Polar Express Day

Image from here.

Every year, I show my students the movie The Polar Express. It is one of my FAVORITE holiday movies!

About two weeks ago, I had one of those LIGHTBULB ideas!  I texted my-amazing co-teacher in the evening and said, "I have a wild and crazy idea!  Let's do a Polar Express room transformation and we will tie in the movie and book with fun academic activities!"  She went right along with my idea and were texting ideas back and forth the rest of the night!  We met the next day and planned out some awesome activities!

Two different kinds of math "snowball fights" with these snowballs from Amazon.  On the snowballs, I wrote two sets of the numbers 1-10.  For one of the math activities, the students caught the snowballs (thrown by me and Mrs. Racosky," and then had to write the doubles fact for that number.  You can find that activity here. 

The second math activity, they caught two snowballs and had to write one number in the tens spot one in the ones spot.  Then they illustrated that number with base ten blocks.  You can find that activity here.

Another activity was learning how to make snowflakes (which are hung up in my room as you'll see further on in this post.)  After making them, the students wrote out the process of creating them using the words first, next, then, and last.  They did the same thing with evergreen trees.

Then we read both The Snowy Day AND The Polar Express.  After reading the books, the students completed a venn diagram to compare the stories. The students also wrote their own version of the The Polar Express.


We even made edible Polar Express trains!

For those of you wondering what we used: graham crackers, chocolate chips, M&M'S, skittles, peppermints, sour patch kids (conductors,) and whipped cream!  They were SO yummy!

The whole time this was going on, Mrs. Racosky and I were busy creating scenes for our walls.  I can't truly explain the magic that went into this so I will let you see for yourselves!


This is what the students walked into this morning...
First, a video tour.


Next, the pictures:

The door to my classroom.

To the right of my door.

To the left of my door.

The entrance into my room - complete with train tracks and the "seats" on the train...

As I turned my book corner into the Polar Express train.

The scene with the wolves.  The ever so talented Mrs. Racosky made the wolves, I did the rest.

These are the snowflakes the students made!

Our hot cocoa corner!

Door to my closet covered with "snow."

The Northern Lights

This is my favorite part so I wanted a second picture of it.

One side of the bridge.

The other side of the bridge!

Festive decoration.

My stage - covered with snowballs, tinsel, tea lights, and Mr. Snowman.

The trees made by the students.

The beautiful mountains (complete with train in the top right,) made by the talented Mrs. Racosky.

The kids were AMAZED when they walked in my room this morning!  They couldn't get over it!  We didn't watch the movie until this afternoon.   While they were at lunch, I decorated some more...

I got the floor set up with blankets and pillows!

The snack table is ready!  (Pirate's booty, powdered doughnuts, M&M'S, and graham crackers.

Finally, the students were able to watch the movie, eat their yummy snacks, and drink hot cocoa!

What a truly magical, wonderful, amazing day!  The students loved every minute of it!  Special thanks to Mrs. Racosky for all of her help and hard work!

I hope everyone enjoys their holiday - no matter what you celebrate!

Happy (almost) New Year!

~Mrs. Lynch~

Happy New Year! 2017-2018

Image / quote from here

It's time for another school year!  This will be my 13th group of kiddos! :-)  This is the third school year for my deskless classroom and I love it!   As always, I'm super excited to see what this school year has in store for us!

School starts on Tuesday and I've been busy getting my room ready.  I wasn't going to have a theme for decorating this year, but that quickly changed.  I have 2 themes,  My main theme is "Rockin the Red," (something we say at Washington Capitals games.)  My other theme is a little tiki hut (which is just in my sink area.)

Here is a video tour of my room.  :-)

Here are pictures of my room.

 Hockey player Clipart came from here.

My students will be expanding on this bulletin board.  Plans include them writing their goals for the year on hockey pucks, designing their own hockey jersey, etc...

I know it's hard to see, but I actually have red garland around my door frame and door. 
I bought the garland from someone on a Facebook online yard sale.

When you walk in, you come to my comfy book corner!

I have Growth Mindset posters in three spots around my room. 
I am going to incorporate that a lot this year.  I purchased these posters from here.

More Growth Mindset posters.

A view of my book corner.

Top of 1st bookshelf

Top of 2nd bookshelf

A former teammate gave me this Washington Capitals fabric last year. 
I decided to use it and give my old stools a facelift!

This is the back of my book corner. 
I have some bath mats for flexible seating, puzzles, and three desks.

More Growth Mindset posters.

I love not having desks in my classroom!  I decided to put a doubles ten frame on the floor! 
We use them a lot at the start of the school year and I thought a life sized one would be fun for the kids!

My reading table with my desk behind it. 
Above that is the TJ Oshie poster one of my students made me last year. :-)

My tiki hut!  If you look closely, you might see some blue or green lights.
I bought those from the Dollar Tree!

You do not want to go in my closet!  That desperately needs to be organized!!!
The Partner School banneris from when the Caps organization came out last year! 
You can read about that here.

Puzzle pieces and seat cushions for soft seating!

Front of my room complete with hokki stools, bins, and promethean board! 
The board has the same garland that is on my front door.

I bought the awesome red borders from Amazon!

You might be wondering why if I have a red theme, are two of my bulletin boards blue.  In this case, the backgrounds were already blue and I wanted to keep it that way - I also didn't want to take my word wall down.  I like the red border though - it makes everything POP nicely and keeps the theme with my whiteboards as well.

There ya have it folks!  I hope you enjoyed the tour of my room!
Here's to a fabulous school year!

~Stacey~

Welcome to a new school year!

Wow!
I hope you all enjoyed your summer! I don't know about you but summer seemed to FLY by!!!!!  I went into work a week or so before I had to.  I wanted to work in my room! :-)

I have some pics and a video tour of my room.

Ready??? Set!  GO!!!!!!

Stacey's Classroom Tour 2014

*Warning - there is NO audio!*  I also apologize because I was turning way too quickly!  Hope you don't get dizzy!!!!

My Bulletin Board (Inspired by 2 pins that I found on Pinterest of course!)

View from my front door 1

View from my front door 2

View from my front door 3

Right when you walk in my front door is my book corner.  I think it's my favorite part of my room!

Carpet from www.dormco.com  Big pillows from Big Lots

The heart light is from Target

Next up is my desk (which is now messy!)

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree and Truffula Tree!

I have books hidden back there

Although there is a box there now, this bookshelf will house items I use during small groups

My reading table

1-120 board made from a shower curtain, duct tape, and sharpie pen.

Sink area

Lunch menu - yes, I'm aware of the fact that my utensils are not in the right spot.  :-)

Computer Center

Whiteboard / bulletin board

Whiteboard on the other side of my bulletin board

Another table that is used for small group instruction

One more pic - view of the room from my closet!

I should point out, I've definitely changed my seating arrangements since this pic was taken!!!

Thanks for touring my room!  Hope you enjoyed it!

Here is to a FANTASTIC school year!!!!!

Stacey