Two Hoots & A Holler: Class Library and Word Wall

Hoot #1

Hey it's Jamie here! Brad and I decided to take a week for ourselves before the children came back from Arizona! Knowing that I was going on this trip, I spent everyday last week trying to get as much as I could done.  I finally was able to finish my library!

Here it is! I purchased boards and cinder blocks from Lowe's. The boards are to the length of my reading loft, which is about 6 feet. I decided to expose the holes in the blocks.  I plan to use the holes in the blocks to hold resources that the students may need such as pencils, post-it notes and bookmarks. I was able to get the buckets at Dollar Tree.  I was so afraid that I would not buy enough that I bought out two stores in our area.  Needless to say, I purchased about 12 too many!! If you don't know already, Dollar Tree does not allow you to return items. I then printed labels for each bucket.  I also numbered each bucket so that the students could look inside the book and match the number that is written inside the book to the number on the bucket.

 I have a book return bucket that I keep right outside of my library.  All books go to the "Book Return" bucket when students are finished with them. At the end of the day, the helpers get to place the books back in their appropriate bucket.

Hoot #2

I also was able to finish my word wall.  I decided change it a little by creating the word rings instead of listing them down the wall.  The words are based from the first 100 Fry words that we expose our students to throughout the year.

Here is what it looks like from a distance.  Excuse the mess but as teachers, we all know that it is going to get a whole lot messier before it gets cleaner!!

Here is a close up.  In my class, we are the Jitterbugs.  So, of course, the room is decorated in bugs.  For my word wall, I use ladybugs for the consonants and butterflies for the vowels.  For the rings, I used shower rings. You can usually find these at Fred's, or Dollar Tree.  They are much cheaper than the binder rings. These usually come in packs of 12.  This year, I purchased these from Fred's.  A set (12) cost $3.00. I purchased jumbo tacks at Office Depot.  The rings hang on the tacks.  As students need them for spelling or word games, all they have to do is slip the ring off the tack to take with them!

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to our great friend Annie Wilson at Ride Away with Mrs. Ridgway. This girl is a hoot! We have gotten to spend time with her during two blogger meet ups! We love the fact that she is a looping teacher. We have looped before and thought that it was one of the best educational experiences ever.  Annie has so much energy that you just want to join in with her.  She is our official photo bomber! Ha! She has so many wonderful things on her blog! You should check her out! We love her latest post as she linked up with other teachers for Shark Week! You probably will not see a blog post from Annie this weekend because.......................

SHE IS GETTING MARRIED!!!

Congrats Annie from Kinder Glitter Girls! May your years be filled with joy and happiness. 

Two Hoots and A Holler: Baseball and Classrooms

Hoot #1

Over the past 2 weeks, we have suffered a great loss in my (Jodi) family.  My brother-in-law passed away, leaving behind my sister and nephew.  My nephew, Nicholas who is 8 years old and going into 3rd grade, is a HUGE part of my life.  My sister and her husband adopted him from Guatemala, and Nicholas came home in March 2009.  Since he was old enough to sit up, he always had a ball in his hand to throw, and he had a pretty good arm at a young age!  Baseball has become his passion, and his father taught him all he knows about the sport.  He LOVES playing baseball, and he is really good at it too (I am not just saying that because he is my nephew, haha).  This summer, he made the All Star team, his father and him were so excited he made it.  This past weekend we gathered at the baseball fields with lots of family and friends to cheer him on in a tournament.  It was wonderful to see this little guy smile and have fun.  Baseball is his therapy, and he is the happiest  boy when he is on the field.  With every ball he threw, ball he caught, ball he hit, he knew his daddy was watching from above. It melts my heart to see Nicholas happy after everything he has been through the past 2 weeks.  My sister and him are the strongest people I know, and I know God has an extraordinary plan for their lives.  I am so blessed that God allowed me to be a part of this family.  In memory of my brother-in-law, I would like to dedicate this Hoot to him, my sister, and my nephew.  May he rest in peace and may God continue to watch over my sister and nephew! 

The All Star Banner hanging proudly outside the dug out. 

The team put this on the banner because he was a HUGE supporter of the All Star Team. 

All of the team members have "CP" on the back of their helmets in memory of Chris. 

Nicholas and Jamie, AKA Lemon Head, at the tournament. Nicholas loved hearing Lemon Head cheer him on from the stands.    And if you know Jamie, she did some cheering!!  haha  I tried to photo bomb the picture, but I wasn't quick enough...Just got my hair!  haha

Nicholas is so proud to be a part of this All Star Team!

Nicholas in action!  Swing batter batter!

Hoot #2

Jodi's rule of thumb is start working in the classroom after July 4th, but Jamie starts way earlier because her kids are in Arizona visiting their grandparents.  Here it is 2 days before the 4th of July, and we both are freaking out a little!  Have we done anything we said we were going to do??  Well, of course not!  We are the poster children for PROCRASTINATION!  But have no fear, there is a plan in place.  It is a very rough draft of a plan, but its a starting point.  So I guess that deserves a hoot because we are no longer procrastinating!  We have a rough draft of units we want to make to use in our classroom, and to share on TPT.  We got a pretty big jump ahead in May, we used all of our free time to prepare for August as much as we could.  That is a HUGE help!  It is actually very funny because at school, we both are on top of things and always thinking ahead of the game; but at home, we are not on our A Game!  Like I said things are looking up!  As we sit and make lists of everything we need to do, we both realize there are things that we do not have to worry about.  Last summer one week before school started, Jodi woke up late one Sunday night and she decided she was going to paint her room.  Of course we both thought this idea wasn't a good one because school was about to start!  Because she did it last summer, now she doesn't have to worry about it this summer!  Take a look at what she did that will help her in preparing her room in the years to come.  Here are some great time savers.....

