Classroom Tour 2019 - 2020

 

Image from here.

Welcome to a new school year!

I've been teaching since 2005.  I spent my first three years teaching second grade.  Then, I spent a year teaching third before I moved down to first grade. I continued to stay in first grade - until now! I am officially back in third grade!  (No, I am not changing the name of my blog or my teacher Instagram page.)  I am excited AND nervous about third grade!  So much has changed since I last taught third grade eleven years ago, but I know I will work hard for my students!

New grade level means new classroom!  I am grateful to finally have windows!  (My old classroom didn't have windows.)  However, I am sad to lose my HUGE closet.  I have taken so much home with me since I don't have the space for it.  After eight days of working in my classroom, it now lives up to my standards!  So without further ado, I give you the 2019 - 2020 tour of my classroom!

 

This is my bulletin board outside my classroom.  I am doing a superhero theme this year.  I thought the cityscape would be"super" cool.  My bulletin board isn't done yet - I will finish it on Tuesday! :-) 

 

I found the sign on Pinterest YEARS ago.  As far as the little person, our art teacher made that for a hockey movie my students made a few years ago.

 

Earlier this summer, I attended the Get Your Teach On conference in Dallas, Texas.  I had the BEST TIME!  On the last day, all of the presenters and volunteers stood up in front of us and sang "This Is Me," from The Greatest Showman.  I've always loved that song, but I love it even more now!  I wanted to have this quote hanging up in my room so I purchased it off Teachers Pay Teachers.  Two of my amazing volunteers hung that up on the wall for me.  (THANK YOU EMILY AND TANYA!)

 

Someone shared this on Facebook and I knew I had to have this in my classroom!

 

My husband and my father in-law made the stage and the step for me! <3 
The art teacher made the decorations.

 

  

 

The Washington Capitals sent me the banner this past spring! 
The "I am unbreakable!" quote was something I made after the Get Your Teach On conference as well!  Brittany Sinitch made us all say it after she told us her story. (She taught at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.)  Her words struck a chord with me and I knew I wanted to make a sign with that quote.

 

My cozy, comfy, book corner.  The big rugs are from Dormco.com

 

The map came from Amazon.

 

Another quote from Get Your Teach On.

 

T.J. Oshie is my favorite Caps player!

 

My growth mindset posters from TPT.

 

If you would like to see how this all fits together, check out my video tour!

You might be wondering where all of my desks are.  I went deskless several years ago.  You can read all about that here.

I am looking forward to a fantastic year in third grade!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Stacey~

 

Rock Your School Day Pirate Fun

 

Image from here.
(Please let me know if you need me to remove this image.)

If you've been following my blog for awhile, you know how much I idolize Hope and Wade King, teachers at the Ron Clark Academy who I met in March.  Early in the summer they, and other amazing educators I follow, announced that that on September 20th, they were going to have the first ever ROCK YOUR SCHOOL DAY! Their goal was to have teachers think outside the box and do something different.  I immediately knew what I wanted to do....

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is every year on September 19th.  I've celebrated it the past few years.  (You can click on the "Pirate" tag on the right hand side to see what I've done other years.)  We didn't have school on 9/19 this year, so I figured I would celebrate it on Rock Your School Day - but make it completely different!

For the first time ever, I did a room transformation!  I transformed my room into a PIRATE SHIP!  I knew I couldn't do it alone so on Tuesday, I had three mom's and one grandmother help me while my wonderful co-teacher took my class to another room and worked with them.

 

 

For a video tour of my room, click here.

I couldn't WAIT for my students to arrive this morning!  I wish I had recorded their reactions as they walked in!  They couldn't believe it!

During the morning, the students rotated through four stations.

Station one was with me.  We played a game called Dozen Doubloons.  Students could add up to three cards together to make 12.

 

 

 

 By the way, I promise you they have smiles on their faces!

For our second rotation, my co-teacher, Mrs. Racosky, turned my pirate addition center into a fishing game!  I filled up her water table with jewels, gold, shells, marbles, and popcorn kernels!

The students had to fish for an addition problem and the answer to that problem.  Then, they recorded their answers on the answer sheet Mrs. R. created!

 

 

Rotation three happened quite by accident.  I was at Dollar Tree and found the CUTEST little skulls!  I quickly turned that into a fun addition center.  (If you are wondering why I focused so much on math today, it's because it is the focus of our School Improvement Plan.)  Here is the worksheet I created for them.

 

Students were going to use the skulls to help them figure out ways to make numbers one through eight.  For example, if they were going to make five, they would take five skulls, and drop them on the yellow work mat.  They would see how many are on each side and write an addition problem on their blue recording sheet.

 

The final rotation was with Mrs. Racosky.  They played a Pirate themed game with context clues.  You can find that game here.

 

 After lunch, the students completed the STEM project from Deanna Jump's Pirate unit.  The students used clay to build ships. 

We were going to see how many pennies it would take before our boats would sink, but.....every single one of their boats, including mine, sunk right away!  OY!

 

They still had fun!  Oh well, some lessons just go that way sometimes!

Next we played a version of the Hot Lava game - pirate version of course!  The students had to use the items to "build a bridge," to help them get from their pirate ship (still in the "water,") to land.  It was hard, but they enjoyed it!

 

Then it was time for my favorite activity.  We played a LIFE SIZE VERSION of Hungry Hungry Hippos!  I have to thank Hope & Wade for the inspiration for this one.  Now, I had every intention of having the students complete work with this.  I even made a worksheet for it.

 

Each balloon had a number on it.  They were going to take two of the balloons, write the numbers down on their sheet, and add them together.   However, that part didn't happen.  They had a BLAST!

 

 

 

 

We also did a Pirate photo shoot.  Here are a few of the pics:

 

 The students had fun with two Pirate brain breaks!

Here is the first one.  Here's the second one.

 

I was playing pirate music throughout the day. You can find those songs on this playlist.  At one point, two of my students linked arms and started dancing.  It was SO CUTE!

 

The students had an AMAZING day!  Thank you to everyone who made this day possible!  I truly appreciate it!

~Captain Lynch~