Classroom Reveal 2017

Hey everyone!

So happy to finally be posting my classroom reveal. Only 3 weeks into school, not so bad! I didn't change that much, except add some accent pieces from Creative Teaching Press (Bold and Bright Collection).  I try my best to make our old portable a welcoming, enriching environment.

I am in love with this shelf! Signs are all from TJ Maxx and the plants too. White boxes from Walmart and teal ones came as a set from TJ Maxx. 

 I make my own signs for my whiteboard, except the decimals, which came from Teaching and So Fourth.

 Adorable magnetic strips from Creative Teaching Press.

 My math vocabulary area and anchor chart area too.

 I decided to spruce up my clock and put our IB attitude and attribute here too.

 Everyone has commented on how bright and cheerful these numbers from Creative Teaching Press are!

These are my main storage cabinets. The white one I dubbed "The Fridge" and put student work and pictures up there. The other cabinet has my homework chart and my "What stuck with you" area. Sticky notes from CTP.

I am loving my doorway this year. I had fun making this no sew curtain. Magnetic rod from Walmart! Magnetic strips and sign from CTP.

 Creative Teaching Press Calendar set. We call that the doorway of doom (also known as teacher next door's room but we wanted to scare the kids.)

Our schedule is different on Wednesdays. I love these die cuts and how they make my black pocket chart pop!

I made the table signs in black/white and teal/white Moroccan theme to match the rest of my room.





*I am a Creative Teaching Ambassador and was sent the whole Bright and Bold classroom series, but all thoughts and opinions are of my own.*

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Preparing for a Student Teacher

Hey everyone!

I will be having a student teacher this year and I've been combing FB and the internet for tips to get prepared for her. I'm going to share some of the top tips I've found and I'd love if you leave tips too!

1. Give feedback each day. Mostly what I read was that teachers took notes in a notebook or a post it note and gave it to their student teacher every day. 

2. Make space for the student teacher. My room is small as it is, but I want to make my student teacher feel welcome. I did make sure to leave part of my personal bulletin board blank for her to put personal pictures and items. I know that when I was student teaching, my mentor did the same and it made me feel welcome.

3. Let them try techniques out. I have to be honest, this makes me a little nervous, but this is how my student teacher will learn and grow. I'm going to have to let go of control of my classroom!

4. Talk with them. My student teacher and I have been emailing each other this summer. I would've loved to meet up with her, but her schedule was full. I also plan having a debrief each day that she's teaching and talk about what went well and what she would change.

5. Be encouraging. We need teachers, always, and I just want to be there to support her and encourage her.  

I'm excited to see how this year goes with a student teacher! Any tips you think I should add? Leave a comment down below!

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BTS Mini Haul

Hey everyone!

I did finally do a little shopping for my classroom. I didn't have to get much since I"m not changing my theme and didn't really need to replenish much.

First, can I mention how much I love that I get so much light in my dining room! I got these two cuties from TJ Maxx. 

Also from TJ Maxx. I've got wooden signs through out my class that I love putting out. Great messages and makes the classroom look more like home.

 For under $10, the teal baskets came as a set! Grabbed them of course. They'll be storage on a bookshelf. The green bins are for my library and are from Dollar Tree.

 My students and I went through sticky notes like no ones business last year. I grabbed the flags, which are perfect for marking spots in books. I love the lined stickies for notes to my kiddos.

Not sure what I will use these clothespins for, but I love them. Maybe clipping to table signs for good behavior?

Somehow, my class set of 33 of these suckers basically disappeared last year. The last day of school found me with about 10 of these. They weren't in their desks or tubs or anything. Gone. Did they take them home? I have no clue. So I just got more. And as usual, got a weird look at check out until I explained how I use them for dry erasers. I take them home a few times a year to wash them.

That's my mini-haul!

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Trainers Warehouse: Review

Hey everyone!

I feel like I'm always on the look out for things to bring to my class or looking for products that would benefit my students. So I was happily surprised when Trainers Warehouse reached out to me to review some of their products.

The first product I pulled out was the Thumball. I can see my students using this for back-to-school week, new students, or if there is actually any down time. This happens to be the Common Ground Thumball, but they have a ton of other types of Thumballs. 

These were the next items that caught my eye because of their neon colors! These handheld whiteboards are dry erase, but solid plastic. They have a glossy finish that helped when I erased them. I love these Briteboards!

