Packing Up the Classroom

Every year I have the fun task of clearing out my classroom so my floors can be cleaned over the summer.  All of my desks and bookcases have to be emptied out and moved into the hallway.  I am able to put a lot of book baskets in my cubbies for storage, but this year I had a new idea for packing up.  

At the beginning of the school year, I made 12 crate seats for my students.  I used these around my small group table and student computers.  During the year, I used these crates to store extra packs of notebook paper, tissue boxes.  As I was cleaning up my bookshelves, I stored a lot of books in these crates.  I designated some crates for my holiday books so they will be easy to get to next year.

My neighbor teacher had a wonderful idea to turn the wooden cushion over on the crate as she stored them.  This is a great way to keep the cushion clean during the summer.  I stacked many of the crates when I put them away.  By flipping the cushion over, I was able to keep the cushions from being squished all summer long.

Matthew 6:19-21

Summer Reading Bookmarks

As I send my students off to summer break, I keep reminding them to read, read, read!  My students have made so much progress this year with their reading and I want them to keep working on their reading all summer long.  In my classroom, I have books organized in book baskets so my students can easily tell which books are on their level.  I teach my children how to find "just right" books but these labeled baskets help keep my classroom library neat and organized.

I was trying to think about how my students would know which books or book series would be good for them to read over the summer vacation.  I created a Bookworm Bookmark for Just Right books for each of my students.  I included book titles and pictures of books on the correct Fountas and Pinnell level for each of my students.  The bookmarks include just right books for each reading level and a few books from the next reading level.

To download my bookmarks, click here.



Acts 8:26-40

The End of the Year is Here!

I cannot believe that the end of the year is here.  It is crazy to think that we only have three days left of this school year!  Today I had my classroom awards ceremony and my students loved it!  I used my school awards and created candy bar certificates for each pin the school provides.  Today I called each student's name, shook his or her hand and presented the child with a certificate and a candy bar that went along with the award.

It took some thinking to find candy bars that match each school award, but did my best to find ones that would work.  Click Here to download the set of 20 candy bar award certificates from Teachers Pay Teachers.

There are a few samples below.  To download this free sample pack, click here.

1 Corinthians 9:24