Friday 29 August 2014

Five for Friday


Thanks to Doodle Bugs for hosting the five for Friday linky party.  We love being a part of this!
This was a great week.  We kicked it off by going to a Blue Jays game.  We discovered they have a special day just for kids and took full advantage of it.  
Our daughter had her face painted, played on blowup slides, then was treated to a colouring book and a ballon-shaped poodle. She was over the moon. 


We also go to go up the CN Tower.  Lucky for us it was a cloudy day, which meant we were one of 20 people up at the top.  We played on the glass floor and had lots of fun.  

                                           

           
This week we have been busy getting ready for our students.  Here's a shot of Jeff's classroom so far. 
Jeff is teaching a 3/4 split in the morning. We are just curious.  How do you set up your junior classrooms.  By groups? By lines of desks? or maybe singles? 


Unfortunately I can't seem up upload the video of Jeff's baseball team doing the Ice Bucket Challenge, but rest assured, it has hit our house as well. 

<Insert Happy Dance Here>
We are excited to finally get our Soccer Circuit unit up on our TPT store site.  


Here's a sneak peak of one of the circuits you can find inside. 


Wednesday 27 August 2014

Wordless Wednesday


Today we are hooking up with Miss DeCarbo at Sugar and Spice for Wordless Wednesday.




This week we went to the CN Tower.  Would you be brave enough to stand on the glass floor? 



Tuesday 26 August 2014

Imagine A Day



Imagine A Day
by Sarah L. Thomson (Author), Rob Gonsalves (Illustrator).

Our daughter received this book from from one of Jeff's friends. We don't see him as often as we would like, but he always comes with a fabulous book in hand for our daughter.

Sarah L. Thomson, the author, takes children on a magical journey.  She inspires the readers to dream and consider new ways of looking at everyday places.








This book is accompanied with pictures as magical as the writing.  



 My Daughter and I spent hours looking about the pictures, then coming up with our own ideas using the sentence starter "Imagine A Day...".  I Imagined a day... where my coffee mug never emptied.  Our daughter Imagined a day... when could eat as much chocolate as she could without mommy telling her "That's enough"


School for us begins next week.  I plan to use this book to help us create a class room book with each child adding their own page with the sentences starter "Imagine a Day..."

This is the page I plan to use with my students. If you click on the picture below you should be able to get this page as well.  (This is my first time linking through google docs so hopefully this works:))



Friday 22 August 2014

What Friday!

Wow. What a week. Thank you Blog Hoppin for getting this week long linky going. 

Here's what we teach.
Jeff is teaching part time grade 3/4 as well as SERT (Special Education Resource Teacher)
I am teaching part time grade 3 and planning time.  

If you have ever been a planning time teacher before, you know the craziness of running from one class to the next.  You may also be able to relate wearing different "hats", meaning you need your kindergarten teacher voice period 1 then your strict grade 6 voice period 2.  It can be a lot.  So here are some of the resources we use to keep up organized. 


Jeff and I are both teaching language this year.  We plan to use our "Production of Writing" to help students understand the writing process.

 In this picture we have our "Production of Writing" posters.  This helps to remind the students what step of the writing process they are working on, as well as what comes next.



In this picture you can see one of our free products on our website.  Jeff went and had them enlarged at Staples.  They are up in the room and let students know how they can achieve a higher grade.

As for me, I also have to teach gym. AHHHHHH.  My gym ranges from kindies to grade 5.  So how am I handling this?  Well first I did a little freaking out.  Then I asked Jeff, the sports pro, to make up some gym circuit activities to help me survive the first few weeks until I get a handle on everything.  

If you are feeling like me, and are in need of a gym circuit package just click on the picture below and see if this is something that may help you.  




Thursday 21 August 2014

When Thursday

Today we are linking up with Blog Hoppin' to bring you When Thursday.



While Jeff is setting up his new classroom, I have the luxury of sharing a room with someone this year.  When I walked into the room this week, the decor was already up, the bulletin boards were covered, and everything was looking pretty good.  So I have moved onto planning for the first week or two.  

I will start off by showing you my schedule for the year.  I have gone down to .85 so I can try and find that balance between being a good mother, wife and teacher.  So when you look at my schedule you will see blank spots at the end of the day.  

For Language I am teaching Grade 3.  My teaching partner will be focused on reading while I focus on writing. I also get to teach my favourite subject, Science, with my 3's.  