Then came the handheld fidget toys.  The sparkly Loopeez was fun to play with.  Then the Gyrobi in the classic primary colors is a fun spinner, plus I love that it is silent. Then last was the Infinity Cube Fidget. I sat there a few minutes playing with it because it's fun to play with and I love infinity type of products. This is just a small sampling of the fidget products they have.   

The last item was the Kudos notepad. Perfect for the growth mindset classroom! 

Trainers Warehouse has many more products and I think they are affordable prices, which is important to me. 

**This is an honest review. All opinions are mine. 

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Oregon Trail Obsession

Hey everyone!

The Oregon Trail has got to be my absolute favorite unit to teach. The last two years, my students say that's their favorite unit, and I think it's because I totally put my heart and soul into bringing it alive. I have to thank my 4th grade teachers Mrs. Weber and Mrs. Sweet for making the Oregon Trail so memorable for me, that same passion and dedication is what I want to give to my students.

I get dressed for it, use real photos of present day places on the trail (thanks Mom and Dad!), and really get my kids involved.

You can see what I did last year here and the year before here.

I'll do mostly the same stuff again, with the maps, pioneer journals, making butter, etc. I absolutely loved that last year we went to Philip Foster Farm and my kids showed off their knowledge of the Oregon Trail.

This summer I've been reading these books and thinking about how I want to incorporate them this year. I think these will be read alouds, or at least 1 or 2 of them.

Do you teach the Oregon Trail or Westward Expansion? What do you like to incorporate in your lessons? Leave a comment below!

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What I've Bought So Far For The New School Year

Hey everyone!

The last few years I felt like I was working on things all summer for my class. This summer has been the complete opposite and I feel so relaxed!

When things come to me, I write them down on a list. It keeps me organized and with a goal in mind.

I did buy fabric to make a curtain for the window on my door. It matches my bulletin boards. Here's a picture from last year of what that fabric looks like:

I did buy a few things on Prime Day, like a strip of lights, a package of expos. And then some mundane things at the store like a single hole puncher (woo!) and magnetic staple removers.

I did just order Wild Robot and Rain Reign and can't wait to read them. 

Maybe I"m just not in the mood yet. I haven't done any Goodwill trips yet for books or a Marshall's/TJMaxx for decor. I'm actually ok with that for now. But maybe ask me in a few weeks how I feel!

Have you bought anything yet? Anything you think I need to get? Leave a comment below!

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Quick Update

Hey everyone!

Man, this year was a tough one for me. I had to focus all my time and energy on my tough class, but I thankfully had very supportive admin to help me out.

I wrapped up the school year in June. The next week I helped our district for a week looking at our math curriculum and assessments and making sure everything was aligned with our prioritized standards etc.

My Oma from Germany has been here for 4 weeks and has one more left before she leaves, so I've been spending time with her and my parents these last few weeks.

At the end of July, I'm getting trained to be a trainer for constructing meaning, tied with Systematic ELD.

In other exciting news, I've been placed with a student teacher. She'll be in my room from our work week in August, through April.

Also, I'm an ambassador for Creative Teaching Press this year! I think that's the update for now and I can't wait to get back to blogging and sharing ideas!

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Getting Down and Dirty In Science

Hey everyone!


I wanted to talk about how important doing hands on science activities are in my classroom. The kids are so much more engaged, they're excited to try things out and experiment, and it really amped up their writing.

My science unit we just completed was our land and water unit. It does tend to get messy and I tend to dread it, but I am happy with the results at the end.  The main idea of the unit is for students to study water flow and then build a dam. We are an IB school (International Baccalaureate) and we use a lot of inquiry while doing all subjects. I started off this unit planting in their heads the question of why do we need to know about water flow? How can we affect water flow?

Each lesson was like a building block, adding on. We learned about the water cycle, then progressed to small water flow, and building up to a larger water flow. They studied the impact of hills and rocks with water flow. Students looked at how plants affect water and soil. Then of course was their favorite part of the unit, building a dam.

They had to work as a group to design a dam using only tape, popsicle sticks, and straws. Like any good scientist, we tested out the dams and then re-designed or touched up dams as necessary before testing again.

After seeing if their dams worked, then they had a mission. Their mission was to protect the little city of cubes from getting flooded.

 I even threw in a dam alert like the dam was about to break. My students ate that part up. Those little things make it that much more fun and it was easy to add to the lesson.