Jodi allows her children to help decorate her walls.  They are asked to bring in objects for letters and colors.  She usually puts up pieces of long construction paper for each letter. Instead of taking down and putting up paper for each letter every year, she painted the rectangles on the wall.  This is the beginning of the project. 

This is the end result of the project.  After rectangles were painted, she framed it with zebra print duct tape and black duct tape and put her letters above the rectangles.  The rectangles that were painted served multiple purposes.  The objects students brought in for each letter were hung up on the corresponding rectangle, and it could also serve as a word wall. 

As she was painting rectangles on the wall, she thought..."Why not paint bulletin boards too?"  So after recruiting help from her nephew and daughter, she painted all the bulletin boards in her room.  This didn't fade or rip.  The bulletin boards will last for years!  One thing she did find out is that you need to use 2-3 base coats before putting actual color on.  The cork does soak up the paint, so the base coats help the color be more vibrant and bright. 

An after picture of one of the painted bulletin boards.

Table skirt....this was the best idea yet, thanks to Pinterest!  It added spunk and color to the room!  It also hid some of the stuff that would get collected during projects or guided reading.  Jodi got someone to hem the bottom of the fabric so it wouldn't unravel.  Then, she turned the table upside down and stapled the skirt underneath with a staple gun.  It lasted all year and never ripped or came off!  And its ready for years to come!

This was our work display in the hall which lasted all year long.  It didn't have to be changed out  several times, it was just a simple clip of a clothespin to display work.    Jodi saw this somewhere on the internet, not sure where.  The cardstock circles were purchased at Wal-Mart in the craft department, the strips are made from duct tape with a construction paper backing.  These were assembled, then laminated so they would last longer.  She spray painted clothespins to clip onto each strip.  The clips were used to hold the student's work, and students' names were printed out and put on the circles. 

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to Brenda Frady at Primary Inspired.  She attended the Spring Teacher Blogger Meet Up and the Nash Teacher Bash, and we were able to get to know this incredible woman better!  She organized the linky party for everyone after the Spring Teacher Blogger Meet Up.  The most interesting fact about Brenda Frady is that she teaches a multi-age classroom!  She has 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade students!  Can you imagine what a learning experience that is as a teacher?  She is currently involved in book studies with other bloggers.  Her blog is full of good information for teachers to know!  You should definitely hop on over to her blog to check it out! 

Two Hoots and A Holler: Unpacking our Classes!

Hoot #1

Let the year begin!  They are finally finished cleaning our room!  We will begin our reconstruction for the new school year classrooms in the upcoming week! We are so excited and anxious to get started!

Hoot #2

I wanted to share with you my curtains that I created for my classroom.  I spent under $5.00!!

You heard me right, $5.00!  I made them out of plastic tablecloths.  Yes, the cheap $1.00 ones that you can find at Dollar Tree or Wal-Mart.  They were really simple.  All you need is a plastic tablecloth and clear packing tape.  Once I decide how long I need my curtains to be, I cut about 6 inches (vertically on the tablecloth) above that mark.  Then, I folded the top part of the tablecloth to my mark that I previously made and taped it with the clear packing tape.  This created the tunnel that the curtain rod goes through.  I have a large window area.  Each tablecloth created two panels.  I had to buy 2 tablecloths to cover my windows.  Here is the finished product!!



As far as color and design, the possibilities are ENDLESS!!! 

This Week's Holler...
This week's holler goes out to Alexandria Jackson from Classroom Action with Ms. Jackson.  We first met Ms. Alexandria Jackson at the Spring Teacher Blogger Meet up in French Lick, IN.  We just fell in love with the name of her blog!  Every time we say it, we chuckle because it is so catchy, and we immediately begin singing the song "Sorry, Ms. Jackson" by Outkast.  (We're sorry Ms. Jackson....oooohhhhhh....We are for real!) She also helped host the Teacher Nash Bash this summer, and we got the chance to hang out with this wonderful woman again!  She is very down to Earth and strives to be a life long learner.  She is very passionate about teaching, and this is seen through her blog!  Click on her button below and head on over to see what she has done this past school year and what she is up to this summer!  

  

Two Hoots and A Holler!

Hoot#1

Ok, so we are plastic bin addicts!  We get super excited over cute little plastic bins.  We purchase them all the time, not even knowing what we are going to use them for, but we get them just because they are so irresistible …I’m sure most of you can relate to us on that.  We found these plastic bins at Dollar General, and they are PERFECT for holding different writing tools at the writing center and word work center.  Not only are they perfect, they are really cute!! 

We found these at Dollar Tree, they are soap holders. They come two to a pack.  We use these to hold decks of cards for students to use in math tubs.  We also thought these could be used for a miniature version of the glue sponges that The Kindergarten Smorgasboard uses in his classroom.   

Hoot #2

This week is the induction of students into the Beta Club.  At our school this is a group of 4th and 5th grade students who have maintained a B average or higher in all subject areas.  These students have participated in service projects.  They have exhibited leadership through these projects and outstanding behavior. These are our Jitterbugs and Rock Stars that were a part of our kindergarten class! We are true believers that we do not just teach children for one year and then we are done.  We want to be there to see them achieve their goals throughout their entire life! We can't wait to see how these young minds are going to change the world for the better!

This Week’s Holler

This week’s holler Brandy Withers from Firstie Kidoodles. We met her at the Spring Teacher Blogger Meetup this year. She has some cute dogs and a beautiful family. Kinder Glitter Girls really likes her "Ordinal Numbers with Blind Mice".  It incorporates reading and math activities and it's FREE!! She has a ton of resources for primary teachers on her blog and her TPT store.  Head over and check her out!