Classroom Reveal 2014-2015

Welcome to my first grade classroom! I was a day late and buck short for all the classroom reveal linky parties! I just started grad school so I have been busy, but here it is! 

Our school theme this year is, "Teach like a pirate" so even though I do not have a pirate themed classroom I set up board up to be pirate themed all year long :) I can't wait to put christmas lights on my ship! HA.

We each have to choose a college to decorate and support on our classroom doors,  I choose UH. You can also see you "Where are we sign?" If you would like to purchase it click here.

My filing cabinet is right by the door, its not the cutest thing ever, but it is magnetic & holds my hall passes like a champ! I also put the transportation magnets on here later :) Up on top are the buckets I draw a secret walker from, our name tag bucket, and my birthday bouquet just for a little bit of cute when you walk in!

I use the pink basket as my drop box for student notes, parent notes, things I need to turn into the office. I use the black trays to sort things to "file, absent work, team teacher papers, things for tuesday folders, and data" This is right next to my door. 

These are my homeroom students' mailboxes, the binder clips have their numbers on them, the yellow tape says their name next to their slot. The kids take everything we put in here home on Tuesdays in their Tuesday folder. 

The two crates hold their items that need to filed into their first grade portfolio binders. Two crates, one for each class I teach. The anchor chart is a an afternoon routine reminder, I saw it on IG & can't remember who made it! The green roll you see is a pocket chart that comes down for word work or other classroom activities. 

Right past my mailboxes are the student's backpack cubbies, you can see the numbering system I use. Two kiddos share a top cubbie & we use the bottom row to store our portfolios and extra items! 

Here is what you see when you stand at the door in my classroom. 

Here is the opposite view from the back corner. You can see my guided reading/teacher desk area. 

I teach two groups of kiddos for reading. I use the supply caddies for community supplies both classes can use at their need. My homeroom class keeps their school boxes with any special pencils, erasers and their own crayons in the top drawer of the 3 tier cart. The second drawer houses Writer's Workshop folders & Poetry notebooks for my homeroom class. The third drawer houses the same items but for the second class. Inside the kiddos desks they have two paper sized baskets. One for each student who uses that desk (one HR and one second class). They use this basket for their book box & it also holds their reader's notebook that we use during guided reading and for interactive activities. 

I have five groups of five desks. I use colors and numbers for them. The lanterns & supply caddies coordinate to show which table is which.  

Here is a close up of my classroom rules. These are a freebie in my TPT. Click here to check them out.  

The black pocket chart on the white board is for our phonics word work. The Bulletin board next to the white board is where I display our current writing.

Here are few more large views, you can see my alphabet, color words, guided reading area, and few more of the kids desks. 

My teacher area, I use clipboards for lesson plans & my contact form, all the usual teacher stuff and guided reading items are housed on the shelf next to my desk & behind my GR table. 

I teach all my mini lessons & writer's workshop lesson here in this area. We also cover the daily schedule & objectives here in the mornings. You can also see my focus wall here, if you are interested in seeing more of that click here.

Behind my focus wall area is this area, the blue/pink/green baskets are for turning in work and folders. The black organizer is for working on writing, the writing table/station is on the other side of this shelf. The white tubs are still to be determined. ;) 

You can see my classroom library in the background of the previous picture, here is a close up of my shabby ribbon curtains and library organization. You can read more about my library here & more about my curtains here. 

Students use these clips to mark their places while book shopping. Back to the opposite view. 

Up above my focus wall you can see a spaced out alphabet from Ladybug's Teacher Files, that I use a really large word wall! Works great. At the edge of this bulletin board is the door to my bathroom & the the sink & cabinets move further along this wall. 

I use the large drawers to store anchor charts & poems. The pink & black tubs hold extra student supplies, glue, pencils, ect. The black baskets withe the cups are tidy bins. The cups hold scissors. 

I teach two groups of reading students. Their needs are super different, so I use the stars to mark which word work bins different classes can work on. So my first group needs fewer choices at an easier level, they only choose from the red star bins. The second group needs variety & a challenge, they can choose any blue or purple bins to work from. 

Lost crayon sorting drawers and broken/sharp pencil baskets. No more digging in the cups! YAY!

