Buttons and Bookbags

We love reading, but putting away our supplies is becoming a problem:-)  My class keeps their just right reading materials in bookbags.  Some of them have a difficult time remembering to put their bookbag back in their cubby and because the bookbag has no name, it is often problematic returning it to it's home.  I reuse the bag each year, so didn't want to use paint to identify the bags.  I thought about stringing letters onto safety pins and attaching the safety pins to the bag, but the thought of having them fall off and finding the beads everywhere didn't seem like a workable plan.  Solution....buttons!  My school happens to have a button maker and after an hour of trying to figure it out, another teacher and I finally got the apparatus doing its job! 

Some of us putting our stuff in its home:-)

Bring on the buttons!  First I had my chickadees put their name in a circle and decorate it.

Then I collected the button making machine pieces.












And the button supplies

Finished!

I can not wait to the chickadees what I have been up to AND be able to return bookbags to the appropriate reader!

Happy Saturday!

Laurie

Reader's Workshop Housekeeping

This is where we keep our bookbags, writing, math, and reading journals.

Today's goal....review!  When we left for break, our Daily 5 expectations were being tested.  Now it is time to review and reign it in:-)  During the break I spent a good deal of time cleaning out my student's bookbags and cubbies.  I found all sorts of things that didn't need to be there.  Today we shared about what should be in our bookbags, why we have bookbags, and how to keep ourselves together.  So I took pictures and posted them on the cubbies as reminders for how to keep tidy.  We reviewed on task reading behaviors too, for more info. check this post.

What goes in our cubby:

Bookbags.....

Books INSIDE the bag, not thrown in the cubby.  Bookbag on top of journals.

Closed flat journals

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Journals......

Just right books....not extra bookmarks, pencils, etc

Everyone gets a day to change books.  The thought of the whole class changing at once is pure craziness.  So students trade books on their day or they can keep reading the ones they have.  They just have to be aware that their day to change won't be around again for another seven days.

 Happy Reading!

 Laurie
PS if you haven't heard the buzz about the new blog The Best Endings, you don't know what your are missing.  Check it out!