This little group figured out to use straws like irrigation to divert the water!

As I was going through the pictures, I noticed a common theme. The kids were all close to the dam, huddled around and just SO engaged! This was when real teamwork came out and I saw group leaders. This unit was so much more than just science and testing. Yes, my room was often messy. The experience was worth it!

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How I Use Google Classroom

Hey everyone!


So my last post talked about how Google Classroom changed my teaching this year and today I'll talk a little about how I use it with my class.

The main ways I use it are for science/social studies and reading. For science and social studies, I'll post KWL docs for them to type on, videos or websites I want them to go to and read, or news articles. They use it to upload their research.

Here is a pic of a culminating activity and then the beginnings of our next unit. I can easily see who needs to do it still, due to being out sick.


Reading groups is the other way I use it, specifically for assigning comprehension questions or reading passages with questions.

 All my reading groups, plus my class and one for the whole fourth grade.

 An example of what it looks like in one of my groups. Again, love seeing who hasn't finished so easily!

 This is what it looks like for those that are done (I blurred out names) and I can click on their assignment and hop right in.

Now I can see what they wrote and add a comment to add punctuation and make sure to put the question in the answer.

I'll be bringing more tech tips and Google Classroom tips! Let me know if you have any specific questions.

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How Google Classroom Changed My Class

Hey everyone!

I blogged over on Owl-ways Be Inspired on how using Google Classroom has changed my teaching. It's changed it in many ways, including going about 90% paperless, being able to see my kids' work more, and my kids are more independent.

Click to read the blog post.

*Edit* I apologize the link wasn't working. Here's the url:
https://owlwaysbeinspired.blogspot.com/2017/01/how-google-classroom-has-changed-my.html

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Teaching About The Oregon Trail

Hey everyone!

I'm getting ready to wrap up my favorite social studies unit in 4th grade, the Oregon Trail and Oregon history.

Last year I wrote a few blog posts about what I did to start the unit , how I  used realia , and how we had a few fun days of making butter and playing pioneer games.

I'm going to fill in the rest of the gaps right now and give you a basic outline of what I do with my class.

The first thing I did was send out a KWL in my Google Classroom for my students to fill out. Then I show them some posters about heading to Oregon, the land of milk and honey. The land where pigs are roasted and running around with forks in them. I tell them this is the propaganda told to pioneers to get them out west.

 The next day is when I hook them in to my unit by setting up shop and at each table,  they work as a "wagon" to choose supplies with a weight and money constraint. I feel that this day sets the whole mood for the unit, so I go all out. There is fiddle music, I wear a bonnet and apron, I've got a table with realia and supplies. They also decide who is on the wagon train council and who is the wagon master. They vote and everything!

Our next day, they set up a journal and pick out a pioneer name. I put up a list of pioneer names I found and they put it on the front of their journal.

 I do a quick slideshow about Independence, Missouri and why people are leaving.


I have a map of our journey.

We only have social studies four days a week, so a typical week will have us at a landmark 1-2 times, fate day, and then some sort of research or activity.

Landmarks include: Ft. Laramie, Chimney Rock, Independence Rock, Ft. Bridger, Ft. Hall, Soda Springs,  and the Whitman Mission. There are some others I could definitely include. Right after the landmark slideshow and/or video, they write in their pioneer journals. They write about what they saw, how they felt, and what they did at that landmark. At Independence Rock, they "carved" their names into the rock. At one of the forts, they get new supplies to finish the trail.

The second to last day of the unit, they decide whether to go on the Columbia River or go over Barlow Pass. Students research the pros and cons of each decision and decide as a wagon, not as a wagon train, how they will travel. Then it's fate time and they roll a dice to see what happens. The last day, for those that made it, there is a celebration in Oregon City.

Activities done: Compare and contrast with pioneer children typical day, pioneer game day, Oregon Trail game day (I found it on a DOS website and also there is a card game!), butter making day, wagon making, pioneer quilt day (they make quilts out of construction paper). We also do this unit during December, so I have them make snowflakes right before winter break and talk about other things pioneer kids did to decorate their homes.

I thoroughly enjoy this unit and I think it comes through to my students because they get so excited at social studies time. My vice principal seems to visit me during this time a lot too, so I think he enjoys it as well.

Let me know if there is anything else you want to know specifically or more details on a certain part of my unit. I hope this helps those of you teaching or gives you an idea to include in your classroom!

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