday night was Open House, so I wanted to share some  a lot of  pictures!  I borrowed a LOT of these ideas from fellow bloggers and Pinterest.  I will share where I got my inspiration from, although it might not be the original source.

Welcome to Open House!

This is the entrance to my room on Open House night.

The banner came from The School Supply Addict for free!  My resource teacher told me I should keep it up all year, what do you think?

This was out in the hallway:

The students created flowers were all of their favorite things in them.  I created the poster with Tagxedo.  Our school mascot is the SuperStar and it has all the kids names in it!

We created a Who Am I board:

I got this bulletin board idea from Surfing Through Second.

The students wrote a few clues about themselves and then drew a picture:

Underneath the flap, I pasted a picture of the student holding their name:

{another teacher told me the pictures looked like mug shots - oops!}

The kids had the best time making their parents guess which one was theirs.

Check out my information table!

My magnets with contact information from VistaPrint were a big hit!

Open House is always kind of rushed and parents are coming and going all night, so I don't really have an opportunity to make a presentation so I put all my information into a brochure for parents to take:

The apples in the top left of the table came from:

                                                                        Source: mrsterhune.blogspot.com via Sara on Pinterest

Here is my version:

The bookmarks idea came from:

                                                              Source: aplacecalledkindergarten.blogspot.com via Nancy on Pinterest

Here are mine:

Clipart by Scrappin Doodles

I had the students write letters to their parents to leave on their desks:

This came from The Teacher Wife and it was also free!  I was so glad that I had it, because my students desperately needed the prompts this year.  My original idea was just to write a letter from scratch but that wasn't going to happen!

I thought about leaving a paper for parents to write back to their child, but most students come with their parents so I decided it wasn't worth it.

Here are some classroom pictures that aren't related to Open House, but I wanted to share!

I made some new bathroom passes and the kids love them!

Clipart by Scrappin Doodles

Here is the original pin:

                                                                 Source: 3rd-grade-thoughts.blogspot.com via Sara on Pinterest

I also created a classroom timeline to put on our {very plain} closet doors:

Clipart by Scrappin Doodles

My goal is take at least a few pictures each month and hang them up on our wall.  I got this cool idea from Bright Concepts 4 Teachers.

And, lastly, the sweet chair one of my friends made for me!

She bought the chair from a consignment shop and painted it for me!  I put it right next to the table she made for me last year.  My kids {and principal} love it!  One kid told me it looked like Play-Dough.  Um, okay!

**UPDATE**
I've created an Open House packet for your classroom!  Open House is a Hoot is my owl-themed packet!  Click on the pictures to check it out!

Where I Teach Wednesday

It's Day 3 of Teacher Week!

I would like to show you where I teach but my classroom is a little upside down right now.  I went in for the first time yesterday and have worked {very} hard for the past two days!  It's not quite ready yet, but I promise to show full pictures when I am done.

In the meantime, here are some pictures from last year:

This is the view when you walk in my room.

This is a look to the right.

Here is the back wall.

And finally, a picture from the other side of the room.

I feel as though my room is a little cluttered even though I get compliments all the time about how neat my room is.  This year, I want it to look a little more pulled together.

Here's a little itty bitty peak of my room this year so far:

Behavior Chart and 1 bulletin board (I ran out of ribbon before I could do the second one).

Class library.  Look!  Less clutter!

Link up with Blog Hoppin to share where you work!

And don't forget, you only have 2 more days to enter my Laminator Giveaway!

I don't think I've turned mine off at all in the past two days!  I have really been putting that baby to work!

You Know It's Back to School when...

Kindergarten Lifestyle knows that it's Back-to-School time!  She's hosting a linky party and here's my answer:

Yep, this is me:

Clipart by Melonheadz

Making my behavior clip chart with my handy dandy laminator!

And there is still time for you to win a personal laminator of your own!  Click the picture to go check out this post and enter to win.

You also know it's Back to School when the Back to School Expo is in town!