Classroom Updates

Yes, I am posting twice in one day because I feel that my classroom updates deserves its own post. I have made many updates to my classroom since school has started and love it even more!  My room now feels complete with decorations and student work!

In 4th grade, it is very important that students know their multiplication facts!  I realized in the first week of school that my students did not know their multiplication facts well.  So, I decided that one of my first goals was going to be for all my students to know their multiplication facts by the end of the year.  I created the Ice Cream Multiplication Activity.  I did not come up with this idea completely on my own.  With help from one of my teacher friends and teacherspayteachers.com, I put together this activity.  I give my students a one-minute timed multiplication test twice a week and if they pass they receive a scoop to add to their ice cream cone.  In the beginning of December, we are having a class ice cream party.  How many scoops a student has on their cone depends on what they get at the ice cream party.  My students have been working really hard to learn these facts!

This is what the ice cream cones looked like in October.

This is what the cones look like now!

 Below are some new updates that I have made to my room!

I could not figure out what to put in this area.  Thanks to Blair at one-lesson-at-a-time.blogspot.com I turned it into a area that I add reading comprehension skill posters when we have learned about them.

Not the greatest picture, but this is how I display our classroom birthdays.

I have wanted to have a Boggle Bulletin board since I first started teaching! I love boggle and it is a great way for students to practice spelling!

Part of my students morning routine is making their lunch choice.  Students use magnets with their number to tell me what they want for lunch.  This helps make our morning go smoothly!

The magnets my students put on their lunch choice every morning.

Long Overdue

I know that I am long overdue for a post.  Keeping up with this blog is not as easy as I thought, but I am going to try to be posting more often, even if some of the posts are just pictures.

I cannot believe that I have been in North Carolina for only 3 months.  Sometimes it feels like I have been living here for a short time, but lately it feels like I have been here a lot longer than 3 months.  I feel so blessed by my new life here.  I am working at a great school with great co-workers and have such a great class this year!  I have found a church here that is similar to my church in Grand Rapids.  I have made some new friends, which if you know me, you know that I am normally very social.  So, moving here with no friends has been very hard for me, but God has blessed me with some great new friends!  Those are just a few of the ways that I feel blessed here.  I still miss my family, friends and Grand Rapids, especially fall in Michigan, but I know this is where God wants me right now!  Below are some pictures of what has been going on in my new life lately!

I painted pumpkins with my new friends!

Pajama Day at school

New Boots

Fall in North Carolina is not the same as Michigan! Many of the trees here don't change colors, there are not apple orchards everywhere and they don't know what true Apple Cider is like down here.   This is one of the few areas that truly looks like fall around here!  I do love the warm fall weather here though!

After dealing with car troubles, I treated myself to some Froyo!

Sneak Peak

Last week, I was able to go see my apartment and they work that has been done on it.  I love being able to see the process of it being built.  It makes it seem more like mine!  It is making slow progress and now it looks like I will not be in there until December. I was hoping to be in there in November but I just keep having to remind myself that it will be worth the wait!  Here are some pictures of what it looks like now. I forgot to take a picture of the outside. So, I will just have to do that next time.  Hopefully, next time I post about the apartment, I will be in it!




 This is the entry way.  I did not take a picture of the outside, but there is a breezeway that is outdoors that comes up to my apartment.  I am on the 3rd floor.

When you walk in, the Living Room is too the right. The door leads to my porch. I love the windows in the Living Room!

This is the view from my porch!

The Kitchen is to the left when you walk in.

The door in the kitchen leads to the Laundry Room and Pantry.

The hallway by the Kitchen leads to the Bedroom and Bathroom.

My Bedroom

The Walk in Closet is definitely my favorite part of the Bedroom!!

The pictures aren't the best quality but I wanted to share a little preview of my apartment.  I can't wait to put pictures of it up when it is completely finished!!

FINALLY UP!

I have talked about making this blog since I moved to Raleigh a month ago.  Well, the craziness of school starting happened and I decided to put the blog off.  Things have finally slowed down (a little) and after spending way too long trying to figure out how to center my title, the blog is FINALLY up and ready!  I will be using this blog mostly to update my friends and family at home about my life. The blog posts will probably be mostly pictures but I will try to do some writing as well (not my favorite thing).  Also, I want to apologize in advance for the amount of posts that will be about school.  I will try not to do too many teacher posts but school kinda dominates my life at the moment!  This first post will be about my classroom.  I have told many people that I would put up pictures of my classroom soon and I am finally ready to show it off!

Here are some pictures of my classroom:

 A couple signs that I had printed that are hung up throughout my classroom.

 This is a sign that Kelli made for me last year and I absolutely LOVE it!  Thanks Kel :)

 I have been wanting to make these benches for quite awhile and just never got to it until now.  These were so easy to make and my students love them! 

 I gave out these magnets at my open house for my student's parents to have my contact info. 

 These are our center bins. They are probably one of my favorite parts of the room!

The front bulletin board/ smart board/ rug area.  I searched a long time until I found these rugs and they look perfect in my classroom!

 The library area.  As you can see, the books were already a mess after the first week of school!

 

 The Boggle Board.  It is still not finished but I have wanted to have a boggle board in my classroom for a long time! I love Boggle and its a good way for students to work on vocabulary and spelling.

 I am not a fan of the blue colored cabinets.  I love the cabinets but the blue does not match my color scheme.  So, I decided that I needed to cover it up as much as possible.  On these cabinets you are seeing our classroom jobs chart and the "Show What you Know" board.  I have students answer a question on these board at some point during the day and this shows me if they understood what we were learning or not.

 Here is what the student groups look like and my cute name tags! I bought the nametags off of teachers pay teachers and they fit perfectly with how I decorated the classroom!

 This is my second bulletin board.  I love having two bulletin boards. I use this board more for showing students examples and having students show their work on.   This board now has a lot more stuff on it.

 I use this bulletin board for the daily schedule, weekly calendar, homework club and notes that I want my students to read.

 I saw something like this on Pinterest last year and just did my own twist!  It makes a boring desk look so much better!!

That is my classroom!  Besides the blue cabinets, I LOVE every part of it! It makes me very happy to walk into.  I am going to end this post with an ecard from Pinterest that sums up how I feel about decorating my room!