Wonder

One of my favorite things about teaching 5th grade is watching my kiddos transition into tweens. A great book for supporting this transition is Wonder, by R.J. Palacio. The story is about a 10 year-old boy named August Pullman that is born with a facial deformity. He is homeschool up until 5th grade when he goes to a real school for the first time. The story takes you on Auggie's journey through middle school, while telling the story from many different people's perspective. It covers issues like acceptance, friendship and bullying and is great for class discussion. I read Wonder aloud to my students at the beginning of each year. It builds a sense of community within the classroom and creates a safe environment for students to discuss their ideas about the book. It's a must-read!

This is a bulletin board I created for this unit. I included Mr. Brown's Precepts, the postcards that are discussed throughout the book, as well as the different characters perspectives we hear from.

Interested in reading this book? You can purchase it here!

Literature Day

Every year, our school celebrates Literature Day on Dr. Seuss's Birthday. Students and teachers are encouraged to dress as a character from their favorite book. Last year I dressed as Olivia from the popular children's book, Olivia.

 

This year, I was about 8 months pregnant so I had to get a little more creative! I chose to be Thing 1 and my little one was Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat.

Bulletin Board Name Clips

I made these clips to hang students work on my bulletin boards. Here's a little step by step of the process.


I bought these little wooden labels at Michaels. I believe they were around 30 cents each. I had to peel the label off of all 35 of them. Then I arranged them on a piece of cardboard and painted them black to match my classroom.

I used a sponge to painted them which worked much better than using a brush. I had already painted the clothes pins four different colors. When they were dry, I hot-glued the clothes pin to the label and a push pin to the back of the clothespin. Once I have a list of my kiddos names, I will write them on the labels and wa-la!

Here is the final product, ready for names! 

More Class Decor!

I finished my second bulletin board today. This is where I will hang students writing assignments. 5th graders do a lot of writing so this board will be used a lot! Our school mascot is the "Rough Riders" so my title is a little play on words ; )

Once I have a list of my kiddos names, I will write them on the black, wooden tables . I bought these at Michaels. I painted them black and hot-glued them to clothes pins that I had also painted. Then I glued a push pin to the back to attach to the wall. This way I can clip and unclip students work quickly and easily! 

First-Year Teacher Classroom Decor

Being a first year teacher can be very overwhelming. Since I was not working this summer, I had plenty of time to plan and create things for my classroom. Most of which is Pinterest inspired! Here are some photos of my progress so far...


This is the first bulletin board I've finished. It's sort of like the "Student Information Center." Here they will find the calendar, weather, class jobs, class rules, birthdays (which will be finished when school starts and I can take pictures of all my kiddos), lunch/attendance, and their clip chart. This is also where they will turn in all of their assignments.

This is a "clip chart" that the students will use daily to determine who is buying lunch and who is bringing lunch. The students who's names are left in the middle are absent, which makes lunch count and attendance really fast in the morning. 

This is a list of "Job Descriptions" as well as "Fines" and "Bonuses,"

Here are my class jobs. The first number represents the student who is responsible for the job that week and the second number is their "substitute." The "substitute" will be responsible for the job the following week. 

This is where students turn in assignments.

And this is a little reminder for students who constantly forget to write their name!