Summer Projects!

One thing I love about summer is that I have so much time to work on projects for my classroom!  It seems that when school gets out I have this sudden energy and excitement and I am able to get a lot done.  I have to run with it while t lasts, because I know that it won't last all summer.  School has been out for a week and a half now.  Here is what I have accomplished:

- I moved my classroom (I am moving to a room that is bigger).  I organized everything as I went so everything in my new room is super organized which is great!  I even labeled cupboards and drawers so I can stay organized throughout the year.  I also got rid of stuff that I haven't been using or that had been thrashed by the kids.

- I made a homework binder that the kids will sing each week if they have not done their homework.  It is organized by week (we have 30 weeks worth of homework packets).  This will be an easy way for me to notice who is not turning in homework and allow me to contact home. I also have plastic sleeves in the back so that I can keep a black line of each weeks homework in the binder so that it is easy to make additional copies if needed.

- I updated my "teacher binder" I created a few new forms for it and put it in a new binder.  My one from last year was completely falling apart.  To read about what I have in my teacher binder click here. 

- I created my sharp and dull pencil jars.  Due to the fact that my kids always break my pencil sharpeners (without fail), I will be the only one sharpening pencils next year.  They can put their dull ones in and take a sharp one and then at the end of the day I will sharpen all the pencils that need to be sharpened. I got the ins for 1.00 each at target : )

 I created class journals!  I plan on using these as fast finishers.  When students are done with assigned work they can respond in one of the class journals.  Each journal has a prompt on the front and some ideas of what types of things to include in the journal entry.  Student can latter go back and see how their classmates responses to the journals.  I got this great idea here. 

If you are interested in using my prompts you can download them here.

- I made my math Guess That Number game using an old Guess Who game.  Read about it here.

- I made a jar for Box Tops using an old Ragu jar

- I made some new signs to go by our calendar.  These ill be laminated so that the kids can write on them each morning as we do calendar. 

- I made up some "Fast Finisher" signs that I can put up on the boars (a few at a time) so that students know what their options are should they finish early with an assignment.  I got this great idea here.

- I made some glitter clips to use to hang up "World Class Work" in my classroom.  These were super easy an I love how they look! Got the idea here. I made 12 of them : )

- I cut scraps of old t-shirts for my students to use as whiteboard erasers.  I made a T-shirt quilt last summer and saved the scraps so that Icould use them for this very reason.  I still have a ton of t-shirt scraps left.  It will last me for years to come : )

- I printed out these keyboards that I found here for my students to practice typing their spelling words on for word work. 

- I also came up with a book report form and a missing poster that students can choose to fill out as a fast finisher.  I used a lot if ideas from here free download of a book report.

- I made a reading bingo board to hand out to parents in the fall, you can read about it here.

- I made some question cubes for Guided Reading.  Different colors are for different reading levels.  I got the foam dice in a 2-pack at the dollar store.  They will be great because they will not be loud on my guided reading table and will therefore not distract my class : )

I have also managed to hang out with friends, go to the movies, exercise, make a scrapbook of all my love notes from my kids this past year, go on a camp-out, blog a bit, go to the pool, eat my first snow cone of the season, and find a place to live next year!  Next project here I come!