Well, that about sums it up! Here is the sign I used to take first day pictures of my firsties! Of course, I had to have one too! Hope everyone has a fabulous school year!

Words their Way

Let me just start by saying, I have a total love/hate relationship going on with this program. Words their Way is a differentiated phonics program that can be taken in about a million different directions. I use this book for my firsties. I first heard of the program through colleagues and with the help of one of my super fantastic academic coaches, I decided to give the program a go this year with my firsties. I really DID NOT know what I was getting myself & my students into! I started off by (frantically) reading The Tattooed Teacher's blog post on how she uses WTW in her classroom, that was big help to get started. I  also purchased her Word Sort activities pack which helped me understand the different sorts you can have students do each week. It also aided me in setting up my own WTW schedule. You can click the picture below to go to Rachel's  TPT and check out the file.  However, the program is set up to be completely differentiated, so in the end I had to decipher what would work for my students and my class schedule. I came up with 2 schedules, one for at school and one for the students to do at home for their 'spelling homework.' More on that in a bit.  First things first, I administered the Letter Name test. This test results in a LN stage score (# of words spelled completely correct\25) and a feature score which is the total # of features spelled correctly\5 in 5  different categories. 5\5 feature score would mean the student has mastered the feature, 3-4\5 means the student is using the feature but is still confusing it, this is their 'instructional' zone. 0-2\5 means the student knew only individual words, not the pattern\focus feature.  I used this information to group my kiddos based on the feature that was in their instructional zone, I keep my groups to a max of four per reading block. I started with more, but it is just too much to keep up with. Four really does provide just enough differentiation to keep my kiddos on target and to keep me sane.  After grouping the students and selecting their focus feature, I make the copies of each sort (4 different ones/per reading block).  Each student has a folder, notebook, plastic baggie, and index card. The folder has a short blurb to remind the students and their parents of the HW schedule, the notebook is for the sentences & word hunt. We also glue old sorts down on Wednesdays before the test. The baggie holds the current weeks words/pictures and the index card. The index card is for students to record their time and date during the speed sort.  Here is the schedule I use in my classroom, nothing fancy, if you want a copy, just click the picture! I have found that each group doing the same thing each day on their own level works best for me, I can not keep up with one thing on Monday, then next group doing that on Tuesday...this does work for some people & I saw tons of awesome set ups on the web, just not for me!  On Thursday, I call each WTW group one at a time and hold a mini-meeting. We discuss our focus feature, the pattern(s) we will be sorting by and go over the words (pictures) because some of them are odd (thimble, thermos, pin, pipe, jax) and the kids will be asking all week if not! When we close our mini-meeting the students return to their desks and scribble color the back of their sort for easy lost piece identification and sort their words a couple times before heading off to literacy centers. I find doing centers after WTW speeds up the scribble color & cut time from FOREVER to about 10 minutes. ;) The rest of my schedule is pretty simple!  On Wednesdays, I give the test in the same small groups I handed the sorts out in. I can usually test all 4 groups in less than 45 minutes while the rest of the class is at literacy centers. I use plain old hand writing paper cut in half. The kids draw 3 or 4 categories depending on their sort. I call out the words and they write the word in the correct category and spell it correctly, this includes the kiddos who had pictures instead of words. For my picture sorting friends, if they had 8 words, I grade 16. To get each +2 the word has to be in the correct category and the feature must be in the correct position and of course the correct letter or letter combo. This grading system works pretty well for us! My word sorting friends must have the whole word spelled correctly and in the correct category to get +2 for each word.  Here is a copy of the letter I send to parents to explain what we are doing in class and what they need to be doing at home. Click the picture for a copy! While I don't love having to grade the test right away & deciding who gets which sort the next day, it is SO worth it. So far this year from 8\28-10\15 when I gave the LN assessment again, EVERY SINGLE STUDENT this includes my second time around friends, SPED friends, GT friends, bubble friends, ALL MY FRIENDS showed growth. Most moved up more than 3 stages, I had several move up more than 10 stages and one go from 0 to 13\25 and one from 0 to 17\25! What! Amazing! I can see my students READING and using the focus features, it is really is great! I hope this helps anyone new to the program! If I can elaborate on anything to help you, please comment & let me know!