Monday Made It -7/15

My goodness...is it really the middle of July already? Yikes that means I in exactly one month I have to report in for meetings!  I either need to get busy and get more school things wrapped up, or I need to truly put away for a bit and be lazy for a week or two!

Well, it is Monday, so that means it's time to link up with Tara over at Fourth Grade Frolics for another Monday Made It!  I so love this linky.  I am constantly amazed at the wonderful, crafty things everyone is making!  It has honestly been an inspiration each week to get things accomplished.  Plus I keep finding new blogs to follow which equals new friends and more great ideas!

MMI #1- Home Communication Center

So for my MMIs this week I have one for home that I have been putzing with for a while now and think I may have it to a finishing point.  This is my home communication center.  I have a narrow hallway that everyone must pass through to get to the kitchen and the upstairs (where their bedrooms are) so I decided to use the wall space as my home communication center.  

I have 2 white boards- the large board is for messages and notes to let others (AKA -Mom) know where you are or when you expect to be back along with the post for emergency numbers and a small white board for the weekly shopping list.  Above the shopping list I have my menu board.  In the middle of it all is a cork board with the calendar and a slots for the kids' schedules and other goodies. (My older kids pointed out that they don't have slots but I assured them that although they don't have bulletin board space they are still loved.  I should clarify, my older children are 21, 20 and 19 and don't live at home any more...I'm not really that mean of a mother LOL)  I am pretty please with how it all looks now.  Hopefully we can keep it up and the boys will remember to use it.

MMI #2 A Behavior Clip chart.

My next project was a behavior clip chart.  I have never used on in my room before, but know I have a group coming up that might need the visual reminder on how we need to work in the classroom.  I decided I wanted my chart to be magnetic, so I used a flat cookie sheet, then I made little number tiles to go with it. (I'm debating on making them a little smaller and using these for posting late/missing work on my whiteboard).  I am really pleased with how this came out. I am working on making data binder sheets and created one to go with the chart that the kids will fill in for each day.

MMI #3: Citing Sources

My final MMI for this week is a document I created to share with my teammates/students for citing sources.  As part of the Common Core, one of the things that students must be able to do is cite the resources they use in research.  For the past couple of years I have been pretty loose about how the students did this (basically just the title and the author) and none of our time did it the same way, so here enters my new resource.  I still tried to keep it basic but have more information included along with a prescribed format for both print materials and online materials.

Well, that's it for me for this week's MMI.  Off to see what some of my favorite bloggers were crafting for this week.

                                                            Until next time...

Colored Folders Galore- {Optimum Organization #4)

I can't believe it is the last Saturday of June! Where has the time gone?  Since it's Saturday, you know it's time to link up with Kristen and Elizabeth for the Optimum Organization tips and tricks.  I don't know about you, but I am getting lots of ideas and inspiration as I stalk through the blogs linked up for this linky. I am soooo thankful these ladies decided to host this!

Ok today, I want to share one way I try to help my students stay organized.  I am a color coordinator.  I mean I am obsessive about color coordination.  (There I said it- that's the first step right?)  My students come at the beginning of the year with 5 folders: red, blue, green, yellow and one of their choice.  I used to have the students write the subject on each folder but you know those nice heavy folders with the shiny covers...the marker tends to rub right off, so....in comes my handy dandy folder labels.

(I went through a stage where I was making cute labels for everything under the sun...these I actually kept up).  I pass out a strip of the labels to each student and we put them the top of each folder as we place them in their desks in the order we will do the subjects throughout the day. For those of you interested, I have put these labels up in my TPT store.  They are FREE for the time being.

Now about the color coordination.  We use the red folder for reading.  Anything I print off for the students, I copy on pink paper (red is to dark and hard to read).  They know pink papers go in the red folder.  Science is the green folder and all science papers are green, we use the blue folder and blue papers for Social Studies, the yellow folder and yellow paper is for math and the folder of their choice is for writing (I copy all the things for language arts on purple paper).  The visual match of the paperwork with their folder helps the students know where their things need to be.  When I have students who misplace an item we can tell quickly if it is in the wrong folder because the colors don't match.  It is also helpful for me when papers are in my bag at the end of the day, I can tell at a glance what subject I still need to check at home. Plus if something gets turned into the wrong basket, the color of the paper makes it stand out of the rest and we can find missing work that they know they turned in.

Another place I use color is in my student files.  I use a 3 folder system to store student information throughout the year.  For each student I have a red, yellow and blue folder. (I use numbers on these to make it easy to use year after year and to insure confidentiality).  In the red folder I keep things like IEP accommodations and goals, any behavior write ups, permission slips, our behavior contract, notes from home; basically they are things that only I need to see.  The yellow and blue folders are for student work.  In the yellow folder I keep all the assessments the students complete throughout the year.  I share these at conferences but they don't go home.  In the blue folder I keep pieces of student work from the current trimester.  This folder is also something I share at conferences,  the difference is all the things in this folder go home with the parents. I keep the two separate folders for student work so that I don't accidentally send home assessments that I need to keep at school.

Well, that's my organizational idea for today.  Hope you have a great Saturday!
                                                                        Until next time....

Organizing student materials- Table Boxes

So, here's one of my ideas for organizing student materials.  Be sure to check out some of the other great organizing tips as part of Kristen at Ladybug's Teacher Files and Elizabeth from Fun in Room 4B's summer linky series Optimum Organization.

This past year our district adopted the EveryDay Math series, so in an attempt to have the materials students would need readily available I created these table boxes.

My student desks are arranged in 6 groups of 4 desks each, so I have enough supplies in each box for all the members of a group.

In each box I have included 4 white boards and dry erase markers, rulers, 2 decks of the Everyday Math cards (we don't have enough for every student, so they partner up), math geometry templates, small and large post-it notes, highlighters and visa-vi markers, dice and a small piece of padded shelf liner they roll the dice on (it cuts down on the noise of the dice on the desktops). 

The table captain for each group is responsible for picking up their table box at the beginning of the, making sure all the materials are returned to the box and putting the box back on the community shelf at the end of the day.  This system work great for me.  I knew the materials would be ready whenever the students needed them and we didn't have a lot of fuss or hassle getting things out.

Until next time....