After I have my weekly schedule, I break down the day into what we will be doing.  Here's a glance at my Day 1.  Since I am a rotary teacher for the other part of my day, I take this page with me on a clip board where ever I go so I know what's coming next. 
So there's a quick look at how I keep my day in order.  For my students I use a Daily Schedule keep their day in order.  For example, I have a schedule I keep at the front board so students can see what's coming next. I find this helpful since students know what's coming next.  

Can't wait to read everyone else's When Thursday.  Hop on over to Blog hoppin' to catch up on how other teachers are staying organized.

Happy Planning Everyone!







Wednesday 20 August 2014

Why Wenesday

A big thanks to  Blog Hoppin' for bring us Why Wednesday.

 
So with having two teachers in the house bouncing around from grade to grade, we have devised a system for organizing all our stuff. This may not look pretty, or colour coded, but it works for us.

I this picture we have divided up our stuff based on resources, grade types, and miscellaneous.  Jeff and I know where to look when we need to grab something quick. I think my favourite part of our open book system is that it's quick and easy to find.  I used to keep my books and binders in boxes, but found I would forget what I had and where.   


This is how we organize our books.  It doesn't look pretty right now in our basement, but soon the bins we use will on shelves.  Each bin has a label on the front for kids to know what books go where.  For example, All Robert Munch books go in the Robert Munch bin with the picture and label of Robert Munch on the front. 
What you can't see in this picture is that each book also has a smaller version of the same label that's on on the front of the bins.  This makes it easy for students who are emergent readers to know where to put the books away if they are unable to read the title.  
We try ot keep our books fresh and interesting and as more come into our library, we toss out the old ones that can't be saved by packing tape.




So here's my favourite way to pack up math manipulative or art supplies.  I love these clear bins.  I got a ton a Walmart. Jeff thought I was crazy.  However, they are easy to stack and I can always see what I need.  


 We are also going to share with you our favourite way to organize language.  Thanks to The 2 Sisters who wrote The Daily 5 my life teaching language is some much clearer.  You can get a version of "The Daily 5" book that comes with a CD of all the resources you need to get started. Although I love my technology, I find the easy way to get individualized learning goals is by using the Daily 5.

Here is a look at some of the resources they share with you.  I went out and got a big binder to put all the originals in.  I made sure to label each section so I can find things quickly.  In the back of my Daily 5 book I keep dividers labelled A-Z.  I then organized the sheets I use with my students in alphabetical order so they are easy to find during parent and teacher conferences.
 Label everything.  Makes life so much easier when you are on the run.



I love that the Daily 5 includes suggestions on how to set up your literacy block.

Here is a quick glance at the conferencing sheets.  I swear by these sheets. 




Good luck organizing everyone!



Tuesday 19 August 2014

Where Tuesday


We decided to share where Jeff is since Libby kinda got carried away and forgot to take pictures.

Jeff somehow landed himself the biggest room in the school.  Now I am not going to indicate that I have my suspicions that he is the principals favourite, I am just going to let you all take a look around his room and judge for yourselves.

Here is the before shots of Jeff's room.  He will be teaching the English half of Grade 3 French Immersion in this room.

Student's hooks are inside the classroom.




As you can see, we have just been let into our rooms after a lovely summer off.  We now have two weeks to turn these blank walls into something inspiring for students.

Best of luck with all of your classrooms.

Monday 18 August 2014

Monday: "Who'"



HI Everyone, We are hooking up with http://imbloghoppin.blogspot.ca/ to tell you a little bit more about us.  Although we have already shared a lot about ourselves, we will try and think of some new things you may not know.  So here we go....


We are Libby and Jeff from RclassroomsRus.  Jeff and I are a husband and wife team who have decided to enter the TPT/Blogging world together.  Libby is the spontaneous one.  For example, several years ago her BF Lori called her up and said, "Hey, got this really great book.  It says anyone can run a marathon in just four months.  We're anyone.  You game?"  And sure enough Libby and Lori went from never running, to running a marathon in just four months.  It wasn't until they hit up their local Running Room that they discovered not all people go about training for marathons this way. 



Libby is also the creative one.  She likes to paint, make jewellery, and play guitar.  You can often catch her and our daughter making up crazy songs and sharing lots of laughs.


Then there's Jeff.  Since every Ying needs a Yang, Jeff is the realist in the family.  He the responsible one who everyone can depend on.  When he's not spending time with our family, he is often involved in some sort of sport.  To say he is sports obsessed might be and understatement.  He loves Baseball, Football, Hockey (I think that's a given when your Canadian), and just about anything else that is on TSN.  He recently got our daughter into hockey and enjoys sharing his love of sports with her. 



Together that makes us Libby and Jeff.