Daily Schedule - Morning Routine and Pack & Stack

Here is just a quick peek into how I structure the beginning and end of my school day. I keep my morning routine posted on the wall for all to see. By this point in the year, everything is pretty automatic, but it does take a lot of modeling at the beginning of the year to get the routine down pat. I don't introduce the "Question of the Day" for the first few days and home reading doesn't usually start until the second or third week of school.

The bell rings at 8:45am and students come in. Our hooks are in the hallway for this year (juniour high science labs don't have coat hooks in the room... go figure!) but it actually works out great. Less clutter in the room and I can make sure that nothing is leftover at the end of the day. The only downside is we are using plastic Command hooks and they break ALL. THE. TIME! Anywho, students take off their outside shoes/boots and leave them on the floor. They take out their agenda, home reading, and lunch kit from their backpack. Then they hang up their backpacks and jackets and come in the room.

First they hand in their agendas to this blue basket on my front counter. I check the agendas for any notes while the students are reading quietly.

Then they change their home reading book (from the colourful book boxes on the shelf) and place their home reading bag and lunch kit in their cubby (white dish tubs on the shelves). Their indoor shoes are in the cubby, so they put those on as well.

Then they go answer the "Question of the Day". I keep each month's questions on binder rings so that each day I just have to flip it to a new question! You can find my "Question of the Day" bundle {here}! The oil pan is from Amazon {here}.

Then they go grab their book boxes and read quietly at their table. I have a few students who go to morning reading as soon as they are finished getting ready (they go read leveled books with an EA). At 9:00am students who have signed up go down to the gym for a bible story and the Lord's Prayer. I supervise the rest of the students in my classroom.

When they come back, we listen to the announcements on the intercom system and then stand and sing O'Canada. Once I am ready to begin, students put their book boxes away and we meet at the carpet for calendar.

At the end of the day (about 3:25-3:30pm) we clean up whatever we were working on and go back to our tables to write in our agendas. I try to have them write something everyday, such as when book orders are due or something special thing that happened. If there is a lot of information to send home, I will just stick a label into their agenda instead. But for the most part I will write a sentence on the whiteboard and they will copy it into their agenda. Parents are expected to check the agendas everyday.

When they are done writing, they stack their chairs, come check their mailbox for any mail (that's where I leave work or notes to go home), and pack up. They get their lunch kit and home reading from their cubby, then leave their indoor shoes in the cubby for the next morning.

Then everybody goes into the hallway to get ready. My EA stays in the classroom and reads a story to the walking students that are ready (they are dismissed last) and I supervise the students getting ready in the hallway. My bus students are dismissed first, so they line up in the hallway when they are ready. The bell rings at 3:43pm for the bus students to leave. Then after the buses are all gone, by walking students get to go.

Then I usually make sure everything is tidied up, close the blinds, change my guided math/reading rotations, plug in the iPods, change the question of the day and the leader/caboose, change the daily schedule, turn off my computer, and go get Zoe from daycare! I try not to stay too late. Some days I am gone by just after 4:00pm, but others I might work for a bit. :) It's all about balance, right? I'll try to be back with the last few posts about my daily schedule this week: Theme, Author Study, and Problem Solving! In the meantime, click the picture below to check out the other posts in my daily schedule series!

Make Your Masterpiece

It's week three of the TpT seller Challenge! This week we were challenged to create (or finish) a product, then swap with another teacher and edit each other's work! I traded products with Teresa over at Mrs. Tretbar's Library. Go check her out! It's kind of neat to get a fresh pair of eyes to look over your work. They may find something you didn't even notice!

I decided to finish up the next pack of questions for my Question of the Day yearly bundle. So far I am finished September-January. Half-way done!

Each monthly pack contains twenty-two "yes" or "no" question cards that are perfect for taking attendance, to use in your morning meeting, or to use during calendar time! A reader also gave the suggestion that you could use them as writing prompts as well! Smart idea!! There are also six blank cards that you could write on with a dry erase marker or Sharpie to create your own questions or have students think up questions. You can use these in a pocket chart, on a magnetic white board, or on a bulletin board.

Save money by buying the whole bundle! The rest of the packs will be added by the end of August! Better get working on those! ;) If you buy the bundle, you get a free set of numbers 1-36 to use as your students' numbers if using as an attendance taker or graphing activity.

Happy Summer Monday!

