"Pin"spiration!

Well Blogging Buddies,

Took me a bit longer than expected to get back on here. I promise I was not watching all of my new favorite shows and wasting hours on Pinterest. I was hard at work creating lesson plans....(did that sound believable? hehe :0))

So here are some pictures of my classroom with some "pinspirations" (or AMAZING ideas that I found on Pinterest)

Here's a look at my "math work stations" tubs. I found the labels for free on this fabulous blog. (here)

Found this idea on pinterest! It has worked wonders! Before we disperse for Daily 5 we discuss where our voices should be on the "noise o meter". I then let one of my firsties, that needs a little extra reminder, move the "noise o meter" to the correct voice level. We interactive wrote the labels. (this idea was found here)

Our Word Wall

A ten dollar lamp from a garage sale, a few tables recovered with fabric (my sewing skills consist of stapling the edges) a few dollar store finds, and our going home graph

Our comprehension focus statements will be housed here at the comprehension wall.

(We also have a word knowledge wall, word wall and vocabulary wall)

Found this classroom promise on pinterest and also in Debbie Miller's book, Reading With Meaning. (If you haven't taken a look at this book, drop everything you're doing and grab a copy!) The zoomed out picture is of our new seating area that we received from donorschoose.org! The kiddos LOVE this special reading area!

Speaking of Debbie Miller... This is from her schema lesson in the book, Reading With Meaning. In the book she shows the kids that she is using her schema when she lays the book in her lap, when she's reading she holds the book up. I found this thinking bubble on pinterest (here and here).I read the story, The Relatives Came, (Debbie Miller uses this as her first schema read aloud and it is a really cute story), pre-wrote my connections post-its and when I made a connection, I held up the schema bubble (my lovely face in the middle) then posted my thoughts to the schema bubble. I felt this really helped the kids understand that the connections came from the information in my brain, or schema. (In later lessons, I had the kiddos come up and use the schema bubble to make their connections.) Hope that made sense.

CAFE menu (it's a bit different to align with district time allotments)

Hope you enjoyed the tour and I hope to upload a few more pictures soon!