A Peek at My Week!

Well, the holidays are over, and it's time to go back to school. BUT WAIT! The temperature is supposed to be -40 tomorrow with wind chill, so school is CANCELLED! I will be going in tomorrow though to continue to reorganize my classroom library and plan ahead for weeks to come!

So Tuesday, I will be reviewing classroom expectations and routines. We're a PBIS school, so we will also be reviewing different areas the month of January.

For Reading, we're starting a new unit in the basal. I'm required to do the basal, as well as Daily 5. I'm restructuring how I do Daily 5 a little bit for 2nd semester. The 1st semester, I did very little group conferencing. I felt my students were all over with abilities and skills, that it was better for them if I did 1:1 conferencing. During 2nd semester, I will be doing a lot more group conferencing, and only doing individuals on Mondays and as needed. My co-teacher and I will be working with groups on specific reading skills using passages from ReadingWorks.org, doing hands on activities with word families, vocabulary, dictionary skills, etc, and building fluency by reading leveled readers from the Basal.

In Science and Social Studies, we are beginning new units in both, so it will be a week of introducing the topics and vocabulary and pre-tests.

In Math, we're starting meanings of division. I have 4 weeks until Iowa Assessments, and A LOT of material I haven't touched on. So for January, we will be doing a lot of introducing and "getting their feet wet" of concepts rather than teaching to mastery like I did for previous concepts. I HATE doing this, but I have to. Ugh.

I'm also going to do a lot more with language. I usually do D.O.L. 3 times a week, and writing 2 or 3 times a week in addition to cursive. We are just about done with cursive, so I will have more time in the afternoon to teach language skills. I'm very excited about this. I only hope I can keep my kiddos' attention long enough to teach them the skills. Teaching after last recess is a CHALLENGE.

Here are some picture of some things I've been working on in my room over the last few days...
First up, my (fingers crossed) solution for kiddos always needing/losing supplies! I attached a caddy to one student's desk for each of my pods.
You'll need:
Supply Caddy (at Target Dollar Spot right now!)
Mini Command Hooks
Nickel Ball Chains and Clasps

Voila! I included glue, pencils, crayons, erasers, scissors, and red pens.

New name tags and cursive chart (laminated) to use as guide and use with dry erase marker for practice!

 The start of my revamp of classroom library! Thanks to DonorsChoose, I was able to get book boxes!

 Also part of my Donor's Choose project, a revolving book stand that holds all of my books in a series! I LOVE THIS!

Well, wherever you are, I hope you're staying warm!