Focus Walls!

This post will focus on focus walls!! This year, I revamped my walls and decided to make use of my huge cinder block walls effectively by creating focus walls that would allow my students (and I) to remain organized with tools that are useful and effective for teaching, reteaching, reminding, etc. 

The possibilities are truly endless...

So let the focusing begin:

Here is our Reading Focus Wall

 Created with:

Large black paper plates, small black paper plates, safari print die-cut letters, red die-cut letters, sentence strips, pocket protector sheets, pocket charts, and of course a parrot, how could you forget a parrot?!

For each week, it displays:

-our focus (i.e. long e, vowel pairs ee & ea)

-our theme (changed every three weeks)

-our comprehension strategy and skill

-our high frequency words

-our vocabulary words for our anthology

-our spelling words

-a picture of our read aloud

-a picture of our anthology story

-sound spelling cards we are using

-a visual to show the 4 rotations of each small group

 *I simply change this out for each week and it is revisited and referenced throughout the week when teaching the skills of each week within the theme--by using the pocket protector sheets, I simply erase and write

Below:

-are posters to the Reading Genres

-my leveled readers (they were on a crate but space is very limited within the classroom)

-below (hanging) are our "Million Dollar Words" that we come up with in our complex text read alouds, the students can revisit these words by un/clipping them on the clothesline hanging below

Here is our ELA (English Language Arts) Focus Wall:

Created with:

Large black plates, pie tins, safari print die-cut letters, PIE posters (The Author's Purpose), a created poster with examples of the different things that can be written, Handwriting Posters, 

Below:

-is our paw prints writing system that I began this year and the students LOVE IT!

-our Pizza Papers (idea courtesy of the fantastic Teacher Tipster)

-various materials for writing on the shelf below: 4 bins: dictionaries/ABC books; our word rings (rings with various common and proper nouns, verbs, adjectives etc. to help with writing); different types of writing paper, and our "sleepy words" (synonyms for common used words)

 Here is our Math Focus Wall:

Created with:

Large black paper plates, small black paper plates, pocket charts, sentence strips, 3M hooks

It displays:

-the 8 Math Practices that our county uses

-a chart about problem solving that our county uses

-keywords for addition and subtraction and visuals for where the biggest number goes within addition and subtraction number sentences

-the different ways to make 10

-doubles

-120 chart (using highlighter tape to emphasize the 5's and 10's columns)

-hooks that have 2-D and 3-D shapes

-a visual to show the 4 rotations of each small group 

In all, our Focus Walls are great tools that we use daily! :)

Until next time! 

Messy Desks?

As a teacher, we may ask, "Who keeps changing all of my clocks because there is never enough time?" to "Why do the monsters visit every night and eat all of my pencils and construction paper?"to "How am I missing this daily earthquake that moves all of my desks in my classroom?!"

BUT, the good thing is...is that there are many things we teachers do understand! and why am I so happy for this post, well because I believe I have solved the mystery of my student's desks.

That is, how to keep their desks nice, clean, and organized!!

 Watch the makeover...

Which takes this:

  

And turns it into this:

 

What is the magic behind this wonderful beauty of a view?! The plastic containers that you can easily find in bulk at your local $ store!! I had seen other pictures before using the Sterilite drawers but with needing 24 and at a current price of 1.96 along with the hunt to find 24, all after visiting 1000  many stores, I racked my brain trying to come up with something that may be a bit easier...and it just so happens that these plastic bins fit like a DREAM!!! AND--they are a taller and longer than the Sterilite drawers let alone cheaper and who can't save a pretty penny or two these days!! Plus, when you get that new student or one happens to break etc. you have a go-to plan--the $ store which almost always has a gazillion!

What my kids love about these and most importantly take pride in...is that this solution has helped to turn their desk into a "Big Kid desk" with these containers AWESOME DRAWERS!!! They can slide them out and back in and all of the pencils, crayons, etc. have a place. They are working wonderfully and I placed a label with their number on each container so that they can be reused!

Are you wondering what is stored in these fantastic drawers?

No worries, I got you covered! In their drawers they have:

 -their own personal pencil bags (we also have community supplies for each group which are located on the 2-tier crate shelf that can slightly be seen in one of the pictures above)

-an AEIOU strip (laminated piece of paper with the vowels) that we use for daily short- and long-vowel practice (I.e. I state the word "cat" and they would have to cover the "a" with a math cube (or you could use a clothespin)

-a Tupperware with their number on the lid and the bowl itself (I got these in a pack of 6 for less than $2.00 at WM) and we use these for storing their PBIS tickets and POGS (another incentive our school has adopted this year). This came about because the endless sandwich bags began to get a bit out of hand and these are durable and wonderful!!

-A gallon Ziploc bag (Eventually, I plan to get some other way of storing but...) this is known as their "Word Bag" each week we have new High Frequency Words and with my weekly independent work. My students use these words to complete their work and they are then stored in this bag to practice and review with. We also store our little bag of Digit Cards that we use for many different math activities during our math time.

AND, saving the BEST for last!

 

Don't ask me how, but for some reason if I stay in a $ store for enough time, my brain begins to think of these insane and crazy ways to turn items into tools for our classroom!! With Easter eggs already being out, the large ones gave me an idea..I recently turned my clipboards into chalkboards to help save money on the dry-erase markers that created endless problems and this my friends is how we...

 

store our chalk and eraser (a piece of felt) and YES a whole piece of chalk fits perfectly in these larger Easter eggs! Hip hop hooray for the Easter eggs!!!

In all, I hope that at least one of these examples/pictures helped to give you  some ideas as to how you can solve the "messy desks" of your classroom! Happy organizing! Until next time! :)