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Making Common Core Cute

This year I thought the worst part of teaching Math was that everything NY made for the Common Core Math program was boring! Especially the number bonds, which have such potential.  I decided to make some activities that can be used either at centers or has additional work.  I put them in plastic sleeves and used them as reusable worksheets at a center with the answers on the back.

In September my focus in Math are the number bonds and skip counting. - $5.50
In October my focus in Math are the number bonds, skip counting, and tape diagrams. $3.50

In the past, I feel like I have had PACKETS and WORKSHEETS and PAPER, PAPER, PAPER...EVERYWHERE and NOWHERE all at once!  "Where's your packet?" and the reply is, "I lost it!" Last year I tried using interactive notebooks a little bit and loved it.  Yes, they took a little bit of time to set up, but the end result was incredible!  There was this little black and white notebook that was always at their fingertips as a resource of information and a collection of all of their learning and hard work! This coming year is going to be the year of the notebook for my classroom. 

One of my biggest struggles with the ELA Modules was constant referencing work completed in previous lessons completed week's ago! Most of my students threw out the work or lost it.  Not that I could blame them, because I didn't tell them to keep it! How was I supposed to know that in 2 weeks they would need that Close Reading Recording Form again?! I  am determined to organize all of the paper this year. It's going to take a lot of glue or tape and every single page in those composition notebooks, but it will be organized in one safe place.  

Anchors Away is a FREE DOWNLOAD! 

My New Benches!

I'm so excited about my new classroom benches.  My classroom used to be part of the school offices in a trailer add-on to the school.  It has ZERO storage.  The district gave me 2 metal closets and called it a day.  For the past two years I've been trying to come up with good storage solutions.   I was able to buy these expedit ikea shelves from a florist that was going out of business and it came with 4 of the wicker baskets! I then made the cushions on top and wrapped them in a heavy vinyl to keep them from getting stained and ruined. I purchased 6 canvas boxes from ikea for $6 each.  I am super proud of this storage solution!  It also helps for the times when I want my students to come over to the carpet area.  In 3rd grade some of the students are just too big to fit all of them on the rug, and unfortunately some of them are so out of shape, or some students have OT or PT issues and its really difficult for them to get up and down from the floor, so this is a great solution for bringing everyone to the carpet area comfortably.  I also found those storage cubes at my reading table on Overstock.com and decided to use them instead of the students dragging their chairs across the room. I feel like I ended the school year being excited to start the next one with my decor!