Monday Made It - Question of the Day Board and More

I am so excited that I can actually link up with 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It today! It has been awhile since I joined up with this fun linky party.

This first project has been on my to do list forever! I just could never find a large oil drip pan like this anywhere! This pin is from Proud to be Primary. It's a large magnetic board for the question of the day!



After constantly checking Walmart, hardware stores, and auto parts stores in my area with no luck, I finally found one on Amazon! I thought it was going to be smaller, but it's pretty big! It measures about 2 feet by 3 feet. I think it's the perfect size for this project! Plus it was only $22 and free shipping (when you spend over $25, but there are always books in my cart, so that was NOT a problem!).
So first up, I gave the pan a little quick rub down with some Goo Be Gone to get rid of any smudges or sticker residue left on it. Next I hung two small Command hooks at the top and used some purple masking tape to make the lines. I laminated and taped on some of my new Chalkboard Brights Letters from Teacher Created Resources. Then I hung my daily questions with binder rings on the Command hooks and placed round student number magnets at the bottom.

Each day we will flip to a new question and students will move their magnet number from the bottom section to either the "yes" or "no" sections. It will be part of our morning routine to answer the question so that I can check who is present and who is absent. It can also serve as a good discussion time and a math opportunity to count and talk about more/less.

I have a set of questions for each month that are on binder rings. The rings hang onto the Command hooks. Each month I just stick the new set of cards up and each day we flip to the next question. It is so easy to setup that even my student helper can do it. Same with resetting the numbers at the end of the day--a perfect job for a student helper.

These are my students' number magnets. More details about them below.

I decided to create a pack of questions for each month that I could use with my question board. The cards are two-to-a-page, so they are each about 4.25x11" big. They feature a hint of chalkboard and bright colours. Each month will have twenty-two question cards, along with six blank ones that you could write on with a dry erase marker or Sharpie.

I will also be bundling all the questions into a yearly pack. You will get all 220 cards for a discounted price. That's more than enough question cards to last you the entire year, so you can pick or choose some . There are no duplicate cards. Each of the months has a few holiday/seasonal themed cards (Halloween, Christmas, etc.), but there are lots of generic cards as well. (So far only September and October are done, but the rest will be done by the end of August!)

I have these Neon Book Bins from Really Good Stuff that I love. They have held up super well over three years now. Anywho, my new classroom theme is going to be chalkboard with brights--focusing on the colours pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Well, the book bins I have are only in pink, yellow, green, and blue, so OF COURSE I had to be matchy-matchy and order some purple and orange book bins to complete my theme. These book bins will work as my students' book bins, house my home reading books, and hold some of my special teacher-only books and read alouds.

I created some cute numbered labels for my students' book bins.

You can find the circle labels from my question board above and these fancy labels in my new classroom decor pack. Each type of label comes in numbers 1-30 and letters A-Z. Check them out by clicking the picture below. The chalkboard decor style does use up a bit more ink that other designs, so if you are more ink-conscious, I still have my Rainbow Polka Dot labels.

Another project that has been on my to do list for over two years now were these Story Stones. These pictures are from Natalie over at Natalie's Nook. I already had the stones bought and the pictures printed and cut out--I just needed to modge podge them! Students can use these stones for story ideas during writing time. They turned out pretty cute!

While I had the modge podge out, I covered up the labels on my "What's that Smell?" jars for my senses explore tubs. Read more about those {here}. I also added number stickers to the bottom so I could create a little answer key for myself. Note: put numbers on the bottom of the jar, not the lid, because lids can easily get mixed up!

Here is another science activity I put together for my living things explore tubs. (Those will be up on the blog soon enough, along with my objects and materials tubs!) This is a seed matching activity. You need some packets of different seeds, small containers, and dot stickers. I emptied the seeds into the small containers (one type of seed per container), placed a matching number sticker on the back of the seed packet and the top of the seed container, modge podged the seed container, and laminated the seed packets.

Students can practice matching up the seeds to the type of plant. Here's my little Zoe having fun with the seeds. She just liked shaking them and hearing the sounds that they made!

Woo! That was a lot for a Monday. Now we can take it easy and get some coffee! :)

Oh, P.S. Math Book Monday is taking a little vacation until I go back to school in September. Most of my math books are at school anyways, so I will just wait until school is back on. Then I will be able to show you books that we are actually reading in class and what my class is working on to go with them.