Word Wall Before and After

3rd grade is growing on me....one of the things that takes up a huge amount of space on the wall but doesn't seem to be very interactive or a tool for the students it was created for.  Here is a picture of my old Word Wall.

I loved the colors.  I loved the student done words.  I did not love that once the word was up, it was never referred to.  Then I stumbled across Mrs. 3rd Grade's Blog and found some inspiration.

Each letter on the word wall is portable.  SO clever!  We can add words I purposefully choose.  We can add words students frequently use and need to refer to.  We can add words we find as we read.  My next step was figuring out where I would put such a thing.  All the walls I had left were low and in frequently traffic-ed places where they probably wouldn't last too long.  I do have lots of giant windows and spent the afternoon trying to figure out how to make them work.  I love the 3M hooks, but didn't want the back of the window to look messy with 26 little hooks showing through the other side.   Then my aha came!

A bucket with paper for adding more words the the rings.

After moving this summer, I had a leftover curtain rod and hooks.  I grabbed a couple of the bigger 3M hooks for the ends of the of the curtain rod.  Attached to each clip is a loose leaf ring.  Then I made a cover letter for each stack of blank paper and throughout the year we will add to it!  I can't wait to see this in action!

Happy Tuesday,

Reading Magic Monday Made It

Monday Made It is one of my favorite parties.  So many great ideas!  

I wanted to share my new reading bulletin board.  It was inspired by Ramona Recommends.  She has a BEaUtIFul library!  This is on the wall in her library--

That phrase perfectly describes how I feel about books and I want so badly for my students to KNOW the it is true!  So I copied her phrase and made it into a banner for my reading area.

Come back soon and see what this curtain rod turned into....

Happy Monday,

Calendar Wall

Classroom pictures are coming soon.  Today I finished the calendar wall.  I made all the labels, ran them through the laminator, cut them out, and started putting everything together.  I also have white Christmas lights strung across the top.

Library Pockets for place value to the billions
Clocks for time to the hour, half hour, and quarter hour

Flip the card for the month, the day and the date
Balance for numbers are equations

Ways to write a number

Deposit and Measurement

Specific place for anchor charts

 Other responses for "I Don't Know" from Simply 2nd Resources

and a nice pic of my brother and I:-)

Target Wall-I use a dry erase board and write the targets for the week.  Chart for the daily schedule.

Target pocket chart...cut in half and bordered.

I keep all the calendar supplies in the same place.  (Although this box is currently a bit of a mess.)

A polka dotted piggy bank for the daily deposit.

And now onto a completely random train of thought....
Has anyone seen this cuteness?  It is a fairy door.  I pinned it a long time ago and really thing my classroom needs one.  It is possible I have been obsessing about it for a good portion of the summer....trying to convince my handy cousin or uncle to make one for me.  Then I started looking for online diy fairy door.  They are everywhere....and in Ann Arbor they are all over and even get decorated for holidays.  (My BBF friend, Jenny over at Owl Things First is in Michigan maybe she has checked out the craziness!)  I can only imagine the writing and fun that one of these would create!  (Like Elf on the Shelf all year long!)  Oh the possibilities!

Happy Saturday,
 

Word Wall Update

I have always wanted to do a word wall, but was horrible about adding to it.  This year, I got the word wall up, and decided to put up the vocabulary words from each of the Treasures units.  During the week, the words are on our target wall.  At the end of the week, students choose a word and draw an illustration of the word, then add we add it to the word wall.

Back to School Beginnings

Although school doesn't officially start until September, I am too excited to wait. I thought I would start with a picture review of what I must put back up and use this year.
Inspired by The Book Whisperer, I challenged my chickadees to read 40 books. We kept track on a bulletin board. Once they finished the book, they hole punched it and added it to their ring.
Three kinds of readers. At the beginning of the year, we act out what they look like....everyone loves to act out the pretender. Then at the end of reader's workshop we check in and see how we did that day.
Love my new drawer labels. They are adhesive and clear. All I did was add some scrapbook paper and the names slide in and out!
Love my lunch board. Students make their own magnet on the first day of school. So cute.