Workshop

Workshop is what I call the time of the day where we do centers/stations/small groups/one-on-one/parent helpers. I hope to explain this in the least confusing way possible. :)

We have specific rules for Workshop. They are:
1. Always be working.
2. Finish the must do first.
3. Whisper voices.
4. Don't interrupt the teacher.

Each child has a star at their desk with their name on it. If they have a question, they are to ask everybody else first, then they bring me their star and move on to something else until I am able to help them.

Workshop lasts for about 30 minutes. All the children start out with a “must do”. This is usually some type of worksheet that reinforces a reading/math skill previously learned. They are supposed to do this page independently. When they are finished, they turn it into the basket and move on to their “next do”.

I have about 10 of these activities. I assign 2 children to each activity. Since we have an odd number of students, one child is by themselves. I usually pick a higher student who is okay with being alone. For now, River said she didn’t mind being by herself. I change the partners every 6 weeks or so. I have about 15 different stations I use all year. The activities stay about the same, with the exception of changing the book for listening center, adding new games, etc. The children get to stay at their “next do” for as long as they want.

Here's some of the next do's in action:

Read Around the Room
They simply read any of the letters/numbers/words they can. When we have more sight words up on the word wall, this will become word wall. Then they will only read the sight words.

Listening Center

Pocket Chart
This changes throughout the year. For now, it is putting the alphabet in order. Other activities include sorting words by spelling patterns, putting a sentence in order, etc.

Spelling
They are to stamp the spelling words. But until we start spelling, they stamp sight words.

Handwriting
I have a few different mats to practice handwriting.

Caterpillar
I have several boxes with different counting and alphabet caterpillars for them to make.

Pattern Blocks
I got these wonderful pattern block mats from PreKinders.

Computers
Right now we are just playing Starfall. But soon we will start Math Facts in a Flash and some of the other sites under my Favorites to the right.

When they are finished, they get to move on to a “may do”. These include activities like going to the library, writing in journals, using the reading phones, taking AR tests, etc.


While everyone is working, I pull back groups or individual children to work on various reading/math skills. Parents also come in to work with the children as well. I have parents play learning games, review letters, sight words, numbers, math facts, etc.


We've spent a month really learning how to do workshop properly. Parents are starting to come in this week. I'm really hoping the class remembers the rules and works well. I'm sure they will! Workshop really is our favorite time of the day!

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Friday Fun!

Today was a fun filled Friday!

We read the book, "Stone Soup". We predicted what would happen next, and then summarized after we read. Then we made our own soup! We pretended to put in our favorite vegetables. Then we put three magic stones in. The class thought it was the best soup they ever had. Some comments were, "This is so delicious! Can you tell my mom the recipe?" "This is even better than Wal-Mart!" Ha. So cute! Little did they know it really was Campbell's Vegetable Beef soup purchased from Wal-Mart!

We went to the computer lab for the first time this afternoon. Today we played on Starfall. In the future we will play Math Facts in a Flash, Accelerated Reader, and some of the links to the right.

S is for Sunflower

We made these adorable sunflowers to hang in our classroom.

Sweet girls!

Funny boy!


We went to the library. I read a story while a few children at a time exchanged their books.

We finished off our day reviewing sight words with the "Meet the Sight Words" videos. I love these movies. They show small clips for each sight word, and turn the word into a fun scene. The class LOVES them. One boy asks all day long when we will watch them. Unfortunately for him, we don't watch them everyday. He gets pretty disappointed!


Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

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Classroom Pictures!

I’ve been working in my room for about two and a half days now, and I finally feel like I’m making progress! Two walls are mostly finished, and it is starting to feel like an actual classroom again! My classroom has some awkward parts to it. For example, one wall is almost a complete wall of different bulletin boards. Some are corkboard, some whiteboard, some large, some small, etc. The other wall is an unfortunate green carpet. :( That makes it a little hard to decorate, since the fire marshal has said too much paper is a fire hazard, so I did my best!

The first small bulletin board is our “Someone Special” board. Each week a different child gets to be the someone special. On Friday’s I send home a little backpack with an information letter, a blank poster, markers, and crayons. They decorate their own poster and bring pictures/other personal items to be displayed for the next week. Also during the week, each child in our class writes a letter to the someone special telling them what their favorite thing about them is. I put the letters into a book and present it to the child on Fridays. I also ask the families to write a letter telling why their child is special to them. We read those on Friday, and the child talks about their poster, pictures, and items. I start the year out with my poster and pictures. I think it’s a great way to introduce myself to the children. I even included a picture of me when I was in first grade! I usually don’t start sending home the backpack until about October, when they are more able to write letters to each other.


The next bulletin board is our Math Meeting. We do math meeting first thing every morning. Our school uses the Saxon Math program, with our own ideas thrown in. If you’re familiar with Saxon, you’ll notice I didn’t put all of their pieces up. They have too many activities to do! Not all are necessary. The white ones get turned around as we learn about those topics. The Student of the Day helps with Math Meeting, and all other tasks around the classroom. They also get to take the Mystery Box (see previous post) home that night.


Then we have our enormous word wall! (Not all shown.) I love this bulletin board! It is actually one whiteboard and one corkboard that I covered over. It has so much room to display all of the sight and vocabulary words we learn. I color code the words we put up – white are sight words, yellow are vocabulary words. It does look MUCH better when the words are up. Some letters have a lot of words, which is why they are not all equally spaced (I have a little bit of OCD when it comes to my classroom...).


My desk area comes next, but it is not ready for a picture yet! :)

The opposite wall is the carpet wall. It starts with our Birthday Wall. On the first day of school, each child gets to color a cupcake, which I then glue on to the birthday bags (brown paper bags). I’ll post pictures of it when it is finished. One boy in my class has his birthday on the second day of school, so I’ll have to be quick getting everything together!


Next are my computer and the children’s computers. They use them independently each day during workshop time. We also have a computer lab I try to take them to once a week. The colors are on top, a motivational banner, and two posters. Our principal is starting a new positive behavior system, and those two posters are part of that.


The last section is our Reading corner. The table is used when parents come to help, but is also there for children to sit and read. We also have bean bags, and a quilt. One of my friends/graduate school classmates came in last year to do a lesson. She had each child draw a picture of their favorite animal. Then she made a quilt out of their pictures! It is really neat!


There you have it. A short, first tour of our classroom. I’m looking forward to getting the rest of it ready tomorrow, so stay tuned!

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