Class Rules + Owl Name

Every year I ask students to help me set rules/expectations for our classroom. They have an idea of what rules they should be following and how they can be successful in school. I gave them 3 categories: Be Safe, Be Respectful, and Be Responsible. Then they thought of rules they thought we should have for each category. 

(The poster with the green marker is switch class and the blue marker is my homeroom class. This helps me with organization of nearly 40 students.)

I also have an Awesome Owl each year. It is a class "pet" that we have. I watch the class to see who is making good choices, being a leader, helping others, etc. Once student then gets to bring the owl home for the weekend and completes an entry with photos. They get to share it with the class on Monday in addition to getting to be line leader and a special helper. Everyone loves that the Awesome Owl gets to sit on an exercise balance ball for the week instead of a classroom chair. This year Mrs. Baird and I will discuss who is going to be Awesome Owl for the week.

Since I have 2 classes, I bought 2 owls. I had each class brainstorm a name for the owl during our Community Circle. Then students voted on their favorite name. The switch class has an owl named Cherry Berry Ashton McClure. My homeroom's class owl is Obama Nightwing McClure.

Switch Class

This year I will have 2 groups of students who I teach ELAR and Social Studies to. This is my "switch class". They are a great group of kids and I am excited to learn with them this year.

Students had time to write in their Reading Response Journal and then share their summary of First Day Jitters with a partner. 

I can tell it will be an AMAZING year!!!

Reading Response Journal: First Day Jitters

Students read the story, First Day Jitters and then completed a Reading Response Journal entry. Afterwards, they shared their writing with a partner.

Practice Stampede assembly. Our class was the first group of 3rd graders to arrive in the gym. They did a great job. Looking forward to our FUN RUN Kickoff stampede on September 4th!

First Day

We had a very fun and busy 1st day of school. My class is amazing and I know we will learn a lot from each other this year. We spent part of our morning organizing supplies and getting to know each other. I took a quick class picture as we read a story at the carpet. This year will be AMAZING!!!

Classroom Set-up 2015-16 School Year

One of my favorite things to do is get my classroom set up. I get great ideas from other teachers' classrooms and Pinterest. This year I will be teaching 3rd grade in the same room as last year so I already had an idea of the floor plan. Plus, I've been creating rough sketches all summer to help me organize my space and furniture. 

Here is a BEFORE picture...everything is all bundled together in the center of the room. It looks so large with the empty walls and free carpet space. That all changes as I move desks into groups and create a comment circle spot on the carpet.

I came into the classroom and spent close to 5 hours moving and organizing items. It is starting to look like it could be ready for students to learn inside of it. This year we will be departmentalized and I will be teaching ELAR (English Language Arts) and Social Studies. I need to get bulletin boards put up and re-organize my ELAR materials. I keep finding Math items that I will not need this year.

Here is a WORK IN PROGRESS picture. It is looking pretty good.

I am eager to get 2 new groups of students, but I will definitely miss my class from last year. They were AMAZING!!!

I'm so excited for Meet the Teacher Night next week...eeekkkk!